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.     

The Jenin Initiative: Counterinsurgency by Capacity Building

In late 2008, as negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians faltered, the US directed the Jenin Initiative on the ground in the West Bank. Designed to inspire confidence in Washington’s security-driven ‘West Bank First’ strategy, the Jenin Initiative married economic development to security sector reform under the Palestinian Authority. Drawing on the perspectives of those responsible for implementing the Jenin Initiative, this article reveals how counterinsurgency doctrine transplanted from the ‘war on terror’ shaped US interventions that built capacity in the Palestinian Authority. The Jenin Initiative exposes the extent of US intervention to create an effective apparatus of Palestinian self-policing to enhance – but not replace – that of the Israeli occupation.     

Legitimacy,self-determination,and conditional cooperators

ABSTRACT

This article critically examines the account of collective self-determination and state legitimacy developed by Stilz in her book. Central to this account is the idea that for a state to be legitimate it must reflect the shared will of the people over which it governs. I argue that the normative taxonomy Stilz employs to develop this criterion of legitimacy ignores the possibility of conditional cooperators: groups who are alienated from society due to the injustices they experience but are willing to affirm their participation in state institutions if these injustices are rectified. I then demonstrate that since there are no grounds for discounting the dissent of conditional cooperators, their presence significantly increases the threshold for state legitimacy that follows from Stilz’s theory. As a result, Stilz is forced to abandon her claim that basically just states generally enjoy a qualified ‘right to do wrong’.     

以人的全面发展为导向建设服务型政府意义解析

人民满意已成为我国服务型政府建设的根本目标,建设人民满意的服务型政府必须坚持以人的全面发展为根本的价值导向。人的全面发展理论契合了人民满意的服务型政府实践之需,我国服务型政府建设以人的全面发展理论为指导,增强了马克思主义的理论支撑,彰显了强烈的人学意蕴,并且使其有了新的价值指导和新的评价标准。     

Performing the ‘India Permitida’: The Counter-Gift of Indigenous Women Targeted by a Corporate Social Responsibility Programme (Chile)

Relying on ethnographic data, this article critically analyses the pro-mining position adopted in Chile's Atacama Region by a group of Diaguita women who benefited from a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme to revive indigenous culture. While the desire to escape from poverty (salir adelante, moving forward) appears as the main reason for participating, the benefits generated a sense of indebtedness resulting in allegiance to the company. The investigation also shows how this programme played a part in building a scenario in which indigenous females perform subjects apparently more suited than men to the neoliberal and multiculturalist governmentality of the Chilean State, whose politics favours mining.     

“法律监督机关”的立法内涵、演进逻辑及内在机理

“法律监督机关”是我国宪法对人民检察院的性质定位。1979年《人民检察院组织法》首次将“法律监督机关”法定化,立法内涵为注重法律监督下重建法制权威,是在中国检察理论和实践中形成的机关,侧重刑事诉讼监督和打击犯罪。1982年宪法使“法律监督机关”成为了宪法规范上的国家机关,基于宪法职能和诉讼制度改革而侧重于加强诉讼监督,并在监察体制改革下进行了自我更新,成为与监察委相互配合行使法律监督职能的机关。“法律监督机关”内涵演进的内在机理是人大体制下权力分工模式的必然要求,落实宪法规定的法律监督职能的重要选择,以及参与宪制层面政治体制改革的要求。“法律监督机关”概念内涵具有延展性,会随着立法修订和制度变迁衍生出新的内涵和解释,不断凸显中国特色社会主义检察理论的特性。     

Towards a Decolonial Critical Political Economy of the Media: Some Initial Thoughts

Abstract

How the media are organised and funded has implications on who gets to speak and the stories that are told or silenced. The critical political economy of the media approach allows an understanding of the ideologies and power structures that influence media operations, ownership, and funding. Although the critical political economy of the media remains central in understanding these issues, the approach needs to be decolonised to address the dynamics of media power from the perspective of the global south. In this paper, we explore what the theoretical contributions of decoloniality can make to the project of rethinking political economy of the media. We argue that the critical political economy approach, whose core vocabulary is Marxist, contains inherent limitations in understanding conditions of media-state relations in Africa. Decolonial thought and its recent engagement with Marxism has produced new thinking and fresh ways of reflecting the relationship between Western capitalism and modernity. We contend that this approach allows us to foreground issues of modernity, coloniality, and race and their impact on contemporary media systems in Africa.     

提高公安院校思政课教学实效性初探

在国际国内形势和公安工作变化的新形势下,本文针对新时期公安院校大学生的思想特点,结合公安院校思想政治理论课教育教学现状,探寻提高公安院校思想政治理论课教学实效性的现实路径。通过对公安院校思想政治理论课教学所面临的新情况、新挑战的分析,提出有效对策和解决方案,不断增强公安院校的思想政治理论课教育和教学的实效性,以便实现公安院校思想政治理论课真正的"入脑、入心",对做好培养预备役警察思想政治教育工作,发挥思想政治理论课在公安人才培养中的价值具有极其重要和深刻的意义。     

政府治理成本与公民满意:内在联系与成本控制

政府治理成本支出的高效化是政府治理的核心,也是公民满意的必要条件,而公民满意有利于政府治理成本的高效化,二者内在关系紧密。中国政府治理成本控制压力加大,政府治理有效性与公民需求存在一定差距,而广大人民对政府治理效能的期望不断提高,政府必须要树立善治理念,提高政府治理能力,遏制扩大治理成本的原始动机;树立人民至上的服务观念,科学决策和制定政策,遏制制度性成本;树立质量观念,不断提高公共产品与服务的供给质量;树立公平与共享理念,充分发挥公共财政调节机制,健全政府成本会计体系,增强人民的获得感和满意度,提高政府治理成本支出的有效性。     

从“女人”到“人”——论莫言作品中的女性形象

从"我奶奶"到"母亲"再到"姑姑",莫言文学作品中的女性大都行为泼辣、敢做敢当,从传统习俗来看,其行为不符合传统认知,甚至可以称得上叛逆。但是,她们内心却有各自对爱情、生活、事业的独特认识和坚守。但在其作品中,"我奶奶"终究还是一位符合男性审美和对女性美好期待的女子;"母亲"则凸显了其背后的象征意义,是一个承载着时代变迁仍旧不折不屈、仁爱宽厚的地母形象;"姑姑"身上的职业标签、人性的本真则超越了其性别身份,让莫言的创作实现了从"写女人"到"写人"的转变,这其中既包含了时代的价值观,也反映了莫言本人对人生、对生活认识的变化,亦是他创作日臻成熟的体现。