The political economy of distribution in developing countries: A rent-seeking approach

Economic development in many Third World countries after independence has been biased in the sense that some, mainly urban, social groups have gained much more than the majority of the population who lives in rural areas or urban shantytowns. That bias is to a large extent caused by government policy and, accordingly, by an uneven distribution of political influence. This paper contains an analytical model reflecting the bias in the distribution of the benefits and costs of public sector activities, where those activities are determined by the distribution of political influence. The main elements of the distribution of political influence are determined in a rent-seeking game between society' different social groups.     

新时代加强党员政治纪律意识的途径探讨

党的十八大以来,以习近平同志为总书记的党中央反复要求党员干部必须严守"党的纪律"和"党的规矩",并多次强调"党的政治纪律和政治规矩"是事关党的路线、立场和事业兴衰的关键。具体落实,就是要求广大党员增强政治纪律意识。党员的政治纪律意识的强弱关系到党的团结统一、党决策的贯彻落实。从严治党以来,部分党员仍然出现了例如妄议中央、搞小山头等一系列问题,影响恶劣。只有党员干部带头,并且完善党内制度、加强外部监督,才能促进党员政治意识的提高,实现从严治党。     

The operational code approach to profiling political leaders: understanding Vladimir Putin

Content analytics applied to open source material can assist in understanding, predicting, and influencing the behavior of foreign political leaders. We provide evidence to this effect by profiling Russian President Vladimir Putin, who remains a source of consternation to the academic, intelligence, and policy communities. We apply the operational code scheme to a corpus of over one million words spoken by Putin across his time in office, and use the results to adjudicate between the competing portraits of him in the extant literature. We find Putin to hold broadly mainstream beliefs about international politics, albeit qualified by hyper-aggressiveness toward terrorism and a startling preoccupation with political control. His approach is that of an opportunist rather than a strategist. These data represent a stream of information that must be combined with other sources and integrated, through policy judgment, into a comprehensive approach to a foreign political leader.     

The economic approach to political behavior: Governors,bureaucrats, and cost commissions

Cost control commissions provide two primary types of recommendations: widespread benefits-widespread costs and widespread benefits-narrow costs. Both types of recommendations are not of the form predicted by the standard economic models of political behavior. The paper explores why governors sanction these commissions and the types of recommendations governors will accept. Legislators use the maxim of concentrate benefits-spread costs to maximize votes. Governors, however, face a lower return to concentrated benefit policies and a lower cost from concentrated cost policies. This leads a governor to favor at the margin, policies which have widespread benefit-widespread cost or widespread benefit-concentrated cost. Evidence from 5 state cost control commissions support the difference between the politicians. The cost control commissions sanctioned by governors have proposed recommendations of the widespread benefit-widespread cost and widespread benefit-concentrated cost form. Governors accepted approximately two-thirds of the widespread benefit-concentrated cost proposals, although they were more likely to accept recommendations of the widespread benefit-widespread cost nature. Recommendations which required legislative approval saw a lower likelihood of acceptance. This is consistent with the view that legislators prefer concentrated to widespread benefit recommendations. qu][The politician's] favorite strategy is to create a commission to study a problem and make recommendations that may then be used as political cover. Call it government by commission.     

"信息实践"及其哲学意蕴

在哲学上“信息”可以被理解为标志“间接存在”的哲学范畴，是物质（直接存在）存在方式和状态的自身显示。信息时代的实践是“物质实践”与“信息实践”的辩证统一。“物质实践”是实践的物质方面，是实践活动围绕事物“直接存在”而展开的方面；“信息实践”是实践的信息方面，是围绕事物“间接存在”而展开的方面。信息时代使以往在实践中居于矛盾次要方面的信息实践逐渐上升到矛盾的主要方面，标志着人存在方式的变革。“信息实践”不仅能较好地反映这种变革，而且还揭示出人只有改变对待实践的直观态度，克服在存在方式上的盲目性，才能获得新的发展。     

