The Turkmen-style economic development

The resource-rich and state-led Turkmen economy has grown very fast since the beginning of the twenty-first century. The authorities have produced a number of various programmes and strategies aimed at improving the standard of living of the citizens and achieving sustainable and inclusive development. Officially, nearly 80% of the national budget in Turkmenistan has been annually allocated for social needs. However, instead of creating opportunities and improving access to these opportunities for the citizens, the authoritarian government chose income redistribution and social spending. The paper identifies key features of the economic development in Turkmenistan and was written base on a critical analysis of state-controlled and independent news websites. The main feature of the Turkmen-style economic development is the growing deprivation of ordinary people. Poor citizens are getting poorer while the president’s relatives and patronage networks are getting richer. Huge gaps between the rural and urban population and tribal divisions have been observed in the country. Moreover, the Soviet-style work holidays continue. Despite significant improvements in infrastructure, provision for education and health care still remains poor in Turkmenistan. The government expenditure for social needs means investment in infrastructure, not human capital.

Citizen journalism reduces the credibility deficit of authoritarian government in risk communication amid COVID-19 outbreaks

During the outbreak of an epidemic, the success in risk communications to make the public comply with disease preventive measures depends on the public’s trust in the government. In this study, we aim to understand how media audiences update their trust in the government during the COVID-19 outbreak depending on the information they received. We conducted an online survey experiment in February 2020 in Hong Kong (n = 1,016) in which respondents were randomly provided with a government press release and an endorsement either from an official or a non-official source. This study shows that the information from a non-official source enhances the credibility of official government messages. Our findings imply that dictators can actually “borrow credibility” from their citizen journalists and even nondemocratic leaders can make themselves more trustworthy to potential dissenters through citizen journalism. Allowing information flow from non-official sources can be a practical measure for governments to address the problem of a credibility deficit during a pandemic.

Entre Escila y Caribdis: la Diáspora vasca en Argentina durante la dictadura

Resumen: Al conjunto de inmigrantes que se asocian para conseguir objetivos propios y que tienen una participación de carácter político en destino como en origen es una Diáspora. Estas personas forman parte, por partida doble, de la sociedad civil y en ella se desenvuelven. La gran pregunta es:¿Qué es lo que hace eficiente a un grupo de emigrados para concretar sus objetivos? En este trabajo intentamos justamente analizar este tema que entendemos como una interrelación entre características propias- liderazgo, número y compromiso de los miembros, asimilación a la sociedad de acogida, etc- y el contexto en el que se desenvuelven. Y, en este sentido, nos preguntamos que posibilidades de éxito pueden tener en situaciones límites de violencia y falta de libertad. Para esto estudiaremos la Diáspora vasca en Argentina durante la última dictadura (19176-1983). Palabras clave: Diáspora-sociedad civil-dictadura-inmigración Abstract: Diaspora is a group of immigrants that be self associating in order to achieve the own goals and have an strong bond with Home Land. These persons are part, by double departure, of the civil society. The big question is: When these people are most efficient to makes objectives? Here, in this paper, we try to think about it, especially in troubles moments like could be a dictatorship. Our focus will be the basque Diaspora in Argentina during the last authoritarian government (1976-1983). Keywords: Diaspora, civil society, dictatorship-immigration

CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM AS IDEOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTIONS IN AMERICAN DYSTOPIAN NOVELS

Literature reflects the history of people's lives, which includes lifestyle, culture, language, desires, and important events in people's lives. Dystopia novels cannot be separated from discussions about authoritarian government, restraints on people's freedom, criticism of the development of technology and information, exploitation and the class system, and the arbitrariness of the rulers. Despite telling a bad world, Dystopian novels proved popular in America, a country that promised freedom, equality, and freedom to its citizens. The possibility of different realities captured by American popular novelists who differ from their imaginations gave birth to dystopian novels that are popular in American society. Thus, this study is important to analyse Capitalism and Socialism as ideological constructions in American dystopian novels through Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid’s Tale, Uglies, and The Hunger Games. This research will formulate an understanding of whether or not American dystopian novels confirm or negate the ideology of Capitalism and the ideology of Socialism.

Effects of Government Contracting of Services on NGOs in China: Convergence and Divergence with International Experience

The government of the Communist Party of China (CPC) rolled out a national policy to contract out social and welfare services to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in 2013. This study explores how government contracting of services affects NGOs. We examine three areas: marketization, financial dependency, and autonomy. We find significant convergence of the effects of contracting on NGOs in China with NGOs’ experiences in liberal democratic countries, despite divergent political regimes. Found effects are explained by the combination of the authoritarian government of the CPC with the neoliberal governance structures introduced by contracting. Convergence with international experience despite divergent political regimes is attributed to the neoliberal essence of the policy of contracting of services.

