宪政法治文明形成与发展的四大特征

本文着重从双重的人性假设、成熟的公民社会、现代的宪政文化、健全的法律制度——来论述宪政法治文明是如何形成并发展起来的。     

论宪政约束下的电子政府模式

随着数字技术、信息技术和网络技术的发展,电子政府正在成为一场政府改革运动.本文认为,电子政府建设使信息控制权成为影响宪政结构的权力因素,同时对公民也提出了更高的素质要求,影响了公民权利平等;要使电子政府服务于宪政,服从于宪政对国家权力的安排和公民平等的基本原则,就需要对信息控制权进行宪政规划,对政府的边界进行改造,这在我国电子政府建设初期,尤其重要.     

Local Government in Transformation: The Case of Constitutional Reform in Yugoslavia

The previous communal system in Yugoslavia (since 1955) did not prove viable. Owing to its great size (nearly 500 km² and more than 40,000 inhabitants), municipality in this period didn't affirm itself as a real community. Having many abilities in developmental planning, it was at the same time dependent on the state in the spheres of finance and normative regulations. The difference between the sphere of local government (LG) and state politics was substantially blurred.
Given the changing social conditions (introduction of market economy, political pluralism and the forms of parliamentarian democracy), the need for repeated establishment of the system of local government based on the altered position of citizens in the political system becomes evident. In this environment it is necessary to reestimate the experiences of LG in particular Yugoslav regions (republics) before World War II, and simultaneously, take selectively into account the experiences and development in other developed European countries.
This article compares the constitutional regulations of LG among particular Yugoslav republics, and between them and the characteristic orientations in other European countries, enlightening it with the aspect of actual processes and demands of centralization and decentralization, regionalism, moving the regulation of communal and other everyday needs closer to the people in LG, all in the sense of post-behavioristic trends of the "bottom-up" approach to the processes of decision-making.     

Breaking the Constitutional Silence: the Public Services Industry and Government

Analysis of constitutional arrangements has been too narrow in the past, confined to examination of explicitly governmental arrangements. But corporate enterprises perform such important public functions, especially in the age of outsourcing, that they need to be incorporated into the constitution. The article develops this argument and proposes a framework for such incorporation.     

宪政背景下公共财政的本质

公共财政是一种财政制度。财政制度的变迁就是从专制、人治财政走向民主、法治财政的过程。公共财政的生成与现代民主政治体制与市场经济体制的产生是同一个过程,它们互为前提,互相促进。宪政背景下,公共财政的本质就是民主财政。建立科学、民主的公共财政制度,既是经济体制改革的任务,更是政治体制改革的任务。     

Local Government Complexity: Consequences for County Property-Tax and Debt Policies

This article examines the consequences of local government complexityon county revenue decisions in fourteen Texas counties comprisingthe Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston metropolitan areas. Thereare significant differences in the configuration of local governmentsin the two areas traceable to when cities, school districts,and special districts were created. County revenue decisionsare also affected by the different configuration of governmentsin the two areas. These findings challenge the conventionalwisdom that states create local governments. Local choices areinstrumental in shaping local government complexity. What government-typesare chosen, and when, produce distinctive patterns of governancefrom one metropolitan area to the next, even in the same state.Consequently, reforms aimed at making the county the "localgovernment of the future" would require perhaps insurmountablechanges in state and local structures     

From Semi-presidentialism to Parliamentary Government: Political and Constitutional Developments in Finland

Within the framework of a 'mixed constitution', the Finnish political system wavered during a period of 80 years between genuine parliamentarism and effective semi-presidential rule. The new constitution, adopted in the parliament almost unanimously and carried into effect on 1 March 2000, aimed to reduce the powers of the president and to bind the exercise of the president's remaining powers more tightly to the cooperation of the parliamentary government. The constitution will act as a buffer, preventing any recurrence of the presidential activism of the 1960s and 1970s, and the political climate is in fact amenable to the further development of parliamentary modes of operation. It is clearly to be expected that the strengthening of the parliament–government axis and the reduction of the president's powers will distance the head of state from the everyday policy making and emphasize his or her role as a support of the government of the time, a moderator in conflicts and a mirror of popular opinion. In the future, the functioning of the political system will not be directed so much by reference to the political capital and personal activities of the president, but rather by reference to the parliamentary constellation, party interrelations and the ebb and flow of governing coalitions.     

