加快转变经济发展方式战略思想的形成、发展与实践

在2006年10月至2007年10月加快转变经济发展方式战略思想的提出和初步形成时期,胡锦涛提出了加快转型发展的新理念、新概念、新战略;在2007年10月至2012年加快转变经济发展方式战略思想的丰富和发展时期,目标方向、基本要求、政策导向、工作重点、战略关键等诸项战略思想逐步丰富和发展起来。党的十六大以来,胡锦涛提出和发展了加快转变经济发展方式的重大战略思想,反映了我们党对发展问题的新认识。十年来,我国推动转型发展在六个方面取得了可喜的进展。     

Congressional dysfunction: An information processing perspective

The public's approval of Congress is at an all time low. The parties seem to have taken the legislative process hostage for their own electoral gain. Whereas traditional arguments about congressional dysfunction focus on polarized voting coalitions or outputs – particularly legislation – in this article we highlight congressional information processing and how it has changed in this highly partisan era. By coding congressional hearings according to the kind of information on which they focus, we find that members of Congress are receiving one‐sided information to a greater degree and are spending less time learning about potential solutions. We use these results to make numerous recommendations for improving how Congress gathers its information.     

Parliamentary Rule: The US Senate Parliamentarian and Institutional Constraints on Legislator Behaviour

This article analyses the extent to which institutional rules constrain member behaviour in the United States Senate by examining the evolution of its parliamentarian. Interestingly, the US Senate parliamentarian has received surprisingly little scholarly attention given the important role she performs in the legislative process. The subsequent analysis thus provides a new understanding of the parliamentarian's role in the legislative process and the interplay between institutional rules and member behaviour in the Senate. To this end, the following analysis is situated within the context of the two primary theoretical approaches to understanding how institutional rules constrain member behaviour: path dependency and majoritarianism. These contrasting approaches provide expectations about the extent to which members will defer to the parliamentarian's interpretation of Senate rules rather than exercising their own discretionary control over those rules. Examining the evolving relationship between the parliamentarian and individual members affirms the centrality of institutional rules as a constraint on member behaviour over the past several decades. Yet such an examination also yields two surprising, and potentially contradictory, observations. First, individual senators in both parties have increasingly deferred to the parliamentarian to interpret the Senate's rules. This is surprising given that the Senate has simultaneously become more individualistic, partisan, and ideological over the same period. Second, the majority party has recently disregarded the norm of parliamentary constraint reflected in past practice and demonstrated a willingness to ignore Senate rules when doing so was necessary to achieve legislative success. This could signify a potential shift in how majorities view the constraints imposed by Senate rules if current trends of legislative dysfunction continue.     

十八大以来中国外交新动向

党的十八大以来,以习近平为总书记的新一届中央领导集体利用一系列重要场合就国际形势与中国外交发表讲话,不断充实和发展新时期中国对外战略思想。新一届中央领导集体采取的一系列举措为下一步中国的外交谋篇布局,体现了新思想,谋划了新布局,也预示了未来中国外交的方向。     

论我国人民代表大会对预算草案的审批权和修正权

我国现行人民代表大会预算草案审批权所存在的问题莫过于审批权对行政部门的实际约束力较低,无法起到限制和监督权力的作用,对此,应致力于预算程序、实体、效力三方面的完善。同时,我国人民代表大会预算草案修正权的法律规定也处于缺位状态,鉴于此,应致力于明确修正权权能和修正权行使方式两个方面进行构建。