What Draws Politicians’ Attention? An Experimental Study of Issue Framing and its Effect on Individual Political Elites

What politicians devote attention to, is an important question as political attention is a precondition of policy change. We use an experimental design to study politicians’ attention to incoming information and deploy it among large samples of elected politicians in three countries: Belgium, Canada, and Israel. Our sample includes party leaders, ministers and regular members of parliament. These elites were confronted with short bits of summary information framed in various ways and were then asked how likely it was that they would read the full information. We test for three frames: conflict, political conflict, and responsibility. We find that framing moderates the effect of messages on politicians’ attention to information. Politicians react more strongly (i.e., they devote more attention) to political conflict frames than to non-political conflict frames and they react stronger to political responsibility attributions than to non-political responsibility attributions. Conflict frames attract more attention than consensus frames only from members of opposition parties. Political conflict frames attract more attention from government party politicians. These effects occur largely across issues and across the three countries.     

Learning-Shaping Crises: A Longitudinal Comparison of Public Personnel Reforms in Italy, 1992‒2014

Abstract

This article analyses the attempts to reform public administration, notably personnel management, in Italy between 1992 and 2014, with a focus on implementation and the period following the multiple crises that have unfolded since 2008. By untangling the policy learning processes between multiple crises, past reform attempts and domestic and European “contexts in motion”, the article finds that efficiency-oriented reforms have floundered regardless of the political color of governments or indeed of the nature – political or technocratic – of the governments. Domestic factors, notably the frequency of government alternation, i.e. government instability, and European pressure have further reinforced the orientation towards single-loop lessons, i.e. the almost exclusive effecting of short-term cost-cutting measures.     

Savings at the Periphery of Markets: Evidence from Forager-Farmers in the Bolivian Amazon

Abstract

We used survey and ethnographic data to study savings in a highly autarkic society of native Amazonians in Bolivia (Tsimane’). We equated savings with the amount of maize and rice in storage, area planted with plantains and manioc, and number of edible domesticated animals owned by a household or an adult. We found no large inter-annual change in savings possibly due to low income, impulsivity and a bundle of institutions and norms, such as borrowing, theft and reciprocity norms. The bundle attenuates the need for household formal savings at the periphery of markets.     

The Missing Democratic Revolution and Serbia's Anti-European Choice: 1989–2008

In 1989, as the countries of the Soviet bloc took a turn toward democracy and Europe, Yugoslavia and Serbia plunged into a bloody war and moved in the opposite direction. This article argues that the legacy of that era is still strongly felt in postwar and post-Milosevic Serbia. Now, like then, the choice is not simply for or against Europe. By holding on to the nationalism of the Kosovo myth, which territorializes both the Serbian ethnos and the opposition between Christianity and Islam, Serbia is tracing a tortuous path toward democratization and European integration. In the contemporary context, the Kosovo myth impedes Serbia’s recognition of Kosovo as an independent state; it continues to fuel the rhetoric of fractious elites that never cease to tap its capacity for rallying the public; and it provides room for “pro-European” leaders to negotiate EU integration, straddling the fence between Europe’s Atlantic propensities and the resurgent power of Russia. This nationalist myth thus plays a normative and an instrumental role, both domestically and internationally. Outside Serbia, it also engages with a narrow and “thick” notion of Europe, which gained traction within Europe itself in the post-9/11 climate of heightened fear of Islam, where cultural identity trumps the values of liberal democracy.     

论刑事回避制度——以比较法为视角

刑事回避是一种重要的刑事诉讼制度，它对刑事案件的公正、公平审判，犯罪嫌疑人、被告人以及其他诉讼参与人合法权益的保护都具有十分重要的意义。文章以国外刑事诉讼立法与司法实践为基础，以比较法为视角，全面阐述了刑事回避的启动与决定；刑事回避的适用对象与适用原由；刑事回避的法律后果与救济等内容。     

城市基层社会的数字化治理

北京市X区J街道H社区在社会文化建设、社会服务提供、基层民主选举等几个领域内所发生的“治理一应对”的运作过程说明：当前城市基层社会的治理在很多方面表现为一种“数字化治理”模式，治理对象不是社区里的人或事，而是档案、数据、文牍等数字化内容，以此达到掌控基层社会情况、增加合法性、突出政绩等目的。同时，这种治理模式也直接促使社区事务执行者在不断提高文牍技术、注重细节、追求形式化的同时，采取变通、重新解释、选择性关注等方式，形成了新的社区运作逻辑和基层应对策略。     

论我国“小产权房”合法化的实现与障碍

“小产权房”是否合法化的问题已成为“小产权房”问题争论的焦点内容.纵观中国现行法律,不难发现关于“小产权房”“违法”的相关立法之间存在着逻辑上和法律上的种种矛盾与冲突.通过对“小产权房”的立法以及相关法律规章的梳理和分析发现,在我国“小产权房”应当实现合法化.“小产权房”应当拥有明确的法律定位,并应通过立法及相关配套政策的实施促进我国“小产权房”合法化的步伐.     

改府规模与结构优化的维度与性质

政府规模与结构优化是近年来学术界与实践领域特别关注的一个问题.然而,目前的研究主要借助于经济学领域关于政府规模与结构优化的概念体系,而没有形成从公共管理的角度来探讨这一问题的概念体系,由此导致关于政府规模与结构优化的理论研究与实践探索出现某些偏颇.从公共管理的角度上说,我们认为,政府规模就是政府在社会、经济、政治、文化等领域的活动范围以及政府行为对个体或组织的行为所产生的影响;政府规模结构是指政府规模的组织构成、内容构成以及组织-内容匹配性构成.因此,政府规模与结构应该从政府活动、行为及其社会影响三个维度进行优化.