AbstractThe Dusuns of Brunei constitute the largest non-Muslim indigenous minority of the state, numbering a little under 10,000 and remain the only indigenous group maintaining an ancient Bornean religion in vital form. But "pressures of modernization" and, most recently, government-sponsored Islamization have made inroads into these beliefs and practices. Just as the crocodile has been driven to the edge of extinction in Brunei rivers by hunters from other ethnic groups, so also is the survival of Dusun religion now questionable in the face of cultural inroads originating not only from economic development but from the limitless pretensions of the state. This essay presents in some detail a ritual which has remained immune to the impact of Islam among its performers to date. As the myths continue to fall into oblivion, the temarok buayo remains a context where the traditionally intimate relationship between the crocodile and Dusuns is still celebrated.
An analysis of recent environmental legislation in Belgium (Flanders) shows that only small part of it originated from direct pressure by the environmental movement. Although in recent years environmental groups were admitted to a number of advisory committees, this did not really made them a more powerful politica!l orce. Four reasons can be given for this relative weakness: 1) like all new social movements, the movement bas a weak organisational structure; 2) it's focus is on local disturbances to the environment; 3) it's disruptive potential is limited, especially on the national level; 4) it has little format access to the decision making process. The main consequence of it's activities is an innovation of political culture. The movement is succesful in defining and constructing environmental problems, and forcing them on the public and political agenda, but it lacks the power to steer the decision making process on the issues it has created.
Beset by unprecedented fiscal pressures, Canadian medicare has reached a crossroads. The authors review the impact of recent cuts in federal transfer payments on provincial health care programs and offer seven suggestions to policymakers trying to accommodate these reductions. (1) Go slowly: public health care spending is no longer rising and few provinces have the necessary systems in place to manage major reductions. (2) Target reductions, rewarding quality and efficiency instead of making across-the-board cuts. (3) Replace blame with praise:give health care professionals and institutions credit for their contributions. (4) Learn from the successful programs and policies already in place across the country. (5) Foster horizontal and vertical integration of services. (6) Promote physician leadership by rewarding efforts to promote the efficient use of resources. (7) Monitor the effects of cutbacks: physician groups should cooperate with government in maintaining a national "report card" on services, costs and the health status of Canadians.
The history of sexually transmitted diseases in Canada from 1800 to the present reflects the changing views and values of citizens, medical experts, politicians and bureaucrats. During the colonial period, the military devoted attention to the problem but strict moral codes and social conventions prevented public discussion. Although middle class reformers began to pressure the federal government for funding and direction after 1900, World War I was the catalyst for involvement. Health education through a voluntary group and federal-provincial cost-shared funding for treatment facilities across Canada were introduced to control STDs. Public perception of STD patients as marginalised or deviant limited the impact of these efforts. Social changes during the 1960s, new STDs appearing in the 1970s and the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s have redirected the STD campaign to focus on high risk groups and prevention rather than the moralistic curative efforts of the past.
The issue of promoting medications for personal or social problems involves a difficult balance between medical definitions of what constitutes a disease and consumers' perceptions of what they want or need in the way of optimal health and well-being. There are certain symptom states and conditions that are poorly defined in terms of the biomedical model of disease. Other conditions, such as child abuse, ordinary stress and tension ("pressures of life"), small breasts, thinning hair, mental fatigue, and certain personal and social problems of life are often considered diseases by some (e.g., afflicted consumers, health product manufacturers and promoters), but not by others (e.g., health professionals, health insurance companies). The key concern is who determines what conditions are diseases to be addressed by medical care systems and public health efforts, and what conditions are problems and concerns better addressed by the family unit, social welfare agencies, religious groups, or society in general.
Why Mexican state actors support or oppose democratic reform is explained by their class embeddedness in different administrative domains, leading some to see democratic reform as threatening one-party rule & others to see the same reform as legitimizing it. Mexico's corporatist political system, its unique urbanization patterns, & the recent economic crisis exacerbate these internal administrative divisions, which in turn prevent the state from responding to growing social protest & accelerating pressures for democratization. Paradoxically, as the state becomes increasingly incapable of acting decisively with respect to democratic reform, political space opens for opposition groups & parties to flourish, which both delegitimizes one-party rule & brings more opportunities for the introduction of a more competitive political system. Discussion centers around a 1983 proposal for urban democratic reform in Mexico City, drawing on data from official documents, secondary literature, & approximately 50 interviews with high-ranking government officials & party/social movement leaders. 1 Table. AA
In 1980 Mexico decided not to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Certain objective conditions formed a positive environment for Mexican adherence, but President L6pez Portillo postponed Mexican entry indefinitely. This critical decision is examined from two perspectives: a left-leaning foreign policy, and domestic constraints in the Mexican political system. Major foreign policy factors were a growing resentment of U.S. dominance combined with a preference for conducting relations with the U.S. on a bilateral basis. Internal political pressures reflected the continued reform of the Mexican political system at the upper levels and the relative autonomy of some elite groups from the state. L6pez Portillo's decision did not constitute an outright rejection of trade liberalization. However, the decision could have international repercussions in 'politicizing' U.S.-Mexican trade relations, in slowing trends toward freer trade (especially in Latin America), and in strengthening multilateral organizations like UNCTAD in which Third World countries exercise considerable power.
