试析社区直接选举对社区建设的积极影响

十七大报告认为,人民依法直接行使民主权利,管理基层公共事务和公益事业,是人民当家作主最有效、最广泛的途径,必须作为发展社会主义民主政治的基础性工程重点推进。城市社区直接选举是我国社会主义民主政治建设的重要组成部分,建设社会主义民主政治,必须大力发展城市社区直接选举工作。城市社区选举可以增强社区工作人员服务的合法性基础、增强社区工作人员的服务意识、提高社区成员的民主意识和自我意识。     

发展城市基层民主与加强城市社区党组织建设

城市基层民主是在党和政府的统一领导下有组织、有秩序的民主,发展城市基层民主必须加强城市社区党组织建设,巩固并发展社区党组织在城市基层民主建设中的领导核心地位和作用,实现党对社区民主的参与和领导,保证社区发展为党聚拢政治资源和对社会进行有效整合。要使加强社区党组织建设和推进社区建设实现互动双赢,在推进社区建设、发展城市基层民主的过程中加强社区党组织建设,通过加强社区党组织建设更有效地推动社区建设和城市基层民主。同时,城市社区党组织建设一定要重视强化党内民主,要积极扩大社区党内民主,带动城市基层民主进一步发展。     

社区民主自治与基层民主建设

基层民主建设是我国民主政治建设的突破口,城市社区民主自治制度为扩大城市基层民主提供了一个制度化、法制化的平台.本文阐述了社区民主自治对城市基层民主建设的重要意义,城市社区自治制度的主要内涵及发展现状,并就如何继续推进社区民主自治促进城市基层民主建设的问题作了建设性探讨.     

城市社区自治的模式选择--对某市社区直选的几点分析

在我国城市换届选举的实践中 ,某市两个江北里社区居委会探索出一种切实实现城市居民基层自治的社区组织模式 :议行分设———成立新的社区工作站 ,社区居委会由居民直接选举产生对居民直接负责。但是 ,我们看到在实践中它还有种种的问题和不足 ,但我们相信只要切实坚持“议行分设”的原则 ,在实践中勇于创新 ,敢于实践 ,就一定能探索出有中国特色的基层社区民主自治模式。     

感受民主果实

一缕民主的新风,从北京市东城区的一个很具传统色彩的老街区中拂来:8月17日上午,北新桥街道九道湾社区近两千居民直接选举社区居民委员会成员和杜区代表会议代表。投票选举一次成功,9名社区居委会成员和23名社区代表会议成员全部产生。     

我国马克思主义民主理论的创新、实践与价值——以基层民主建设为例

改革开放以来,我国逐步建立了农村村委会、城市居委会和企业职代会为主的基层民主自治系统。人民群众依照相关法律法规,行使民主决策、民主选举、民主监督和民主管理的权利,基层民主建设的规范化、程序化和制度化稳步推进,基层民主政治实践形式不断深化。同时当前我国基层民主建设中依然存在不少问题。对我国现代化建设进程中的基层民主政治建设进程,主要就农村村民委员会和城市居民委员会自治两个方面进行分析,并上升到哲学的高度进行思考。     

改革和完善党内基层选举制度的探索——福田区"公推直选"试点回顾与思考

党的十七大指出,"要积极推进党内民主建设,着力增强党的团结统一",并提出要"推广基层党组织领导班子成员由党员和群众公开推荐与上级党组织推荐相结合的办法,逐步扩大基层党组织领导班子直接选举范围,探索扩大党内基层民主多种实现形式".省、市委对2008年上半年社区党组织换届选举,特别提出了"三推一评一选"的要求."三推",即通过组织提名推荐、党员群众联名推荐和个人自我推荐相结合的方式产生候选人初步人选;"一评"即组织候选人初步人选与党员、群众代表见面并进行民主测评;"一选"即召开党员大会进行直接选举,先召开党员大会直接差额选举委员,再召开党员大会直接等额选举书记、副书记.在社区党组织换届选举中实施"三推一评一选",目标十分明确,即进一步扩大基层党内民主.     

城市基层民主动力分析——以上海市R社区居委会换届选举为例

城市基层民主的实际运行情况在某一事件的关键点上是清晰可见的,而居委会的换届选举以选举为基点将城市基层民主的状况凸现出来。其核心问题就是民主的动力问题,进一步说就是有关民主与选举的关联。因此,解读基层政治实际运转中民主的现实,需要探究基层民主,特别是在民主选举中的人、制度与利益等种种因素体现出来的动力问题。     

