Dead Man Walking: The Affective Roots of Issue Proximity Between Voters and Parties

Do voters like the party they already agree with or do they agree with the party they already like? Previous studies have suggested a link from preferences to perceptions. However, such a causal link has not been convincingly demonstrated. Most issue voting studies have adopted the basic premise of spatial models of voting—that voters compare parties’ positions with their own ideal points and apply a rule to choose among these parties. Drawing on a natural experiment, this study shows that perceptual agreement between parties and voters is endogenous to voters’ party affect. We use the murder of a Dutch politician amidst the data collection period of the 2002 Dutch election study. The death increases respondents’ feelings for his party without providing information about its issue stances. This upward shift in feelings translates into a significant increase in the perceived level of proximity with the party. The design also allows us to explore the mechanism bringing parties and voters closer. Rather than taking up the party’s stances, voters move a party’s positions closer to their own views when their feelings for that party increase. The findings challenge established assumptions about the theoretical underpinnings of spatial models of voting. They support classic notions of voter projection and lend credence to recent theories of attitudinal change, which are based on coarse thinking and uninformative updating.     

Live Bureaucrats and Dead Public Servants: How People in Government Are Discussed on the Floor of the House

This article examines how members of Congress refer to individuals in government on the House floor. Using content analysis, floor speeches from the 103rd and 104th Congresses were examined to determine the way in which terms such as "bureaucrats" and "public servants" were manipulated in floor speeches, and the political gain members seek to achieve from these moves. The data show that the Republican takeover of Congress led to a marked change in the tone of debate, and a sharp increase in pejorative discussions of individuals in government. Republicans tended to use bureaucrats in legislative debate in their efforts to shape the debate over the size and role of government.     

政府诚信的解读——以社会资本为视角

政府诚信是社会诚信的主心骨，在社会稳定和发展中起着重要的支撑作用。政府诚信作为一种社会资本，它是一种无形资产，具有可累积性、自行增值性和规模效应性。因此，有必要将政府诚信视为一种产出，从生产函数的角度深入了解如何建设和维护这两个生产要素来构建政府诚信。     

Constructing a Planning Regime: Assessing the Beginning Phases of New Jersey's Plan for Development and Redevelopment

Using the idea of regime formation and cooperation in international political economy as a guide, this paper assesses the first stage (Cross-cceptance) of implementing the New Jersey stateplanning process as an attempt to construct a base of mutually shared norms and interests between state and local governments in the area of land use planning. The conclusion is that the first round of implementation was instrumental in building norms and consensus-especially in the face of strong resistance to state planning from the policy environment. The main reason for the effectiveness of the Cross-Acceptance process was that it brought local, county and state officials to a forum where they were able to discuss areas of consensus and discord.     

How to humiliate and shame: a reporter's guide to the power of the mugshot

The judicial photograph – the “mugshot” – is a ubiquitous and instantly recognisable form, appearing in the news media, on the internet, on book covers, law enforcement noticeboards and in many other mediums. This essay attempts to situate the mugshot in a historical and theoretical context to explain the explicit and implicit meaning of the genre as it has developed, focussing in particular on their use in the UK media in late modernity. The analysis is based on the author's reflexive practice as a journalist covering crime in the national news media for 30 years and who has used mugshots to illustrate stories for their explicit and specific content. The author argues that the visual limitations of the standardised “head and shoulders” format of the mugshot make it a robust subject for analysing the changing meaning of images over time. With little variation in the image format, arguments for certain accreted layers of signification are easier to make. Within a few years of the first appearance of the mugshot form in the mid-19th century, it was adopted and adapted as a research tool by scientists and criminologists. While the positivist scientists claimed empirical objectivity we can now see that mugshots played a part in the construction of subjective notions of “the other”, “the lesser” or “sub-human” on the grounds of class, race and religion. These dehumanising ideas later informed the theorists and bureaucrats of National Socialist ideology from the 1920s to 1940s. The author concludes that once again the mugshot has become, in certain parts of the media, a signifier widely used to exclude or deride certain groups. In late modernity, the part of the media that most use mugshots – the tabloid press and increasingly tabloid TV – is part of a neo-liberal process that, in a conscious commercial appeal to the paying audience, seeks to separate rather than unify wider society.     

办事机构如何办事？——对领导小组办公室的一项整体分析

领导小组的研究工作需要适时进阶,从而将领导小组办公室置于学界的聚光灯下。基于重要程度、受关注度、资料完整度等指标,可采用中央领导小组、国务院议事协调机构的办事机构作为领导小组办公室研究的基础信息表。实地调研、文件起草、政策阐释、督促落实这四项重点职责,构成了领导小组办公室运转的功能矩阵。领导小组办公室的作用机理呈现为X型链接,即对上承接领导小组成员集群、左右联动职能部门集群、向下延伸下级主体集群。领导小组办公室的现实角色已远超过办事机构层面,其乃是国家治理中的一个关键行动者。     

Voice in the Classroom: How an Open Classroom Climate Fosters Political Engagement Among Adolescents

Does civics instruction have an impact on the political engagement of adolescents? If so, how? Analysis of data from CIVED, a major study of civic education conducted in 1999, finds that an open classroom climate has a positive impact on adolescents’ civic knowledge and appreciation of political conflict, even upon controlling for numerous individual, classroom, school, and district characteristics. Furthermore, an open classroom environment fosters young people’s intention to be an informed voter. Results further show that exposure to an open classroom climate at school can partially compensate for the disadvantages of young people with low socioeconomic status.     

