In Defense of Factions

We model faction formation in a world where party politicians' objective is the development of an informed program of governance. Politicians' preferences reflect their own views and their information that, when aggregated via intraparty deliberations, influences the party manifesto. By joining a faction, a politician increases the influence of its leader on the manifesto, but foregoes his individual bargaining power. For broad model specifications, we find that a faction formation process allows power to be transferred to moderate politicians. This facilitates information sharing, increasing the capacity of the party to attain its objective. These positive welfare effects may hold even when factionalism restricts intraparty dialogue, and hold a fortiori when information is freely exchanged across factions. We conclude that the existence of ideological factions may benefit a party: It provides a means to tie uninformed or extremist politicians to more moderate and informed faction leaders.     

In Defense of Dwelling in Great Minds

It seems like a small and perhaps shrinking minority of economists know reverence of individual figures. Most economists seem to be without heroes, and sometimes disparage reverence as cultish idolatry. Here I collect from Michael Polanyi’s The Study of Man (1959) a few passages that eloquently suggest that “we need reverence to perceive greatness, even as we need a telescope to observe spiral nebulae.” The selection is made in the defense of seeking out and communing with great minds.     

Federalism at the American Founding: In Defense of the Diamond Theses

Vincent Ostrom's analysis of The Federalist's understandingof federalism fails to consider the historical and theoreticalcontext of The Federalist's arguments. Ostrom takes certainrhetorical devices of The Federalist too much at face value.He correctly sees that the authors of The Federalist view eighteenth-centuryfederalism as bad government. He incorrectly concludes thatsince it is bad government, that understanding could not havebeen the true meaning of federalism. The Federalist understandseighteenth-century federalism to be "the true meaning" of federalismas established by the political discourse of the times. TheConstitution departs radically from eighteenth-century federalism,but The Federalist seeks to conceal how radical the departureis, in part, by offering a looser definition of federalism thatwill allow the Constitution to be characterized as a federalsystem. A consideration of the writings of the opponents tothe Constitution suggests the limited success of this attemptat redefinition.     

我国普通高等学校国防教育的现状及对策研究

高校国防教育是为了国家和民族的利益,对在校大学生进行国防知识的学习和国防观念的培养等方面的教育。但是目前我国普通高校国防教育的开展由于种种原因,使得其学科地位、师资队伍、组织机构等方面存在诸多问题,这些问题的存在严重影响了高校国防教育功能的发挥。对于这些问题,从国防教育观念、师资队伍、教育形式、教育阵地建设、评价机制等方面提出了一些思考。     

In Defense of Comparative Statics: Specifying Empirical Tests of Models of Strategic Interaction

Christopher Zorn Department of Political Science, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208 e-mail: zorn{at}sc.edu e-mail: ccarrub{at}emory.edu (corresponding author) Beginning in 1999, Curtis Signorino challenged the use of traditionallogits and probits analysis for testing discrete-choice, strategicmodels. Signorino argues that the complex parametric relationshipsgenerated by even the simplest strategic models can lead towildly inaccurate inferences if one applies these traditionalapproaches. In their stead, Signorino proposes generating stochasticformal models, from which one can directly derive a maximumlikelihood estimator. We propose a simpler, alternative methodologyfor theoretically and empirically accounting for strategic behavior.In particular, we propose carefully and correctly deriving one'scomparative statics from one's formal model, whether it is stochasticor deterministic does not particularly matter, and using standardlogit or probit estimation techniques to test the predictions.We demonstrate that this approach performs almost identicallyto Signorino's more complex suggestion. Authors' note: We would like to thank Randy Calvert, Mark Hallerberg,Andrew Martin, Eric Reinhardt, Chris Stanton, and Craig Voldenfor their valuable feedback on this project. All remaining errorsare our own. Replication materials are available at the PoliticalAnalysis Web site.     

On Biehl's Defense of Bookchin's Immanent Dialectic

Stephen G. Bunker. Underdeveloping the Amazon: Extraction, Unequal Exchange, and the Failure of the Modern State. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1985.

Susanna Hecht and Alexander Cockburn: The Fate of the Forest: Developers, Destroyers and Defenders of the Amazon. Harper Perennial, New York, 1990.

Chico Mendes: Fight for the Forest: Chico Mendes in His Own Words. (Additional material by Tony Gross). Latin American Bureau, London, 1989; distributed in U.S. by Monthly Review Press.     

Defense Supplementals and the Budget Process

Supplemental appropriations provide emergency adjustments to the current year, usually for national defense contingencies and natural disaster emergencies. Recently, they have adopted some of the complexities of the regular appropriation process. For example, both the president and Congress may suggest when a supplemental is a dire emergency and thus beyond spending discipline and when it must be offset. Some supplementals have paid for nonemergency activities, others have resulted in funding decreases, and still others have resulted in spending in future years. Compared to the normal appropriation process, supplementals are usually passed expeditiously. Defense supplementals are generally precisely priced, whereas disaster supplementals tend to be lump sum estimates.     

试论正当防卫之必要限度

正当防卫必要限度的认定是司法实践中一个较难掌握的问题.本文试图通过对新刑法中有关正当防卫的规定进行分析,并就正当防卫必要限度的认定尺度及影响正当防卫必要限度认定的相关因素进行探讨,力求使人们正确把握正当防卫必要限度的内涵和外延,清晰认识正当防卫的必要限度.既为司法审判提供参考,又鼓励人民群众积极同违法犯罪作斗争,从而进一步推动我国社会主义民主法制建设的进程.