违宪审查制度的思考与我国的模式选择

宪法作为确立和保护国家民主制度的根本大法,具有至高无上的法律权威。违宪审查制度是保障宪法得以顺利实施的重要手段,违宪审查制度在欧美国家得到了深远的发展,在许多英美法系国家和日本建立了由普通法院行使违宪审查权的违宪审查制度。我国有着与其他国家不同的政治、历史、文化背景,在经历了几十年的法治建设探索后,建立违宪审查制度的时机已经日趋成熟。而我国如果要最终建立一个符合中国实际情况的违宪审查制度,专门机构审查中的宪法委员会审查制度则应是我国的首选。     

论中国化的马克思主义农民观

没有正确的农民观,中国的农民问题就解决不好。而能否成功解决这一问题,关系着中国特色社会主义事业的成败。中国共产党在领导中国革命、建设、改革和发展的实践过程中,把马克思主义关于农民问题的基本原理同中国农民问题的具体实际相结合,形成了中国化的马克思主义农民观。这是对马克思主义农民观的丰富和发展,是马克思主义农民观中国化的实践总结和理论结晶,对于科学地指导中国新农村建设具有重大的理论意义和实践意义。     

南宁市城市居民收入现状、差距及对策分析

本文利用相关统计数据对南宁市城市居民收入进行了横向、纵向的对比分析,为准确把握居民收入水平和居民之间收入差距的变化提供了依据,并在此基础上提出了相关对策。     

论宪法基本权利在民法中的效力

基于宪法之控权品质,宪法基本权利对民事立法、国库行为中的给付行政、民事司法解释和法院填补法律漏洞之行为有直接效力;宪法基本权利对国库行为中的行政辅助行为和行政营利行为、私人间民事行为仅有间接之效力;宪法基本权利对民事司法解释有直接效力,对法官造法及法院填补法律漏洞有直接效力。     

Effectiveness of citizen police academies in changing the attitudes, beliefs, and behavior of citizen participants

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the citzen police academies (CPA) in two cities were effective in changing participants’ attitudes, beliefs, and behavior toward police. Pre-and post-test questionnaires were used to obtain participants’ ratings of their attitudes and beliefs concerning police officers and their willingness to cooperate with police. Participants were also asked to indicate what cooperative behaviors they had actually engaged in before and/or during the CPA. At the end of the CPA, participants in both cities rated themselves as having more positive attitudes toward police, and more willingness to engage in behaviors that would help police. There was also an increase in actual performance of some cooperative behaviors during the CPA. These changes did not seem to be overly dependent on the jurisdiction (large versus small city), the demographics of the CPA participants, or the specific characteristics of the CPA curriculum.     

A union of gender equality and pragmatic patriarchy: international marriages and citizenship laws in Singapore

As a patriarchal society, government policies, societal norms and government regulations in Singapore mirror that normative ideal. Citizenship status and rights along gender lines, manifested in the legal recognition of children of international marriages, reflected this reality for much of Singapore's independence. However, the onslaught of globalization, the rise in international marriages, disconcerting declining birth rates, and an acceptance of ‘foreign talent’ have given the economic imperative and demographic impulse to grant citizenship (by descent) to a person born outside Singapore whose father or mother is a citizen of Singapore, by birth, registration or descent. Previously, such a person would be granted citizenship only if his/her father was a Singapore citizen by birth. This paper examines the background and contextual realities leading to the Constitution of the Republic of Singapore (Amendment) Act 2004. It argues that the landmark constitutional amendment was motivated by pragmatic considerations of demography, economics, and political governance. The paper contends that state sovereignty, while seemingly challenged by international marriages, is still preserved rather than negated. It suggests that the state's ideological apparatus vis-à-vis the family is adaptable, enabling the continued institutional influence, if not control, over the family as the basic building block of Singapore society.     

“Developing a community soul”: A Comparative Assessment of the Australian Assistance Plan in Three Regions, 1973–1977

The Australian Assistance Plan (AAP) was an innovative yet largely forgotten social welfare program from the 1970s. A key platform of the Whitlam Labor government, which established a series of Regional Councils for Social Development across Australia, the AAP reframed citizens’ participation in their communities, stimulated voluntary organisations and volunteering and attempted to transform engagement among all levels of governments and the voluntary sector. Through an analysis of three Regional Council case studies in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, this article focuses on the themes of regionalism and regional distinctiveness in order to assess how questions of regional difference can impact on the development of policy practices.