宪政与法治之浅析

建立真正的民主法治国家 ,理解法治、把握宪政以及解读宪政与法治之间的关系 ,是非常必要的。法治更多的是一种理念上的东西 ,要实现这个理念 ,就需要建立相应的制度 ,而宪政制度就是其中的一个制度层面。可以说宪政安排是实现法治的最重要的制度安排。     

The Three As of Government Formation: Appointment,Allocation, and Assignment

How does the Prime Minister organize her government so that she can implement her policy agenda? In our model, a Prime Minister appoints individuals to her cabinet, allocates their portfolios, and assigns their policy tasks—that is, she decides the relevant jurisdiction of departments and the type of proposals a minister can make. Upon appointment, ministers obtain expertise on policies specific to their jurisdiction and strategically communicate this information to the Prime Minister before a policy is implemented. Assignment allows the Prime Minister to implement her agenda even when she is constrained to appoint ministers whose policy preferences are far from her own. A Prime Minister weakly prefers a diverse cabinet. In equilibrium, the Prime Minister is indifferent between delegating policy or implementing policy herself.     

论社会主义宪政的基本内涵

宪政的基本内涵是限制政治权力,保护人民的自由。社会主义宪政的基本内涵是:我国依据体现民主法治精神的社会主义宪法进行政治治理的过程,以及以维护保障公民权利和科学规范国家权力运作为目的的政治运行过程,其本质是以中华人民共和国宪法为基本出发点与前提,以建设社会主义政治文明为目标,以党的领导、人民当家作主、依法治国、人权保障、限制公共权力为特征的社会主义国家关于实施、维护和发展完善宪法的政治思想、政治制度,政治运行状态的有机整体。     

Who's Responsible for the Economy? The Formation and Consequences of Responsibility Attributions

The concept of responsibility lies at the heart of theories of democratic accountability. This article represents the first attempt to explicitly model attributions of presidential versus congressional responsibility for the economy. The article investigates the extent to which contextual and individual-level factors influence citizens' attributions of responsibility for the economy and how, in turn, such judgments shape their political evaluations. Employing a multinomial probit model of attributional choice, I find that responsibility judgments are shaped to varying degrees by economic ideology, perceptions of institutional context, and partisanship, although the effects of partisanship are not uniform across political parties. The results demonstrate that responsibility attributions are politically consequential and moderate the effects of economic perceptions on presidential and congressional approval. Finally, the results suggest that the effects of responsibility attributions in the sanctioning process are not invariant across the target of institutional evaluation .     

Exploring the Consequences of Negative Political Advertising for Liberal Democracy

ABSTRACT

This paper explores existing thinking and research on the use of negative advertising strategies in political campaigning, and in particular examines their potential impact on liberal democracy. We ask what impacts negative forms of political communication may have on our system of government and democratic participation. Though political advertising makes up only a part of political discourse, an analysis of it is necessary given the increasing “marketisation” of political communication, coupled with concerns regarding the so called “democratic deficit.” In order to more truly evaluate its impact, the evidence pertaining to both the positive and detrimental consequences of employing negative ad strategies is examined. What emerges are some very real short-term benefits, some very real concerns over its use, and confusion over its “true” impact. Of particular note is the need for researchers and campaign managers to take a longer-term view of the potentially detrimental consequences of employing negative advertising strategies-to look beyond the short-term gains of winning elections and to consider the longer-term societal consequences of consistently employing advertising strategies characterised by the creation of doubt, fear, anxiety, violation and viciousness. We argue that the “winning” mentality of political ad campaigns needs to be balanced by a more “nurturing” orientation if the tenets of liberal democracy are to remain sustainable.