Value Congruence and Convergence Within Voluntary Associations: Ethnocentrism in Belgian Organizations

The observation of a positive relation between social interaction and tolerance levels is routinely explained by invoking a contact mechanism: interaction with different groups within society leads to abandoning prejudices toward that group. Because of typical high group homogeneity within associations, it seems unlikely that this mechanism could explain the positive effect of associational involvement on tolerance. Therefore, we propose a second, cultural mechanism to explain this relation. Based on the social-psychological process of value convergence, it is assumed that associations where tolerance is perceived as a salient and constitutive value will strengthen this attitude, even if these associations are homogeneous. An analysis of Belgian survey data (N = 1,341) suggests that not all kinds of associations have a negative effect on ethnocentrism, but only rather homogeneous associations with highly educated members and, therefore presumably initially low levels of ethnocentrism.     

Abortion Policy in Western Democracies: A Cross-National Analysis

This article provides a comparative analysis of abortion policies for 21 countries in Western Europe and North America. First, after briefly discussing the historical evolution of abortion attitudes and policies, a typology of current abortion laws is presented. Second, the mode of determining abortion policy is compared — judicial (Germany, Canada), legislative (Britain, France), and direct democracy (referenda in Italy, Ireland). Third, the question of abortion policy implementation is considered. In other words, does the legal status of abortion really make a difference regarding the pattern of availability and use of abortion services? Fourth, potential explanatory variables (left-wing party strength, feminism, Catholicism) regarding the content and process of abortion policies is evaluated.     

Widowhood Effects in Voter Participation

Past research suggests that spouses influence one another to vote, but it relies almost exclusively on correlation in turnout. It is therefore difficult to establish whether spouses mobilize each other or tend to marry similar others. Here, we test the dependency hypothesis by examining voting behavior before and after the death of a spouse. We link nearly six million California voter records to Social Security death records and use both coarsened exact matching and multiple cohort comparison to estimate the effects of spousal loss. The results show that after turnout rates stabilize, widowed individuals vote nine percentage points fewer than they would had their spouse still been living; the results also suggest that this change may persist indefinitely. Variations in this “widowhood effect” on voting support a social‐isolation explanation for the drop in turnout.     

Economics and the Left Party Vote in Scandinavia: A Cross-National Analysis

While the literature on economic voting is vast, relatively little is known about how the economy affects party vote shares in Scandinavia per se. This article argues that left of center parties rather than incumbent governments per se bear the brunt of economic judgments at the voting booth. In large part this is due to these parties' preeminent role in establishing and maintaining the institutional welfare systems of these countries. We examine this hypothesis using pooled time-series data for Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden from 1960 to 1991.     

Testing the Reciprocal Effects of Campaign Participation

Questions persist regarding the robustness of cross-sectional estimates of effects of variables that are themselves endogenous to the participation process. On one hand, the consequences of working on a campaign have interesting implications for democratic society. Less benign, however, is the possibility that failure to control for reciprocal processes leads to biased estimates of the causes of campaign participation. I use a panel of Democratic and Republican contributors interviewed following each of the past three presidential elections (1996, 2000, and 2004) to explore the relationships between campaign participation and three variables typically parameterized as predictors of participation: receiving a contact, ideological extremism, and strength of party identification. The effect of strength of party identification on campaign participation proves robust; however, I find that nearly all of the associations between contacts and participation and ideological extremism and participation appear to extend from, not into, participation and past participation.

How Universal is Behavior? A Four Country Comparison of Spite and Cooperation in Voluntary Contribution Mechanisms

This paper studies behavior in experimentswith a linear voluntary contributionsmechanism for public goods conducted inJapan, the Netherlands, Spain and the U.S.A.The same experimental design was used inthe four countries. Our `contributionfunction' design allows us to obtain a viewof subjects' behavior from twocomplementary points of view. It yieldsinformation about situations where, inpurely pecuniary terms, it is a dominantstrategy to contribute all the endowmentand about situations where it is a dominantstrategy to contribute nothing. Our resultsshow, first, that differences in behavioracross countries are minor. We find thatwhen people play `the same game' theybehave similarly. Second, for all fourcountries our data are inconsistent withthe explanation that subjects contributeonly out of confusion. A common cooperativemotivation is needed to explain the data.     

自主与嵌入:社会组织参与基层协商治理的逻辑与模式

伴随基层社会治理体制的改革,各地探索出不同形式社会组织参与基层协商治理的实践形态,表现出了独有的治理特征与差异化的参与模式.借鉴嵌入自主性理论,从社会组织而非国家的"自主性"与"嵌入性"两个属性着眼,构建一个社会组织参与基层协商治理的分析框架,将社会组织的参与模式分为基层自治型、协同共治型、行政主导型等三种有效治理模式,并运用相应的实践案例对其解释力进行分析.由此探讨社会组织参与基层社会治理的复杂性和多元性,何以能够与基层社会治理的有序性和有效性共生,并从动态发展的角度提出不同参与模式可能发生的类型变迁及相关治理建议.     

