Congressional Oversight Hearings and Policy Control

Oversight hearings should be an important congressional tool for controlling recalcitrant agencies, but it is not clear that this should always be equally true. The logic of principal‐agent models of legislative policy control implies that oversight might sometimes, but not always, be superfluous to said control. Here, I reintroduce oversight hearings to theories of policy control and argue that congressional committees conduct oversight hearings primarily as a response to the extent to which agencies have different policy preferences from them and as a function of their capacity to conduct hearings cheaply. I test these hypotheses using committee hearings data (Policy Agendas Project) from both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate from 1947 to 2006 and provide support for theoretical arguments about the institutional nature of legislative policymaking strategies and ultimately help clarify the role of oversight in legislative‐executive relations.     

Electoral Reform and Changes in Legislative Behavior: Adoption of the Secret Ballot in Congressional Elections

There is widespread agreement that the Australian ballot fundamentally altered the American electoral system. One common approach to test the effects of ballot reform is to examine legislators elected under the party and secret ballot. An alternative research design, which we adopt here, compares changes in the behavior of legislators who were elected under both ballot types. We use this approach to investigate whether ballot reform directly influenced legislators' decisions to seek renomination and their behavior within the institution. Our results raise a number of important implications for understanding the effects of electoral reform on political behavior.     

人体器官移植立法问题探讨

近几年来 ,在人体器官移植方面我国出现了日趋活跃的地方性立法活动 ,但从全国范围来看 ,这些立法存在着一些问题 ,例如缺乏统一、存在空白、立法滞后等。建议我国立法者在进行人体器官移植立法时 ,针对国内立法存在的问题 ,借鉴国外人体器官移植的立法经验 ,采取不强求一步到位、先做到有法可依的立法主导思想 ,有步骤、有选择地进行立法。     

Congressional Constitutional Interpretation and the Courts: A Preliminary Inquiry into Legislative Attitudes, 1959–2001

Through theoretically informed inquiry into congressional attitudes toward the Constitution and the courts as well as survey research of two modem Congresses, this study considers the prospects and implications of a more salient legislative role in constitutional affairs. By analyzing survey responses from the 86th (1959–61) and 106th (1999–2001) Congresses, and the political context in which these views were formed, this essay explores the legislature's evolving conception of its role and capacities as a constitutional interpreter. Among other findings, Congress demonstrates a persistent and somewhat surprising interest in asserting an independent, distinctive constitutional voice, although it has somewhat conflicted and underdeveloped views about how to achieve this objective. While this essay points to significant barriers to fostering a coherent and forceful congressional presence in constitutional decision making, it also suggests institutional organizations and strategies that may be promising bases for promoting this goal.     

Networks in the Legislative Arena: How Group Dynamics Affect Cosponsorship

In this study, we explore the determinants of cosponsorship activity within state legislatures. Utilizing a social dynamic framework, we develop and test a model of the interplay of the activities of sponsorship and cosponsorship that includes both individual‐level and social network characteristics as determinants of agenda‐setting behavior; the latter demonstrating how collaboration and mutual interests shape the agenda‐setting process. We find several consistent factors that influence the frequency of cosponsorship activity: (1) ideological distance, (2) proximity of legislators' districts, (3) homophily (similar characteristics such as race, gender, and ethnicity), and (4) transitivity (the idea that friends of my friends are also my friends).     

官僚主义的治理：韦伯官僚制理论的启示

反对官僚主义是我国党和政府的一贯立场。本文通过对韦伯官僚制和我国国情的分析,指出官僚制是反对官僚主义的,“中国的问题在于官僚制不足”,提出充分发展官僚制,治理官僚主义。     

权力制约与监督机制问题刍议

权力制约和监督机制是我国政治文明建设的关键。失去制约和监督的权力必然导致腐败,对权力的制约和监督是反腐倡廉制度体系的核心,只有建立有效的权力制约和监督机制才能保证权力的正确运行。因此,权力制约和监督机制的建设具有根本性和全局性。制约是基础,监督是手段,机制是关键。     

区块链纠纷的民事管辖权配置:法理创新与立法应对

区块链的自动性与透明性特性使其具有增强交易主体彼此之间信任的功能,在民商事领域内被广泛推广,由此触发了越来越多的区块链纠纷。当前流行以区块链社区自治作为解决此类纠纷的管辖手段,其理论依据是区块链初创者主张的新主权主义。该理论过于强调区块链社区管辖,从而排除司法的管辖。需要重新审视区块链社区管辖权与司法管辖权之间的辩证统一关系,实现司法管辖为主、社区自治为辅的和谐统一。基于区块链自身的特性,一般法院管辖中的原告就被告原则难以适用,专属法院管辖于法无据,应通过修改相关法律来解决这些难题,包括拓展原告所在地管辖原则的适用和增加新的管辖连接点,以及在条件成熟之际建立区块链法院,实现区块链纠纷的专属管辖。     

Legislative Institutions as a Source of Party Leaders' Influence

Legislators' actions are influenced by party, constituency, and their own views, each weighted differently. Our survey of state legislators finds that legislator's own views are the strongest influence. We also find that institutions are an important source of party leaders' influence. Legislators in states where members rely more on party leaders—states without term limits, with less professional legislatures, and where the majority party controls the agenda—put more weight on leaders' preferences. Beyond direct party influence, the views of party leaders are preemptively incorporated into legislators' preferences when the rules of the legislature make party leaders more powerful.     

