Political Leadership and Bureaucratic Autonomy: Effects of Agencification

Previous studies have shown that agencification tends to reduce political control within a government portfolio. However, doubts have been raised as regards to the robustness of these findings. In this article we document that agency officials pay significantly less attention to signals from executive politicians than their counterparts within ministerial (cabinet-level) departments. This finding holds when we control for variation in tasks, the political salience of issue areas, and officials' rank. Simultaneously we observe that the three control variables all have an independent effect on officials' attentiveness to a steer from above. In addition we find that the more organizational capacity available within the respective ministerial departments, the more agency personnel tend to assign weight to signals from the political leadership. We apply large-N questionnaire data at three points in time, spanning two decades and shifting administrative doctrines.     

Bureaucratic Roles: Political Loyalty and Professional Autonomy*

Political leaders in many countries have experienced growing problems of capacity in the postwar period, a development leading to an increase in the delegation of authority to public administration and civil servants. This delegation of authority creates a significant potential for discretionary decision-making authority on the part of public bureaucrats. One way of studying how bureaucrats handle this situation is to focus upon bureaucratic roles. Bureaucratic roles traditionally contain both political and professional norms. This article discusses how these political and professional considerations can be defined and how these norms are balanced given the potential for conflict which is present. The discussion is illustrated by measuring the perception of bureaucratic norms and role enactment among civil servants in Norwegian ministries. Results indicate that civil servants appear to have few problems in attending to and balancing both political and professional role norms.     

农村村民自治的理论溯源

有学者认为,村民自治作为一种"基层群众性自治",无论是在马恩列斯著作中,还是在毛泽东全集里,均找不到它的理论源头.本文作者认为,马克思主义经典作家提出的人民自治理论和毛泽东大力发展农村民主建设的思想,为我国实行村民自治提供了重要的理论依据.同时,村民自治又是当代中国领导人根据中国国情所进行的巨大理论创新,是马克思主义人民自治理论在中国的新发展.     

Ideology Justifies Morality: Political Beliefs Predict Moral Foundations

Moral Foundations Theory (MFT) is employed as a causal explanation of ideology that posits political attitudes are products of moral intuitions. Prior theoretical models, however, suggest the opposite causal path, that is, that moral judgments are driven by political beliefs. In both instances, however, extant research has assumed rather than explicitly tested for causality. So do moral intuitions drive political beliefs or do political beliefs drive moral intuitions? We empirically address this question using data from two panel studies and one nationally representative study, and find consistent evidence supporting the hypothesis that ideology predicts moral intuitions. The findings have significant implications for MFT as a theory of ideology, and also about the consequences of political beliefs for shaping how individuals rationalize what is right and what is wrong.     

Books: Political Theory and Methodology

Neal Wood, John Locke and Agrarian Capitalism (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984)
John W. Yolton, Locke: an Introduction (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985)
N. Tarcov, Locke's Educationfor Liberty (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1984)
F. G. Whelan, Order and Artifice in Hume's Political Philosophy (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1985)
J. Robertson, The Scottish Enlightenment and the Militia Issue (Edinburgh, John Donald, 1985)
J. R. Dinwiddy, (ed.), The Correspondence of Jeremy Bentham, Volume 6, January 1798 to December 1801 (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984)
Alvin W. Gouldner, Against Fragmentation: the Origins of Marxism and the Sociology of Zntellectuals (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1985)
Bruce Mazlish, The Meaning of Karl Marx (New York, Oxford University Press, 1984)
Edmond Preteceille and Jean-Pierre Terrail, Capitalism, Consumption and Needs (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985)
F. R. Dallmayr, Polis and Praxis (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1985)
J. L. Talmon, The Myth of the Nation and the Vision of Revolution (London, Secker and Warburg, 1980)
L. J. Macfarlane, The Theory and Practice of Human Rights (London, Temple Smith, 1985)
Jeremy Waldron (ed.), Theories of Righfs (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1984)
Bill Jordan, The State: Authority and Autonomy (Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1985)
Franlin I. Gamwell, Beyond Preference: Liberal Theories of Independent Associations (Chicago, University of Chicago Press)
Ted C. Lewellen, Political Anthropology: an Introduction (South Hadley, Mass., Bergin and Garvey, 1983)
Ilkka Heiskanen and Sakari Hanninen (eds), Exploring the Basis of Politics (The Finnish Political Science Association, 1983)
Christopher G. A. Bryant, Positivism in Social Theory and Research (London, Macmillan, 1985)     

Morality and Competence in Shaping the Images of Political Leaders

Psychological models of forming impressions about other people assume that this process is strictly connected with social categorization. Therefore, it is clear that the results of many studies show that the evaluations of other people are based on two crucial and separable criteria: morality and competence. Obviously morality and competence are two fundamental and distinct dimensions of the perception of politicians. These dimensions substantially influence voters’ behavior toward politicians and are clearly visible both in the preelection polls as well as in the scientific analyses concerning forming the images of politicians. The evaluations of politicians on the morality and competence dimensions are central in forming the interpersonal attitudes in which the dominant elements are affect and respect toward the evaluated person. Consequently, affect and respect are crucial factors in establishing the support of candidates for political offices. The morality and competence dimensions trigger the causal structures in the voter's mind in which formed attitude creates affect and respect, which determine voting behavior.     

