Beyond Electocracy: Rethinking the Political Representative as Powerful Stranger

This year's Chorley lecture examines certain theoretical and practical questions concerning political representation in constitutional democracies and advances three claims. (1) That electocracy (rule by elections) reduces the role of citizens to a series of discrete choice points, often shifting the actual moment of choice to the politician. (2) That a preoccupation with winner-take-all elections encourages representatives in the US to see themselves as powerful strangers with a proprietary interest in their position. (3) That representatives can deepen democracy by functioning as catalysts for citizen involvement not just surrogates for citizen views or identities. Drawing on historic and contemporary examples of ordinary people who mobilize collectively to build new forms of citizen power before and after elections, Professor Guinier adapts the framework of collective efficacy to describe this conceptual move. She argues that vibrant constituencies of accountability can transform the representational relationship to reimagine democracy as self-governance not just self-government.     

Political Lawyers: The Structure of a National Network

Some research on lawyers active in politics has found that the ties among them create networks in which a center or core of influential actors is surrounded by more peripheral participants. Other studies, however, found more segmented networks, sometimes lacking central players. This research examines the structure and determinants of political ties among forty‐seven elite lawyers who served organizations prominent in fourteen national policy issues in 2004–05. The analysis finds a network structure that resembles a rough circle with Republicans on one side and Democrats on the other. Lawyers affiliated with organizations representing a broad constellation of interests are closer to the center of the network, while those working for specialized or narrow causes tend to be located in the periphery. Ties are more dense among conservatives than among liberals. Lawyers who work as organizational leaders or managers are more likely to be near the center than are litigators. Central actors contribute larger amounts to election campaigns. The organized bar, especially the American Bar Association, appears to provide links between liberals and conservatives in one segment of the network.     

Committee Inquiries in the Australian Parliament and their Influence on Government: Government Acceptance of Recommendations as a Measure of Parliamentary Performance

Committees in the Australian parliament often make recommendations to government and attempt to persuade the government to accept them. Using a sample of committee reports tabled between the 2001 and 2004 elections, this paper measures the government acceptance of committee recommendations as a proxy for committees' influence. On average, the government stated it accepted three majority recommendations out of 11 per report, although this figure drops to two and a half when viewed as recommendations implemented and not merely promised. The government accepted virtually no minority recommendations. The most important report characteristic is the extent to which it affects the government's reputation, but the breadth of political support that it can muster is also relevant.     

Lying as a Political Wrong

Law and Philosophy - In Speech Matters, Seana Shiffrin claims that certain lies should be tolerated on grounds of political inclusiveness. If political equality requires perfect compliance with...     

基于社会资本提升领导者权力性影响力的探讨

领导者权力性影响力是领导者有效管理组织的必要条件，因此，如何提升领导者的权力性影响力是一个值得我们研究的课题。近年来．随着竞争的不断加剧和环境不确定性的增加，社会资本在领导者有效管理组织中日益凸显其独特魅力.本文通过对领导者社会资本影响力的获取与权力性影响力之间关系的分析．认为领导者对社会资本的占有是提升其权力性影响力的重要途径．提出了领导者获得社会资本并借此提升其权力性影响力的建议．希望对领导者有效管理组织有所裨益.     

Senate Apportionment as a Source of Political Inequality

Political scientists have long known that the equal representation of states in the U.S. Senate and the placement of state lines might disadvantage politically relevant groups, granting some citizens greater voting weight in the chamber. Yet we lack systematic, longitudinal evidence that identifies the groups disadvantaged by Senate malapportionment, the sources of this disadvantage, and probes the policy consequences. In this article, I compare each state's liberalism and racial composition with its relative voting weight in the Senate over time. Additionally, I examine whether roll‐call coalitions in the Senate map onto these patterns of state ideology and racial composition.     

Citrate Content of Bone as a Measure of Postmortem Interval: An External Validation Study

The postmortem interval (PMI) of skeletal remains is a crucial piece of information that can help establish the time dimension in criminal cases. Unfortunately, the accurate and reliable determination of PMI from bone continues to evade forensic investigators despite concerted efforts over the past decades to develop suitable qualitative and quantitative methods. A relatively new PMI method based on the analysis of citrate content of bone was developed by Schwarcz et al. The main objective of our research was to determine whether this work could be externally validated. Thirty‐one bone samples were obtained from the Forensic Anthropology Center, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and the Onondaga County Medical Examiner's Office. Results from analyzing samples with PMI greater than 2 years suggest that the hypothetical relationship between the citrate content of bone and PMI is much weaker than reported. It was also observed that the average absolute error between the PMI value estimated using the equation proposed by Schwarcz et al. and the actual (“true”) PMI of the sample was negative indicating an underestimation in PMI. These findings are identical to those reported by Kanz et al. Despite these results this method may still serve as a technique to sort ancient from more recent skeletal cases, after further, similar validation studies have been conducted.     

规范网络政治参与：现代民主政治发展的新思路

网络在中国的迅猛发展,深刻地影响着公民的政治参与程度和热情,推进了现代民主政治的发展进程。本文从网络政治参与的内涵和特点入手,客观地分析了网络政治参与给我国民主政治建设、政治稳定等方面带来的双重影响,并提出规范网络政治参与的对策。     

The Nation as a Framework for Political Life

The stable existence of the state is impossible without nationalist discourse.     

