民主选举：从村级到乡镇级

最近几年的村民委员会改选实现了真正的民主选举。村级民主选举将从根本上动摇村干部配合乡镇政府乱收费的行为,但这会强化乡镇政府所属的众多的站、所、室及公司直接进入市场,征收费用。乡镇政府的市场介入会导致巨大的效率损失。因此,有必要规范乡镇政府行为,而实现乡镇级民主选举则是规范乡镇政府行为的必然选择。而且,从笔者论证的结果和选举实践来看,在我国实行乡镇级民主选举是可行的。     

从现实出发稳步推进党内民主建设

发展党内民主是党建的目标之一,也是中国政治体制改革的突破口。推行党内民主具有理论的现实性,同时也存在着与实际相冲突的地方。要充分估计现实中的不利因素和存在的问题,科学理解和处理好党内民主与"四个服从"、民主集中制的关系,加强党内民主的制度建设,创造良好的社会政治环境,从而使党内民主建设稳步健康发展。     

埃斯特拉达：菲律宾特色民主的产物与替罪羊

菲律宾被罢黜总统埃斯特拉达（以下称埃氏）是菲律宾历届当选总统中得票率最高的“民选”总统,曾被菲律宾人评价为继50年代马克赛赛总统之后最受群众欢迎的总统。然而,在执政后仅一年多便遭致来自各派势力的激烈反对,并成为亚洲第一位遭受弹劾的总统,最终在民变、政变、军变的压力下黯然交出了政权。埃氏作为民选总统,政治生涯在任期仅二年半期间发生了如此戏剧性的变化,其中缘由值得深思。本文试图从菲律宾特色民主为出发点,探索埃氏这位民选总统倒台的原因,并对菲律宾特色民主“EDSA第二次人民力量”的后遗问题进行一些初步的探讨。     

The Evolving Structure of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States: New Models for Democratic Decision-Making

Over the last two decades in the United States, mainstream environmental organizations have reduced, rather than increased, democratic participation by citizens in environmental problem-solving. The environmental justice movement, on the other hand, has served to enlarge the constituency of the environmental movement by incorporating poorer communities and oppressed people of color into environmental decision making process; build community capacity by developing campaigns and projects that address the common links between various social and environmental problems; and facilitate community empowerment by emphasizing grassroots organizing over advocacy. This paper outlines the different components in the environmental justice movement. It is our contention that if researchers and policymakers continue to conceive of the ecological crisis as a collection of unrelated problems, then it is possible that some combination of regulations, incentives, and technical innovations can keep pollution and resource destruction at tolerable levels for more affluent socioeconomic populations. However, poor working class communities and people of color which lack the political–economic resources to defend themselves will continue to suffer the worst abuses. However, if the interdependency of issues is emphasized as advocated by the environmental justice movement, then a transformative environmental politics can be invented.     

Democratic Political Competence: Clearing the Underbrush and a Controversial Proposal

Though the link between democracy and an appropriately trained citizen is obvious, the theoretical and empirical nature of this association is murky despite mountains of scholarship addressing this topic. Part of this problem is that the term democratic competence has been stretched almost to the point of uselessness. This constant adding of desired traits—many of which are ideologically driven—misdirects effort away from such complex problems as the relationship between individual attributes and collective capacities. Moreover, recent research has often been guilty of using data of uncertain relevance to demonstrate a competence that seems largely an analytical artifact. We conclude by offering an approach that stresses old- fashioned traits such as patriotism that seem necessary to the existing, and quite democratic, status quo.     

Opinion formation in foreign policy: the Swiss experience

Applying John Zaller's model of opinion formation to survey data covering 15 years (1981–95) of direct democracy in Switzerland, this paper provides a contribution to the debate about opinion formation in foreign policy. On the one hand, the Swiss experience contradicts the widespread view that citizens are poorly informed about and little interested in foreign affairs. On the other hand, direct democracy often translates into governmental defeats in this field. We address these mixed results and show that opinion formation in foreign policy is not a special case, and differs from that in domestic policy only with respect to the circumstances under which it occurs. In particular, we highlight the unusual type and level of conflict within the elite on foreign policy issues, which translates into distinct patterns of attitudes among the public.     

The malleable homo sovieticus: transnational entrepreneurs in post-communist East Central Europe

This paper investigates the coping strategies of post-1989 East Central European transnational migrant entrepreneurs. Paradoxically, rather than facilitating transfer into the region of liberal-democratic orientations and practices, the incorporation of East Central Europe into late 20th-century consumer capitalism based on short-cycle flexible production in sectors unregulated by legal-institutional frameworks reproduces some of the features of the accustomed homo sovieticus syndrome: in particular, the reliance on the beat-the-system/bend-the-rules orientation on informal/crony patronage and connections, and immediate consumption rather than deferred gratification/investment-oriented capital accumulation renders effective strategies of economic action in the new situation. The effects of so-informed transnational migrant entrepreneurs' activities on the transformation processes in their home-countries are also discussed.     

民主及其对现代政治的形塑

现代政治的基本形态是民主共和国,它在西方是由民主主义、共和主义、自由主义和代议制等要素相互融合的结果,而民主是其重要基础,对于塑造现代政治形态具有重要作用。民主的本义是人民直接治理国家,但是其所具有的强烈平民色彩使其长期被视为基于人数优势的平民暴政。近现代的资产阶级革命造就了资产阶级的共和国,工人阶级运动造就了民主的复兴,推动了民主要素在资产阶级共和体制中的扩展,民主本身也受到相应的制约,由此形成了民主共和国的基本形态。民主的巨大贡献在于不仅为弱势群体争得得了基本人权,而且为现代政体赢得了广泛的合法性。     

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。     

“各方面实行民主”——论抗战时期毛泽东民主思想

＂各方面实行民主＂,是抗战时期毛泽东提出的重要民主主张。这一主张气势恢宏、体系完整、内容丰富、根基深厚、特点突出,把新民主主义理论向前有力地推进了一大步,使之更加具体化,从而构成了抗战时期毛泽东民主思想体系的完整框架。其提出标志着毛泽东民主思想发展到了一个新的高度。深入研究这一主张,对于深入研究毛泽东思想特别是民主思想十分重要和必要。