The District Executive Committee and the Standing Committees

We continue the publication of materials on the coordination of the work of the standing committees between sessions of soviets (see nos. 2 and 7, 1976). This time the experience of an executive committee of a district soviet is examined.     

Soviet Sessions: Theory,Practice, and Problems

In the period leading up to the 27th Congress of the CPSU, a landmark in the life of our country, it is one of the important tasks of science and practice to undertake a thoroughgoing analysis of those positive changes that have emerged in recent years in the activity of the soviets of people's deputies, to endeavor a critical assessment of the work so far completed, to exchange opinions on ways to effect possible and necessary changes for the better in their activity and to enhance their role in the system of socialist democracy. The period between the 26th and 27th Party Congresses has seen a considerable rise in the level of leadership by the bodies of state power in respect to economic and sociocultural construction throughout the entire soviet system. The role of the soviets has broadened in all state activity, their influence on the growth of the economy has increased, there is now more coordination in economic and sociocultural construction and in providing consumer and other services to the population, and more attention is being devoted to securing legality and law and order, and protecting the rights and lawful interests of citizens. All these things have been furthered by the CPSU's unflagging observance of the constitutional foundations to the organization and activity of the soviets, by the broadening of their powers, and by strengthening the material and financial basis and the personnel resources of the bodies of state power and government.     

On Improving the Legislation on Territorial and Regional Soviets of Working People's Deputies

The Report of the Central Committee of the CPSU to the Twenty-fifth Party Congress advanced the proposal of adopting laws to define the jurisdiction of territorial [krai], regional [oblast'], and area [okrug] soviets of working people's deputies. This proposal was adopted unanimously by the delegates to the congress. In the course of the work begun to draft these laws, which will define the content and form of activity at the present stage of the building of communism of such an important link in the system of soviets as the regional and territorial soviets, many questions have arisen demanding profound and comprehensive scientific study. In this connection the editors invite legal scholars and practical workers to share in the pages of the journal the results of their research and generalizations from the experience of the work of the soviets and from application of the prevailing legislation, and to express judgments, proposals, and recommendations on the paths to be followed in improving the legislation on territorial, regional, and area soviets.     

The Executive Committee of the Local Soviet of People's DeputiesI. F. Butko,ed. (Kiev: Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, 1980), 328 pp. A Review.

The interest of this monograph lies in the fact that it sets forth and resolves extremely important problems in the development of the soviets: the place of the executive committee in the system of the local soviet; theoretical and methodological questions of the scientific organization of labor in the executive committees; improving legal regulation of the auxiliary apparatus of the executive committee and the organization and activity of sections and departments; labor relations of employees of the executive committee apparatus; improving work with information, the forms and methods of administrative activity, and the style of work of the apparatus; the theory and practice of introducing the scientific recommendations of scholarship on law and government into the work of executive committees, and so forth.     

In The Interests of Comprehensive Development

Articles have repeatedly appeared in this journal on the work of the administrations of capital construction of the executive committees of city soviets and their role in the comprehensive development of cities. It would be difficult to overestimate that role. For the working out of optimal project plans, skillful use of funds and their concentration on projects nearing completion, promptness of delivery of equipment, and as a consequence, an increase in the efficiency of construction work depend primarily and specifically on the administrations of capital construction.     

The Standing Committees and the Ministries

The 23rd Congress of the CPSU posed the task of enhancing the role of the supreme Soviets and defined the principal directions to be followed in solving this task. The most important of them are the further improvement in the activity of the standing committees [postoiannye komissii], which contribute to the development of socialist democracy, the improvement in the work of the supreme Soviets and the agencies of state administration, and the activization of deputies. At the first session of the seventh Supreme Soviet [sed'mogo sozyva] of the USSR, the report by N. V. Podgorny, Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet, "On Organizing the Standing Committees of the Soviet of the Union and the Soviet of Nationalities," emphasized the major role of the standing committees in social and economic development and expressed confidence that their functioning would promote the fulfillment of the tasks facing the country. (1) The seventh supreme Soviets of the USSR and of the union republics carried out a number of practical measures to implement the instructions of the party to increase the role of the standing committees.     