Finnish women attained universal suffrage as the first in Europe, together with the majority of men, in 1906. Since 1906 the number of women in the national parliament has increased from about 10 percent to more than one‐quarter. Earlier, women were more successful in the socialist parties, but nowadays this left‐right difference has diminished. Women candidates obtain least votes in the rural parties and in the least developed areas where pressure toward uniformity is high. The earlier east‐west difference has almost disappeared. Voting for female candidates is more common among women than among men. Education, employment, working in a white‐collar job, high family income, and urban residence increase the probability among women to vote for a female candidate. Among men, those in the highest and lowest social status groups are more favourable towards women candidates than those in between. Middle class men seem to be most afraid of losing status if more women become political actors.
This chapter frames the most important issues for European Union (EU) Member States' national foreign policies in the multilateral system in the context of frozen privileges in the United Nation Committee on Human Rights (UNCHR), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and United Nations Security Council (UNSC). The three are at the nexus of EU Member States national prestige and the European pursuit of effective multilateralism, pinpointing the tension between national foreign policy and European common foreign policy. The changing distribution of power in the international system magnifies European bias and increases the pressure for reform. In the three cases, reform is at different stages of completion, allowing a comparison of EU Member State reactions. However, the varying degrees of salience between cases cannot be overlooked as it partially explains the willingness of privileged states to forgo their advantages. The chapter presents an overview of each case in turn, summarising context, Member State groups, policy changes and policy performance.
Emphasis today is on the political and economic factors in social change in undeveloped countries. This approach, combined with the wholehearted acceptance of the role of the middle class as a psychological leavening agent in such countries, tends to obscure the presence of other factors. Especially are there other categories of human beings who are responding to the forces put into play by world changes and by the increasing pressures exerted upon the social systems of which they are a part. Recently, some of these groups have been given more notice, such as students, intellectuals, labor union members, etc. Another such important category is the servant class which for the most part has been ignored and yet which appears significant, even though not as a political group, in terms of both the effects it has on changes being attempted in social organizations and on the personality development of nationals in such countries.
In the juristic sphere, the Interstate Commerce Commission is charged with enforcing and interpreting certain statutes, hearing and weighing evidence, and rendering formal judgment when the facts have been ascertained. But the recognized judicial character of this work does not render the Commission immune from efforts to influence its judgments. The struggles of contending economic groups and political influences give rise to actions intolerable in a court of law and to repeated efforts to obtain favorable decisions through the use of propaganda. The Commission performs its duties in surroundings far from neutral, and must cope with pressures too powerful to be exorcised by simple exhortation or condemnation. The problem is one of canalizing influences which cannot be eliminated, to the end that they may increase rather than decrease the efficiency of the administrative process and that the public interest may not be submerged in the undertow of sectional and political cross-currents.
