Julia Gillard's Citizens' Assembly Proposal for Australia: A Deliberative Democratic Analysis

Many governments have embraced the rhetoric of inclusive citizen engagement. Greater public involvement promises to strengthen democratic institutions and improve the quality of policy decisions and services. How do these aspirations sit alongside the reality of Australian federal politics? This article investigates the responses of elite policy actors to the Gillard government's proposal to conduct a citizens’ assembly on climate change in 2010. Drawing on over 200 media articles, the authors identify a series of procedural, institutional and political objections raised by elite commentators against the citizens’ assembly proposal. Many of these objections have little basis in the experience of deliberative designs in practice. Some, however, reflect the challenge of realising inclusive, deliberative governance in highly politicised contexts.

很多政府对公民广泛参与的说辞爱不释手。更大程度上的公共参与有助于强化民主体制,改善政策及服务的质量。这种渴望与澳大利亚联邦政治的现实相处如何呢？本文考察了政策精英对杰拉德政府倡议在2010年召开的气候变化公民大会的反应。本文浏览了200多篇媒体文章,发现了这些人从程序、体制、政治等等方面反对公民大会的倡议。不少反对意见在精心设计的实践经验中并没多少基础。但有些却反映了高度政治化的语境中正在实现的广泛参与所构成的挑战。     

Boundaries are Made for Crossing: The feminized spatiality of Puerto Rican Espiritismo in New York City

Espiritismo is a system of ritual healing indigenous to the Caribbean. Nearly 3 years of fieldwork in an Espiritismo worshipping community in Manhattan has produced a rich and textured source of ethnographic information that is analyzed in terms of its feminized spatiality. The central figure in this community is Maria; the priestess/medium who negotiates the exigencies of this world and the world of the spirits through trance-possession performance. Her articulation of Espiritismo uses the boundaries between self and community, male and female, Catholic and non-Catholic, the human world and the spirit world, and racial identities as resources for solving problems of well-being such as poor health, lost love, and economic deprivation for herself and her community of devotees. Maria's body is the primary site where these issues are resolved in that her body (re)presents, (re)produces and (re)valorizes the Espiritismo community's use of (in)visibility, particularity, trance-possession and inclusivity as a means for healing everyday problems in familiar spaces.     

Book reviews

Paul Dibb (ed.), Australia's External Relations in the 1980s: The Interaction of Economic, Political and Strategic Factors. Croom Helm Australia, Canberra, 1983, pp. 227. $19.95.

Grant Wardlaw, Political Terrorism. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982, pp. xiii + 218. $14.95.

B. E. O'Neill, W. R, Heaton and D. J. Alberts (eds), Insurgency in the Modern World. Westview Press, Boulder Co., 1980, pp. xii + 291. $US39.00

Michael Chisholm, Modern World Development. Hutchinson World Library, London, 1982, pp. 216. $17.95.

David E. Kaiser, Economic Diplomacy and the Origins of the Second World War: Germany, Britain, France, and Eastern Europe, 1930–1939. Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1980, pp. xvi + 346. $US33.00 (cloth); $US16.50 (paper).

Walter Laqueur, Europe Since Hitter: The Rebirth of Europe. Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, England, 1982, pp. 607. $9.95.

Michael Newman, Socialism and European Unity: The Dilemma of the Left in Britain and France. Junction Books, London, 1983, pp. 292. $14.95.

Mervyn Matthews, Education in the Soviet Union. Policies and Institutions since Stalin. George Allen and Unwin, London, 1982, pp. xiv + 225. $15.95.

H. F. & W. F. Scott, The Soviet Control Structure: Capabilities for Wartime Survival. Crane Russak, New York, 1983, pp. x + 146. No price given.

David Wilson, The Demand for Energy in the Soviet Union. Croom Helm, London and Canberra, 1983, pp. 130. $37.95.

John L. Esposito (ed.), Voices of Resurgent Islam. Oxford University Press, New York and Oxford, 1983, pp. vii + 294. $20.00

John W.. Longworth, Beef in Japan: Politics, Production, Marketing and Trade. University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1983, pp xxvii + 327. $25.00.