The CPSU and the Soviets

"Popular sovereignty in our country," we read in the Theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU, Fifty Years of the Great October Socialist Revolution, "is expressed above all in the soviets — representative bodies combining the features of state and civic organizations." The guidance given the soviets by the Communist Party is a vital factor in the Soviet system. This factor reflects the fundamental qualities of the political organization of socialist society. The entire course of the country's historical development has proved irrefutably that complete disclosure of the fundamental advantages of the Soviet organization of power and their utilization in the interests of socialism would be impossible in the absence of the leading role of the Party in the soviets. The relationship between the Party and the soviets in the system of socialist democracy provides the key to understanding the mechanism of popular sovereignty and reflects a fundamentally new interaction between the political leader, the state organization, and the masses of the people that is impossible under a system of exploitation. It is no accident that the apostles of anticommunism are particularly rabid in their attacks on the position of the Party in the republic of soviets, making it their primary target in their slanderous inventions and verbal attempts to subvert the principles of socialist society.     

Enhancing the Role of the Local Soviets and Developing Civic Principles in Their Work

The decisions of the last few congresses of the CPSU have played a large role in improving the activity of the soviets. The measures envisaged in the Party Program to improve the work of the soviets, to develop their democratic foundations and civic [obshchestvennye] principles, are being implemented successfully in the local agencies of government and administration.     

Can Formal Rules of Order be Used as an Accurate Proxy for Behaviour Internal to a Legislature? Evidence from Costa Rica

Scholars rely heavily on formal rules to classify legislatures, but parchment institutions may only tell part of the story about how the chamber works. Behind-the-scenes behaviour may counter-balance or temper the power distribution created by formal rules. To begin examining if formal rules are an accurate predictor of actual behaviour, we analyse standing committees in Costa Rica's Legislative Assembly. We find that despite the formal institutions that favour a majoritarian bonus, the opposition party is a full participant in the legislative process in committee sessions. Opposition deputies participate equally or more so than majority party deputies, and deputies of all parties work together to investigate bills and kill legislation evaluated to be flawed, which indicates that formal rules are only one component to understanding legislative behaviour.     

The Budget and Finances

This is perhaps the most complex sphere of work of village [sel'skie] soviets. All their manifold activity is associated with it. Funds for economic and cultural development, and for maintenance of the institutions subordinate to the rural agency of power, are concentrated in the budget. The soviet's specific relationships with various enterprises and organizations on the territory within its jurisdiction take shape through it.     

宪法解释案例实证问题研究

全国人大常委会法工委有关扩大宪法效力、公民选举权的行使、裁决立法冲突等宪法解释案例，尽管不是宪法规定的宪法解释，但其作用与正式的宪法解释并无实质性的差异，弥补了正式宪法解释缺位之不足而构成中国宪法解释的惯例。宪法上的宪法解释与现实中的宪法解释之间的距离，有助于认识和理解中国宪法之外的宪法解释机关对宪法进行解释的实际情况，以及宪法实施过程的特点。     

Challenges and constraints for post-Soviet committees: exploring the impact of parties on committees in Ukraine

This study focuses on the impact of parliamentary parties on committees' structure and activity in the post-Soviet context. Through a case study of committees in Ukraine's Rada, the paper demonstrates that weak, fluid parties can act as a barrier to committees' efficacy by shaping their structure, leadership and by blocking ameliorating reforms. Although Ukraine's committees were formally allocated a significant role in the law-making process, in practice the realisation of this function was constrained by parties and also by context of the wider institutional uncertainty.     

Partisan Stacking on Legislative Committees

One aspect of the partisan model for legislative committee development that is rarely studied is the degree to which the majority party seeks to control legislative committees—and, thereby, chamber decisions—via numerically “overproportional” majority party representation on standing committees. This form of “party stacking” is often mentioned in the literature but has received little systematic examination and hypothesis testing. Using data from state legislative committees for all 49 partisan legislatures in the 2003–04 and 2005–06 sessions, we found support for the partisan model: majority party stacking is associated with a slim majority party advantage in a state legislative chamber.     

