The Anti‐Incumbent Effects of Conditional Cash Transfer Programs

Scholars concur that conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs have a strong proincumbent effect among beneficiaries. Although no study has properly focused on the overall effect of cash transfers on incumbents' national vote shares, most scholars have deduced that this effect is positive; i.e., that cash transfers lead to the expansion of incumbents' electoral bases. This article analyzes survey data from nearly all Latin American countries and confirms that beneficiaries of CCT programs are more likely to support incumbents. However, it also shows that CCT programs may induce many voters who were previously incumbent supporters to vote for the opposition. As a consequence, the overall impact of cash transfers on incumbents' vote shares is indeterminate; it depends on the balance between both patterns of behavioral changes among voters. This study is the first to report evidence that cash transfer programs may have significant anti‐incumbent effects.     

An Ever-Shadowed Past? Citizens’ Attitudes towards the Dictatorship in Twenty-First Century Portugal

Abstract

Several years after the transition to democracy, positive attitudes towards the authoritarian past are still observable in Portugal: the belief that the previous regime had more good things than bad things is expressed by about one-fifth of the Portuguese. What explains this nostalgic sentiment? Are factors such as socialisation under the regime, party identification or religiosity more important than satisfaction with democracy and the state of the economy? The empirical analysis suggests that the relevance of these factors varies considerably, but socialisation phases lead to different stances on the past both in routine times and in times of economic crisis.     

The institutionalisation of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies

ABSTRACT

This article analyses the institutional development of the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies (BCD) from 1826 to the present. Legislature careers, the internal organisation of the BCD, the current system for filling positions within the committees and electoral rules are the objects of this study. The process of development of the BCD should be understood in light of the dynamics of the Brazilian political system, which has undergone significant ruptures of regime, and also in light of the nearly permanent fragility of the democracy, especially of its representative components. It is an institution with legislature career patterns that vary through time, but always point towards opportunities out of the BCD, a stable, hierarchical and complex mode of organisation that currently values parties as distributors of opportunities. It is, above all, an institution that is subject to external influences from other parts of the political system, which diminish its autonomy and self-determination, as shown by the example of the rule for the adjudication of terms. With its 190 years, the BCD has evolved along with Brazilian democracy and today, although boasting a great structure and large resources, it still needs to establish itself as a decisive and permanent actor in driving public policies and communication (parties and government projects) with voters.     

中国城乡结合部土地规制改进的探讨

目前,在土地转性和用途更改集中的城乡结合部,呈现出土地利用的粗放式、低效率、违法违规等问题,表明现有的土地规制政策有其内在缺陷,不能有效地遏制耕地资源的减少。因此,应当从明晰土地产权,完善土地征用的法律制度、程序、管理体制,加强市场机制作用等方面进行城乡结合部土地规制的改进。     

The gendered construction of expert discourse: An analysis of psychiatric evaluations in criminal court

According to critical literature, psychiatrization is a central feature of gendered social control. It operates in a twofold process: by orienting women to medical institutions rather than the penal system, and, for those women who do enter the criminal justice system, by favoring an interpretation of their behavior in terms of mental health problems. However, the production of gendered social control cannot be reduced to institutional decision-making; it also leaves its traces in various discursive forms. One such form is forensic psychiatrists' discourse on the offenders they evaluate. Our study analyzes these forensic reports as units of a computerized database. Our goal is to gain insight into the text by means of systematic quantitative and qualitative procedures. Even though the expert discourse is shaped by specifications requested by the court, the discourse examined here constructs two very distinct identities that do not correspond to stereotyped conceptions about femininity and masculinity.     

网络服务提供商(ISP)版权责任问题研究

网络服务提供商分为因特网连接服务、内容服务和特殊服务提供商三类 ,三者版权责任各异。连接服务提供商因只提供数据传输通道 ,对网上客户实施的版权侵权行为不应当承担责任 ;内容服务提供商主要是通过自己的网站向用户提供信息 ,类似传统环境下出版者地位 ,应对其发布的所有信息承担版权责任 ,但是在使用超文本链接技术中提出“虚拟”材料时 ,版权人不构成侵权 ;特殊服务提供商是在网上提供布告板的经营者 ,应当对权利人承担版权责任 ,但是只有在推定过错原则下承担责任才是合理的 ,才有利于平衡服务提供商和社会公共利益     

美欧分歧与"适应霸权"--罗伯特·卡根《天堂与实力:新世界秩序中的美国与欧洲》评介

当今世界最重要的双边关系不外乎美欧关系了。这对盟友一个是昔日的世界霸主,另一个是当今世界的盟主。它们同是世界最发达国家和地区,发源于共同的西方文明,又都是“启蒙运动的孩子”,有着共同的价值观、相同的宗教、相似的文化背景和相近的生活方式。在处理世界事务、制订外交政策时,似乎有着“共同的理念与理想”。至少从表面上看,它们都倡导立宪民主,主张多党政治,强调个体人权,赞成自由贸易,反对恐怖主义和防止大规模杀伤性武器扩散。然而,这么多表面上的相似,却无法掩盖双方越来越多的分歧,这一分歧最终在对伊拉克战争问题上,形成了水…     

Growth and the Welfare State in the EU: A Causality Analysis

In this paper, we test for causality between GDP growth andsocial protection expenditure in the European Union. To that end,we apply Hsiao's (1981) sequential procedure to data for twelveEU countries along the 1970–1994 period. Our results suggestthat, for Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,Portugal, and Spain, causality runs only from social protectiongrowth to GDP growth, while for Denmark, France, Greece, Italy,and the United Kingdom, no causality is found between socialprotection growth and GDP growth.     

能源促进可持续发展与国际技术转让

能源是促进可持续发展和减少贫穷的核心,而高效、节能、无害环境的先进技术是改善可获得能源、提高能效、减少温室气体排放、促进可持续发展的关键.鼓励技术创新的同时,平衡发达国家和发展中国家的利益、技术转让人和受让人的利益.从而通过技术转让提高发展中国家的能源技术水平和能力,是促进可持续发展的有力保障.     

论高校安全稳定的舆论引导体系构建

近年来,随着社会快速发展,高校安全稳定日益引起高度关注。构建科学合理的高校安全稳定的舆论引导体系重要性日益凸显。本文分析了当前我国高校安全稳定的舆论引导体系重要意义,探讨了构建体系的理念、原则和构建科学合理的高校安全稳定的舆论引导体系。