STUDY OBJECTIVES: To study the association between greenery filled public areas that are nearby a residence and easy to walk in and the longevity of senior citizens in a densely populated, developed megacity. DESIGN: Cohort study. METHODS: The authors analysed the five year survival of 3144 people born in 1903, 1908, 1913, or 1918 who consented to a follow up survey from the records of registered Tokyo citizens in relation to baseline residential environment characteristics in 1992. MAIN RESULTS: The survival of 2211 and the death of 897 (98.9% follow up) were confirmed. The probability of five year survival of the senior citizens studied increased in accordance with the space for taking a stroll near the residence (p<0.01), parks and tree lined streets near the residence (p<0.05), and their preference to continue to live in their current community (p<0.01). The principal component analysis from the baseline residential environment characteristics identified two environment related factors: the factor of walkable green streets and spaces near the residence and the factor of a positive attitude to a person's own community. After controlling the effects of the residents' age, sex, marital status, and socioeconomic status, the factor of walkable green streets and spaces near the residence showed significant predictive value for the survival of the urban senior citizens over the following five years (p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Living in areas with walkable green spaces positively influenced the longevity of urban senior citizens independent of their age, sex, marital status, baseline functional status, and socioeconomic status. Greenery filled public areas that are nearby and easy to walk in should be further emphasised in urban planning for the development and re-development of densely populated areas in a megacity. Close collaboration should be undertaken among the health, construction, civil engineering, planning, and other concerned sectors in the context of the healthy urban policy, so as to promote the health of senior citizens.
How do liberal democracies produce citizens who are capable of governing themselves? In considering this question, Barbara Cruikshank rethinks central topics in political theory, including the relationship between welfare and citizenship, democracy and despotism, and subjectivity and subjection. Drawing on theories of power and the creation of subjects, Cruikshank argues that individuals in a democracy are made into self-governing citizens through the small-scale and everyday practices of voluntary associations, reform movements, and social service programs. She argues that our empowerment is a measure of our subjection rather than of our autonomy from power. Through a close examination of several contemporary American "technologies of citizenship"-from welfare rights struggles to philanthropic self-help schemes to the organized promotion of self-esteem awareness-she demonstrates how social mobilization reshapes the political in ways largely unrecognized in democratic theory. Although the impact of a given reform movement may be minor, the techniques it develops for creating citizens far extend the reach of govermental authority. Combining a detailed knowledge of social policy and practice with insights from poststructural and feminist theory, The Will to Empower shows how democratic citizens and the political are continually recreated
Democratic politics is a collective enterprise, not simply because individual votes are counted to determine winners, but more fundamentally because the individual exercise of citizenship is an interdependent undertaking. Citizens argue with one another and they generally arrive at political decisions through processes of social interaction and deliberation. This book is dedicated to investigating the political implications of interdependent citizens within the context of the 1984 presidential campaign as it was experienced in the metropolitan area of South Bend, Indiana. Hence this is a community study in the fullest sense of the term. National politics is experienced locally through a series of filters unique to a particular setting and its consequences for the exercise of democratic citizenship.
Each of four theoretical traditions in the study of American politics—which can be characterized as theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy, Economic-Elite Domination, and two types of interest-group pluralism, Majoritarian Pluralism and Biased Pluralism—offers different predictions about which sets of actors have how much influence over public policy: average citizens; economic elites; and organized interest groups, mass-based or business-oriented. A great deal of empirical research speaks to the policy influence of one or another set of actors, but until recently it has not been possible to test these contrasting theoretical predictions against each other within a single statistical model. We report on an effort to do so, using a unique data set that includes measures of the key variables for 1,779 policy issues. Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.
