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Since 2005, the Government of India has initiated several interventions to address the issue of maternal mortality, including efforts to improve maternity services and train community health workers, and to give cash incentives to poor women if they deliver in a health facility. Following local protests against a high number of maternal deaths in 2010 in Barwani district in Madhya Pradesh, central India, we undertook a fact-finding visit in January 2011 to investigate the 27 maternal deaths reported in the district from April to November 2010. We found an absence of antenatal care despite high levels of anaemia, absence of skilled birth attendants, failure to carry out emergency obstetric care in obvious cases of need, and referrals that never resulted in treatment. We present two case histories as examples. We took our findings to district and state health officials and called for proven means of preventing maternal deaths to be implemented. We question the policy of giving cash to pregnant women to deliver in poor quality facilities without first ensuring quality of care and strengthening the facilities to cope with the increased patient loads. We documented lack of accountability, discrimination against and negligence of poor women, particularly tribal women, and a close link between poverty and maternal death.

Disruptions of the peace and crowd action, public protests, mass demonstrations and mob violence have all attracted the attention of a variety of scholars from numerous disciplines: history, political science, sociology, psychology and even religion and philosophy. Riots and protests may have social or political or even financial goals, or they may not. Crowd actions may and perhaps often are peaceful affairs, but riots by nature cannot be so. Non-violent activities or passive resistance was a technique made most famous by Mohandas Gandhi, in striving to achieve an independent India, which came about in 1947. And of course in the United States, the Reverend Martin Luther King rejected the strategy during the following decade in an attempt to win desegregation in the American southland. But the essays in this volume look beyond non-violent crowd action and without exception drill-in on disturbing the peace through violent actions — in effect, on rioting.

We explore the limits of petitions and public protests as mechanisms to aggregate dispersed information. We show that if citizens’ signals are not sufficiently precise, information aggregation is impossible, even if the conflict with the policy-maker is small, no matter how large is the population of informed citizens. We characterize the conditions on conflict and the signal structure that guarantee information aggregation. When these conditions are satisfied, we show that full information aggregation is possible as population grows to infinity. When they are not satisfied, we show that information aggregation may still be possible if social media are available.

Šaltinių publikacijoje pagrindinis dėmesys skiriamas žinomo lietuvių žurnalisto, valstiečių liaudininko, jaunosios kartos lyderio, būsimos prosovietinės Liaudies vyriausybės vadovo Justo Paleckio viešiems protestams 1938 m. kovo mėnesį Lenkijai įteikus ultimatumą Lietuvai. Publikacijos pirmoje dalyje pristatoma Lietuvos ir Lenkijos santykių Vilniaus krašto praradimo kontekste 1920–1938 m. trumpa apžvalga, antroje išsamiau apariamas J. Paleckio viešų protestų pobūdis, jų aktualumas ir pirmą kartą skelbiamų dokumentų specifika. Skelbiami dokumentai leidžia susidaryti išsamesnį vaizdą apie prieštaringai vertinamo J. Paleckio veiklą ikiokupaciniu laikotarpiu. The publication of sources pays special attention to the public protests of the head of the future pro-Soviet People’s Government Justas Paleckis in March 1938 after Poland delivered its ultimatum to Lithuania. In response to the Lithuanian government’s submission to the Polish requests, Paleckis publicly protested and expressed his requests in three documents. The content analysis of the three documents published for the first time prompts a conclusion that during that period Paleckis was a vigorous advocate of Lithuania’s independence and the belonging of Vilnius Region to Lithuania; he was also an active opponent of Poland who was convinced that there could be no restoration of the common (union-type) state of Poland and Lithuania; he was a critic of authoritarian regime and the Lithuanian Nationalist Union which supported the undemocratic government of the country as well as the supporter of the democratic regime: he considered the democratic regime with "a representation of the nation convened on free grounds" where sovereignty was in the hands of the nation a supreme value. It should be noted that at that time Justas Paleckis did not say a word about the Soviet Union (not to mention any sympathies towards it), whereas the Communists acting in the underground were seen as the persons wishing well to Lithuania and expressing a favourable attitude towards its independence. The latter Paleckis’ attitude eventually proved to be wrong.

Aquest treball presenta els resultats d’una investigació en què s’ha destacat el gran nombre i varietat de conflictes relacionats amb les transformacions territorials que existeixen avui dia a la regió del Véneto. La quantitat de conflictes i d’associacions actives demostra l’interès constant per les qüestions mediambientals i també posa en relleu el paper central que han jugat les dinàmiques de desenvolupament i ús del territori —presents a la regió en les últimes dècades— en el fenomen que ara s’està manifestant. Els conflictes s’han d’interpretar no tan sols com a resultat de la demanda dels ciutadans per participar i influir més en els processos de transformació territorial —que hi repercuteixen directament i en la qualitat de vida—, sinó també com a resultat de la seva declarada falta de confiança en una classe política sovint incapaç de gestionar els conflictes i per tant «feble» per planificar i fer-se càrrec de situacions conflictives., This paper shows the results of a research project on territorial conflicts in the Veneto region. The research describes the various types of conflict connected with territorial transformations. The number of conflicts and active committees suggests a lifelong interest in environmental issues as well as highlighting the significant role that land development and land use dynamics – which have occurred in the Veneto region in recent decades – are playing in this new phenomenon. Conflicts should be interpreted not only as a public demand for more participation and involvement in territorial processes that have a direct impact on them and their standard of living, but also as a self-professed lack of confidence in a political class that has gradually reduced the capacity for political representation., Este trabajo presenta los resultados de una investigación en la que se destaca el gran número y variedad de conflictos relacionados con las transformaciones territoriales que hoy existen en el Véneto. El elevado número de conflictos y comités activos indica un interés constante por las cuestiones medioambientales y además pone de relieve el importante rol que han jugado las dinámicas de desarrollo y uso del territorio —surgidas en esta región en las últimas décadas— en el fenómeno que ahora se va manifestando. Esta conflictividad se debe interpretar no sólo como la demanda de los ciudadanos para participar y estar más implicados en los procesos de transformación territorial —que repercuten directamente en ellos y en la calidad de vida—, sino también como su declarada falta de confianza en una clase política a menudo incapaz de manejar los conflictos y por tanto «débil» para planificar y hacerse cargo de situaciones conflictivas.

The goal of this research was to test if the Value Expectancy Theory applies to the Estonian case of ACTA protests. It cannot be said that there just aren’t that many protest organized in Estonia for people to participate in and it also cannot be said that Estonians have no history of participating in demonstrations. The singing revolution was in itself a big, peaceful, proactive demonstration that hundreds of thousands of people participated in. Estonia is also a democratic country with democratic rights and the right to protest against something that is perceived harmful to the society is not illegal. The aim was to find out what kind of perceived outcomes and value expectancy determine the participation in a public protest. The year 2012 brought tree good examples of well-attended public protests - ACTA being the biggest and first of those. The empirical data gathered shows that expected value played a role in the decision making process. People who thought the outcome would be positive or very positive and also expected a gain in personal related and goal and democracy related values chose to actively participate in the protest.. On the other hand the people who predicted less gain in personal related and goal and democracy related values decided not to participate. It can be concluded that attendance relies on how much the organizers can make their audience believe that the goal is reachable. Media coverage and Facebook help of course on that path., http://tartu.ester.ee/record=b2681873~S1*est

This research seeks to discuss the challenges faced by Turkish leaders in the food sector and to examine the strategies, resources and coping mechanisms they used when dealing with challenges durin...