扩大城市社区居民有序政治参与的现实途径研究——以北京市天通苑社区为例

天通苑作为众多城市社区的一员,其居民的政治参与存在诸多问题,如在维权过程中屡遭迫害;缺乏通畅的合法参与渠道;多是被动的维权型参与以及居委会与广大居民的关系有待调整等。而要扩大象天通苑等众多城市社区居民的有序政治参与,应从政府、居民和社区三个层面采取措施,如加强社区居民政治参与的法律制度建设;培育和增强社区居民的政治参与意识;积极培育社区居民自治组织,增强其自治能力等,以此推进我国基层民主政治的健康发展。     

社区党建与我国基层社会自治组织的重构 --从党的执政建设来考虑

社区党建是我国基层党建的一个重点 ,社区党组织是发展基层民主过程中的领导核心 ,重视社区党建并重新构建社区基层社会自治组织 ,才能推进我国基层民主建设的进程 ,更好地实现党对基层社会的有效整合     

农村宗族与村民选举的关系分析——对赣、晋两省56个村选举的跟踪观察和研究

作为对村选举状况的跟踪调查,本文分析表明,与首次村民直选相比,第二次村民直选的质量并没有提升,相反在江西两县还有下降。其中,既有选举程序与规则安排的影响,也有自治绩效和宏观体制等因素的影响。这表明,村民选举的质量并不一定会随着届期而直线上升,基层民主建设需要长期的艰苦努力。此外,选举对宗族的影响,主要表现为族际关系的变化。宗族在选举中的影响依然常见,但这种影响主要表现为选民投票的宗族取向。不过,与影响选举的其他组织因素相比,宗族因素依然微不足道,并未成为足以左右选举的主要因素,其影响的性质既有正面性也有负面性。     

Winning, Losing and Satisfaction with Democracy

Previous research has shown that those who won an election are more satisfied with the way democracy works than those who lost. What is not clear, however, is whether it is the fact of winning (losing), per se, that generates (dis)satisfaction with democracy. The current study explores this winner/loser gap with the use of the 1997 Canadian federal election panel study. It makes a theoretical and methodological contribution to our understanding of the factors that foster satisfaction with democracy. At the theoretical level, we argue that voters gain different utility from winning at the constituency and national levels in a parliamentary system, and that their expectations about whether they will win or lose affect their degree of satisfaction with democracy. On the methodological front, our analysis includes a control group (non-voters) and incorporates a control for the level of satisfaction prior to the election. The results indicate that the effect of winning and losing on voters' satisfaction with democracy is significant even when controlling for ex ante satisfaction before the election takes place, and that the outcome of the election in the local constituency matters as much as the outcome of the national election. They fail to show, however, that expectations about the outcome of the election play a significant role in shaping satisfaction with democracy.     

Can't get no satisfaction with the Westminster model? Winners,losers and the effects of consensual and direct democratic institutions on satisfaction with democracy

Are citizens in consensus democracies with developed direct democratic institutions more satisfied with their political system than those in majoritarian democracies? In this article, individual‐level data from the second wave of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and an updated version of Lijphart's multivariate measure of consensus and majoritarian democracy covering 24 countries are used to investigate this question. The findings from logistic multilevel models indicate that consensual cabinet types and direct democratic institutions are associated with higher levels of citizens' satisfaction with democracy. Furthermore, consensus democracy in these institutions closes the gap in satisfaction with democracy between losers and winners of elections by both comforting losers and reducing the satisfaction of winners. Simultaneously, consensus democracy in terms of electoral rules, the executive–legislative power balance, interest groups and the party system reduces the satisfaction of election winners, but does not enhance that of losers.     

Can experts judge elections? Testing the validity of expert judgments for measuring election integrity

Expert surveys have been used to measure a wide variety of phenomena in political science, ranging from party positions, to corruption, to the quality of democracy and elections. However, expert judgments raise important validity concerns, both about the object being measured as well as the experts. It is argued in this article that the context of evaluation is also important to consider when assessing the validity of expert surveys. This is even more important for expert surveys with a comprehensive, worldwide scope, such as democracy or corruption indices. This article tests the validity of expert judgments about election integrity – a topic of increasing concern to both the international community and academics. Evaluating expert judgments of election integrity provides an important contribution to the literature evaluating the validity of expert surveys as instruments of measurement as: (1) the object under study is particularly complex to define and multifaceted; and (2) election integrity is measured in widely varying institutional contexts, ranging from electoral autocracies to liberal democracies. Three potential sources of bias are analysed (the object, the experts and the context), using a unique new dataset on election integrity entitled the ‘Perceptions of Electoral Integrity’ dataset. The data include over 800 experts in 66 parliamentary and presidential elections worldwide. It is found that validity of expert judgments about election integrity is increased if experts are asked to provide factual information (rather than evaluative judgments), and if they are asked to evaluate election day (rather than pre‐election) integrity. It is also found that ideologically polarised elections and elections of lower integrity increase expert disagreement about election integrity. The article concludes with suggestions for researchers using the expert survey data on election integrity on how to check the validity of their data and adjust their analyses accordingly, and outlines some remaining challenges for future data collection using expert surveys.     

