The Job of Representation in Congress: Public Expectations and Representative Approval

Few concepts are more central to democratic theory than that of representation. Theories of representation are commonly premised on the belief that citizens' expectations of their representative are politically consequential, yet we know little about the nature of these expectations and precisely how they matter. Using individual‐level data from a recent national survey, we investigate the influence of constituents' job expectations on their approval of their representative in Congress. We find that citizens' job expectations condition the effects of members' legislative activities on their job approval.     

Partisanship,Sophistication, and Public Attitudes about Majority Rule and Minority Rights in Congress

The balance between majority rule and minority rights is a central issue in the design and operation of democratic institutions and remains a contested issue in debates of policy‐making processes. Remarkably, public attitudes about this balance are not subjected to scholarly investigation. In this article, we report the findings of the first survey experiment in which the American public's attitudes about majority rule and minority rights in legislative bodies are explored. We find robust support for both majority rule and minority rights, discover that only a few Americans distinguish between the US House of Representatives and Senate in the application of these principles, and demonstrate that views of majority rule and minority rights can be moved once we introduce respondents to the partisan implications of procedural rules. Moreover, with conflicting theoretical expectations about the effect of political sophistication on attitudes about majority rule and minority rights, we find that higher levels of political sophistication are associated with stronger partisan effects on attitudes about the balance between majority rule and minority rights in Congress.     

论刑法的公众认同

保持刑法与市民感觉、国民规范意识之间的一致性 ,以保持刑法的亲和力 ,并使之获得公众对刑法的认同感 ,在我国是一个比较突出的问题。刑法理论在因果关系、不作为犯、违法论、故意、共犯、责任论等问题上都充分考虑了公众认同感问题。公众对刑法的认同包括对“生活利益的重要性”和“规范有效性”的认同两个方面。作者进一步指出 ,今后我国刑法理论与实践要更多地考虑公众认同 ,就必须注意三方面的问题 :理论总体思路的调整 ;在具体问题上的理论创新和反思 ;鼓励市民介入刑事司法裁判过程。     

Majority Party Change and Committee Jurisdictions in State Legislatures

Committee jurisdictions are important in legislative organization, but the reorganization of jurisdictions has received scant attention, particularly in state legislatures, where the fluidity of committee organization allows us to examine rationales for change. In this article, I examine whether new majorities use jurisdiction reorganization for agenda‐control purposes. Examining 39 state legislatures between 2003 and 2012, I test whether committee patterns are less stable in legislative sessions under new majorities and the extent to which reorganization reflects party priorities. I find that new majority parties eliminate committees that reflect the other party's policy priorities and create committees that reflect their priorities.     

Majority Party Power and Procedural Motions in the U.S. Senate

While the metaphor of House parties as cartels is widely accepted, its application to the Senate is difficult as the majority party lacks the power to unilaterally manipulate rules and pass legislation. Nevertheless, several scholars have argued that the Senate majority party is able to employ nondebatable motions to table to exclude unwanted amendments with procedural rather than substantive votes. Does the motion to table yield negative agenda control or special party influence? Using an analysis of individual Senators' behavior on thousands of votes and an assessment of interest group scores, we find that motions to table do not elicit higher party influence or provide much political cover. A desire to speed up the legislative process, rather than to insulate members from electoral scrutiny, seems to motivate the use of motions to table.     

刑法解释的公众认同

刑法解释的公众认同是社会公众对刑法解释及其结论的认可和接受。它更多和更主要地是与司法活动特别是与根据刑法解释作出的刑事判决发生联系。转型时期的公众认同对于刑法解释极具价值。刑法解释的公众认同主要包括刑法解释的常识化和刑法解释的合理性两个方面。在当前我国,其具体样态一方面表现为强调法律效果与社会效果的有机统一;另一方面表现在司法实践中对案件定性的罪名进行有意识的选择甚至变更。刑法解释公众认同的实现路径有赖于刑法解释的主体、结果导向主义的刑法解释方法以及公众意见的反映机制。     

