The webs of belief around ‘evidence’ in legislatures: The case of select committees in the UK House of Commons

A wide‐ranging literature has explored the relationship between research, knowledge and policy. However, legislatures have often been overlooked in this research. While some studies have looked at ‘who has access’, the literature on how parliaments seek to engage with knowledge claims is particularly scarce. This article addresses this gap through a case study of UK select committees. By adopting an interpretive lens, the article explores how MPs and officials make sense of evidence in committee settings. It finds that legalistic definitions around ‘evidence’ shape wider beliefs in how to engage with knowledge claims and the practices of undertaking inquiries, and are underpinned by a distinctly political function of knowledge use in politics. Beliefs around evidence have significant repercussions and highlight tensions (i) around the authority of committee reports, (ii) between epistemic and democratic claims and (iii) with respect to who is included and who is excluded.     

Managing policy‐making in the local climate governance landscape: The role of network administrative organizations and member cities

Trans‐municipal networks (TMNs) have reshaped the landscape around local government action on global climate policy. Past research has focused on why cities join TMNs and the impact that membership has on local action. This study considers a potential reverse effect: namely, that cities' membership choices position them to influence TMNs' overall priorities. In considering this, we emphasize the role of network administrative organizations (NAOs) and posit that the multiple climate‐related networks, which share members and operate in overlapping geographic and issue spaces, are bound together as part of a meta‐network. We utilize social network analysis and data on membership in four climate‐related TMNs to examine the factors that shape how cities can influence meta‐network priorities. We find that cities with local vulnerabilities tend to be located in network positions that enable them to influence the meta‐network's overall priorities.     

Multiwinner approval voting: an apportionment approach

Public Choice - To ameliorate ideological or partisan cleavages in councils and legislatures, we propose modifications of approval voting in order to elect multiple winners, who may be either...     

The changing role of the Prime Minister's Office†

Abstract. It is impossible to understand how the Prime Minister's Office has evolved without a clear appreciation of the prime minister's ‘office’ - his powers, responsibilities and influence. By the ‘office’ of prime minister, I am referring not only to his role as shaped by constitutional custom and usage, but also to his contemporary leadership role in its widest context. The ‘raison d'être’ of the Prime Minister's Office is to serve the prime minister in the discharging of all his responsibilities - as leader of the Canadian people, as head of the government and of the administration, as chief spokesman within the House of Commons, and as leader of a particular political party. His Office reflects, in large measure, his priorities, thinking, personality and style. Today, more than ever before, however, die Prime Minister's Office reflects the increasing burden and changing emphasis of his many responsibilities. Herein lies the principal theme and thrust of this paper. Only by defining what the contemporary prime minister does can we appreciate the task of the Office that helps him to do it. This paper is, therefore, divided into two major parts: the first one is entitled the office of prime minister and attempts to describe in a summary way the powers, functions and contemporary role of die prime minister; the second one is entitled the Prime Minister's Office and analyses how the Prime Minister's staff provides him with the assistance he requires in the discharging of his many responsibilities. I conclude with some brief personal thoughts about possible future developments of the office of the prime minister and the Prime Minister's Office. Sommaire. Il est impossible de camprendre l'évolution du Cabinet du Premier Ministre si l'on n'a pas une idée Claire de la charge de premier ministre, c'est-à-dire de ses attributions, de ses pouvoirs et de son influence. Par charge, j'entends non seulement le rôle de premier ministre tel que l'ont façonné les us et coutumes constitutionnels, mais aussi, au sens le plus large, ce rôle de meneur d'hommes qui est devenu le sien dans notre monde contemporain. La raison d'être du Cabinet du Premier Ministre est de l'aider à assumer toutes ses responsabilités de chef du peuple canadien, de chef du gouvernement et de la fonction publique, de premier porte-parole à l'interieur de la Chambre des Communes, et de chef d'un parti politique. Dans une large mesure, son Cabinet est à l'image de sa personnalité, de son style, de sa pensée et de ses objectifs. Cependant, aujourd'hui plus que jamais, ce qui marque surtout son Cabinet, c'est le fardeau croissant de ses nombreuses responsabilités, aux solicitations toujours mouvantes. C'est là le thème majeur que j'entends développer. Ce n'est qu'en précisant ce que fait le premier ministre actuel que nous pourrons apprécier à sa juste valeur la tâche du Cabinet qui le seconde. Le présent exposé est, par conséquent, divisé en deux parties: la première, sous le titre de “La charge de premier ministre”, décrit brièment les attributions, les pouvoirs et le rôle actuel du premier ministre; la seconde, intitulée “Le Cabinet du Premier Ministre”, analyse la manière dont l'équipe du premier ministre lui apporte l'aide dont il a besoin pour assumer ses multiples responsabilités Je conclurai par quelques vues personnelles sur l'évolution possible de la charge de premier ministre et du Cabinet du Premier Ministre.     

