扩大公民有序政治参与的现实意义及路径依赖

扩大公民有序的政治参与是当今中国政治发展面临的重大课题。它是我国经济社会发展的客观要求,是社会主义政治文明的重要体现。扩大公民有序政治参与有利于保障公民的利益诉求、推进民主政治的发展、维护社会政治稳定和体现公共行政的公共性,要不断加强对公民有序政治参与路径的研究。     

政府“大部制”面面观

任何事物都是一分为二的,大部制也不例外。大部制的优点主要有:有利于集中和整合资源,克服部门本位主义;为行政协调开辟了一条新的途径;化解职能交叉、"九龙治水"等矛盾;提高公共服务的效能;加强宏观调控,较为有效地应对现实的社会问题;有利于推动地方政府进行行政改革。但在推行大部制中应注意防范可能存在的负面效应,如:增加部内协调的负荷和难度;部门行政首长与其下属之间存在张力;加大条块矛盾;大部制改革的阻力大,可能使改革流于形式;加剧了机构重叠;盲目合并带来问题等。     

从马克思的财政理论到西方财政政治学的兴起——议会财政权理论的历史性梳理

财政是政府的命脉,财政权是主导国家财政资源配置乃至政治权力配置的关键要素。目前,西方国家议会的财政权已形成一个完备的制度体系,对议会财政权的理论研究也走向更深的层次。本文从阐述马克思的财政理论入手,着重介绍以亚当.斯密为代表的传统学派、以诺思和布坎南为代表的新制度主义学派和公共选择学派对议会财政权问题的论述以及当代以威尔达夫斯基为代表的财政政治学理论的兴起过程,在系统地梳理议会财政权理论历史发展脉络的基础上,阐明其在政治学研究领域的重要地位。     

The Influence of News Media on Political Elites: Investigating Strategic Responsiveness in Congress

News media play a central role in democratic politics, yet we know little about how media affect the behavior of policy makers. To understand the conditions under which news media influence political elites, we advance a theory of strategic responsiveness, which contends that elected representatives are more likely to heed their constituents' preferences when voters are attentive. Accordingly, news media's influence on legislative behavior should be most apparent near elections and dependent on the partisan composition of the constituency. We capitalize on the incremental rollout of the conservative Fox News Channel in the late 1990s to evaluate our theoretical predictions. Fox News caused both Republicans and Democrats in Congress to increase support for the Republican Party position on divisive votes, but only in the waning months of the election cycle and among those members who represent districts with a sizable portion of Republican voters.     

Political Trust,Individual‐level Characteristics and Institutional Performance: Evidence from Finland, 2004–13

Several scholars agree that low political trust has fundamental negative implications for society at large. This study tests the power of institutional performance theory in explaining the differences between individuals in political trust (cross‐sectional) and fluctuations of political trust over time (longitudinal). Indeed, the dominant scholarly debate has concerned whether political trust is stable and dependent of endogenous factors such as political socialization and social trust, or whether it is exogenous (i.e., in constant fluctuation due to later experiences with institutions and the outputs they produce). In terms of cross‐sectional differences, the aim is to assess the relative impact institutional performance on political trust of a citizen. As regards the longitudinal approach, political trust varies over time and from an explanatory perspective it is important also to understand how well the institutional performance theory predicts over‐time variation of political trust. The study employs repeated European Social Survey data for Finland between 2004 and 2013. The results show, first and foremost, the strong impact of evaluations of institutional performance on political trust: satisfaction with government and economy explains differences both between individuals and over time. Social trust and welfare state performance are also strong predictors, but they explain differences only at the individual level and do not predict over‐time variations.     

The promise of the geoeconomic Arctic: a critical analysis

Due to global climate change, the Arctic is losing its ice cover with two expected economic consequences: new accessible natural resource reserves and opening maritime routes are anticipated to become accessible. As a result, the Arctic is expected to transform into a globally important geoeconomic space. The article approaches the geoeconomic Arctic by asking whether this transformation is plausible and forthcoming. In particular, the article analyzes critically practical challenges for Arctic economic development as well as geopolitical challenges to the region as a favourable investment and operating environment. The article concludes that while the Arctic will develop economically, the pace and scope of developments are likely to remain moderate due to complex challenges, and that the geoeconomic importance of the region may be exaggerated. Furthermore, external geopolitical dynamics can hinder the realization of the geoeconomic potential of the Arctic. Due to various spill-over effects, illustrated by the crisis in Ukraine, the Arctic is not necessarily as stable an investment and operating environment as often assumed.     

Not All Substance Dependence Problems are Recognized as Risks—Comparing a Medical Health Study with Prison Assessments

Substance abuse is viewed as one of the main factors (criminogenic needs) to be assessed and targeted in prison. Prison assessments of risk and needs are known to validly predict reoffending. However, there seems to be lacking research in how reliably the individual prisoner’s problems, such as substance abuse, are represented in the assessments. In this study, we compare an independent medical health study (N?=?510) with in-prison assessments for the same persons to see whether some of the inmates’ substance abuse disorders were overlooked in prison. We found that sentence plans (257) were in poor agreement with the health study (Kappa 0.315); they recognized only 65 % of all diagnoses. The risk and needs assessments (178) were in closer agreement with the health study, however, alcoholism diagnoses were recognized less accurately (Kappa 0.519) and less frequently (78 %) than drug diagnoses (Kappa 0.627, 87 %). The main factors predicting an assessment of substance abuse risks in prison, analysed through logistic regression were: longer stay in prison and one or more dependence diagnoses. We conclude that, a number of potentially criminogenic dependence problems remain unrecognized since some groups of prisoners are either completely left out from the more thorough instrument, the risk-and-needs assessment, or are not assessed thoroughly enough. This puts prisoners in unequal positions, since all interventions in prison are based on assessments. The study alerts us of the selectiveness of prisoner assessments in practical settings; the unrecognition of problems of shorter sentenced prisoners and prisoners with alcohol dependence.     

Legislating for corporate criminal liability in Finland: 22-year long debate revisited

The criminal liability of corporations has been the subject of long debates in many countries. This article scrutinizes the 22-year long genesis of corporate criminal liability legislation in Finland. We are interested in unveiling the turns of the law-making process, and in investigating the struggle between various interest groups from a socio-historical perspective. The research data consist of legislative documents such as committee memorandums and written opinions, and the method of inquiry is content analysis. Our study reveals that the core issue of the process became whether jurisprudential principles should be changed in accordance with societal change or whether they are essentially immutable. The Act of Corporate Criminal Liability took effect in 1995, but its coverage was weakened by imposing discretionary sentencing and leaving employment offences outside of its purview. The initial aim and the very justification of the law—to place liability where it belongs—was achieved only in principle. Furthermore, the final outcome of the 1995 law served to actually prevent corporate misconducts from being processed as crimes.     

深化行政改革需要深入思考的三个问题

本文讨论新形势下推进我国行政改革深化涉及的三个重大问题。首先是动力机制创新,在对相关理论、国际实践和我国动力机制特征和困境系统分析的基础上,提出动力机制创新的三个转变。其次,针对有关市场化改革的争论,提出并论证了需要反思的不是市场化改革的大方向,而是市场化的具体形式。第三,围绕改革侧重点,提出并论证了机构改革与运作管理改革的合理平衡。