Left–right political scales

Nomination: 'Some expert judgments ' live on by Mogens N. Pedersen, p.147
Reflections: Revisiting expert judgements by Peter Mair & Francis G. Castles, p.150     

Left-right party ideology and government policies: A meta-analysis

Abstract. This paper summarizes how the partisan influence literature assesses the relationship between the left–right party composition of government and policy outputs through a meta–analysis of 693 parameter estimates of the party–policy relationship published in 43 empirical studies. Based on a simplified 'combined tests' meta–analytic technique, we show that the average correlation between the party composition of government and policy outputs is not significantly different from zero. A mutivariate logistic regression analysis examines how support for partisan theory is affected by a subset of mediating factors that can be applied to all the estimates under review. The analysis demonstrates that there are clearly identifiable conditions under which the probability of support for partisan theory can be substantially increased. We conclude that further research is needed on institutional and socio–economic determinants of public policy.     

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.     

Analysing political ideas and political action

Abstract

This paper examines the relevance of Boltanski and Thévenot's newly translated book, On justification, to the analysis of political ideas and political action. While situating the work of the authors within its initial intellectual context, namely the ‘economics of conventions’, it shows that one of the key contributions of the ‘sociology of justification’ lies in the answers it brings to two fundamental, as yet unresolved, questions in political science and political sociology: first, how is it possible to identify those ideas which are politically relevant? Second, how is it possible to capture the dynamics of public ideas? After outlining the sources of the quandaries faced within political science and political sociology as regards these two questions, the conceptual framework of Boltanski and Thévenot is presented and explained, and research perspectives suggested. This article argues that On justification provides a highly engaging, stimulating and empirically useful contribution to current debates in social and political theory around the dynamics of political arguments and ideas.     

政治行为

指人们关于政治生活的各种活动，主要指可见的政治行为，如竞选、抗议、罢工、战争等。自从政治科学发生行为主义革命后，政治行为一度成为政治分析的出发点和核心内容。     

政治主体

即政治行为者。广义指所有的政治行为者。其相对的政治客体是政治行为赖以发生的政治环境。狭义指在政治过程中处于支配和主导地位的政治行为者．其相对的政治客体是其行为所涉及的被动的政治行为者。有些政治学家从法律的角度出发。把政治主体看作是政治权利和政治义务的承担者．认为只有那些被国家的法律赋予一定的政治权利和政治义务,并且实际地参与国家政治活动的人,才是政治主体。     

政治领导

政府、政党、政治集团等政治主体运用政治权力或权威．通过对政治客体的作用和影响．实现一定的政治原则和方向。政治领导主要体现在确立政治原则和政治方向。制定重大决策．安排重要人事等方面。它更注重对所辖范围政治生活的宏观控制。政治领导依赖政治权力和政治权威．最终形成一种支配与服从的关系。     

政治参与

公民自愿地通过各种合法方式参与政治生活的行为。它反映公民在政治系统中政治活动的地位、作用和选择范围。     

政治制度

在特定社会中,统治阶级通过组织政权以实现其政治统治的原则和方式的总和。它包括一个国家的阶级本质,国家政权的组织形式和管理形式,国家结构形式和公民在国家生活中的地位。狭义主要指政体,即政权的组织形式。     

政治认同

人们在社会政治生活中产生的一种感情和意识上的归属感。它与人们的心理活动有密切的关系。人们在一定社会中生活．总要在一定的社会联系中确定自己的身份，如把自己看作是某一政党的党员、某一阶级的成员、某一政治过程的参与者或某一政治信念的追求者等等．并自觉地以组织及过程的要求来规范自己的政治行为。这种现象就是政治认同。     

Left-right perceptions,partisan preferences,electoral participation,and partisan choice in France

An analysis based on survey data shows that electoral participation at the second ballot in France can be accounted for by partisan preferences but not by left-right perceptions of party locations. This finding runs counter to the work of Rosenthal and Sen (1973), who validated a spatial model of participation at the second ballot employing left-right perceptions and partisan preferences interchangeably. Because they use aggregate data, Rosenthal and Sen (1973) are restricted in two ways that, operating interactively, lead them to an unwarranted conclusion concerning the power of left-right perceptions. Later work by Rosenthal and Sen (1977) indicating that left-right perceptions can account for shifts in partisan choice between the two ballots by voters who have decided to participate is confirmed, but partisan preferences account even better for second-ballot choices. Left-right perceptions and partisan sympathies are related, but discrete partisan attitudes are a more powerful factor than left-right perceptions in French second-ballot electoral behavior.     

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.     

