Happiness Trends Under Democracy: Where Will the New South African

Five years after South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, life satisfaction and happiness still reflect societal divides sowed by apartheid social engineering. The paper reports the indicators: life satisfaction, happiness and expectations for the future, from national surveys conducted between 1983 and 1999 for the South African Quality-of-Life Trends Project. Post-election euphoria, which saw all South Africans happy and satisfied with life for a brief moment in 1994, raises the question where the new set-level of subjective well-being will eventually come to rest. In 1999, in spite of some gains in living conditions, the level of life satisfaction of blacks has not risen above the mid-point and happiness is only slightly above the mid-point. Meanwhile, whites, who have forfeited their political dominance, continue to score above the mid-point on happiness and life satisfaction. The paper draws on the literature, particularly on quality-of-life trends in reunified Germany and paradoxical trends in African-American life satisfaction when discussing the dynamics underlying South African subjective well-being. It is argued that coping mechanisms may play an important role in determining levels of subjective well-being in the complex situation of South Africa.     

Eros as the Educational Principle of Democracy

This paper explores the value of the eros motif for critical pedagogy and citizenship education. The conceptual affinities between eros and democracy are identified and integrated into a theory of democratic political education. Long recognized as vital to the process of self knowledge, the ancient Greek concept of eros has nevertheless been largely erased from contemporary educational debate. By retrieving eros from the fringe of academic discourse and integrating it with critical pedagogy, the aims of radical democracy can be more fully achieved. The essay emphasizes the civil society or cultural dimensions of democracy as against its legal or procedural aspects. Renewed emphasis on the associational qualities of democracy underscore the importance of eros as an educational principle. The ancient pedagogical motif of educating the desires is posited as an alternative to the liberal/modernist paradigm of education which de-values affective domains of knowledge.     

Colloquy: Should Familywise Alpha Be Adjusted?

Type I error is a risk undertaken whenever significance tests are conducted, and the chances of committing a Type I error increase as the number of significance tests increases. But adjusting the alpha level because of the number of tests conducted in a given study has no principled basis, commits one to absurd beliefs and practices, and reduces statistical power. The practice of requiring or employing such adjustments should be abandoned.     

Where the Girls (and Women) Are

This paper takes up a theoretical and empirical investigation of how two community-based projects for young women both create safety from community and domestic violence but how, in the process, discourses of multicultural inclusion define one site, and racist discourses of exclusion float through the other site. By relying on two intensive qualitative case studies of community-based organizations for girls, one exclusively White and working class and the other expressly multicultural and antiracist, we try to identify those structures and practices that support feminist, but inadvertently racist, work and those structures and practices that enable, at once, feminist and antiracist consciousness and praxis.     

The Problem(s) of Constituting the Demos: A (Set of) Solution(s)

Ethical Theory and Moral Practice - When collective decisions should be made democratically, which people form the relevant demos? Many theorists think this question is an embarrassment to...     

Men Should Be Competent,Women Should Have it All: Multiple Criteria in the Evaluation of Female Job Candidates

Sex Roles - The present research investigated whether evaluations of female and male job candidates rely on different dimensions. Going beyond previous studies on the role of gender stereotypes, we...     

不可轻视医药贿赂现象

近年来,随着市场经济的发展,医药贿赂问题相继发生,对社会造成了不良影响。一方面,这种现象严重破坏了正常的医药购销秩序,导致假药、伪劣器械层出不穷;另一方面,加重了患者的经济负担,损害群众的身心健康。从医药分家、健全法制以及行业自身建设方面提出治理医药贿赂的对策。     

不可轻视医药贿赂现象

近年来,随着市场经济的发展,医药贿赂问题相继发生,对社会造成了不良影响.一方面,这种现象严重破坏了正常的医药购销秩序,导致假药、伪劣器械层出不穷;另一方面,加重了患者的经济负担,损害群众的身心健康.从医药分家、健康法制以及行业自身建设方面提出治理医药贿赂的对策.