Evangelizing Congress: The Emergence of Evangelical Republicans and Party Polarization in Congress

The realignment of evangelical voters is well‐documented, but religion's impact within Congress is less clear. New data on home churches of members of Congress shows that the realignment of congressional evangelicals, combined with their growth and distinctly conservative legislative behavior, has significantly contributed to party polarization in Congress. Controlling for other factors, evangelicals are significantly more conservative than members of other religious traditions. This conservatism also has second‐order effects on the polarization of the House, where their more partisan proposals comprise a larger share of the roll‐call agenda when Republicans are in the majority. Moreover, evangelical Republicans in Congress differ significantly from evangelical Democrats in terms their geography, denominations, and experiences prior to Congress.     

Minority Rights and Majority Power: Conditional Party Government and the Motion to Recommit in the House

Students of legislative politics have struggled to explain and measure party influence on voting and outcomes in Congress. Proponents of strong party effects point to the numerous procedural advantages enjoyed by the majority party as evidence of party effects, yet recent theoretical work by Krehbiel and Meirowitz (2002) argues that House rules guaranteeing the minority a motion to recommit with instructions effectively balances the procedural advantages enjoyed by the majority. This article identifies and tests the empirical implications of the Krehbiel and Meirowitz theory, using roll‐call data from the 61st to 107th Congresses (1909–2002). The results call into question the validity of Krehbiel and Meirowitz's conclusions about party government in the House and provide support for the theory of conditional party government.     

公安行政审批改革存在的问题及对策研究

公安行政审批改革作为行政审批改革的重要组成部分,在中央和地方层面已经进行了一些探索和尝试,并取得了一定的成效。但是,仍然存在着合法性缺失、认识误区、程序不规范、审批和监管关系未理顺,以及缺乏科学评价等问题。未来的公安行政审批改革要以法治理念为引领,建立行政审批事项定期清理和行政审批权力清单制度,走行政审批法治化、标准化、信息化的道路,在公安机关内部相对集中行政审批权,同时要引入第三方评估机制。     

Sources of Dissidence : Soviet Youth After the Twentieth Party Congress

In memory of my parents and my grandmother, who saw much and endured much.     

股票公开发行核准决定撤销中的法律问题研究--以吉林通海高科案为例分析

我国<公司法>与<证券法>都赋予了证券监管机构对公开发行股票核准决定的撤销权,但是,这些规定还存在着严重的缺陷,除了<公司法>第86条与<证券法>第18条存在一定的冲突外,撤销核准决定之条件和撤销权的行使时限等都缺乏明确规定.因此,必须结合行政程序立法,根据证券市场的特殊性来进一步完善公开发行股票核准决定的撤销制度.     

Strategic Retirements: The Influence of Public Preferences On Voluntary Departures from Congress

Are members of Congress responsive to public preferences in their decisions to seek reelection or retire, or do members simply rely on the advantages of incumbency to secure reelection? I argue that members of Congress consider their electoral vulnerability when deciding whether or not to seek reelection, informing their reelection odds with the same short‐term electoral forces that influence election outcomes: partisan preferences, economic evaluations, and congressional approval. Considering aggregate rates of voluntary departures from the House and Senate from 1954 to 2004, I show that rates of retirement reflect, not only institutional environments within Congress, but also the mood of the electorate.     

Agenda Control,Majority Party Power,and the House Committee on Rules, 1937–52

The role of the U.S. House Rules Committee is consequential for theories of congressional parties, yet its role during the “conservative coalition” era is not well understood. We systematically analyzed the politics surrounding all special rules considered in Democratic Congresses from 1937 to 1952. We found that Rules repeatedly used its agenda power to push to the floor conservative initiatives that were opposed by the Democratic administration, the Rules Committee chair, and most northern Democrats, especially in Congresses that followed Republican election gains. The 44 conservative initiatives we identified include many of the most important policy issues considered during the period. Our findings challenge the idea that the majority party has consistently enjoyed a veto over which initiatives reach the floor, and they underscore the limits of roll‐call‐vote analysis in assessments of agenda control.     