Fact-sensitive political theory

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the importance of attention to facts in normative theorising. I discuss the problems that arise from both not displaying such attention (as some idealists do) and from doing so in the wrong way (as, for example, realists do). I propose a different brand of theorising – fact-sensitive political theory, which aims to avoid these two problems by paying attention to key facts while retaining a solid normative anchoring in abstract normative principles. The merit of abstract vs. non-abstract reasoning is that the normative debate is not torn between two distinct ends of a spectrum in the way the idealist–realist debate is. By contrast, the locus of the investigations is vertical in the sense that abstract and concrete normative discussions are given equal status and can co-exist compatibly. One of the main differences between abstract and concrete normative principles is whether abstract or concrete facts are considered necessary for the determination of the normative principles. The fact-sensitive account of normativity is neither realist nor non-ideal: it is an ambitious and demanding normative theory that contains both abstract and concrete normative reasoning. The fact-sensitive account of political theory meets the two criteria set out in this article: to integrate concrete and empirical facts about the subject matter and to subject the selection of facts to theoretical and methodological discussion and justification.     

Rewarding political supporters

Consider an elected politician who wants to identify politically savvy people who could offer him good advice. Since the incumbent won an election, people who supported him are probably better attuned to the political winds than are people who did not. The official should therefore listen to people who had supported him. For similar reasons, he may preferentially listen to groups that had given him political contributions than to groups that had not. And a politician who is initially unsure about which voters best recognize benefits promised them will favor groups that he had previously favored and that had supported him.     

Strategic political commentary

I model the media’s role in transmitting information to voters in a strategic framework. Media outlets in which commentators speak primarily to voters of like type face strong incentives to reveal private information about political choices truthfully, while “mainstream” outlets observed by all types of voters face mixed incentives. Also, the number of preference-matched news outlets determines the informativeness of the mainstream media; a general increase in the number of news outlets does not necessarily improve the quality of information conveyed by the media. The model also rationalizes why commentators of a single political preference predominate in the mainstream media.     

Malaysia's political challenges

For many Malaysians, the most worrying aspect of recent political scandals and a fragmented opposition has been the evidence of a growing political polarisation along ethnic and religious lines.     

Explaining political sophistication

Debates over the political sophistication of mass publics smolder on. The more fundamental question, however, is why people become as politically sophisticated or unsophisticated as they do. This paper develops a nonlinear simultaneous equation model to weigh explanations of three general sorts: the politicalinformation to which people are exposed, theirability to assimilate and organize such information, and theirmotivation to do so. The estimates suggest that interest and intelligence, representing motivation and ability, have major effects, but that education and media exposure, the big informational variables, do not. I consider the reasons and sketch some implications for the sophistication of mass publics, for the study of sophistication and other variables of extent, and for democratic theory.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 9–11, 1987. The data were made available by the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Douglas Arnold, John Bolland, Thad Brown, Carol Cassel, Philip Converse, George Kateb, Jan Kmenta, Kathleen Knight, James Kuklinski, Kenneth Langton, Melvin Manis, Diana Owen, Thomas Rochon, Marianne Stewart, Paul Sniderman, James Stimson, and Herbert Weisberg have provided feedback and encouragement. James Gibson relayed his results on the intelligence measures, even as they came off the printer. Mary Lee Luskin helped in many ways. If errors remain, they are mine.     

Thailand's political direction

During the current decade, domestic political crisis and the death of its much-beloved king have rendered Thailand introverted. There may now be scope for a return to consensus-based political stability that would allow Thailand to better balance its relations with major powers and resume a more assertive regional role.     

Achieving optimal fines for political bribery: A suggested political reform

Allowing appropriately high fines for political bribery would eliminate: (1) the large and allocatively arbitrary bribes paid to our most senior, retiring, politicians (2) the more moderate, but ubiquitous and still allocatively arbitrary bribes paid to less senior, but strategically successful, politicians, and (3) the permanent loss, through censure or expulsion, of some highly proficient, but strategically less successful, legislative representatives. Moreover, with fines appropriately set, the incentives theoretically describing the entire political system would be elevated from allocative arbitrariness to approximately Pareto optimal levels. However, to create legislatures generally willing to support these wholesale political-economic improvements, legally trained individuals must be exorcized from the legislatures.     

解读政治艺术:一种尝试性的政治艺术理论阐释

解读政治艺术首先需要解决其研究必要性、研究方法、历史背景和特质呈现等问题。对于研究必要性,则大致可以从“历史-疏理”、“文化-觉解”、“社会-致用”、“理论-建构”四个角度进行说明。针对研究现状上的孱弱状态,本文则主张采取“理想类型”研究法和“多元-整合”的研究进路。对于其历史背景,则可以从艺术向政治转化、政治向艺术生成、政治与艺术相互涵摄三层关系来展现。而对于其特质呈现,则可以从致思前提、问题意识、思想资源、多维审视四个角度来凸现。