Nomination and list placement of ethnic minorities under open-list proportional rules: The centrality of ethnopolitical context

Do parties respond to ethnopolitical context when nominating and placing ethnic minority candidates in open-list proportional representation (PR) systems? Open-list PR is by nature candidate centered. Candidates need to attract preference votes to succeed. Political leaders, we argue, anticipate candidates' ability to generate support and the extent of anti-minority sentiment in districts when nominating and placing candidates. To test our arguments, we analyze data on 8945 candidates competing across 124 localities in Latvia's 2017 local elections. Few studies have explored open-list systems in countries like Latvia where preference voting routinely alters list order. Other studies stress the role that context plays in ethnic minority representation, but often lack data on crucial indicators. Our results show that parties nominated more minority candidates in localities with more ethnic minority voters and fewer in those with larger noncitizen populations. We did not, however, find that ethnopolitical context affected list placement.     

The Impact of Prejudice Screening Procedures on Racial Bias in the Courtroom

The current study examines the impact of the challenge for cause procedure and its effectiveness in curbing racial prejudice in trials involving Black defendants. Participants were provided with a trial summary of a defendant charged with either drug trafficking or embezzlement. The race of the defendant was either White or Black, with participants in the Black defendant condition receiving (prior to the trial presentation) either no challenge, a close-ended standard challenge, or a modified reflective pretrial questioning strategy. Overall, the results revealed an anti-Black bias in judgments. While the closed ended challenge did little to reduce this bias, the reflective format demonstrated a reduction in racial bias. Theoretical and applied implications of these findings are discussed.

Medical driver selection and alcohol

Due to the rapid development of motorisation in the past few decades, the epidemic of traffic injuries has become a serious problem. Numerous studies indicate that the human factor, often in connection with alcohol consumption, plays a major role in traffic accidents. Studies also show that people addicted to alcohol often drive under the influence and are not deterred by the possibility of punishment, e.g. a revocation of their driving licence.Our study examined people who caused traffic accidents under the influence of alcohol in Slovenia, the consequences of their actions, police and judicial measures and medical selection.In the last decade, the share of people causing traffic accidents under the influence of alcohol in Slovenia has been on the rise. Higher blood alcohol levels are found in people causing fatal traffic accidents, most of them are cyclists, pedestrians and tractor drivers, aged between 25 and 34; the accidents are most common on village roads, on weekends. The discrepancy between numbers of intoxicated drivers with suspended driving licences (approximately 8500/year) and between numbers of successfully terminated judicial procedures is particularly worrisome. When these drivers get their licences back, the medical selection process is inadequate.Our results emphasise the problem of medical selection for reinstatement of penalized drivers. The inadequate approach currently in force allows too many dangerous drivers, most still addicted to alcohol, to return to traffic without medical selection. The only solution to this problem is an immediate change in legislation that would require rigorous medical selection for all reinstatements of drivers who drove under the influence of alcohol. This would decrease the numbers of intoxicated drivers in traffic and at least partly decrease the numbers of alcohol addicts in society.     

创新创业教育:突破大学生就业难瓶颈的路径选择

学生创新创业教育已成为国内外广泛关注的教育领域。文章立足于高校创新创业教育开展的意义、现状、理论和路径的选择上提出构建框架,旨在培养大学生具有创新创业的共识,树立新的人才观和就业观,并将此作为高校教育目的新的价值取向。     

Analyzing the Performance of Risk Assessment Instruments: A Response to Vrieze and Grove (2007)

In a recent article, Vrieze and Grove (Law Hum Behav, doi: 10.1007/s10979-007-9092-x , 2007) argue that, because of low recidivism base rates and limited predictive accuracy, an actuarial risk assessment instrument (ARAI) may produce decisions about sex offenders that are worse than simply predicting that no one will commit another sex offense. This article examines: (1) the construction and potential overfitting of ARAIs; (2) the meaning, value, and limitations of ROC areas; and (3) the relationship between the operating point that maximizes an ARAI's correct classifications and the legal criterion-"likely to reoffend"-used for sex offender designations. Contrary to what Vrieze and Grove suggest, ARAIs of modest accuracy yield probabilistic information that is more relevant to legal decision-making than just "betting the base rate."     

A Selection of Empirical Socio-Economic Research with Respect to the Functioning of Legal Rules and Institutions in Belgium and the Netherlands

In this paper some studies with respect to empirical socio-economic research which has been undertaken in Belgium and the Netherlands concerning the functioning of legal rules and institutions are discussed. The paper focuses on the domains of criminal law, civil procedure, liability and insurance. The paper argues that contrary to the overwhelming economic literature on liability and insurance, the empirical results in that domain are poor. More research is undertaken in the area of criminal law and apparently it is overwhelming in the area of civil procedure. The latter studies are, however, mainly undertaken by socio-legal scholars and less by economists. The general conclusion of the empirical studies discussed seems to be that while the empirical literature on the effect of changes in the decision making environment on rational actions in the legal system is rich and provocative, there is much less empirical testing of the effects of legal rules as such on allocational outcomes. The paper argues that much more effort should be devoted to the latter issue.     

翻译单位与译者的主体性

学翻译过程是一个涉及多种选择的复杂过程,贯穿于翻译全过程的选择集中体现在翻译单位的确立上。本文评介了翻译学界对“翻译单位”命题的研究,肯定了Rado提出的“逻辑素”观点的重要意义,并提出翻译单位的研究和确立体现了译者的主体性,这对于翻译批评和翻译实践都将有重要意义。     

Preferential selection and outcome justice: Effects of justification and merit discrepancy

In applying the relative deprivation theory to preferential selection research, Singer (1991) used a within-subjects design and showed that ethnicity-based selection induced feelings of injustice among the disadvantaged target group, the Europeans; and that the level of felt injustice could be predicted by the discrepancy in merits between the successful minority candidate and the rejected European candidate. This study aimed to cross-validate the findings with a between-subjects design, and to ascertain whether the provision of either an ideological or a causal justification would reduce feelings of injustice. The results replicated previous findings and further showed that either type of justification exacerbated perceptions of injustice among European respondents, but it had no effect on fairness perceptions of Asian subjects. The theoretical implications of the results were discussed.     

美国政府高层公务员选拔管理机制考察

20 0 0年 9月 ,笔者赴美国洛杉矶加州州立大学学习一年。期间 ,对美国政府高层公务员选拔管理机制进行了深入考察。考察内容包括 :美国政府高层公务员的选任方式 ,考察公务员的方式及量化方法 ,班子结构及群体效率 ,能下机制及其配套环境 ,有效监督的连锁性机制等方面     

公共选择理论与我国公安机关行政改革

我国的公安机关行政改革经过了多年的实践,虽然取得了一定的成就,但总体来说仍然停留在一个较低的层面上,目前的公共选择理论是近年来西方行政科学的新鲜理论,对我国包括公安改革在内的行政体制改革有深刻的启发意义。我们不仅可以利用公共选择理论来解释我国公安行政改革中存在的问题,而且也可以吸收公共选择理论中的科学与合理成分来改革公安工作,以增进效益、提高效率。