Income Inequality and Demand for Redistribution: A Multilevel Analysis of European Public Opinion

This article employs multilevel modeling to assess the importance of income inequality on the demand for redistribution in a sample of 22 European countries. According to standard political economy models of redistribution – notably the Meltzer-Richard model – inequality and demand for redistribution should be positively linked. However, existing empirical research has disputed this claim. The main advantages of this article is that demand for redistribution is measured at the individual level, and that the relevant interaction between inequality and own income is considered. The main findings are that inequality is positively associated with demand for redistribution, and that the median income person is sensitive to the level of inequality. These findings are robust to the inclusion of a range of relevant control variables. The results are relevant in relation to the increase in inequalities in many European countries, and especially relevant to the current debate about the importance of directly observable differences in public preferences for social policy outcomes.     

Focusing Events and Public Opinion: Evidence from the Deepwater Horizon Disaster

Scholarly research has found a weak and inconsistent role for self-interest in public opinion, and mixed evidence for a relationship between local pollution risks and support for environmental protection. In this study, I argue that focusing events can induce self-interested responses from people living in communities whose economies are implicated by the event. I leverage a unique 12-wave panel survey administered between 2008 and 2010 to analyze public opinion toward offshore oil drilling before and after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. I find that residence in counties highly dependent upon the offshore drilling industry was predictive of pro-drilling attitudes following the spill, though not prior to the spill. In addition, there is no significant evidence that residence in a county afflicted by the spill influenced opinion. This study concludes that local support for drilling often arises only after focusing events make the issue salient.     

公共政策私用现象探析

公共性作为公共政策的基本属性,在实践中面临诸多被背离的风险,公共政策私用现象便是对公共政策之公共性的严重侵蚀,需引起理论和实务界的关注与研究.公共政策之所以被私用,有源自政策主体、政策客体和政策环境方面的综合性诱因,其不良后果体现为浪费社会公共资源、折损政策主体公信力、破坏市场机制运行以及政策法规作用的发挥.要治理公共政策私用,需重视公共选择的作用,拓宽公众参与渠道;加快政治体制改革,协调权利关系;设置专门的政策监督机构等.     

Public Housing Residence and College Performance: Evidence From the Nation's Largest Urban Public University

Despite clear implications for human capital accumulation, there has been little research on the postsecondary educational experiences of students living in public housing. While there is significant and growing research exploring outcomes for public housing tenants, even in the education sphere, little of this work focuses on postsecondary outcomes and what role, if any, public housing plays in human capital accumulation. Our case study, New York City, is home to both the nation's largest urban public university system and the largest public housing authority. In this work, we use matching techniques to identify and describe the residential characteristics of students at the City University of New York. We explore how students who live in public housing developments differ from their peers in terms of characteristics associated with success in college, including demographics, neighborhood poverty, and high school preparation. We use regression techniques to test the relation between public housing residence, neighborhood income, and two indicators of early college performance: successful completion of credits attempted and one-year retention. In a naive model (including only residence and high school characteristics), public housing residence is negatively associated with our outcomes of interest, but less so when we control for other factors, including neighborhood income. Specifically, for students pursuing an associate's degree, we find a negative relation between public housing residence and credit completion and a less pronounced negative relation with retention. We find no significant relation between public housing residence and either baccalaureate outcome.     

The Sophisticated Public: The Effect of Competing Frames on Public Opinion

Deliberation is the current buzzword among democratic thinkers. Deliberative democracy assumes that deliberation has an effect on the people engaging in the deliberative process. Several studies have demonstrated that this is indeed the case: deliberation increases political knowledge and opinion consistency, as well as mutual understanding and broader tolerance among citizens. In order to verify the findings from these studies and to confront the problems of internal and external validity in the previous studies of deliberation, alternative methodological designs must be applied. Applying an experimental split-sample design using CATI on the Danish electorate reveals how arguments and frames influence public opinion. Across various frames and arguments and political issues, positive (negative) arguments tend to push opinions in a positive (negative) direction. When competing frames are presented to the public, people submit to neither ambivalence nor non-attitudes. Quite to the contrary, people tend to follow their predisposition and provide more consistent opinions. Thus, deliberation composed of various competing frames and arguments facilitates – rather than distorts – sophisticated and considered public opinion.     

监督舆论与舆论监督:网络公民权利与公共权力的进退与平衡

监督舆论与舆论监督是话语干涉的两种形式,存在主体性、结果性、立场性、技术性的权力差异。监督舆论形成公共权力的积极进制、消极进制、无效进制,引导舆论朝着积极正向的方向发展,但也易造成舆论的说教化与虚假化。舆论监督形成公共权力的强制化、主动化、圈层化、边缘化的退制,适应公意的变化,提倡公民权利约束公共权力,保证权力运行的合法化与公开化,存在舆论控制权力的风险,出现群体审判与群氓政治的现象。监督舆论与舆论监督应达到有限性平衡、动态性平衡、有效性平衡、竞争性平衡,保证公共权力与公民权利的相互制衡,达到善治的目的,进而实现公共权力与舆论机制的优化,促进社会现代化的和谐发展。     

以商谈求共识:行政决策听证中公共意愿的形成

在当前利益主体多元化、利益矛盾加剧的背景下,推进和完善行政决策听证需要解决的一个关键性问题,在于如何协调差异和矛盾,聚集民意,以便为政府决策提供价值前提。协商共识理论为深化行政决策听证的研究提供了新的指向;行政决策听证的功能在于为理性论辩提供建制化空间以集结民意,制约行政决策;在听证议题的形成、听证代表的遴选、话语规范的确立及其制度保障等主要环节中,通过制度程序的建构,排除权力和金钱的侵入,在平等协商对话中整合利益,集结公共意愿。     

从“放权让利”到“公共财政”——中国财税改革30年

中国财税体制经过30年的改革与探索，经历了从“放权让利”到“公共财政”的发展历程，归纳起来为四个阶段。第一阶段：1978～1994年，通过“放权让利”激发各方面改革的积极性，提高在传统经济体制下几乎窒息的国民经济的活力；第二阶段：1994—1998年，这一阶段的改革突破了以往“放权让刹”思想的束缚，走上了转换机制、制度创新之路，重构了适应社会主义市场经济体制的财政体制；第三阶段：1998—2003年，主要以规范政府收支行为及其机制为主旨的“税费改革”，由此构建了我国公共财政基本框架；第四阶段：2003年至今，进一步健全和完善公共财政体制，谋划进一步推进公共财政建设适应现代化发展需要的改革举措。     

农村税费改革：利益关系的调整与完善

税制作为一项重要的资源配置制度,体现了不同主体之间的利益分配关系。农村税费改革本身井不是单纯的“费改 税”或减轻农民经济负担问题,它的实质内容是国家、集体和农民利益关系的调整。现行的税费改革试点方案仍需要改进和 完善。     

Is Private Delivery of Public Services Really Cheaper? Evidence from Public Road Maintenance in Denmark

It is a general finding that cost savings may be obtainedby involving the private sector in publicservice production. This fact should be ofparticular interest to countries with largepublic sectors, such as the Scandinaviancountries, where private involvement has alarge potential. This paper investigatesthis potential by focusing on the Danishroad sector. 275 municipalities areresponsible for the maintenance ofapproximately 60,000 km of Denmark's70,000 km public roads. The analysisconfirms the international evidence:Involving the private sector also seems tomake it possible for the public sector toobtain large cost savings in theScandinavian countries.