From Majoritarian Democracy to Vertical Separation of Powers: Sweden and the European Union

The key problem in constitutional politics in the established democracies may be said to pertain to finding the right balance between majoritarian democracy, constitutionalism and effective decision making. From that perspective this essay examines the Swedish polity before and after the accession to the European Union in 1995. From 1917 onwards majoritarian democracy and parliamentarism were the praxis of the Swedish polity. But this mode of goverment was not written into the 1809 Instrument of Government, which was characterised by the separation of powers between the king and the parliament. It was first in the new Instrument of Government, adopted in 1973–74, that the praxis of majoritarian democracy and parliamentarism was codified. But in the 1990s a new form of dualism was introduced into the Swedish polity as a result of the country's accession to the European Union. On the one hand, there is an Instrument of Government characterised by the principle of majoritarian democratic rule. On the other, accession to the EU involves a vertical separation of powers on a major scale. Two conflicting fundamental elements, majoritarian democracy and vertical separation of powers, are currently incorporated in the Swedish polity.     

Responding to the crisis: Eurosceptic parties of the left and right and their changing position towards the European Union

At the time of the election of the European Parliament (EP) in 2014, the European Union (EU) was heavily affected by a multifaceted crisis that had – and still has – far-reaching implications for the political system of its member countries, but also for the European level of governance. Against the background of the strong Eurosceptic vote in the 2014 EP elections, this study aims to investigate in which way Eurosceptic parties of the left and the right respond to the multiple crises of the EU. Using data from the Euromanifesto Project from 2004/2009 and 2014, changes in the party positions towards the EU are analysed in the shadow of the multiple crises and the reasons thereof are explored. The findings show a general anti-European shift among the two types of Eurosceptic parties. Nevertheless, the changes in the EU polity tone are not determined by issue-based repercussions of the multiple crises, but by the EU-related evaluation – the polity mood – of the national citizenry. For far-right Eurosceptic parties, the shift is moderated by the level of public support for EU integration in their national environment. Among far-left Eurosceptic parties, by contrast, it is moderated by the more specific public attitudes about the monetary union policy of the EU. Consequently, political parties when drafting their manifestos for EP elections are not so much guided by the objective severity of political problems or by the evaluations of these problems by the citizenry. What matters in the end is the link that citizens themselves are able to establish between the severity of political problems, on the one hand, and the responsibility of the EU for these problems on the other. This has important consequences for understanding of the nature and substance of political responsiveness within the EU system of multilevel governance.     

波兰学者霍尔泽谈社会主义的实质及苏东剧变后的发展趋势(下)

三、中国的做法是否能成功有待实践证明 戈尔巴乔夫倡导的改革,最终目标是试图实现经济是市场的,国家依然实行一党执政。换句话说,戈尔巴乔夫希望达到的目标,正是现在中国所实行的。 中国一条成功的经验就是在巩固一党领导的基础上,实行市场经济,使国家经济正常运转。这条     

浅谈如何建立油田的地企、警民联防机制

石油企业面临的风险越来越多，而对各类风险的防范，尤其是维护油田治安，加强对原油和各类油田物资的保护彰显重要。油田治安形势不容乐观，油田保卫工作虽然有了长足的进步，但地企、警民联防机制还相对滞后。要适应油田治安形势需要必须更新思想，转变观念，建立油田治安防范的大格局。企业法律部门在联防机制中应发挥作用。     

浅谈如何做好新时期企业离退休管理和服务工作

在市场经济新形势下,管理和服务离退休人员,要贯彻＂老有所养、老有所医、老有所教、老有所学、老有所为、老有所乐＂的方针,把离退休老同志政治和生活待遇落到实处。充分认识离退休工作的重要性和加强与离退休老同志的感情联系,充分发挥老同志作用,重视其思想政治工作及信访工作。     

谈高校的思政课教学如何以人为本

从哲学的本体、主客体关系的角度,阐述了以人为本是高校思政课教学改革必须遵循的根本原则和基本价值取向,探讨了高校思政课教学以人为本的具体有效途径和方式方法。     

Why triggers fail (and what to do about it): An examination of the unemployment insurance extended benefits program

During periods of high unemployment, many workers exhaust their unemployment insurance (UI) benefits before regaining employment. To help alleviate this problem, Congress created the extended benefits (EB) program, expanding the number of weeks of benefits available to UI recipients in high unemployment states. The EB program operates by “triggering on” additional weeks of benefits in states where unemployment and UI benefit receipt are above federally established thresholds. We analyze the performance of the EB program by creating a series of policy simulations using weekly UI claims and unemployment data from the program's inception in 1970 through the most recent economic expansion in 2005. Overall, we find that EB triggers, as currently constructed, fail as a policy tool for extending UI benefits. Minor adjustments to the triggers are unlikely to be effective. We develop an alternative set of “fix point” triggers that allow the EB program to trigger on and off in a more timely fashion. These triggers outperform all previously legislated triggers as well as other commonly proposed triggering mechanisms on criteria of timeliness, breadth, and duration. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management