Inclusiveness of Jordanian women in local decision‐making process: Opportunities and threats

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anan M. Abu‐Hummour
2007 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Biswambhar Panda

NGOs deploy multiple approaches to achieve their objectives. These may broadly be classified as bottom up and top down. While a bottom-up approach emphasises local decision making, community participation and grassroots mobilisation/movements, the top-down approach focuses on lobbying and bargaining with the decision-making authorities such as government agencies, building up of pressures through various campaign mechanisms, advocacy activities, etc. This article draws insights from the literature and begins with a discussion on approaches undertaken by grassroots NGOs to meet their objectives. At the outset, the article ponders over a set of questions such as whether grassroots NGOs essentially follow a bottom-up approach. If so, why? Do they also intend to establish rapport with the state officials and thereby have say in the decision-making process? If so, how do they pursue it? This article, however, operationalises the bottom-up approach in terms of an array of indicators such as awareness building efforts of NGOs, people's participation in different phases of projects, and people's involvement in creating people's institutions. Similarly, it defines top-down approach on the basis of indicators such as NGOs’ participation in advocacy activity, obtaining support from government authority and obtaining favourable court verdicts. Despite the rhetoric, this article conclusively finds that no grassroots NGO practices either a bottom-up or top-down approach exclusively.


Author(s):  
Katerine Guerrero ◽  
Jorge Finke

Abstract Many networks are made up of different nodes types, which are determined by a set of common quantitative or qualitative node properties. Understanding the effects of homophilic relationships, that is, the tendency of nodes to establish links to other nodes that are alike, requires formal frameworks that explain how local decision-making mechanisms contribute to the formation of particular network structures. Based on two simple stochastic mechanisms for establishing links, this article introduces a model that explains the emergence of homophily as an aggregate group and network level outcome. We characterize the dynamics of homophily and present conditions that guarantee that the amount of homophily exceeds the expected amount of a purely random decision-making process. Moreover, we show that the proposed model resembles patterns of homophily in a citation network of political blogs. Finally, we use the model to design a non-homophilic node detection algorithm for identifying nodes that establish connections without a particular preference for either node type.


2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (5) ◽  
pp. 13-34
Author(s):  
Syarif Hidayat

Conceptual as well as policy reform on decentralization and local autonomy post-Suharto administration, at a particular level, had been succeeded in opening up possibility for local government and society to play a greater role in the local decision-making process as well as in the implementation. Yet, at the same time, this reform mainstream faced the reality of ‘relational bias among elites’ due to the changing pattern of state-society interaction post New Order. Among significant characters of this change is that society is no longer being marginalized in the decision making process and policy implementation. However, the role of society cannot be seen as in terms of civil society, but in this case, their role had been dominated by societal actors (elites). As a result, the decision-making process and policy implementation -both at national and local levels- will be dominated by societal-state actors coalition and interest bargaining. As what can be seen in the cases of local direct election (pilkada) and regional proliferation (pemekaran daerah), each part (either state actors or societal actors) will develop formal and informal network in order to build coalition as well as bargaining their interest. In addition, each part will attempt to maximize their political and economic resources. In the future, it should not be assumed that eliminating “pilkada” and “pemekaran” would be the best therapy of this drawback. Instead, it would require the ability to manage “relational bias” among elites, in the process of “pilkada” and “pemekaran”, as well as in the administration process afterward.


2021 ◽  
pp. 232949652110288
Author(s):  
Meaghan Stiman

In theory, participatory democracies are thought to empower citizens in local decision-making processes. However, in practice, community voice is rarely representative, and even in cases of equal representation, citizens are often disempowered through bureaucratic processes. Drawing on the case of a firearm discharge debate from a rural county’s municipal meetings in Virginia, I extend research about how power operates in participatory settings. Partisan political ideology fueled the debate amongst constituents in expected ways, wherein citizens engaged collectivist and individualist frames to sway the county municipal board ( Celinska 2007 ). However, it was a third frame that ultimately explains the ordinance’s repeal: the bureaucratic frame, an ideological orientation to participatory processes that defers decision-making to disembodied abstract rules and procedures. This frame derives its power from its depoliticization potential, allowing bureaucrats to evade contentious political debates. Whoever is best able to wield this frame not only depoliticizes the debate to gain rationalized legitimacy but can do so in such a way to favor a partisan agenda. This study advances gun research and participatory democracy research by analyzing how the bureaucratic frame, which veils partisanship, offers an alternative political possibility for elected officials, community leaders, and citizens to adjudicate partisan debates.


Health Policy ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 87 (3) ◽  
pp. 342-349 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Richter ◽  
Katherine A. Hicks ◽  
Stephanie R. Earnshaw ◽  
Amanda A. Honeycutt

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-94
Author(s):  
Rolv Lyngstad

The point of departure of this article is contemporary changes in the relationship between national and local decision making in the Norwegian political system. The last decades’ centralization tendencies seem to be challenged by a “new” emphasis on local discretion, and the article discusses how this will affect social work in municipalities. The changes are contested and controversial and allude to questions such as how much discretion should be given to local decision makers in the name of local democracy, and how much difference should be accepted in the name of diversity? The article argues that professional social work must be context-specific, meaning that in a wide sense local knowledge is a prerequisite for good social work. Devolution and local political and professional discretion are necessary in many cases, but not sufficient in themselves as conditions for success. Professional social workers will encounter a lot of difficult dilemmas arousing from issues related to the equality/liberty debate and the diversity/difference/equality debate in social work discourses. In order to approach these dilemmas, more of a focus on local deliberation and place shaping, in combination with a social work focus on democratic professionalism, is necessary. If this is done successfully, devolution and a recapturing of local discretion and decision-making power will empower clients as well as professionals. Thus, current changes in the relationship between different levels of decision making will enlarge the possibilities for professional social work in the municipalities.


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