Relational legal consciousness in the punitive welfare state: How Dutch welfare officials shape clients' perceptions of law

With a growing number of strict obligations and harsh sanctions for welfare recipients, the Netherlands has increasingly become a punitive welfare state. This article looks at what this means for welfare clients and their commonsense understandings of the law. To analyze how welfare officials shape clients' legal consciousness, I draw on an online survey among Dutch welfare clients (N = 1305) and a correlation analysis. The findings show that there is a clear relationship between welfare clients' own legal consciousness and their assessment of welfare officials' beliefs about the law. However, not all elements of their legal consciousness are relationally influenced by the same factors. Also, clients' self-reported compliance behavior is less relationally influenced than other elements of their legal consciousness. This study adds to our understanding of the mechanisms that constitute the production of relational and second-order legal consciousness and it contributes to the development of new research methods to study people's perceptions of law.     

Participatory numbers for integrating knowledge and actions in development

This article discusses the opportunities and challenges associated with the use of quantitative participatory methods and participatory numbers for integrating locals’ and outsiders’ knowledge, as well as actions from the bottom-up and top-down, in development. It places emphasis on the contribution of quantitative participatory methods and participatory numbers to foster dialogue between a wide range of stakeholders, for example, local people, NGOs, government agencies and scientists, who usually seldom directly engage with each other. The article draws on case studies that discuss remittances and disasters in Samoa, and disaster risk reduction in the Philippines.     

浅论对侦查行为的法律监督

我国现行侦查程序缺乏有效的法律监督．检察院对侦查程序的提前介入没有立法上的保障,法院无权对侦查机关的行为进行审查和控制,犯罪嫌疑人无权与侦查机关进行平等的对话和抗争。因此,从基本理念和基本结构上对我国侦查程序进行反思,有必要限制侦查机关的权力,保护被追诉方的权利,并赋予法院对侦查行为的司法审查权。     

浅析不动产预告登记制度——兼论我国预告登记制度的完善

预告登记是起源德国普鲁士法的一项古老制度,其旨在保护以不动产物权变动为目的的债权请求权,因其在保障不动产交易安全、促进交易效率等方面发挥了非常重要的作用,后被许多国家和地区采用。我国于2007年10月1日施行的《中华人民共和国物权法》正式确立了不动产预告登记制度,但是它在实践中还存在许多不足,亟待解决。     

论马克思自然概念的环境伦理学意蕴

文章认为,将马克思主义理解为人类中心主义,并批评马克思对自然的态度,是对马克思主义与人类中心论的双重误解;文章分析了马克思自然概念的相关论述,阐明了马克思自然概念的双重含义,澄清了在人本主义自然观视野中人与自然的辩证统一的关系;人与自然辩证统一关系思想超越了传统的人类中心论与西方环境伦理学的非人类中心论,为认识与构建人与自然的和谐关系奠定了基础。以此为基础,本文初步呈现了马克思环境伦理思想的核心观点,为推进中国的环境伦理学奠定哲学基础。     

浅谈互联网对高校德育工作的影响及对策

互联网的迅速发展给传统的高校德育工作带来了一系列的问题,既是机遇又是挑战。抓住时机,寻找对策:建立德育和思想政治教育网站;培养新型德育教育工作者;加强互联网的规范管理。