Political Positions,Hierarchies and Political Markets: Towards a New Theory on Political Recruitment*

This article adresses itself to the problem of political recruitment. Most recruitment studies are based on models of recruitment where the model presupposes more candidates than positions. Studying local committees we cannot presuppose excess demand for political positions. The article tries to introduce economic theory into the study of political recruitment. With concepts of market, supply, demand and prices, the article discusses recruitment to various types of positions. When we have extreme market conditions with either excess demand or lack of demand, the recruitment processes can best be understood in terms of hierarchical forces. The sales of less important positions in a situation with low demand for these positions could best be understood in terms of market mechanism. Comparing an economic market with a political market, the article finds variation in the transaction structure. The economic markets have a specific transaction structure, with specific obligations linked to transactions, while the political markets have a more unspecified transaction structure with more unspecified obligations linked to the transactions. A less specified transaction structure has lower transaction costs in a hierarchy than in a market. This, the author believes, could explain why some transactions take place in markets while others take place in hierarchies.     

Political Scandal: A Theory

We study a model that characterizes the conditions under which past misbehavior becomes the subject of present scandal, with consequences for both the implicated politician and the parties that work with him. In the model, both authentic and fake scandals arise endogenously within a political framework involving two parties that trade off benefits of continued collaboration with a suspect politician against the possibility of reputational fallout. Rising polarization between the two parties, we show, increases the likelihood of scandal while decreasing its informational value. Scandals that are triggered by only the opposing party, we also find, are reputationally damaging to both parties and, in some instances, reputationally enhancing to the politician. The model also reveals that jurisdictions with lots of scandals are not necessarily beset by more misbehavior. Under well‐defined conditions, in fact, scandals can be a sign of political piety.     

论民族区域自治制度的政治整合功能

民族区域自治制度是我国的一项基本政治制度,它所具有的政治整合功能可归纳为以民族整合为核心、以领土整合为先导、以价值观念整合为基础、以目标取向整合为前提、以行为方式整合为重点等五个方面的功能。     

政治文明视野中的道德-法律关系

在政治文明视野中,道德与法律之间表现出多层次、多维度的复杂关系,具体表现为:在政治价值上,道德与法律是本体与作用的关系;在政治规范上,法律与道德是主体与辅助的关系;在政治素质上,道德与法律是“灵魂”与“形体”的关系;在政治发展上,法律与道德是基础与提升的关系。     

Review Article: Isaiah Berlin's Contribution to Modern Political Theory

Three recent studies of Isaiah Berlin's moral and political thought stress the significance of value pluralism for his oeuvre. Whilst this emphasis enables us to dispense with some rather misleading characterizations of Berlin's liberalism, it is less apparent that his political thought can be successfully grounded within moral pluralism. Indeed his liberal beliefs sit rather more awkwardly within this ideological family than is usually assumed. Scholars seeking to revive Berlin's value pluralism in relation to contemporary challenges, such as multiculturalism, have not successfully demonstrated the utility of his thinking in relation to such problems, and have developed their arguments by downplaying the geo-political contexts which shaped his intellectual purposes. Yet his critics have neglected the fertility and range of his thought, aspects of which remain pertinent for those studying political thought in general and liberalism in particular.     

Strikes and Political Activism of Trade Unions: Theory and Application to Bangladesh

The behavior of Bangladeshi trade unions is characterized bypolitical activism and momentous strikes, called hartalsthere, have played a crucial part in most political changes inthis country. We offer a theoretical framework for discussingthis fact, and we test empirically its main prediction bybringing out the political cycle that characterizes theoccurrence of strikes in Bangladesh.     

Political Theory and the Agony of Politics

Mouffe, C. (2005) On the Political. Milton Park: Routledge.
Walzer, M. (2005) Politics and Passion: Towards a More Egalitarian Liberalism. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Arendt, H. (2005) The Promise of Politics , ed. J. Kohn. New York: Schocken Books.     

Between Psychoanalysis and Political Philosophy: Towards a Critical Theory of Political Myth

Abstract

This paper focuses on a specific aspect of political imaginaries: political myth. What are political myths? What role do they play within today's commoditized political imaginaries? What are the conditions for setting up a critique of them? We will address these questions, by putting forward a theory of political myth which situates itself between psycho analysis and political philosophy, in line with the tradition of critical theory that many still associate with the name of the Frankfurt School. We will first discuss the notion of political myth by illustrating the contribution of both disciplines to its understanding and then, through a discussion of the notion of social unconscious, we will apply this analysis to a contemporary example of political myth, that of a clash of civilizations.     

优化党内政治生态建设的动力机制——基于行动者-系统-动力学理论

新时代加强党内政治生态建设具有十分重要的政治价值、法律价值、社会价值和时代价值。从行动者-系统-动力学理论进行分析,目前党内政治生态建设动力机制还存在着主体困境、制度困境、环境困境方面的问题。优化党内政治生态建设的动力机制应进一步提升党内政治生态建设主体的责任意识和责任担当,构建完善的党内政治生态建设制度体系,培育有利于党内政治生态建设的环境氛围,以期能全面净化党内政治生态,逐步营造"以廉为荣,以贪为耻"的党内风气,推动社会风气持续好转。