The Right of Citizens to Appeal Acts by Officials to Courts

The increased role of the courts and enlarged judicial protection of citizens' rights enunciated in the USSR Constitution constitute a further development of Soviet socialist democracy. As we know, the notion of appealing to courts the acts of administrators was propounded by the founders of Marxism-Leninism themselves. (1) In the USSR, the foundations of the institution of judicial supervision of the functioning of the executive were established in the earliest years of Soviet power and were developed in the decree of the Central Executive Committee (TsIK) and Council of People's Commissars of April 11, 1937 - establishing judicial supervision over the activities of financial bodies in recovering from citizens arrears of federal and local taxes and levies, compulsory salary insurance, and local-option taxation - and in the Statute on Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR affirmed by decree of the USSR TsIK of July 9, 1937, granting citizens the right to appeal to courts decisions of executive committees of soviets on refusal to make corrections in lists of voters. (2) This institution was subsequently developed in the Principles of Civil Procedure of the USSR and Union Republics and the corresponding codes of the union republics establishing procedural rules for trial by courts of cases arising out of relationships at administrative law.     

董事会委员会与公司治理

董事会承担公司的重大决策和监督经理层的角色,但董事会作为会议体机关存在缺陷。董事会委员会的设立可以弥补董事会的缺陷,并有利于独立董事发挥作用。委员会的产生和权力的立法模式不同,美国的模式值得借鉴。典型的董事会委员会包括提名、薪酬和审计委员会,他们在实践中发挥重要作用。我国应当将委员会纳入公司法中,同时委员会制度以及公司治理的完善需要公司法和其他法律、证券交易所规则、公司治理准则、公司章程的协同努力。     

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.     

Coordination: Its Essence and Practice

At the present stage in our country's development, when major problems of the national economy are being resolved, particular significance attaches to Lenin's premise of proper combination of the interests of the country as a whole with those of local concern. "The lack, in the localities, of harmonized work among the various departments," wrote Vladimir Il'ich Lenin, "is one of the great evils interfering with economic development. An enormous amount of attention must be paid to this question" (Poln. sobr. soch. [Complete Works], vol. 43, p. 278). The timeliness of this instruction by Lenin is beyond question. It also pertains directly to the work of the local soviets, particularly their activity of coordination. As we know, the new laws on the local soviets have granted them the right, within the limits of their jurisdiction, to coordinate enterprises and organizations belonging to higher levels insofar as their efforts are directed toward the development of the economy within their geographic boundaries, and above all in the spheres having to do with services to the population.     

The Standing Committees: Techniques of Monitoring

Note from the editors of Sovety deputatov trudiashchikhsia: Continuing the study of the functioning of Soviets, personnel of the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute of State and Law looked into the operations of local organs of power in the Latvian SSR. Jointly with practical workers in the field, they prepared a number of scholarly recommendations, including proposals to improve the techniques of monitoring [kontrol'] by the standing committees of district and city Soviets.     

The Rights of an Urban Soviet Subordinate to Another Urban Soviet

As a consequence of the reorganization of the soviets in accordance with the production principle, many small towns have been detached from rural districts, and the soviets of these towns have been subordinated to those of larger cities that are directly subordinate to territories and regions. In individual cases, the soviets of the small towns have been placed under district soviets of cities which have district subdivisions. At present some 300 towns have thus been subordinated to others, including 230 in the RSFSR.     

A Lab Experiment on Committee Hearings: Preferences,Power, and a Quest for Information

In principle, committees hold hearings to gather and provide information to their principals, but some hearings are characterized as political showcases. This article investigates conditions that moderate committee members' incentives to hold an informative hearing by presenting a game‐theoretic model and a lab experiment. Specifically, it studies when committees hold hearings and which types of hearing they hold by varying policy preferences of committee members and the principal and political gains from posturing. Findings provide new insights to how preferences and power distribution affect individuals' incentives to be informed when they make decisions as members of a committee in many contexts.