A multidimensional conceptualization of party identification

The standard treatment of party identification makes several untested assumptions, especially that citizens can identify with only a single party and that political independence is just the opposite of partisanship. A more general possibility is that several attitudes must be taken into account: attitudes toward the Republican party, the Democratic party, political independence, and political parties generally. A literal reading of the usual party identification is consistent with this multidimensional interpretation. Citizen ratings of the two parties turn out to be virtually uncorrelated, as are ratings of independence and political parties, confirming this multidimensional view. Strength of identification and strength of independence are separate in this model, which explains some of the anomalies in the current literature, including intransitivities in relationships with other variables and weak correlations involving independence. New questions included in the 1980 CPS National Election Study support this interpretation and provide a new understanding of political independence.     

公共政策执行中的政治资源开发与配置

目前 ,我国公共政策执行中政治资源的流失严重 ,主要存在“经济人”理性、路径依赖、素质低劣、制度短缺等原因。这就要求通过整合、参与、引导、创新的形式以加强公共政策执行中政治资源的开发与利用 ,并加强公共政策执行中的财物、人力、信息、文化等政治资源的优化配置。     

试论努力开发中国政党制度中党际“互相监督”的政治资源

从宏观理论设计与基本制度安排看 ,我国的政党制度内涵着执政党与参政党的互相监督 ,并且 ,重点是后者监督前者———这是避免执政党权力失监的一项重要政治资源。本文着重从五个方面提出了党际“互相监督”创设条件的基本思路 ,对于努力开发这一政治资源具有很强的现实意义     

Rational choice theory and the analysis of political action

The rational choice approach to the analysis of political action takes as its starting point the need to construct a model of the individual actor and its choices as the basis for its investigations of the interactions of a plurality of actors. This paper questions the theoretical foundations of that approach, concentrating on its postulates of rationality, homogeneity, and individualism. It argues that the conceptualisation of actors, their decisions, and the conditions in which they are made, rasies important questions that cannot be posed within the rational choice approach. A final section indicates some of the problems with recent attempts to integrate elements of the rational choice approach into marxism.     

An organizational analysis of political action committees

As the number and putative importance of political action committees have grown, so too has scholarly attention to this new breed of political organization. Yet this attention has been uneven. Although much is now known about the aggregate spending patterns of PACs, much less is known about their internal lives. The present study attempts to open the PAC black box to empirical inquiry. Drawing on interviews with the managers of 70 Washington-based political action committees, we suggest how theoretical perspectives about formal voluntary associations may be usefully applied in explaining the behavior of PACs. After examining the relationships among several variables — organizational goals, constituency relations and decision making, strategy, and interorganizational relations — we show how these forces affect the behavior of corporate, trade/membership, labor, and nonconnected PACS.     

A political genealogy of political economy

If, at the end of the eighteenth century, political economy became the prevailing representation of economic phenomena, this was due to the fact that, better than other economic or political discourses, it constructed a political framework in which three forces could co-exist. These forces were those that all the authors of this century tried to articulate: the state, capitalism, and those who tried to protect themselves from their power.     

The effectiveness of savings and loan political action committees

In recent years, political action committees (PACs) have played an increasingly important role, both in contributing to candidates and in influencing voting patterns. Savings and loan PACs are numerous throughout the country and consist of PACs affiliated with individual institutions and trade associations. The question which is addressed in this research paper is the effectiveness which savings and loan related PACs have had on influencing voting patterns. Because of savings and loan allegiance to the real estate industry, voting patterns on a selected set of nine cogressional bills pertaining to various facets of real estate are used to test PAC effectiveness. These bills were voted on by the House of Representatives during the 1978–80 congressional term. A twenty-one simultaneous equation model which employs probit transformations, maximum likelihood estimation procedures, and two stage least squares, is built to test relationships among the endogenous variables of congressional votes, electoral margin, PAC contributions, and constituent and congressional ideology. In addition to testing the effectiveness of savings and loan PAC contributions, the results of the study shed light on savings and loan PAC performance relative to that of real estate PACs, labor PACs, home builder PACs, business PACs, and other PAC groupings. The model is also used to identify some determinants of PAC contribution patterns. As a related issue, the role of ideology as a predictor of voting patterns is re-examined. Findings indicate that savings and loan PACs have only been marginally successful in influencing real estate voting patterns when compared to the other PAC groups. Results also indicate that few variables could be identified as determinants of savings and loan contributions, whereas other more established PACs had determinants which were consistently significant. Overall, findings imply that PAC contribution procedures of the savings and loan industry could benefit by imitating or purchasing the expertise of more experienced PAC groups.     

