Typing Politics: The Role of Blogs in American Politics,by Richard Davis

The purpose of this paper is to advance our understanding of how negativity affects voters’ assessments of the positions candidates take on issues. We argue that the inferences people make about candidates’ positions on issues differ depending on whether the information they encounter comes from attack or self-promotional statements. Specifically, we posit that attacks offer two pieces of information to voters—insight into the positions of the target and the sponsor—whereas, positive information only affects perceptions of the sponsor. Further, we contend that attacks offer important correctives to candidates’ often misleading self-promotional claims. By drawing attention to the differences between the informational content of negative and positive appeals, we offer new insights into the inferences voters make about candidates’ positions on issues. We support these claims using data from an internet-based experiment employing a nationally representative sample of nearly 4,000 people. The paper concludes by teasing out a series of implications that arise from these insights.     

Communication,Politics, and the Notions of Martin Spencer

This essay calls attention to the work of sociologist Martin Spencer, who once offered an uncommon understanding of political communications in the United States. According to Spencer, public discourse not only propels action but constitutes action in and of itself on occasion. This means that political rhetoric can have both an injunctive effect on political actors and can also stand as a kind of completed “action” in its own right. The importance of these principles is examined here, and some of their implications are delineated.     

Leaders,Tenure, and the Politics of Sovereign Credit

Sovereign creditworthiness is as much a function of politics as economic fundamentals. Previous research has focused on the relationship between creditworthiness and political factors such as regime type, regional effects, and international organization membership. These factors, while important, often change slowly and do not always capture the more dynamic political determinants of creditworthiness. As an alternative, this study focuses on the role of leaders. We argue that leaders’ tenure reduces uncertainty in the sovereign credit market. Time in power allows leaders to better manage expectations related to sovereign credit policy of both domestic supporters and market actors. As a result, we expect that creditworthiness improves as a leader’s tenure increases. We find supporting evidence for our argument using two distinct empirical approaches: panel data analysis and a natural experiment. Our findings provide a better understanding of the relationship between leaders, politics, and sovereign credit.     

Population, Prophets, Pensions, and Politics

As immigrant populations in Western welfare states grow at a faster rate than the native populations, whose birthrates have declined dramatically in recent years, Europe's tradition of democracy and tolerance is threatened. The reasons for the birthrate decline and the resultant aging of the native population are many and complex, but one important contributing factor is the pay-as-you-go pension system, which reduces people's immediate dependence on children. Moreover, the payroll and social security taxes that support the welfare state reduce the earnings capacity of men and women of the traditional age for having children, thus pushing down the birthrate. It is time to consider whether modern Europe's small-size families and high pensions are sustainable     

性别、权力政治和国际关系

女性主义是唯一以性别作为理解世界政治的核心的理论。然而 ,以经典现实主义为代表的国际关系理论传统却忽视或否认国际关系中的性别问题。本文通过女性主义视角对权力政治加以重新评价 ,以反映性别与国际关系的关联性。第一部分主要借助汉斯·摩根索的著作来描述权力政治概念 ,揭示现实主义国际关系理论是构建在对政治人、国家和国际体系的男权主义表述上 ;第二部分则依靠性别对经典现实主义加以解构 ,主要从女性主义角度重新定义权力政治概念 ,并且通过对权力的多种来源、多层含义和广泛人性的表述 ,挑战现实主义理论范式 ;结论部分谈到女性主义将性别作为分析范畴引入国际关系研究的意义。     

区域化、区域政治与区域治理

区域化、区域政治与区域治理是全球化、全球政治与全球治理的重要组成部分,倍受重视,形式多样,并形成跨区域化与次区域化的突破.