Abstract This arose as part of an ongoing project on ‘Visions of Governance for the Twenty‐first Century’ initiated in 1996 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, which aims to explore what people want from government, the public sector, and non‐profit organizations. A first volume from the ‘Visions’ project (Why People Don’t Trust Government) was published by Harvard University Press in 1997; this second volume analyses a series of interrelated questions. The first two are diagnostic: how far are there legitimate grounds for concern about public support for democracy worldwide; and are trends towards growing cynicism found in the US evident in many established and newer democracies? The second concern is analytical: what are the main political, economic, and cultural factors driving the dynamics of support for democratic government? The final questions are prescriptive: what are the consequences of this analysis and what are the implications for strengthening democratic governance? The book brings together a distinguished group of international scholars who develop a global analysis of these issues by looking at trends in established and newer democracies towards the end of the twentieth century. Chapters draw upon the third wave (1995–1997) World Values Survey as well as using an extensive range of comparative empirical evidence. Challenging the conventional wisdom, the book concludes that accounts of a democratic ‘crisis’ are greatly exaggerated. By the mid‐1990s most citizens worldwide shared widespread aspirations to the ideals and principles of democratic government, although at the same time there remains a marked gap between evaluations of the ideal and the practice of democracy. The publics in many newer democracies in Central and Eastern Europe and in Latin America have proved deeply critical of the performance of their governing regimes, and during the 1980s many established democracies saw a decline in public confidence in the core institutions of representative democracy, including parliaments, the legal system, and political parties. The book considers the causes and consequences of the development of critical citizens in three main parts: cross‐national trends in confidence in governance; testing theories with case studies; and explanations of trends.
Foreword by Joseph Nye, Jr. 1. Introduction: The Growth of Critical Citizens SECTION ONE: CROSS-NATIONAL TRENDS IN CONFIDENCE IN GOVERNANCE 2. Mapping Political Support in the 1990s: A Global Analysis 3. Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies 4. Five Years after the Fall: Trajectories of Support for Democracy in Post-Communist Europe SECTION TWO: TESTING THEORIES WITH CASE-STUDIES 5. Down and Down We Go: Political Trust in Sweden 6. The Democratic Culture of Unified Germany 7. Tensions Between the Democratic Ideal and Reality: South Korea SECTION THREE: EXPLANATIONS OF TRENDS 8. Social and Political Trust in Establishes Democracies 9. The Economic Performance of Governments 10. Political performance and Institutional Trust 11. Institutional Explanations of Political Support 12. Postmodernization, Authority, and Democracy 13. Conclusions: The Growth of Critical Citizens and its Consequences Bibliography
Reconstructing Citizenship Education Teaching Social Studies for Decision Making and Citizen Action Epistemological Issues Ethnicity, Social Science, Research and Education the Persistence of Ethnicity - Research and Teaching Implications Multicultural Education and Curriculum Transformation Equity Pedagogy and Multicultural Education Democratic Racial Attitudes Educating Teachers, Leaders and Citizens Teaching Multicultural Literacy to Teachers Goals for the 21st Century.
This paper investigates the distribution of well being among world citizens during the last two centuries. The estimates show that inequality of world distribution of income worsened from the beginning of the 19th century to World War II and after that seems to have stabilized or to have grown more slowly. In the early 19th century most inequality was due to differences within countries; later, it was due to differences between countries. Inequality in longevity, also increased during the 19th century, but then was reversed in the second half of the 20th century, perhaps mitigating the failure of income inequality to improve in the last decades.
Many fear that democracies are suffering from a legitimacy crisis. This book focuses on 'democratic deficits', reflecting how far the perceived democratic performance of any state diverges from public expectations. Pippa Norris examines the symptoms by comparing system support in more than fifty societies worldwide, challenging the pervasive claim that most established democracies have experienced a steadily rising tide of political disaffection during the third-wave era. The book diagnoses the reasons behind the democratic deficit, including demand (rising public aspirations for democracy), information (negative news about government) and supply (the performance and structure of democratic regimes). Finally, Norris examines the consequences for active citizenship, for governance and, ultimately, for democratization. This book provides fresh insights into major issues at the heart of comparative politics, public opinion, political culture, political behavior, democratic governance, political psychology, political communications, public policymaking, comparative sociology, cross-national survey analysis and the dynamics of the democratization process
1. Democracy in difficult times 2. Media alternatives 3. Citizens and agency 4. Engagement, deliberation, and performance 5. Civic cultures: an analytic frame 6. Television and popular public spheres 7. Internet and civic potential 8. Online practices and civic cultures.
暂无摘要(点击查看原文获取完整内容)
Abstract The problem of education in liberal democracies is to ensure the intergenerational continuity of their constitutive political ideals while remaining open to a diversity of conduct and belief that sometimes threatens those ideals. Creating Citizens addresses this problem. The book identifies both the principal aims of political education—liberal patriotism and the sense of justice—and the rights that limit their public pursuit. The public pursuit of these educational aims is properly constrained by deference to the rights of parents, and these are shown to have some independent moral weight underived from the rights of children. The liberal state's possible role in the sponsorship and the control of denominational school is discussed, as are the benefits and hazards of moral dialogue in morally diverse educational environments. The book draws heavily on John Rawls's theory of justice.