危险驾驶罪的立法理念与立法完善探讨

刑法修正案（八）首次将＂醉驾＂、＂飙车＂行为以危险驾驶罪入刑。鉴于民众甚至司法人员对该罪的认识上和操作中均存在不少亟待澄清和回应的问题,诸如该罪立法理念上与刑法谦抑性是否存在着矛盾和冲突？如何认识和处理该罪中＂罪过倒挂＂问题？如何理解和适用该罪的追诉时效问题？如何看待和处理该罪的行为方式过窄的问题？通过对以上诸问题进行阐释进而提出了完善相关立法的构想及其路径。     

The Debate over Police Reform: Examining Minority Support for Citizen Oversight and Resistance by Police Unions

Researchers have argued that the creation of citizen oversight often involves debate between those that support its use and the police which do not. Police unions, for example, have a long history of objecting to the creation of oversight, especially during collective bargaining. Minority demands for police reform, on the other hand, can lend support for its implementation, especially after a highly publicized case of misconduct between the police and minority citizens. Using a retrospective approach, this study examined the extent to which these opposing forces influenced the existence of oversight. Findings suggest that departments that engage in collective bargaining were no more likely to use an oversight agency than departments that did not engage in collective bargaining. Cities with large percentages of African Americans, however, were more likely to have an existing oversight agency.     

Military Base Closures and the 1996 Congressional Elections

This article examines the extent to which changes in distributional benefits influence congressional election outcomes. Although conventional wisdom holds that a direct link exists between distributional benefits and electoral outcomes (Mayhew 1974b), recent evidence suggests that this link only exists under certain circumstances (Stein and Bickers 1994). In this article, I use 1995 military base closures to test the nature of the relationship. Contrary to recent research on the politics of pork barreling, my findings indicate support for a direct relationship between major base realignments and closures and House electoral outcomes. Specifically, major realignments and closures significantly decreased first‐year Democrats' vote margins in the 1996 House elections.     

Ideological and Theoretical Discussions Surrounding the Problem of Bureaucracy

In the present-day world, acute ideological discussions are developing around the problem of bureaucracy. Participants in these discussions, which are growing in number, often demonstrate a fundamentally divergent understanding of the given problem. This is a manifestation of the differences in the objective historical situations and ideological-theoretical traditions within whose framework these discussions occur; of the differences in the class and social status of their participants; and, finally, of the differences in the specific varieties and consequences of bureaucracy that people encounter firsthand in different countries.     

立法权去中心化与立法模式转变

立法权本应属于人民全体,只是交由代议机关行使,但是立法权的所有与行使的分离使其有被滥用的可能,由此导致立法权在行使时出现趋中心化:立法权绝对化、非理性化、将立法权而不是公民作为立法过程的核心。因此,应着力实现立法权的去中心化,实现立法权行使范围和方式的变革。立法模式应该实现由单一政府立法到政府立法与社会立法相结合的转变,更多地发挥公众、社会团体和专家的实质性作用。     

论经济特区立法权和立法体制的完善

<立法法>的颁布实施为解决现存问题提供了一些法律依据,同时又出现一些新的问题,急需在理论上加以探讨和澄清,才能完善经济特区的立法权和立法体制.     

Legislative duty and the independence of law

This essay considers the nature of duties incumbent on legislators in virtue of the office itself. I argue that there is no duty for a legislator to enact a criminal law based on morality; there is no duty to incorporate substantive moral conditions into the criminal law; and there is therefore no duty derivable from the nature of the legislative office itself to make conditions of culpability depend on those of moral responsibility. Finally, I argue that the relation between morality and the criminal law is therefore much less direct than assumed in most theories of the criminal law.     

Bicameralism and Minority-Party Influence on Legislative Development: Evidence from House Standing Committee Votes

The ability of the minority party to influence legislation in Congress is debated. Most bills are passed with large bipartisan majorities, yet the House, where most legislation is developed, is seen as a majority-party-dominated institution. I develop a theory of House minority-party influence at the committee markup stage as a result of the Senate’s institutional rules. An original data set of congressional committee votes shows that minority-party support in House committees predicts House and Senate passage. During unified party control of the chambers, an increase in Senate majority-party seats results in lower minority-party support for the legislation in the House committee, while during divided party control of Congress, the House majority passes more extreme bills as the chambers polarize. Even in the majority-party-dominated House, the minority’s preferences are incorporated into legislation, and the Senate’s institutional rules moderate bills to a significant degree.     

论刑法立法解释权与立法权和司法权的纠葛

刑法立法解释权的产生和发展,导致这一权力同立法权和司法(解释)权产生了冲突,使得刑法解释权力体制产生了新变化。现实中,刑法立法解释权同立法权之间产生了混淆,进而因为这一权力的混淆,类推性立法解释的溯及既往造成了对被告人权利的侵犯。同时,由于解释对象和方式的混同,刑法立法解释权又同司法解释权发生运用的重合,深刻地影响了最高人民法院、最高人民检察院的刑事司法解释权的格局。     

火耗归公与集权低能——关于清代官僚制度的一个实证分析

中国古代官僚政治具有高度集权与极端低能的双重特点。以往的研究多依据“国家%D%D社会”的宏观理论探寻二者的关系。这种方法虽有很大启发意义 ,但也容易失之宽泛、抽象 ,缺乏对具体历史现象的解释力。本文选择专制集权官僚政治最后和最典型的代表———清代官僚政治作为研究对象。以清代著名财政改革“火耗归公”为切入点 ,力图用经济分析的方法从微观角度揭示过度集权与低能混乱间微妙的正相关联系。并在此基础上探讨集权低能体制的成因与制度后果。     

How to Clean Out the Augean Stable of Our Bureaucracy

The authors consider possible ways to reform decision-making procedures for the hiring of personnel for state service.