公共参与的基层实践：农民自治组织的培育及其发展困境

提要现代社会的一个基本特征是社会管理上具有参与多元性。在中国现代化进程中,农民经济力量的成长对政治权力产生越来越重要的影响,农村民间组织尤其是经济合作组织大量涌现,其发展势头日益上升,逐步体现参与和监督精神,有助于公共性的发扬,为农村公共社会的培育构造着新的组织网络。     

The Effects of Campaign Participation on Political Attitudes

Participatory democratic theorists have long claimed that political participation improves citizens and helps to integrate them into the political community. In recent years political participation has been advocated as a way of reducing alienation, particularly among the young. This experimental study assesses the effects of campaign participation on the attitudes and opinions of a group of young people, particularly attitudes of alienation. Employing Q methodology, this study examines the attitudinal impact of campaign participation on 57 subjects through the use of precampaign and postcampaign Q sorts. By comparing the results with a control group it was determined that campaign participation does result in greater attitudinal shift for participants than for nonparticipants; however, the changes that occurred resulted in shifts away from alienation (as democratic theorists predict) and shifts in the direction of greater alienation (contrary to predictions).     

政府绩效评估中的公民参与：价值预期、内在困境与制度性建构

政府绩效评估是当代社会政治经济全球化、民主化发展的产物,是政府管理发展的必然要求。公民参与政府绩效评估,不仅是促进民主行政发展的重要手段,也是提高政府绩效评估质量的有效途径,但良好的价值预期并不能掩盖现实的困境。文章从关注政府绩效评估中公民参与的价值预期入手,着力分析了公民参与绩效评估的内在困境,并努力寻求制度化完善之道,以期为我国地方治理的民主化道路选择和走向提供一些有益的探索。     

公众参与公共政策过程的三种模式比较—基于服务型政府理论

公众参与公共政策过程是公众表达个人偏好实现自我利益的重要渠道,也是公众自我意识觉醒的重要标志.从当前服务型政府理论框架出发,分析服务型政府的内涵、特征,提出三种公众参与模式,即:公众一利益集团参与模式、公众-决策者参与模式和公众-精英参与模式.适合我国当前服务型政府理论和实践的应是公众-决策者参与模式.这可以从四个方面证实:公众-决策者参与模式是服务型政府彻底实现以人为本政府的重要途径,是服务型政府完成任务和使命的必由之路,是促进与公众融合的重要方法,是增强政府责任意识的直接方法.     

Advice Networks in Public Organizations: The Role of Structure,Internal Competition,and Individual Attributes

Interpersonal networks are increasingly important for organizational learning and performance. However, little is known about how these networks emerge. In this article, exponential random graph models are employed to explore the underlying processes of advice network formation in 15 organizations. The author examines the influence of (1) structural effects (reciprocity, transitivity, multiplexity), (2) actor attribute effects (job function, tenure, education, self‐efficacy), and (3) peer competition. Results suggest that employees rely more on reciprocity, closure, and similarity in job function than on peer expertise or status when seeking advice. In addition, employees who perceive greater levels of competition with peers are significantly less likely to both seek and provide advice. As public organizations look to private sector strategies that promote internal competition to improve efficiency and accountability, public managers need to be aware of the negative implications those strategies can have on interpersonal networks and organizational learning.     

公安院校学生非正式组织及其管理研究

在公安院校学生管理中存在的非正式组织的影响和作用是不可小视的。因此,对学生非正式组织进行研究是十分必要的。对学校中存在的非正式组织的成因和特征进行分析,并根据影响程度的不同将其进行分类,将有助于学校管理者采取有效的措施对其进行管理。     

Effects of Exchange Rate Regime on IMF Program Participation

This article investigates the effect of a domestic policy choice, the exchange rate regime, on countries’ interaction with an international institution, their participation in International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending agreements. I hypothesize that the effect of the level of international reserves on a country's probability of participation in an IMF program depends on the exchange rate regime. A low level of international reserves threatens unfavorable economic and political outcomes only in countries that maintain a fixed exchange rate regime. The level of reserves may thus be a significant determinant of participation in IMF programs only for countries that maintain a fixed exchange rate regime. I use a dynamic univariate probit model of IMF program participation to assess empirically the effect of reserves in countries that maintain fixed, intermediate, and floating exchange rate regimes. The empirical results support my hypothesis: reserves have a significant effect only in countries that maintain a fixed exchange rate.     

从“志愿失灵”到危机：萨拉蒙非营利组织研究疏议

萨拉蒙关于非营利组织的研究受到了我国学术界的高度重视,并引起了积极的反应。但是,我国目前尚未对其基本概念和主要问题进行深入细致的分析。萨拉蒙关于非营利组织的基本观点是非营利组织在政府财政支持减少的条件下所发生的结构性变化以及市场化倾向,他明确提出了“志愿失灵”的概念,指出其不足之处、应用价值以及非营利组织在发展过程中所存在的危机趋势,萨拉蒙的理论成果对于我国非营利组织的研究与管理具有借鉴意义。     

Cross-National Transfer of Policy Ideas: Agencification in Britain and Japan

This study seeks to contribute to the policy transfer literature through a comparison of the British "Next Steps" initiative of agencification (i.e., organizational separation of policy implementation from policy formulation in central departments) and the Japanese reform that officially proclaimed to be inspired by the British example. In addition to confirming the crucial role played by domestic structural constraints in producing variant outputs in different countries, this article also shows that the transfer of policy ideas can be a highly proactive political process in which political actors in the learning country interpret and define both problems and solution as they "borrow" from another country.