Mobilizing Interest: The Effects of Money on Citizen Participation in State Supreme Court Elections

In this article, we investigate one highly significant aspect of the role of money in judicial elections: whether campaign spending increases citizen participation in the recruitment and retention of judges. Specifically, by using a two-stage modeling strategy that allows us to separate the effects of challengers from the effects of money, we assess whether relatively expensive campaigns improve the chances that citizens will vote in the 260 supreme court elections held from 1990 through 2004 in 18 states using partisan or nonpartisan elections to staff the high court bench. We find that increased spending significantly improves citizen participation in these races. Whether measured as the overall spending in each election or in per capita terms, greater spending facilitates voting. We conclude, contrary to conventional wisdom about the deleterious effects of money in judicial elections, that by stimulating mass participation and giving voters greater ownership in the outcomes of these races, expensive campaigns strengthen the critical linkage between citizens and the bench and enhance the quality of democracy.     

Mobilizing the Seldom Voter: Campaign Contact and Effects in High-Profile Elections

Decades of research suggests that campaign contact together with an advantageous socioeconomic profile increases the likelihood of casting a ballot. Measurement and modeling handicaps permit a lingering uncertainty about campaign communication as a source of political mobilization however. Using data from a uniquely detailed telephone survey conducted in a pair of highly competitive 2002 U.S. Senate races, we further investigate who gets contacted, in what form, and with what effect. We conclude that even in high-profile, high-dollar races the most important determinant of voter turnout is vote history, but that holding this variable constant reveals a positive effect for campaign communication among “seldom” voters, registered but rarely active participants who—ironically—are less likely than regular or intermittent voters to receive such communication.

公众参与:利益表达与利益整合的视角——基于北京市酒仙桥投票拆迁的分析

拆迁涉及到政府、拆迁户、开发商和拆迁公司等各方利益,是当前产生社会矛盾和不稳定的一个重要领域.北京市酒仙桥地区在危改拆迁中引入了投票,是基层政府面对复杂的各方利益纷争和冲突的政府管理目标,难以协调整合下的无奈选择.酒仙桥投票拆迁颇具创新精神;但也反映出公众在利益表达、参与决策以及政府在社会利益结构中如何准确定位,进行协调和整合等方面的问题.可以预见,各种形式的公众参与将持续增加,对以整合社会利益、增进公共利益为最终目标的政府提出了严峻挑战.     

Democracy by Competition: Referenda and Federalism in Switzerland

Competition is not only a prerequisite for the successful workingof economics but also of political coordination systems. Weargue that popular referenda and federalism are the key factorsin maintaining competition in the political arena. Competitiveeconomic or political markets require free entry and exit andthe absence of regulations that prevent suppliers from beingsuccessful with the best product-be it goods or services inthe form of policies-and prevent citizens from choosing freely.     

McCloskey versus McIntyre: Implications of Contested Elections in a Federal Democracy

The 1984 election in the Eighth Congressional District of Indianaproduced an unclear result. Election night totals gave the victoryto the Democratic incumbent Francis McCloskey. Subsequent recountsby state and local officials gave the victory to RepublicanRichard McIntyre. A further recount by the U.S. House of Representativesreturned the victory to McCloskey by a four-vote margin. Partisanshipwas important in all phases of deciding the outcome of the election,in part, because unclear rules and inconsistent counting procedurescreated ample opportunities for partisan interpretations ofelectoral rules. This contested election raised questions aboutthe legitimacy of the outcomes produced by various countingrules and about the problems of assuring majority rule wherecounting rules are inconsistent. The election also raised questionsabout the propriety of U.S. House intervention into local electoraladministration and about the roles of local, state, and federalofficials in deciding the outcome of a federal contested election.     

