Kuomintang Agonistes: Party Politics in the Wake of Taiwan's 2016 Elections

Taiwan's Kuomintang (KMT) lost badly in the 2016 elections. The KMT had not garnered favorable public opinion under the previous president, Ma Ying-jeou. Nor were Ma and his party seen as promoting a vision to put Taiwan first. Consequently, they were defeated soundly by the Democratic Progressive Party. This article addresses how the parties differ historically and why it matters what direction Taiwan's leadership takes in the future.     

美国选举安全问题:以2016年和2020年总统大选为例

2016年美国总统大选暴露了长期存在于该国选举体系中的风险,"选举安全"迅速成为当代美国国家安全与国土安全领域的重要议题。美国选举安全涉及网络安全、社会安全、政治安全与军事安全,体现出"复合安全问题"的特质。美国联邦与各州政府试图从降低关键基础设施风险、重建选民信任、减少部门壁垒以及填补机制缺失四个层面入手,系统性化解存在于选举系统的各类安全威胁。2020年美国大选期间,原有选举安全风险得到一定程度的缓解,但美国国家安全体制及文化与其选举安全体系的运行逻辑之间仍存在多层矛盾,特别是美国选举体系的产业市场与创新之间的矛盾、国家安全与"言论自由"之间的矛盾、"全政府"与"地方权"之间的矛盾、"网络自由"与"网络主权"之间的矛盾。这些矛盾会长期存在,将使利益攸关方不断发生龃龉,阻碍相关政策深入推进,最终导致美国在选举安全治理上将一直面临难以克服的困境。     

中美关系中的台湾问题:变化与影响

进入21世纪后,美国在插手、干涉台湾问题的同时,保持台海相对和平也已成为美国对华战略的重要内涵之一.这意味着中美在台湾问题上的冲突在一定程度上有所缓解.中美关系中的台湾问题将可能进入一个更为复杂,而冲突却有所缓解的新阶段.但由于美国不可能停止插手、干涉台湾问题,台湾问题将继续严重干扰中美关系.不过,中美双方越来越明确地认识到,保持中美关系相对稳定,发展中美更广泛的合作,符合双方在21世纪初期和更长时期的利益.这决定中美关系持续改善、发展的大趋势不会改变.     

在拉美所"2006年拉美大选的影响与拉美左派的发展" 研讨会上的讲话

2007年1月11日,“2006年拉美国家大选及其政治走向”课题结项暨拉美大选的影响与左派发展问题研讨会在拉美所召开。中国社会科学院副院长李慎民与会并发表主旨演讲,深刻分析了当前的世界格局和政治走向,拉美左派的发展对该地区形势的影响。现全文发表如下。     

Taiwan's Presidential and Legislative Elections

Taiwan's newly-elected president, Ma Ying-jeou, is determined to relax the tension that has gripped the Taiwan Strait for more than a decade. His positions during the election campaign were calculated to reassure both the Beijing government and the Taiwanese people. On the one hand, he made it clear that he would remove barriers to improved relations and reach out to the Chinese leadership. At the same time, he was equally clear in his commitment to protecting Taiwan's interests. Ma's positions strike a balance between preserving Taiwan's de facto political independence and moving toward a more constructive relationship with the mainland. This approach enjoys widespread popular support in Taiwan. Still, the devil is in the details, and implementing Ma's ideas will require cooperation from Beijing, and from other political actors within Taiwan itself.     

Eroding Democracy: Federal Intervention in Russia's Gubernatorial Elections

Under some conditions, electoral politics may undermine democratization, even when the elections themselves adequately meet the usual standards. To illustrate this point, the article examines the dynamics of gubernatorial elections held in the 89 regions that comprise the Russian Federation during the first term of President Vladimir Putin. The analysis considers whether pressure from the federal executive and strategic changes in election timing influenced the results of these elections. The study contends that Putin's experience with gubernatorial elections led him to question their value and, ultimately, to eliminate them. Meanwhile, several of Russia's governors sent clear signals that they did not value free and fair elections. Since governors presiding over Russia's poorest regions were also the ones most likely to be insulated from public accountability, voters saw little value in defending the institution of gubernatorial elections. This helps explain the lack of public outcry following Putin's decision.     

