Negotiating normative premises in democracy promotion: Venezuela and the Inter-American Democratic Charter

ABSTRACT

This article analyses negotiations on democracy promotion by looking at the case of the Inter-American Democratic Charter. It argues that Venezuela contested the concept of representative democracy during the Charter negotiations, advancing the notion of “participatory and protagonist democracy” and that, even if it was unsuccessful in its demands, the country contributed to deepening the debate on the concept of democracy, on which there is far from worldwide consensus. The article suggests that the main drivers of the negotiation process and the final agreement were domestic political changes in Venezuela, specific features of the negotiations, and the structural position of Venezuela in the field of democracy promotion in the global and regional contexts, which were, at the time, favourable to a compromising attitude to conclusion of the Charter, even if not to the concept of democracy.     

Do volatile voters vote less correctly? An analysis of correct voting among vote (intention) switchers in US presidential election campaigns

The literature on electoral volatility and the literature on electoral campaigns hold contradictory views on voters switching vote (intention) during the campaign. In this note, we shed new light on this contradiction, making two contributions. First, we investigate the extent to which stable and volatile voters choose the correct party. Second, we distinguish levels of correct voting and the impact of the act of switching on the correctness of the vote. Our analyses of vote-switching in American elections show that, while volatile voters are less likely to vote correctly, they are more likely to switch from an incorrect to the correct party than vice versa. Furthermore, we show that following the campaign more closely makes voters more likely to switch vote (intention) towards the correct party.     

The Need for Confidentiality in Evaluative Processes: Arbitration and Med/Arb in Family Law Cases

Arbitration, mediation/arbitration and arbitration/mediation allow parties to resolve their disputes usually more expeditiously, privately and with less cost than going to court. While confidentiality is seen as essential to the mediation process and often included in statutes, confidentiality seems less essential to a more adversarial process. Confidentiality provisions rest at the intersection between privacy and self‐determination and the protection of vulnerable parties in family law disputes. This article explores the importance of confidentiality clauses in drafting arbitration and med/arb or arb/med agreements.     

It Can't Happen Here,1 or Has It? Sinclair Lewis's Fascist America

Sinclair Lewis, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, anticipated many aspects of Donald J. Trump's 2016 campaign and election in his 1935 satirical dystopia, It Can't Happen Here. It was his most popular novel to date and is still satisfying, thought-provoking political theater. Lewis was influenced by growing totalitarianism in Europe, reported on by his second wife, foreign correspondent, Dorothy Thompson. Noting the power of Father Coughlin and Huey Long, among others, to mobilize a public still suffering from the Great Depression, Lewis feared a fascist takeover of the American government by democratic means. Lewis's fictional nightmare features a loutish, ignorant demagogue, who is manipulated by a sinister ghostwriter adviser. With support from a resentful League of Forgotten Men, the demagogue is elected President and quickly establishes a military, racist, and anti-Semitic dictatorship. It Can't Happen Here dramatizes the dire consequences of this takeover, which is not taken seriously at first by Lewis's newspaper editor protagonist, but then is increasingly resisted. Lewis is a social satirist in the Mark Twain tradition, and his novel is worth reading today for its suggestive parallels with current history and its good-hearted humor.     

Taiwan in the Caribbean: a case study in state de-recognition

The rich and complex recent International Political Sociology (IPS) literature on state recognition has completely ignored the process of de-recognition. The present article uses the case study of Taiwan’s efforts to preserve its ‘diplomatic allies’ in the Caribbean in order to fill this gap. Taking advantage of the IPS development of the constitutive theory of recognition, it introduces and analyses the concept of state de-recognition while emphasizing the deep contradiction between present international law principles and the political reality of national identity building as well as the de-linking of political science and international law understandings of recognition made possible by the progress of the constitutive theory. De-recognition is perceived as resulting in a hierarchical relationship between recognized and de-recognized political entities that is arbitrary and ethically questionable as it ultimately reflects the denial of the right to self-determination of peoples.     

日本《部分工时劳动法》的修正——以均等待遇原则为中心

日本部分工时劳动发展当中,差别待遇问题日益突出。在日本社会特殊的雇佣体制下,同工同酬原则一直不被认可,禁止差别待遇缺乏法源依据。2007年《部分工时劳动法》作出重大修正,最大的亮点是有限度的导入了国际劳工组织倡导的均等待遇原则,对满足一定条件的劳工给予同工同酬保护。中国非全日制用工发展中差别待遇问题同样突出,日本修法的经验对于中国具有借鉴意义。     

法学相关专业高职英语课程构建的社会需求调查分析

本文以高职法学相关专业社会需求为例,运用问卷调查和访谈等方式,分析了法学行业用人单位对法学高职毕业生英语能力的要求,尤其是行业英语方面的需求,并对法学相关专业高职英语课程构建提出了相应的建议。     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Adopting Open Educational Resources in an Introductory American Government Course

In this article, we present findings from a grant-funded initiative to replace traditional, proprietary textbooks with an open content textbook under a Creative Commons license in the introductory American government course (POLS 1101) at Middle Georgia State University. We find that the use of an open content textbook led to somewhat negative effects on student learning outcomes and student course satisfaction, although the associated lower textbook cost increased textbook accessibility to students. We conclude with some suggestions to those adopting textbooks in this course and to the wider discipline regarding measures that may lead to more unequivocally positive outcomes than those experienced in this study.     

试论建立健全我国海外流失文物追索法律制度——从唐贞顺皇后陵墓被盗文物境外成功追回谈起

唐贞顺皇后陵墓被盗文物境外成功追回，得益于法律保障、专业技术和国际合作三个方面。但我国追索海外流失文物的工作仍很严峻。我国在海外流失文物追索过程中面临的主要法律困境包括证据资料搜集困难，缺乏适格诉讼主体，欠缺稳定的专业技术支持以及缺少专门追索机构。我国应借鉴国外先进经验制定《流失文物追索法》，对流失文物的性质、所有权归属以及追索原则等问题予以系统规定，并应成立专门的追索机构，从而有效解决追索过程中的法律依据、证据以及专业技术支持等问题。