Capacity for public administration: analysis of meaning and measurement

Public administration researchers and practitioners have placed a heavy emphasis on the theme of programme performance. More recently, there has been a growing sentiment in the literature about the integral role of organisational capacity in achieving performance. While this is often expressed in the (re)iteration of a ‘management matters’ mantra, we see some disarray in the broader capacity literature both in definition and application. As scholars call for more integrated models of governance that link, for example, capacity and performance, we see a growing need for an analysis of the concept of capacity. Using bibliometric and content analyses to explore scholarly treatment of capacity constructs, this article assesses whether the perceived disarray is real, and if so what consequences it might have. We do so by reporting on capacity's meaning and measurement through an analysis of four decades of the private, public and nonprofit management literatures. While specific definitions of capacity are, by nature, context dependent, we conclude by distilling a general, conceptual framework of capacity for public management researchers and practitioners. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The formation and structure of political belief systems

Do large numbers of people possess the ability to relate to political events in a systematic way? Is this ability shown in the formation of relatively coherent systems of beliefs about politics? To deal with these questions, this article develops and tests a model of the cognitive process by which individuals form and organize beliefs about politics. The model explains the formation of political belief systems and successfully predicts their structure. The model also provides an integrative focus for the literature on political rationality and “issue voting,” and on the relationship between political attitude and political behavior.     

Committee structure and political preferences: The case of Norwegian local government

Abstract.  In Norway, as in the other Nordic countries, sector-based policy making in local government is considered a problem as it is alleged to take place at the expense of a more integrated approach. Inspired by American rational choice theories on committee power, this article first sets out to establish whether the distributive rationale of the present committee system actually does promote sector-orientation among local politicians. This approach is challenged by alternative theories on committee power, focusing on the informational rationale in specialisation and the relevance of partisanship . The findings suggest that all the three theories explain in part committee member' preferences, but partisanship is most important for explaining both spending preferences and preferences on organisational forms. The article goes on to explore whether recent local council reforms, intended to replace the sector-oriented system with strong committees by a new de-specialised system with weaker committees, are likely to curb the effect of sector on committee members' preferences. The conclusion here is not easy to draw, but it is clear that sector-orientation is not encouraged by the reforms; in fact, the opposite seems to be the case. What local councils may have overlooked, however, is the influence of the informational rationale on committees and their members. The analyses are based on data obtained from a random sample of 119 of Norway's 435 municipalities.     

The views of an advocatus dei: political marketing and its critics

This paper addresses 11 statements of criticism of political marketing. These statements represent the most commonly voiced issues and were collected from marketers and political scientists. While marketing theorists are more concerned with the state of political marketing theory, political scientists concentrate much of their criticism on aspects of political marketing management as it is experienced in practice. Each statement is discussed and general conclusions are identified. While presenting the personal opinion of the author (advocatus dei), these conclusions and statements concerning political marketing should foster critical discourse on issues such as political marketing management, concepts and ethics. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications     

思想政治新课程的新特点及教师的适应性要求

思想政治新课程正在顺利实施。新课程对思想政治教师的专业发展提出了新理念。为了适应新课程发展的要求,提高思想政治课教师适应新课程的对策有:在保持理论课程的科学性和正确的政治方向的前提下,尽可能系统地学习艺术修养课;把心理健康教育作为思想政治教育的辅助课程;灵活的运用"以直接感知为主的方法"的教学手段。     

The political nature of brand governance: a discourse analysis approach to a regional brand building process

The present paper takes the empirical phenomenon of place branding as an appropriate point of view to understand the communicative process of brand governance in the realm of the public. The paper explores the modalities through which a brand governance emerges as a negotiated and contested mechanism reproduced through language. By drawing on the analytical approach of interpretative repertoires, the analysis demonstrates that a process of governance can be seen as a ‘text’ in a constant state of negotiation in which the level of involvement in the brand building process can be discursively contested, with language illustrating the ways in which different actors express their positionalities (hegemonic or subalternate). The analysis suggests that this can be seen as a power political process in which politics of space and time are expressed linguistically by the different actors involved in brand governance. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A new political system model: Semi‐parliamentary government