Competition of Politicians for Incentive Contracts and Elections

When politicians are short-term oriented or future elections do not sufficiently reflect the success of past policies, democratic elections cannot motivate politicians to undertake long-term socially beneficial projects. When politicians can offer incentive contracts which become effective upon reelection, the hierarchy of contracts and elections can alleviate such inefficient decision-making in politics. This mechanism still works if the public cannot commit itself to a reelection scheme or if the public is unsure about the politicians’ time preferences. In the non-commitment case, incentive contracts may need to include a golden parachute clause.     

Elections and Deceptions: An Experimental Study on the Behavioral Effects of Democracy

Traditionally, the virtue of democratic elections has been seen in their role as means of screening and sanctioning shirking public officials. This article proposes a novel rationale for elections and political campaigns considering that candidates incur psychological costs of lying, in particular from breaking campaign promises. These nonpecuniary costs imply that campaigns influence subsequent behavior, even in the absence of reputational or image concerns. Our lab experiments reveal that promises are more than cheap talk. They influence the behavior of both voters and their representatives. We observe that the electorate is better off when their leaders are elected democratically rather than being appointed exogenously—but only in the presence of electoral campaigns. In addition, we find that representatives are more likely to serve the public interest when their approval rates are high. Altogether, our results suggest that elections and campaigns confer important benefits beyond their screening and sanctioning functions.     

我国城市社区直接选举探究

社区居委会直接选举作为扩大基层民主的有效形式,已经成为全面推进城市基层民主的突破口,受到社会各界越来越多的关注。本文选取社区居委会直接选举中的两个环节进行分析,梳理了社区选举过程中的程序规范及存在问题,以期进一步推进城市社区居委会直接选举的程序化、公平化。     

论发展工作场所的民主参与

中国处于经济体制转型、产业结构调整、劳动关系重组、利益格局变化的特殊时期,在劳动者面临诸多困境的情况下,传统意识形态所坚持的工人阶级的主人翁地位空心化,造成民主管理和职工合法权利的缺失。本文提出创新工作场所的民主参与形式,并从重构工人参与的理论、挖掘本土化的民主管理资源、政府要对工作场所中劳动关系进行积极的干预、加速工会组织内部的民主化进程等几个方面探讨了工作场所的民主参与的路径。     

Homogeneity and Democracy in Austrian Federalism: The Constitutional Court's Ruling on Direct Democracy in Vorarlberg

This article seeks to analyze how homogeneity between the federationand the constituent Lander is provided by the Austrian federalConstitution in general. Focus is then put on a recent judgmentof the Austrian Constitutional Court, which has been one ofthe most outstanding cases of the Court's "homogeneity jurisdiction."The Court held a provision of a Land constitution to be in breachof the federal Constitution and therefore repealed it. The reasongiven was that the provision, which had obliged the Land parliamentto pass a law if this was demanded by a people's petition andsupported by the Land people in a referendum, endangered thesystem of representative democracy as provided by the federalConstitution. This narrow understanding of democratic homogeneityand the negligence of the principle of federalism are criticallyviewed in the article.     

现代性语境中的"直接民主与间接民主"——对民主形式的一种政治哲学解读

直接民主与间接民主是民主的两种实现形式。在现代性的语境中,大规模的直接民主在政治上缺乏现实性,间接民主成为民主政体中的主流方式。间接民主作为一种治理模式本身也存在着由“代表权”与“科层制”引发的内在矛盾,这使得其运作往往会产生反民主的结果,对此可以从政府制度的完善与成熟市民社会的培育两个方面着手解决。     

Direct Democracy and Women's Political Engagement

What are the conditions that promote gender equality in political participation? In this article, I propose that the presence of direct democracy expands gender equality in political participation by signaling the system's openness to women's voice, confirming their political competency, and highlighting their stake in political decisions. To test this argument, I leverage a quasi‐experiment in Sweden in the aftermath of the introduction of universal suffrage, where the type of municipal political institutions was determined by a population threshold. My findings lend strong support to the effect of direct democracy on the political inclusion of women. I find that the gender gap in electoral participation was smaller in municipalities using direct democracy than in similarly sized municipalities that only had representative institutions.