RASISME DALAM NOVEL THE KITE RUNNER

Racism is rooted from colonial era that the colonizer considers their race that is different and higher than others. It produces social inequality between colonizer and their colonized. The Kite Runner depicts the story of life in Afghanistan in the middle of the tribal conflicts and war; Hazaras, the minority ethnic group genocide done by the Pashtun, the majority, children and women rapes, and civilians slaughter by Taliban. In the middle of the war, live two main characters, Amir and Hassan, ten years old boys who come from different social class yet living in the same roof. They both have the same father without their knowing, but with different mix of race. Different race and social class results in discriminative acts not just between the two of them but also among society. This research aims to analyze and find out how The Kite Runner depicts the racism in Afghanistn during 1970s up to 2001. Pashtun Taliban represented by Assef as the villain vs Pashtun, Amir as the main character. Pashtun vs Hazara is also known by the characters; Assef with Hassan, Amir and Hassan, Assef and Sohrab, Baba and Ali, Baba and Sanaubar. This research uses descriptive analytical method. This analysis is focusing on five aspects of racism, namely (1) discrimination, (2) segregation, (3) slavery, (4) prejudice, and (5) stereotype. It can be found that the discrimination is done by Amir and his Father, Baba who treat Hassan and Ali, who are from minority ethnic, as their slaves. Next is segregation and discrimination depicted by Assef, a young Afghanistan who praises Hitler and assumes that his ethnic is more decorous than others in Afghanistan and he tries to chase Hazara from Afghanistan. The slavery can be seen when Baba and Amir treats Ali and Hassan as their maid in their house. The prejudice can be seen when there are some Pashtun thinks of the hazrasa existence living together with Baba and Amir. From Prejudice, it results the stereotyping from other people of imagining the Hazara. The authoritarian government, Taliban, also show the mistreatment of racism to the Afghans. Afghans often get sexual harassment, being raped, or even being killed if the break the law of Taliban.

Implikasi Ketatanegaraan Presidential Term Limit menurut Pasal 7 UUD NRI 1945 sebelum Amendemen terhadap Presidential Continuism Masa Orde Baru

Presidential term limit according to Article 7 of the 1945 Constitution (UUD) before the amendment should not be interpreted as only one measure namely in terms of quantity (limits on the term of office and the maximum period of office in office), but must regulate in terms of quality (legal norms and political ethics in commitment creating a democratic and competent government). As a result, every President in power will endeavor to presidential continuation by changing, avoiding, reinterpreting, amending the constitution or even presidential term limit in article 7 of the 1945 Constitution before the amendment. In the constitutional order, it will have implications for every President in power to form an authoritarian government and reduce democracy, abuse of the President's power to hold office continuously, give birth to an elected president who is incompetence in government administration, and creates stagnation of political regeneration.

“Africa Needs Many Lawyers Trained for the Need of Their Peoples”: Struggles over Legal Education in Kwame Nkrumah’s Ghana

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the setting up of university law schools in many African nations led to often bitter battles over the purpose of legal education. The stakes in these struggles were high. Deliberately neglected under colonial rule, legal education was an important focus for the leaders of new states, including Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana. It was also a significant focus for expatriate British scholars and American foundations seeking to shape the development of new universities in Africa. Disputes centered on whether training would have a wholly academic basis and be taught exclusively in the University of Ghana or be provided in addition through a dedicated law school with a more practical ethos. This debate became entangled in a wider confrontation over academic freedom between Nkrumah’s increasing authoritarian government and the university, and indeed in wider political and class struggles in Ghana as a whole. Tensions came to a head in the period between 1962 and 1964 when the American Dean of Law was deported along with other staff over allegations of their seditious intent. This chapter documents these complex struggles, identifying the broader political stakes within them, picking out the main, rival philosophies of legal education which animated them, and relating all of these to the broader historical conjuncture of decolonization. Drawing on a review of archival materials from the time, the chapter shows that debates over legal education had a significance going beyond the confines of the law faculty. They engaged questions of African nationalism, development and social progress, the ambivalent legacy of British rule and the growing influence of the United States in these territories.

Biometric and Non-biometric Integration: Dual Use Dilemmas

Biometric identification is now closely integrated with other forms of data, data systems and communications technologies, such as smartphones, metadata and social media, and as the key security feature on smartphones, and by extension, social media accounts, online profiles and identity. For this reason, we consider the interaction between biometric and other forms of identification data, and data systems, building upon the consideration of the main biometrics in the first three chapters. We begin with a general discussion of data systems and integration. This is followed by a discussion of the interrelationship with biometrics, and broader significance of, metadata, smartphone applications and social media. In combination with biometric identification technologies, these provide detailed insights into individuals’ activities and behaviours. The ethical analysis in this chapter focuses on dual use dilemmas. Roughly speaking, dual use dilemmas in science and technology arise in virtue of the fact that such science and technology can be used to greatly benefit humankind, but also, unfortunately, to cause great harm to humankind. Consider, for instance, nuclear science and technology. It can be used as a cheap and peaceful energy source, or to build nuclear weapons. Similarly, facial recognition technology could be used by police only to track persons guilty of serious crimes; or it could be used to monitor ordinary citizens’ behaviour by an authoritarian government.

Ewolucja pozycji ustrojowej Prezydenta w konstytucjach Litwy w okresie międzywojennym

This article is focused on the evolution of the constitutional position of the President of Lithuania in the Lithuanian Basic Laws. The analysis concerns the regulations of the three Lithuanian Basic Laws of the interwar period (of 1922, 1928 and 1938), two of which were an attempt to legitimize the political situation after the coup d’état against the constitutional government of the Republic of Lithuania in 1926 and also to implement the authoritarian government of President Antanas Smetona. The article also assesses the most important legal provisions concerning the constitutional position of the President, as well as compares the Lithuanian constitutional provisions with constitutions of other countries, primarily with the Polish Constitution of 1935. The research goals have been achieved thanks to the applied research methods, especially the comparative method, supplemented with the historical method and the method of institutional and legal analysis, which is used to analyse normative acts elaborated by legal bodies.