中期选举与未来美国政策走向

2006年的美国中期选举被看成美国选民对共和党政府伊拉克政策的公决,民主党的胜利被认为是对布什政府现行政策的否定,因此,布什政府包括伊拉克政策的内外政策将面临调整。就中美关系而言,选举结果影响有限,不至于改变中美关系大局。不过,这次选举虽然改变了美国政局和某些政策走向,但美国主流政治中间偏保守的性质并没有改变。     

Elections and democratization in Honduras since 1980

Although Central America returned to electoral rule during the 1980s, lack of participation, political violence and militarization meant that democracy remained decidedly limited. This articles outlines the particularities of the transition to constitutional government for the case of Honduras, and examines the role of successive electoral processes on prospects for democratic consolidation, focusing on the relationship between electoral processes and the nature of the party system. It is maintained here that whilst the longevity of the bipartisan system has been an important element of stability, the nature of the two dominant parties (Liberal and National) has hindered the consolidation of a more democratic politics. However, the article also argues that successive elections have been the catalyst for limited modernization of the party system and have increased citizenship confidence in the electoral process, and that this ‐together with a gradual reduction in the influence of the military ‐ has strengthened future prospects for deepening democracy. None the less, the article concludes that unless a new relationship is established between political parties and civil society to ensure a more representative and participatory form of politics, democracy will remain limited in Honduras.     

Elections and landmark policies in Tanzania and Uganda

Much of the relevant literature on Africa downplays the salience of elections for policy-making and implementation. Instead, the importance of factors such as clientelism, ethnicity, organized interest groups, and donor influence, is emphasized. We argue that, in addition, elections now motivate political elites to focus on policies they perceive to be able to gain votes. This is based on analyses of six landmark decisions made during the last 15 years in the social, productive, and public finance sectors in Tanzania and Uganda. Such policies share a number of key characteristics: they are clearly identifiable with the party in power; citizens are targeted countrywide; and policy implementation aims at immediate, visible results.     

Authoritarian Elections in Egypt: Formal Institutions and Informal Mechanisms of Rule

In recent years, electoral processes in non-democratic settings have been analysed either within the framework of transitology or disregarded entirely by scholars of comparative politics. Analysing the Egyptian case, this article proposes a different conceptual framework. The interaction between electoral institutions and authoritarian dynamics is conceptualized in terms of the relationship between formal and informal institutions. In the Egyptian authoritarian political system, informal mechanisms of neopatrimonial rule not only take precedence over formalized rules and procedures but integrate formal electoral institutions into the authoritarian system. Drawing on empirical evidence from legislative elections under the rule of President Husni Mubarak, this article identifies three main functions for electoral processes in non-democratic settings: (1) Electoral contests serve to periodically renew channels of clientelist inclusion, drawing both voters and deputies into networks of patronage culminating at the top of the political system. (2) Formal inclusion of parts of the opposition into the electoral arena enhances the range of means available to the ruling elite in order to control these actors. (3) Pitted against each other in electoral contests, individual members of the ruling elite's lower echelons are effectively controlled and tied to the informal structures of rule. Thus, the principal traits of the Egyptian neopatrimonial regime remain unchanged, with formal electoral processes subverted by informal institutions of authoritarian rule to an extent as to fulfil distinctly authoritarian functions.     

The 2000 General Elections and Presidential Run-off in Ghana: An Overview

The December 2000 general elections and presidential run-off in Ghana were arguably the most important since independence in 1957 and constituted a significant landmark in Ghana's democratic development. This article explains the reasons why, and offers a detailed account of the election campaign, an assessment of the quality of the electoral process and an analysis of the results. The opposition victory is explained in terms of several key factors, before concluding with regard to the positive implications for the consolidation of democracy in Ghana in the future.     

Campaigning for Capital: Fair Elections and Foreign Investment in Comparative Perspective

This article makes several contributions to the literature on political risk and the determinants of capital inflows. First, I clarify the relationship between capital flows and democracy’s constituent parts in a way that takes arguments beyond aggregate democracy indicators and static political institutional structures. Specifically, I argue that fair elections signal government respect for democracy and the rule of law in a highly visible manner investors can access. I show how investors therefore use the fairness of elections as a way to assess political risk and to inform their investment strategies. However, the type of investment and the kinds of evidence of electoral misbehavior condition elections’ influence on capital flows. I also disaggregate capital flows into foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment. I argue that the logic of investing is different in the short term (portfolio) versus the long term (FDI). When it comes to political risk, I provide evidence that portfolio investment is much more sensitive to risk factors than FDI because of the relative ease with which portfolio investors can extricate themselves from an increasingly risky market and seek safer returns elsewhere compared to direct investors.     