John K. Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer and Albert M. Craig, East Asia: Tradition and Transformation. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, new impression 1983, pp. xvi + 982. $45.95

Keith Hancock, Yoko Sano, Bruce Chapman and Pamela Fayle (eds), Japanese and Australian labour markets: A comparative study. Australia‐Japan Research Centre, Canberra and Tokyo, 1983, pp. xx+ 610. No price given.

Lesleyanne Hawthorne (ed.), Refugee: The Vietnamese Experience. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1982, pp. xvi + 330. $29.00 (cloth); $ 14.99 (paper).

Stuart Harris and Brian Bridges, European Interests in ASEAN. Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chathan House Papers No. 19, Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983, pp. 89. £4.95.

H. W. Arndt, The Indonesian Economy: Collected Papers, Chopmen Publishers, Singapore, 1984, pp. viii + 279. $S.56.00 (cloth); $S.36.00 (paper).

Y. Sugimoto and R. E. Mouer, Japanese Society: Stereotypes and Realities (pp. 41, 1982); F. Freiberg, Women in Mizoguchi Films (pp. 39, 1981); D. F. Henderson, Joint Ventures and Investments in Japan (pp. 23, 1981); Y. Sugimoto, H. Shimada & S. B. Levine, Industrial Relations in Japan (pp. 58, 1982); S. Tsurumi, Japanese Conceptions of Asia (pp. 20, 1982); Vera Mackie, Japanese Children and Politeness (pp. 42, 1982); J. A. A. Stockwin, The Rights and Lefts of Japanese Politics (pp. 13, 1984); P. Sheard, Auto Production Systems in Japan (pp. 80, 1983); T. Matsuzawa, Japanese Fascism and the Tenno Imperial State (pp. 17, 1984); R. Hidaka, Democracy and the ‘Control State’ in Japan (pp. 38, 1984); J. V. Neustupny, Communicating with the Japanese (pp. 18, 1984).

All published by the Japanese Studies Centre, Clayton, Victoria. Price $3.00 except that by Sheard which is $8.00.

David Goldsworthy, Tom Mboya: The Man Kenya Wanted to Forget. Heinemann Educational Books, Nairobi, 1982, pp. xii + 308. No price given.

Jock McCulloch, Black Soul White Artifact. Fanon's Clinical Psychology and Social Theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983, pp. xi + 249. $56.00.

Jay R. Mandle, Patterns of Caribbean Development: An Interpretive Essay on Economic Change. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, New York, 1982, pp. xi + 156. $35.80

A. L. Weeks and W. C. Bodie (eds), War and Peace: Soviet Russia Speaks (with an essay by F. R. Barnett). National Strategy Information Centre, Inc., New York, 1983, pp. 51. $1.95.

J. E. Larson and W. C. Bodie, The Intelligent Layperson's Guide to the Nuclear Freeze and Peace Debate. National Strategy Information Centre, Inc., New York, 1983, pp. 65. $2.95.

Laurio H. Destefani, Malvinas, Georgia y Sandwich del Sur, ante el Conflicto con Gran Bretana. Edipress S.A., Buenos Aires, 1982, pp. 144. No price given.

Myriam Dornoy, Politics in New Caledonia. Sydney University Press, Sydney, 1984, pp. xvi + 302. $42.50.

L. W. Johnson, Colonial Sunset. Australia and Papua New Guinea 1970–74. University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, 1983, pp. 271. $24.95.

James Sinclair, Uniting a Nation: The Postal and Telecommunication Services of Papua New Guinea. Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1984, pp. 287. $20.00.

K. Buckley and K. Klugman, ‘The Australian Presence in the Pacific’. Burns Philp 1914–1946. George Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1983, pp. 392. $19.95.

M. Meleisea et al., Politics in Polynesia. Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, Suva, 1983, pp. 262. $F8.00.

R. Teiwaki et al., Politics in Micronesia. Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, Suva, 1983, pp. 168. $F8.00.

P. Larmour with S. Tarua (eds), Solomon Islands Politics. Institute of Pacific Studies of the University of the South Pacific, Suva, 1983, pp. 305. $F11.00 (cloth); $F8.00 (paper).     