作为公共生活技艺之道的政治哲学

政治哲学不但显现于伟大著作之中,而且是人们在公共领域的行为指南,成为对公共性商讨与争论的技艺之道。因此,当代政治哲学需要从理想彼岸的设计之思中解放出来。在公共生活中,政治哲学不仅是实然状态的反思与应然状态的解释,更是实现这种反思与解释的技艺之道。超越追求中立性政治真理的局限性,政治哲学需要为人的政治选择提供判断、决定、主张或服从的能力,这是它的实践性所在。这体现在:在超越追求客观共识的政治科学与追求最优结果的政治哲学之上的,是使人真正具备积极的批判思维能力、建设性的问题解决能力、完备的阐释能力、包容的沟通能力以及系统性的信息控制能力等为要件的作为公共生活技艺的政治哲学。由此,政治哲学不再是空中楼阁,既揭示了政治事务的争辩本性,又实现了人在追求理想政治状态过程中变得更加明智的价值追求。     

Unmasking the Crimes of the Powerful

Even in formally open, liberal, democratic states, a series of barriers exist as obstacles to critical criminologists who wish to conduct research that scrutinises the activities of powerful states and corporations. Much evidence suggests that in the current political climate, the barring of access to sources of data, neo-liberal re-configurations in the funding of research, and the narrowing of publishing and dissemination opportunities to counter-hegemonic voices are severely limiting the ability to conduct critical research. This article reports on recent experiences of researchers concerned with unmasking the crimes of the powerful and argues that, despite the obstacles power sources use to obscure and mystify the illegal and violent practices engaged in by states and corporations, there remains fertile space around research agendas, and in universities, for critical researchers to exploit. To gain insight from the ways in which researchers can, and do, establish alternative agendas, this article seeks to explore some of the principles that might inform and encourage those forms of resistance, and to establish how critical criminologists might continue to subject the powerful to scrutiny. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

主权:政治现实、道德理想与法治桥梁

准确把握主权概念是清晰理解国际法与国际关系的基础。只有消除一些误解和歧义才有可能树立正确的观念。就现实而言,主权是对内的命令、调控以及以此为基础的对外代表与参与,主要功能是政府对其行为与利益的辩护与防卫。其根源是社会分工形成的人群分层,并在此基础上形成的制度惯性以及人们对治理形式的路径依赖。其内核是无涉于道德和法律的。在认清主权的非社会契约性、非神圣绝对性之后,必须承认,主权在世界上仍会长期存在。因而有必要在人本主义的价值基点上塑造其理想,即要求主权发挥引领、代表、服务人民,在相互依赖、面临共同未来的人类处境中密切合作的职能。为此,有必要进一步完善权力—权利三角形,使主权的运作受国内宪政和国际法治的引导与制约,促进社会的健康和谐发展。     

The Consumer as the Empirical Measure of Trade Mark Law

Although consumer responses to signs and symbols lie at the heart of trade mark law, courts blow hot and cold on the relevance of empirical evidence – such as surveys and experiments – to establish how consumers respond to alleged infringing marks. This ambivalence is related to deeper rifts between trade mark doctrine and the science around consumer decision‐making. This article engages with an approach in ‘Law and Science’ literature: looking at how cognitive psychology and related disciplines conceptualise consumer decision‐making, and how counterintuitive lawyers’ approaches appear from this perspective. It demonstrates how, especially when proving confusion, decision‐makers in trade mark demand the impossible of empiricists and are simultaneously blind to the weaknesses of other sources of proof. A principled divergence, without seeking to collapse the gaps between legal and scientific approaches, but taking certain small steps, could reduce current problems of proof and contribute to better‐informed, more empirically grounded decisions.     

The MMPI-2 L Scale as a Measure of Impression Management After Receiving Test Information: a Case Report

Normally, high scores on the MMPI L (Lie) scale are associated with underreporting of symptoms. However, in certain circumstances, such as disability applications and personal injury litigation, individuals may be motivated to convey elevated symptomatology in combination with exaggerated portrayals of virtuosity and truthfulness. Information about tests may help guide this impression management pattern. The current case report illustrates these points and demonstrates that acquired information can motivate an individual, under the right circumstances, to increase their endorsement of uncommon virtues. Clinicians and forensic examiners are encouraged to remain alert to how test information interacts with an individual’s presentation motives.     

论非典事件对我国政治的影响

本文从多个角度分析了非典事件对我国政治的影响.认为非典疫情虽然直接危及的是人们的生命健康和社会经济的发展,但它挑战的对象则是我国政治体系的公共管理职能、权力运行方式、社会动员和整合资源的能力等.正是在应对这种挑战的过程中,中国政治获得了相应的进步.因此,如果说非典事件对我国经济影响在结果上主要是负面的话,那么其对政治的影响在结果上则主要是正面的.其影响主要来自三个方面一是疫情危机直接调动了政治体系潜在的一系列制度资源如政务信息公开、责任刚性、公共管理规范化等;这些制度资源在社会常态条件下是难以显现的;二是已调动的政治资源向社会常态管理领域的拓展;三是造成疫情蔓延的政治因素对政治体制改革的警示作用.     

The Jury as a Translation of Democratic Participation and Political Conflict

In this response to Valerie Hans's Presidential address, I use her “legal translating” term to argue that the implementation of liberal democratic structures in new democracies opens new opportunities to translate the jury system into and onto new democratic societies. While policy makers have concerns about the strength and vibrancy of lay participation in the legal system, policy makers' decisions to adopt trial by jury are not always democratic. Nonetheless, the consequence of the translation of trial by jury furthers democratic development. Using Nicaragua, Mexico, and Russia as case studies, I suggest that one goal of policy makers who attempt to adopt trial by jury is to reduce the discretionary power of judges who remain from the prior government. Comparative trial‐by‐jury research can contribute more to our understanding of democratic development than prior research has indicated.     

The Ru-net as a Mirror of Russia's Political and Ethnic Problems

A group of scholars presents the preliminary results of their research on ethnopolitical agendas found on the Russian Internet. The authors analyze the discourses of four Internet communities, including nationalists, leftists, liberals, and supporters of the party of power.