Protest and property crime: political use of police resources and the deterrence of crime

This article investigates the claim that the political use of police resources promotes crime. Using a panel of South Korean metropolitan areas, we show that (1) the reallocation of police resources toward the control of political protests reduces arrest rates for crime and (2) the resulting reduction in criminal arrests significantly increases the incidence of crime. Overall, the impact of the reallocation of police resources works mainly through tradeoffs with arrest rates. Our findings imply that it is not the size of the police per se, but the allocation of police resources toward crime control that deters crime.     

Imperial subjects,national citizenship,and corporate subjects: cycles of political participation/exclusion in the modern world‐system

This article examines the cycles of political participation/exclusion in modern history. It juxtaposes three cycles of political participation/exclusion—the imperial subject, national citizenship, and corporate subject—with three cycles in the structure of accumulation—the imperialist/colonialist, nationalist, and globalist structures of accumulation. The article argues that the contemporary system of accumulation has dismantled the nation state as the vehicle of economic development and diluted citizenship through neoliberal policies. With eroding state protection, working class people are subordinated to corporations for jobs, consumption, investment, and culture. In order to counter this situation and to achieve emancipation from the capitalist pursuit of profit and rampant consumerism, it is necessary to create alternatives to the contemporary corporate‐dominated system. The article explores sustainable community development as an alternative.     

How to win the political contest: A monopolist vs. environmentalists

This paper sheds light on the political economy of local energypolitics both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective.First, a case study of a small town in Southern Germany(Schönau) is presented, where environmentalists have won thepolitical contest against the regional energy monopolist and havefounded an energy supply firm themselves. The different stagesof the political process are explained and analysed. Second, apolitical economy model is developed, where environmentalists anda monopolistic utility firm confront each other both on thepolitical and on the energy market. In the lobbying equilibriumthe probability of the environmentalists' winning the gamedepends on the monopoly rent and the perceived social costs ofenergy production. It is shown that it is optimal for themonopolist to reduce his output below the monopolistic output.Finally, the winning strategy in the Schönau case is discussedin the light of the theoretical results of the paper.     

普及参与型政治文化是少数民族地区社会主义政治文明建设的主要途径

少数民族地区的政治文明建设有两个基本途径 :建设先进的政治文化能够直接地促进政治意识文明、政治行为文明的积累 ;建设各项民主制度直接促进政治制度文明的积累。参与型政治文化是先进的政治文化 ,也是少数民族地区政治文明建设最稀缺的资源 ,因此在少数民族地区进行政治文明建设必须抓住这个主要矛盾 ,通过有效的政治社会化 ,传播和普及参与型政治文化 ,促进政治意识文明和政治行为文明的积累。     

A note on the political economy of immigration

In this note it is shown that the different attitudes towards immigration can be explained in terms of economic interest, although the public immigration debate is dominated by moral and political arguments. On the one hand, immigration supporters are mainly found among those who may expect economic gains from immigration – skilled workers and especially members of certain professions. On the other hand, unskilled workers who stand to lose economically because they can be easily substitued for by immigrants are for the most part opposed to immigration.     

政治心理视角下的网络政治参与

网络政治参与在我国已成峰火燎原之势.在网络政治参与众语喧哗的背后,蕴藏着我国公民对廉洁政府、服务型政府和社会公平正义的诸多期待.这种期待是网络政治参与动机的重要构成部分.网络政治参与动机主要有三种:经济利益动机、伦理道德动机、归属和成就动机.在多种动机驱动下的网民,通过网络上的学习、交流和强化,最终形成网络"群体极化"现象."群体极化"现象的形成,客观上要求政府对网络政治参与心理进行调适和疏导.     

A political theory of intergovernmental grants

This paper formulates a political theory of intergovernmental grants. A model of vote-maximizing federal politicians is developed. Grants are assumed to buy the support of state voters and the ‘political capital or resources’ of state politicians and interest groups which can be used to further increase the support of state voters for the federal politician. The model is tested for 49 states. Similarity of party affiliation between federal and state politicians and the size of the Democrat majority in the state legislature increases the per capita dollar amount of grants made to a state. Likewise, increases in both the size of the state bureaucracy and union membership lead to greater grants for a state. Over time, the importance of interest groups (bureaucracy and unions) has increased relative to political groups (state politicians).