Portfolio Allocation and Policy Compromises: How and Why the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats Formed a Coalition Government

The question of ‘who gets what?’ is one of the most interesting issues in coalition politics. Research on portfolio allocation has thus far produced some clear‐cut empirical findings: coalition parties receive ministerial posts in close proportion to the number of parliamentary seats they win. This article poses two simple questions: Why did the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats agree to form a coalition government and, secondly, did the process of portfolio allocation in the United Kingdom in 2010 reflect standard patterns of cabinet composition in modern democracies? In order to answer these questions, a content analysis of election manifestos is applied in this article in order to estimate the policy positions of the parties represented in the House of Commons. The results show that a coalition between the Tories and Lib Dems was indeed the optimal solution in the British coalition game in 2010. When applying the portfolio allocation model, it turns out that the Conservatives fulfilled the criteria of a ‘strong party’, implying that the Tories occupied the key position in the coalition game. On account of this pivotal role, they were ultimately able to capture the most important ministries in the new coalition government.     

How to lose a majority: the competition in single–member districts

Abstract Few observers expected that the 1966 elections in Italy would yield a clear–cut outcome. Even fewer people expected that, after the disastrous results of the previous elections, the centre–left coalition would be able to gain a majority of seats in both branches of Parliament. Yet this is precisely what happened on 21 April 1996. This article tries to explain the comeback of the 1994 losers by focusing on three factors which have changed the electoral balance between the two major coalitions in the single–member districts. The first factor was the ability of the centre–left coalition (Ulivo–RC) to broaden its range while its major rival (the Polo) lost key allies. The result has been a more competitive stand of centre–left candidates, particularly in the North. The Polo lost the support of the Lega Nord and suffered the split of the Movimento Sociale on its right. These defections, along with others, led to the loss of a considerable number of seats. Finally, the Polo also suffered from the defection of a considerable number of its voters who voted for one of the parties of the centre–right coalition in the proportional arena, but refused to vote for the Polo candidate in the single–member districts. We conclude by suggesting a number of hypotheses that could explain this split–ticket phenomenon.     

走向“无我之境”：中国哲学诠释学基本问题之一

中国诗学从人的情意出发、禅宗从人的思维方式出发、儒学从人的道德修养出发,共同达到这样的结论：人对形上之道的把握虽然离不开主体性,最后却要消融这主体性于天道的客观性。中国哲学称这种主体性融化于客观性的现象为“天人合一”。由于以“天人合一”观念为背景,中国哲学诠释学对人能否通过语言把握形上本体以及语言如何去把握形上本体这一问题的看法,是乐观的。     

How legislative gender quotas affect the gender gap in campaign spending: an analysis of the federal and regional elections in Belgium

Research on the link between gender and campaign finance in proportional electoral systems suggests that the campaign expenses of female parliamentary candidates are significantly lower than those of male candidates. On the basis of data on 10,436 candidates for nine consecutive elections in Belgium (1991–2014), this article examines whether there is indeed a gender gap in campaign expenses, and in particular whether this coincides with the introduction of legislative quota laws in the Belgian flexible-list system. We distinguish between realistic candidates that run for election from winnable list positions and unrealistic candidates running from lower ranked positions. The results show that, among unrealistic candidates, the gender gap in campaign spending arose again after the introduction of more severe gender quotas. With regard to realistic list positions, however, the significant difference between male and female candidates in the most strict quota phase disappeared, indicating that female realistic candidates were able to catch up financially with their male counterparts. The Belgian experience could provide useful insights for other countries with flexible-list systems regarding the implementation of legislative gender quotas.     

On the Politics of Judicial Selection: Lawyers and State Campaigns for the Merit Plan

This article investigates the supportof lawyers' groups for the merit plan, a form ofselecting and retaining state judges. Although thatsupport is justified on the grounds of improvedadministration of justice, this analysis links it tothe self-interest of lawyers. First, merit planprocedures involve lawyers and bar associationsprominently in the selection process. Second, byreducing a judge's susceptibility to politicalpressure, the procedures increase the amount oflitigation in the state. This article finds thatmerit plan procedures are associated with betweeneighteen and thirty-two percent more filings in statesupreme courts between 1985 and 1994.     

Space Debris Mitigation and Prevention: How to Build a Stronger International Regime

The international regime of space activities could be significantly strengthened by a universal adoption of space debris mitigation guidelines and by a legal recognition of the existence of space debris. The distinction between spacecraft of value and debris of no value is highly important. Also the practice of registering space objects with the United Nations should be strengthened by making the register complete and up to date. If a correlation is established between space objects, registered by the UN, space radio stations, and the International Telecommunication Union, then the problem of so called paper satellites would be better understood and possibly alleviated.     

Moderation and Competence: How a Party's Ideological Position Shapes Its Valence Reputation

We combine several strands of research from electoral behavior and party politics to suggest that ideological moderation will boost a party's perceived competence. Less radical parties are seen as readier to compromise, more realistic about what can be achieved, and less prone to simplistic solutions. The results of conjoint experiments with party profiles show that while an ideological leaning carries no cost, any appreciably left- or right-wing position eroded a party's perceived competence among a representative sample of around 2,000 British citizens. This effect holds when controlling for respondents’ ideological proximity to the party in question, and it looks to operate through all three of the proposed mechanisms suggested above—especially willingness to compromise. These findings have important implications both for party strategy and for voting research, highlighting a key channel through which ideological moderation yields electoral gains.