A Reconceptualisation of the Antecedents of Party Activism: A Multidisciplinary Approach

Leading researchers are questioning the continued use of competitive model testing to explain participation within British political parties. This paper argues that difficulties with this approach have not arisen out of the use of model testing per se , but because of the shortcomings of the models currently in use. A multidisciplinary approach towards accounting for participation exposes some of the theoretical and analytical shortcomings in previous research into political party members, and identifies relevant factors underlying participation that merit investigation in greater detail. In particular, analytical frameworks derived from the disciplines of marketing, nonprofit management and organisational behaviour provide appropriate and robust instruments for measuring factors underlying participation that are generally ignored in the political science literature. Alternative models comprising appropriately theorized variables drawn from a number of disciplines are presented, and the implications of a multidisciplinary approach towards explaining party activism are discussed.     

简析新党章对党的性质的新表述

中共十六大通过的党章从四个不同的角度对党的性质作出了新的表述:“两个先锋队”是对党的阶级基础和群众基础的辩证关系的新概括;党的领导核心地位是执政党实现政治整合功能的前提条件;“三个代表”是党的先进性的具体体现途径;关于党的最高理想与最高目标的表述把“共产主义”理解为静态的目标与动态的过程的辩证统一。     

执政党的党风关系党和人民事业的成败——学习十七届四中全会《决定》体会

改进和加强党的作风建设是党的十七届四中全会的重要内容。执政党的党风建设,关系党的形象,关系党和人民事业的成败。因此,党的作风建设是执政党建设的主要任务和突出问题。执政党的作风建设是党面临长期执政考验的需要,是应对国际环境挑战的需要,是深化改革、推进科学发展的需要,是解决党在作风上存在的问题的需要,从而使党永远不辜负人民的信任和期望。     

The Poverty of Participation: Self-Interest, Student Loans, and Student Activism

Political scientists maintain that self-interest should motivate political participation; however, empirical verification of the self-interest motive for participating is rare. Self-interested activism among the less-affluent is shown to be even more uncommon. Results of the present study suggest that when lower-income college students have resources and increased self-interest motives to act, not only do they choose to participate, they do so at higher levels than their more affluent peers. Utilizing policy-motivated activism (defined as voting, contributing, and contacting officials) with respect to student loans, the analysis suggests that the probability of contacting increases among student borrowers as their income decreases. Results suggest that lower-income borrowers are more likely to participate out of concern for the program than their higher-income counterparts, and self-interest explains the behavior.     

Issue Networks and Activism

Using an investigation of a technical policy issue, this paper demonstrates the utility of employing an issue networks approach to understanding the dynamics among those concerned about the threat of earthquakes to the province of British Columbia, Canada and the state of Washington, United States. Such an approach focuses on issue emergence in the early stages of agenda building. This research demonstrates how scientific and technical expertise, in the absence of political leadership, is an unrivaled source of presumptive rights leading to key actor status within a specialized policy community. A complementary finding is that career-related rationales provide the overwhelming motivation for issue network participation.     

共产党员要有为人民服务的强烈意识

在纪念中国共产党成立 80周年之际 ,思考我们党领导革命和建设取得成功的根本优势所在 ,那就是党始终代表了人民的根本利益。我们党有很多好传统 ,好作风 ,最根本的一条就是全心全意为人民服务。我们党把全心全意为人民服务作为自己的根本宗旨 ,这是由党的性质决定的。共产党是人民利益的忠实代表者和捍卫者 ,这就决定了它必须全心全意为人民服务。总结我们党的历史经验 ,集中到一点 ,就是必须始终代表最广大人民的根本利益 ,全心全意为人民服务。我们党对党员、干部有许多严格的高标准的要求 ,这些要求集中到一点 ,同样是必须全心全意为人…     

Within,Above, and Beyond: Churches and Religious Civil Society Activism in South Kivu

In South Kivu in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), various church actors have chosen to involve in advocacy and mobilization through a formalized civil society structure known as La Société Civile (LSC). In this article, we explore the relationship between the churches and civil society in Eastern DRC, paying particular attention to why this cooperation has taken such a formalized expression, the motivations of church actors to become involved in LSC and, finally, how this relationship between different civil society actors has underpinned various peacebuilding efforts at the local, provincial, and national scale.     

党要切实实现好人民的经济、政治、文化利益

中国共产党进行的一切奋斗,归根到底都是为了最广大人民的利益.实现好、维护好和发展好最广大人民的利益,是我们党在执政条件下保持党的先进性的根本要求,是实现党的领导作用的基础和依据,是围绕"建设一个什么样的执政党、怎样建设执政党"所必须解决的重大课题.     

Stephen Noakes,The Advocacy Trap: Transnational Activism and State Power in China

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

Place,Time, and Philanthropy: Exploring Geographic Mobility and Philanthropic Engagement

America is a nation of movers, and this has implications for public and nonprofit managers who rely on donations and volunteers to increase the capacity of nonprofits and to strengthen local communities. This article explores the impact of time and place on philanthropic engagement, focusing on how three aspects of community—sense of belonging, social connections, and regional culture—are related to volunteering and giving to local organizations. The authors find that geographic mobility affects philanthropic engagement. Drawing on a survey of active older Americans, the authors find that three community factors —sense of community, social networks, and regional cultures— are related to one or both types of philanthropic behavior. The authors conclude by offering thoughts for future research and practice.     

The Party Faithful: Partisan Images,Candidate Religion,and the Electoral Impact of Party Identification

We argue that the factors shaping the impact of partisanship on vote choice—“partisan voting”—depend on the nature of party identification. Because party identification is partly based on images of the social group characteristics of the parties, the social profiles of political candidates should affect levels of partisan voting. A candidate's religious affiliation enables a test of this hypothesis. Using survey experiments which vary a hypothetical candidate's religious affiliation, we find strong evidence that candidates’ religions can affect partisan voting. Identifying a candidate as an evangelical (a group viewed as Republican) increases Republican support for, and Democratic opposition to, the candidate, while identifying the candidate as a Catholic (a group lacking a clear partisan profile) has no bearing on partisan voting. Importantly, the conditional effect of candidate religion on partisan voting requires the group to have a salient partisan image and holds with controls for respondents’ own religious affiliations and ideologies.     

Implementing Title III: Assessing Opportunities for State Activism

A complementary dichotomy has evolved in federal-state relations because of Reagan's "New Federalism." States have become "activists" as they adopt national policies to state objectives. Simultaneously, new constraints on spending have made them "captives" to national priorities.