党内民主视阈下的反腐倡廉建设

以党内民主的动力助推反腐倡廉建设,必须充分保障党员民主权利,以此激发队伍纯洁的内在活力。保障党员的知情权是推进党内民主的基础,保障党员的参与权和选举权是尊重党员主体地位的标志,保障党员的民主决策权是发挥党员主体作用的关键,保障党员的监督权和罢免权是推进党风廉政建设的现实路径。要加强党内基层的民主建设,提升反腐倡廉的创新动力。积极探索农村基层党内民主和"两新"组织党内基层民主的多种实现形式,推进基层社区党内民主的创新。     

社区居民委员会与业主委员会的权利结构及其在北京市政策执行中的演化

在城市社区中，居民委员会和业主委员会是两个非常重要的自治组织，这两个理论上看似相辅相成的自治组织在现实中却关系复杂，复杂关系的背后实际上是政府的政策在左右。本文通过对北京市社区中居民委员会和业主委员会相关政策的研究，特别是对政府政策取向以及相关组织的利益关系的剖析，发现政府厚此薄彼的政策取向以及控制寻租机会是问题的核心，解决问题的关键在于政策设计应以尊重权利为要义，在具体的制度安排上应以控制腐败、防止附加性政策为核心，在具体行政活动中应以依法行政为基本操守，唯其如此才能防止魔鬼隐藏在政策细节中作祟。     

Mobilizing Interests: Group Participation and Competition in Direct Democracy Elections

We examine group mobilization in direct democracy elections by assessing the conditions under which interests will actively support or oppose ballot measures. Motivating our analysis is that the decision to mobilize is driven by the costs and benefits of group participation, a calculus shaped by issue characteristics, state political institutions, and the electoral context. Using data from initiative and referendum measures appearing on statewide ballots from 2003 to 2008, we find that ballot measures involving social and tax issues are likely to produce competition among groups and increase the overall number of groups involved. In addition, we find that group competition and levels of mobilization increased in response to how difficult it would be for the legislature to undo the change brought about from passage of a ballot measure. Lastly, group competition and levels of mobilization increased for ballot measures appearing in nonpresidential election years and for ballot measures featuring a close election. Taken together, our results suggest that groups engage strategically in direct democracy elections to pursue a mix of policy and political goals.     

Within‐party Allocation of Committee Seats: Evidence from Danish Local Elections

This article examines two traditional and four new explanations of committee composition. Using survey data on 541 Danish local politicians' pre‐election committee seat preferences and their actual post‐election committee seats, it is found that politicians are more likely to have their committee seat preferences fulfilled the less their preferences for the committees' policy domains differ from those of their fellow party members and the more specialised they are within the jurisdiction area of their preferred committee. Thus, the ex ante control of committee members sometimes observed in the American context is also relevant in the very different institutional setting of Danish local government. Moreover, a number of other explanations are found to be of equal relevance. In particular, individual‐level popular support is important to politicians' committee seat preference fulfilment and seats are distributed among party members in order to assure that everybody, at least to some extent, obtains a post that they find attractive. The findings thus suggest that ex ante control of committee members is but one of many concerns of parties. Accordingly, scholars should broaden their attention to other aspects of committee seat allocation, such as fair share norms and the popular support of politicians.     

How governing experience conditions winner-loser effects. An empirical analysis of the satisfaction with democracy in Spain after 2011 elections

Research has shown that those who win an election are more satisfied with democracy than those who lost. The current study explores this winner/loser gap using survey data from the 2011 Spanish general election. The study assumes that there are different losers. The results indicate that citizen satisfaction with democracy shows a negative relationship with parties that are consistently unable to obtain office. The implication is that the effects of the winner-loser effects are much smaller within the group of parties that have previous experience in government. Finally, I report and independent effect that citizengovernment policy proximity boosts satisfaction with democracy.     

Confidence in an election authority and satisfaction with democracy: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment of a failed election in Sweden

Contemporary research on electoral integrity has focused on the functioning, evaluation, and legitimacy of electoral processes in emerging democracies. By contrast, this study investigates whether a failed election in a well-established democracy can affect individuals' evaluations of the electoral management body, the Election Authority, and whether those evaluations affect satisfaction with democracy. Using the case of a Swedish regional election in 2010 that had to be rerun due to procedural mistakes in the vote handling, we found that, in the short term, individuals’ confidence in the Election Authority was reduced after it was announced that the election had to be rerun because of the mistakes. Subsequently, this decreased confidence was strongly associated with less satisfaction with democracy at the regional and national level. As good news for the authority, after a successful rerun election, confidence rebounded to the levels prior to the failed election.