Semi‐parliamentary government is a distinct executive‐legislative system that mirrors semi‐presidentialism. It exists when the legislature is divided into two equally legitimate parts, only one of which can dismiss the prime minister in a no‐confidence vote. This system has distinct advantages over pure parliamentary and presidential systems: it establishes a branch‐based separation of powers and can balance the ‘majoritarian’ and ‘proportional’ visions of democracy without concentrating executive power in a single individual. This article analyses bicameral versions of semi‐parliamentary government in Australia and Japan, and compares empirical patterns of democracy in the Australian Commonwealth as well as New South Wales to 20 advanced parliamentary and semi‐presidential systems. It discusses new semi‐parliamentary designs, some of which do not require formal bicameralism, and pays special attention to semi‐parliamentary options for democratising the European Union.     

Colombia: new approach to guerrilla threat

Colombia is reassessing its approach to its decades-long struggle against guerrillas and criminal gangs. It is embarking on reforms of its security services and legal system as part of its efforts to tackle a new hybrid threat: groups with the military know-how of insurgents and the adaptability of criminal actors.     

The European Court of Justice and its political impact

This article reviews recent advances in the study of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and its political impact at the European and member state levels. New quantitative as well as qualitative analyses show with great empirical precision that member state preferences guide the Court. The article summarises these findings, but argues that greater attention needs to be given to the (over-)constitutionalisation of EU law in order to fully capture the political impact of ECJ jurisprudence. Even if European judges are less activist than is often assumed and individual decisions are more restrained in the face of member state opposition, incrementally, case law evolves in a highly expansive fashion. And, exercising caution regarding unrealistic expectations about quasi-deterministic judicial law-making, it is found that the Court’s constitutionalised jurisprudence impacts heavily on European and member state policy-making.     

The new Korean political economy: beyond the models of capitalism debate

Abstract

A key theme within the literature on the evolution of the Korean political economy since the 1997/8 crisis has been the extent to which Korea remains a ‘developmental state’ or has pursued radical neoliberal reform. These debates have not only reflected a concern with understanding the Korean economy but with a wider set of questions relating to the future of capitalist diversity within a globalized economy. By the late 1980s Korea had come to be regarded as a model of successful state-led late capitalist development. Korean modern economic history has insured that questions relating to the extent that it has pursued neoliberal reform have been of keen interest to students of political economy globally. This paper argues that substantive neoliberal reform has taken place in Korea since 1997. The thesis that a new ‘developmental state’ is in process of consolidating itself is simply wrong. However, the state's reform program interacted with material conditions and political coalitions at the meso level in a complex and uneven manner. In certain critical sectors, such as finance, a neoliberal regulatory regime has been consolidated. In others, such as telecommunications, developmentalist regulatory structures have proven to be highly resilient. In order to fully understand the complexity of the contemporary Korean political economy it is necessary, therefore, to prioritize the importance of meso-level analysis.     

社会主义民主政治建设的内在结构

发展社会主义民主政治是党的执政能力的重要体现。民主政治建设是一个复杂的系统性工程,其中政治价值、政治制度和政治主体是三个根本性的维度。社会主义政治价值的确立和发展是与之相适应的民主政治体系得以确立的一个重要的前提条件;社会主义政治制度建设体现这一政治价值,并为这一政治价值的实现提供保障;社会主义政治价值和政治制度都应是为实现绝大多数政治主体的根本利益服务的,离开政治主体,政治价值的创新和政治制度的维系都是不可能的。推进社会主义民主政治建设,要注意这一系统内不同方面、不同层次诸多内容的统筹兼顾。     

The political opportunity structure of the Dutch peace movement

This article analyses the political opportunity structure of the Dutch political system with respect to new social movements in general, and the Dutch peace movement in particular. It is shown that the prevailing strategy of the Dutch political system is one of integration, and that the dominant party on the left (the Social Democratic Party) went through a process of transformation which opened it up to the new challengers at precisely the moment when the cycle of protest of the new social movements took off. The consequences of the high degree of openness of the Dutch system are then documented on the basis of a detailed analysis of the alliance structure of the Dutch peace movement.