2006年中期选举对美国外交内政的影响

由于伊拉克问题的独特影响,美国2006年中期选举可谓是一次外交决定内政的选举。民主党的全胜使得这次选举成为1994年以来最重要的一次中期选举,它不仅决定了美国国会新的政党分野与权力布局,而且对美国的外交内政都产生了较大影响。外交方面,在可预见的一段时间内,国会的外交政策理念将呈现右倾趋势;伊拉克政策可能会出现一定程度的微调,但不会出现戏剧性的剧变;对华政策也可能出现一定的波动。内政方面,其直接影响主要体现在国内经济政策、非法移民政策与国内社会政治思潮等方面。     

The 2009 Elections and Iran's Changing Political Landscape

Iran's June 2009 elections set into motion four processes that are central to the operations of the Islamic Republic regime. They include: the growing gap between large sections of Iranian society from the Islamic Republican state; the steady militarization of the political system; the unprecedented degree to which the Supreme Leader has become an active partisan in the increasingly bitter political infighting among regime insiders, and—most significantly—the violent disruption of an emerging set of “rules of the game,” that previously served as a safety check against excessive factional infighting. This last consequence of the election and its aftermath is likely to leave its most enduring imprint on the State. Specifically, the elections have taken Iran from manageable factionalism to the brink of complete political paralysis. As such, given the untenability of the State's present predicament, far-reaching changes are almost certain to come.     

宪政民主下的埃及大选及其影响

举世瞩目的埃及大选尘埃落定。从历史角度看,20世纪是埃及宪政民主实践的重要历史时期。1952年以来,经过50多年的发展,埃及形成了富有特色的政治体制,实现了国家政治的稳定运行。最近十几年来,特别是伊拉克战争结束以来,美国出于改造中东的战略,直接施压,要求埃及进行政治改革,再加上美国“大中东倡议”的影响和埃及国内反对派的壮大,造成了埃及2005年宪法第七十六条修正案出台。修正案以及随后的埃及大选表明:埃及是成熟、自信的中东大国;埃及人民渴求政治稳定,并能处理好自己的事务;从短期看,大选的象征意义大于实际意义;但从长期看,它是埃及政治制度现代化新的里程碑,埃及政治民主化进程已是离弦之箭。     

Elections and political change in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina

This article examines attempts to use electoral politics to promote substantive political change in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Since 1990 elections have been a key part of virtually all negotiated agreements to end civil wars. The utility of democracy for building peace is often asserted but rarely backed with long-term commitment and resources on the ground. Bosnia since 1996 is a rare exception. There, international actors sought not only to establish a democratic political system but to use electoral democracy as a tool with which to transform the nature of politics in Bosnia in short order. This article focuses on efforts to shape the development of political parties and the party system, assesses the degree to which it has succeeded and examines the broader implications of Bosnia's experience for other state-building efforts of its kind.     

The National Press and Voting Turnout: British General Elections of 1992 and 1997

Britain is a good place to test hypotheses about the impact of the mass media on political attitudes and behavior, and this article uses the British Household Panel Survey to investigate the impact of the national daily press on turnout in the general elections of 1992 and 1997. The evidence does not support the hypothesis that reading a newspaper regularly helps to mobilize people on election day, but it also does not support the claim that the daily press--even the notorious British tabloid press--helps to induces political apathy. On the other hand, the evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that those whose political attitudes and party identification are reinforced by the paper they read regularly are significantly more likely to vote than those whose attitudes and ID are cross pressured by the paper they read. As predicted, this newspaper effect is statistically significant but not large. The newspaper effect is larger in the close-fought election of 1992 than in the landslide Labour victory in 1997. And it is larger for the "Labour reinforced" than the "Conservative reinforced." The article concludes that the British national press has a statistically significant effect on political behavior in the form of turnout in British elections, especially when election results are close. This, in turn, suggests that the extent to which the Conservative press dominated daily circulation in Britain during 1945-1992, may have helped the Conservative party win elections.