暂无摘要(点击查看原文获取完整内容)
List of tables and figures Series editors' preface Acknowledgements 1. Knowledge and the foundation of democracy Part I. Theory: 2. How people learn 3. How people learn from others 4. What people learn from others 5. Delegation and democracy Part II. Experiments: 6. Theory, predictions and the scientific method 7. Laboratory experiments on information, persuasion and choice 8. Laboratory experiments on delegation 9. A survey on the conditions for persuasion Part III. Implications for Institutional Design: 10. The institutions of knowledge Afterword Appendices References Author index Subject index.
Many poor and oppressed people wish to leave their countries of origin in the third world to come to affluent Western societies. This essay argues that there is little justification for keeping them out. The essay draws on three contemporary approaches to political theory — the Rawlsian, the Nozickean, and the utilitarian — to construct arguments for open borders. The fact that all three theories converge upon the same results on this issue, despite their significant disagreements on others, strengthens the case for open borders and reveals its roots in our deep commitment to respect all human beings as free and equal moral persons. The final part of the essay considers communitarian objections to this conclusion, especially those of Michael Walzer.
concerns descend into fear, which is amplified by parts of the media . . . We need, therefore, a robust engaging dialogue with the public. We need to re-establish trust and confidence in the way that science can demonstrate new opportunities, and offer new solutions.' Nowhere is public concern over scientific advances and expert judgement more evident than in the sphere of the environment, chiefly because there is a clear link between many of the current debates surrounding issues such as GMOs and climate change, and concern over public health. It is the crucial issue of the tension between expert/scientific opinion, and citizen knowledge and participation related to the environment, that Fischer addresses in this book. The book is presented in four parts. The first sets the scene and reviews the literature on the interrelated themes of democratic theory, public participation, environmental policy and sociology of science, drawing valuable links between different elements of these diverse fields. Fischer draws heavily on the work of a number of well-known authors including Foucault, Wynne and especially Beck. Beck's (1992) 'risk society' is used as the 'theoretical backdrop' to Fischer's book, starting with the proposition that although technical and scientific progress was traditionally celebrated for producing material goods and thereby increasing social welfare, 'more and more people have come to recognise that technical risks involved in the production of many of these goods have risen to such a level that they become more troublesome than the traditional risks associated with material scarcity' (p. 49). Development of the theory and practice of environmental risks as a result of the production of material goods is the specific theme of Part n. This section is particularly useful in offering a wide range of case studies illustrating different risks mainly from the United States and Europe. Part II concludes with an interesting discussion of NIMB Yism and NIAB Yism and their roots in public distrust of science. Fischer follows the sentiments of authors such as Slovic (1993) in arguing that risk assessments conducted by scientists often do little or nothing to persuade the general public that particular technologies are relatively safe, and therefore should be socially acceptable. He argues that the public has rejected traditional risk assessment because it is based mainly cm technical
Our website uses cookies to enhance your experience. By continuing to use our site, or clicking "Continue," you are agreeing to our Cookie Policy | Continue
暂无摘要(点击查看原文获取完整内容)
Research on democratic party competition in the formal spatial tradition of Downs and the comparative-historical tradition of Lipset and Rokkan assumes that linkages of accountability and responsiveness between voters and political elites work through politicians’ programmatic appeals and policy achievements. This ignores, however, alternative voter-elite linkages through the personal charisma of political leaders and, more important, selective material incentives in networks of direct exchange (clientelism). In light of the diversity of linkage mechanisms appearing in new democracies and changing linkages in established democracies, this article explores theories of linkage choice. It first develops conceptual definitions of charismatic, clientelist, and programmatic linkages between politicians and electoral constituencies. It then asks whether politicians face a trade-off or mutual reinforcement in employing linkage mechanisms. The core section of the article details developmentalist, statist, institutional, political-economic, and cultural-ideological theories of citizen-elite linkage formation in democracies, showing that none of the theories is fully encompassing. The final section considers empirical measurement problems in comparative research on linkage.
暂无摘要(点击查看原文获取完整内容)