The Australian Assistance Plan and the Canadian Connection: Origins and Legacies

Within the context of the war on poverty and an acknowledgement of the wider global phenomenon of a ‘post-industrial society’, the Australian Labor Party under Gough Whitlam sought out a range of reforming and innovative social policy programs. This article explores the origins of one such program, the Australian Assistance Plan (AAP), and its connections, similarities and differences to the Canada Assistance Plan. Drawing on extensive archival and oral history sources, it offers a comparative analysis of both national programs, then outlines how international social planning and community development ideas, especially from Canada, infused the AAP and its predecessor, the Geelong Experiment.     

From clay to metal: culture change and container usage among the Bariba of northern Bénin,West Africa

The Bariba are the dominant ethnic group in the culturally heterogeneous northern provinces of the modern state of Bénin. Recent decades have witnessed dramatic changes in some aspects of Bariba material culture, while others have remained more stable. An investigation of change and stability in Bariba material culture, with particular attention to containers, reveals that the dynamics of cultural pluralism, an heterogeneous array of innovative and conservative beliefs and practices, register as much in the material as in the non-material domains of Bariba life. Because containers are ubiquitous in late prehistoric and historical societies, they constitute a key monitor of change for archaeologists. Evaluation of container change in this living culture highlights some of the challenges facing archaeologists working exclusively with material remains.

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Résumé Les Bariba sont le groupe ethnique qui prédomine dans les provinces culturellement hétérogènes du nord de l'état moderne du Bénin. Pendant les dernières décennies certains aspects de la culture matérielle des Bariba ont changé de façon dramatique, tandis que d'autres sont restés plus stables. Une investigation des changements et de la stabilité dans la culture matérielle des Bariba, avec des recherches spéciales concernant les récipients, révèle que les dynamiques du pluralisme culturel—un étalage hétérogène de croyances et de pratiques innovatrices et conservatrices—sont visibles aussi bien dans les domaines matériels de la vie des Bariba que dans les domaines non-matériels. Puisque les récipients se trouvent partout dans les sociétés historiques et de la fin de la préhistoire, ils constituent pour les archéologues un indice-clef de changements. L'évaluation des changements des récipients dans cette culture vivante met en relief certains des problèmes que doivent affronter les archéologues qui travaillent uniquement sur les vestiges matériels.

     

Harnessing the hijab: the emergence of the Muslim Female Footballer through international sport governance

The Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and other international sport governing bodies have recently been involved in contestations concerning the allowance of the hijab in sport. This article interrogates how these institutions participate in the regulation of Muslim women, and the relationship that these actions have with colonial and imperial constitutions of race. Drawing on critical race feminist theorizing, this article argues that the regulation of women who wear the hijab is a technology of power that frames these sport governance bodies as benevolent actors operating within the ‘best interests’ of female footballers. This hijab that has become a cause of concern in sport is hegemonically understood through Western colonialisms and racial grammars that have historically constituted the figure of ‘The Muslim Woman’ as in need of protection. The recent contestations represent a new moment in a global field, however, as notions of ‘freedom’ and ‘equal rights’ are being invoked to now allow the hijab, albeit under conditions that insidiously reinscribe white patriarchal authority.     

The Impact of Privatization on Land Inheritance among Samburu Pastoralists in Kenya

Privatization of communal land among a community of pastoralists in northern Kenya creates a gap in social institutions relating to land inheritance. This analysis shows that the emergence of a new rule for inheritance is a complex social process and that new rules do not arise automatically. Using theories of institutions and collective action, this study examines the process through which rules of inheritance are emerging in Siambu since land privatization. Drawing on in‐depth interviews, observations and household surveys, this study reveals why collective action around inheritance norms has been difficult to achieve. In the absence of such action, no single norm of inheritance has emerged. Rather, several different practices currently co‐exist. A considerable amount of evidence suggests that livestock inheritance rules that favour eldest sons will become the norm for land as well, but there are also reasons to doubt this outcome. What this case demonstrates is that institutional gaps are not necessarily or automatically filled; institutions do not simply arise when needed. When collective action fails, multiple practices and norms may co‐exist leading to a certain degree of institutional instability.