论我国人民代表大会对预算草案的审批权和修正权

我国现行人民代表大会预算草案审批权所存在的问题莫过于审批权对行政部门的实际约束力较低,无法起到限制和监督权力的作用,对此,应致力于预算程序、实体、效力三方面的完善。同时,我国人民代表大会预算草案修正权的法律规定也处于缺位状态,鉴于此,应致力于明确修正权权能和修正权行使方式两个方面进行构建。     

公益诉讼与当事人适格之扩张

在公法私法化和私法公法化不断演进的今天,公共利益的重要性与现实状况的严峻性正被逐步认识,允许公共力量适当介入私法领域已经势在必行,公益诉讼由此应运而生。此时,对作为制度瓶颈的当事人适格予以扩张并赋予其法定效力便显得尤为必要与迫切。将诉的利益作为当事人适格的衡量标准,并以此为基础构建诉讼信托制度,对于完善当事人理论,促进公益诉讼制度的合理化与合法化具有重要作用。     

股东平等原则与资本多数决的矫治

股东平等是正义价值在公司法中的具体体现,分为形式平等和实质平等两个层面。股权平等只是股东平等的形式表现,不能将其简单地等同于股东平等。资本多数决原则是股权平等的逻辑结果,是股东程序公正的体现,若不受任何限制,可能造成股东实质不平等的结果。在公司民主和公司自治无法解决大股东对小股东权利侵吞的场合,要依靠法律赋予小股东特殊的权利,对大股东课以更重的责任,以矫治资本多数决可能出现的不当结果,实现股东之间的实质平等。     

深入学习贯彻党的十七大精神

当前,全党全国各族人民都在学习贯彻党的十七大精神,摆在我们司法行政系统面前首要的政治任务,也是认真学习党的十七大精神,全面贯彻党的十七大精神。如何深入学习十七大精神,深入贯彻落实科学发展观,是当前和今后一个时期全国司法行政系统上上下下需要认真思考的重要课题。十七大是在我国改革发展关键阶段召开的一次十分重要的大会。大会科学地回答了党在改革发展关键阶段举什么旗、走什么路、以什么样的精神状态、朝着什么样的发展目标继续前进等重大问题。十七大报告描绘的继续全面建设小康社会、加快推进社会主义现代化宏伟蓝图,极大地…     

多数人诉讼形态的理论框架

多数人诉讼形态是由诉讼实施权、诉讼标的、判决效力三个变量的不同形态组合而成。理论上利用诉讼标的相对化扩大既判力范围之方式虽然可能提高诉讼效率,但亦可能弱化诉权对审判权的制约,而且亦会导致共同诉讼与第三人制度边界模糊甚至致使第三人制度消失。因此可在诉讼标的旧实体法说的基础上,将诉讼标的状态精细化为诉讼标的共同、诉讼标的相同、诉讼标的主从、诉讼标的对立、诉讼标的不相关,且与诉讼实施权的有无状态相结合,形成多数人诉讼类型的最大范围。在此基础上,将多数人诉讼形态与判决的既判力、反射效、预决效力等灵活结合,建构兼顾纠纷的效率化解决与案外人利益保障的多数人诉讼形态的理论框架。     

深入贯彻落实党的十七大精神不断开创知识产权工作新局面——在全国知识产权局局长会议上的讲话

编者按:2008年1月29日,全国知识产权局局长会议在京举行,国务院副总理吴仪出席会议并强调,发展知识产权事业要有世界的眼光和战略意识,要认真学习贯彻党的十七大精神,抓住机遇,团结奋斗,在新的历史起点上做好知识产权工作.国家知识产权局局长田力普做了题为<深入贯彻落实党的十七大精神不断开创知识产权工作新局面>的工作报告,本刊将报告予以全文刊登.