"The recent upsurge in censorship is a global phenomenon taking many forms across the media spectrum as well as in schools, universities and public spaces. Physical assaults against and legal restrictions on journalists, writers, intellectuals, scholars, artists and students are on the rise in a number of countries. Writers and scholars have been jailed. Publications and websites have been closed. Political elites and their allies have seized control over academic institutions of all kinds. Whole topics-queer sexuality, gender identity, critical race theory, state violence and militarism, government corruption, financial crimes, environmental degradation-have been excluded from public discourse either by governing elites or powerful corporations. Censorship, Digital Media and the Global Crackdown on Freedom of Expression gathers a series of experts to document, analyze and evaluate the contemporary phenomenon of censorship in digital spaces as well as in print, visual and legacy media. It details the many places and situations where freedom of speech and expression are currently under attack, both on and off-line, in the United States and around the world. It examines the methods and tactics of censorship used by governments, businesses and pressure groups to shut down expression they disdain. We argue that censorship and the loss of free speech is part of a growing anti-democratic movement with grave implications for civil society, human rights and global democracy. Ultimately, with the suppression of dialogue and discourse, fact and documentation, witness and evaluation, the world becomes a much more dangerous place, driven by misinformation and false narratives in counties subject to human rights abuses, and much more. With the incarceration of journalist and Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as the world watches, exposing government corruption and brutality has become far more dangerous. Journalists continue to be penalized, incarcerated and killed. From the simple dissemination of information to the suppression of educational materials, and the prosecution of individuals for speech and expression, public discourse has become far more dangerous. For example, in Eastern Europe, the banning of programs in Gender Studies has criminalized education, and in Russia women face prison for disseminating images of body positivity that include drawings of vaginas. In Hungary, artists and playwrights are under attack. Dictators around the globe have shut down, monopolized and otherwise instituted measures to control information, as they lie and mislead their own citizens. India, Egypt, Brazil and Turkey are notable for their attacks on universities, the internet, the news media, social media and civil liberties. This volume also addressed the ways in which critical media literacy and activists can respond to the global crackdown. It investigates the complications brought about by media convergence in the 21st century. We argue that allowing high-tech surveillance and censorship of the internet carries with it far too many negative consequences for freedom of expression and that in many cases, measures attempting to halt fake news as currently formulated will lead inevitably to more censorship. We propose policy alternatives; from economic restructuring of media, to global agreements that cover freedom of the press, to educational strategies aimed at creating a vibrant public citizenry able to take on the challenges of preserving global freedom of expression"--
SINCE THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR, DEMOCRATIC STRIVINGS HAVE SURFACED AGAIN AND AGAIN IN THE SOCIALIST BLOC COUNTRIES OF EASTERN EUROPE WITHIN THE SOVIET UNION'S SPHERE OF INFLUENCE. THESE EFFORTS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN BLOCKED OR SUPPRESSED, ONLY TO REAPPEAR SOMEWHERE ELSE AT A LATER MOMENT. SUCH ATTEMPTS TO WIN GREATER DEMOCRACY HAVE VARIED IN THEIR CHARACTER AND FORM ACCORDING TO THE SOCIAL STRUCTURES AND POLITICAL TRADITIONS OF THE COUNTRY CONCERNED. HOWEVER, IN THE COURSE OF TIME, THE DIFFERENCES HAVE BECOME LESS MARKED AND SPECIFIC FACTORS HAVE CEASED TO PLAY SUCH AN IMPORTANT ROLE, WITH THE RESULT THAT WE ARE NOW SEEING A CONVERGENCE OF EMPHASIS ON POLITICAL DEMOCRATIZATION, WHICH IS VIEWED INCREASINGLY AS A SINE QUA NON OF A DEVELOPED SOCIALIST SOCIETY. THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT TO CONFIRM THIS BY NOW UNDENIABLE TREND IS THE ESTABLISHMENT OF DISTINCTLY ANALOGOUS GROUPS AND EVEN MOVEMENTS IN A NUMBER OF SOCIALIST COUNTRIES. ALL OF THESE GROUPS AND MOVEMENTS CALL FOR THE RESTORATION OF DEMOCRATIC PRACTICES OR, WHERE APPLICABLE, THEIR INSTITUTION AND GRADUAL ASSERTION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE GIVEN SOCIAL ORDER, AND EMPHASIZE THE NEED TO IMPLEMENT AND RESPECT INALIENABLE HUMAN AND CIVIL RIGHTS. THESE GROUPS AND MOVEMENTS HAVE ALREADY BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN ESTABLISHING A DEGREE OF CONTINUITY WHICH SHOWS HOPEFUL SIGNS OF BEING ABLE TO SURVIVE PERIODS OF INCREASED POLITICAL RIGIDITY IN INDIVIDUAL COUNTRIES OR EVEN ON A BLOC-WIDE SCALE. ALTHOUGH IT IS FAR TOO EARLY TO SPEAK OPY: 1985
Using a process-oriented methodology, this paper examines the ongoing interdependent processes of both macro and micro civil society using a case-study undertaken in two villages in Northern Thailand. Two forms of civil society are theoretically defined and examined in this paper. The first form, 'grass-roots' civil society, was formed in Thoongpong of the villager's own initiative. The second form, 'top-down' civil society, was created in the village of Phandon through government initiative. Survey data collected shows that following the government instability and subsequent lack of continuous support for village civil society groups and projects, the politically autonomous and independently formed 'grass-roots' civil society of Thoongpong has continued to thrive in contrast to the 'top-down' civil society of Phandon, which has dried up without continued government support. While further research into this subject is necessary, it is the author's opinion that given the current Thai political climate, 'grass-roots' civil society is more sustainable in rural Thailand and should thus be promoted more than 'top-down' civil society projects at present.
