What voters want from their parties: Testing the promise-keeping assumption

How should party governments make representative democracy? Much of the democracy representation literature assumes that voters prefer parties to fulfill the promises of their election campaigns, with higher preference for promise-keeping placed on the party a voter supports. That voters agree with these assumptions, however, remains largely unclear and this is the main hypothesis of this article. Within the context of Australia, this article investigates voter preferences regarding three ideal party representative styles: promise-keeping, focus on public opinion, and seeking the common good. Furthermore, it tests whether voters prefer their party – over other parties – to keep their promises. Based on novel and innovative survey data, this study finds that, generally, voters care least about parties keeping their promises and their preferences are unaffected by their party support. These results, if confirmed in other contexts, not only challenge the primacy of promise-keeping, but also the assumed ubiquitous party effect.     

What consideration sets can teach us about electoral competition: A two-hurdle model

Consideration set models (CSMs) offer a novel way to study electoral behavior. Until now, they have been mostly studied at the micro-level of the voter's decision process. By contrast, we focus on the implications of CSMs for understanding the phenomenon of party competition. We propose a two hurdle model whereby parties compete for both consideration and selection, pursuant the consideration and choice stages of the CSM. We operationalize these hurdles in terms of a party's inclusivity—is it being considered?—and exclusivity—is it considered on its own?—and formally derive lower- and upper-bounds for the electoral fortunes of the party. We also show how consideration set data can be used to sketch the competition landscape in an election and to characterize the system-wide competitiveness of a political system. We illustrate our concepts and ideas using data from the 2010 Dutch and 2014 Swedish parliamentary elections.     

Student mentoring to enhance graduates’ employability potential

This paper considers whether the adoption of a subject-specific, classroom-based, voluntary extra-curricular student mentoring scheme could provide an effective mechanism and andragogic approach to enhance higher education students’ employability potential pre-graduation.Over the three-year pilot, 26 more advanced (second to fourth year) undergraduate students actively mentored nearly 400 first year undergraduate students during workshops delivered annually within forensic and policing focused courses. In total, 17 mentors anonymously completed online, post-scheme surveys. Survey data was quantitatively analysed to evaluate the scheme, establish which skills and attributes mentors had developed and investigate whether mentors could appropriately identify example skills within professional terminology used during employer recruitment. In addition, this paper reflects on the implementation of remote student mentoring during the COVID-19 pandemic and its adoption within a blended learning framework.The results from this research strongly support mentoring as an effective mechanism to develop undergraduate employability skills, significantly developing mentors’ self-confidence and self-efficacy in their interpersonal and communication skills. Although mentors were aware of university graduate attributes and thought they could evidence these with appropriate examples, in practice this was not necessarily the case. As a result, a framework is proposed to enable mentors to identify their skills and how they may align with competencies sought by relevant forensic and policing employers. However, other andragogic practices may need to be implemented to maximise the potential for successful graduate employment.     

Automated DNA casework workflow: A retrospective study of the first implementation of FIDL at the Netherlands Forensic Institute

FIDL is a fast and automated DNA identification line which represents a series of software solutions automating the process from raw capillary electrophoresis data to reporting. This retrospective study provides insight in the numbers of cases, turnaround time, results compared to the standard workflow and the benefits automation has in a large volume workflow.     

中国特色政党制度理论体系的理论基础研究

中国特色政党制度理论体系的理论基础包括三方面:马列主义多党合作思想是中国特色政党制度理论体系的理论渊源;马克思主义中国化的政党理论形成是中国特色政党制度理论体系的直接理论基础,标志着中国特色政党制度理论体系的初步形成;中国特色人民民主理论是中国特色政党制度理论体系的立论基石,是贯穿于整个理论体系的主线。     

The effects of campaign finance spending bans on electoral outcomes: Evidence from the states about the potential impact of Citizens United v. FEC

This paper seeks to understand the effect of campaign finance laws on electoral outcomes. Spurred by the recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), which eliminated bans on corporate and union political spending, the study focuses on whether such bans generate electoral outcomes that are notably different from an electoral system that lacks such bans. We look to two key electoral dynamics that such bans might influence: the partisan balance of power and the success of incumbents. Using historical data on regulations in 49 American states between 1968 and 2009 we test alternative models for evaluating the impact of corporate spending bans put in place during this period. The results indicate that spending bans appear to have limited effects on election outcomes.     

Political participation in Africa: The role of individual resources

This paper aims to examine the role of individual resources in explaining African political participation. If political participation is costly and requires inputs in terms of individual resources, and citizens in young developing country democracies face comparatively high participation costs and have more limited individual resource endowments than citizens in more established democracies, a resource approach to political participation should be particularly relevant in the African setting. On the contrary, however, empirical findings drawing on recent data for more than 27,000 respondents in 20 emerging African democracies suggest weak explanatory power of the resource perspective. Often, the relatively resource poor actually participate to a greater extent than the more resource rich. The results are encouraging in that they suggest fairly broad-based political participation, but also call attention to the need to evaluate the motivational forces behind the decision to take part.     

增强社会主义意识形态的吸引力和凝聚力——基于高校思想政治教育工作的考量

增强社会主义意识形态的吸引力和凝聚力，是党的十七大提出的文化建设的重大战略任务。当代大学生是我国青年人中知识较丰富、思想较敏锐的群体，是祖国的未来、民族的希望。在社会思想大活跃、观念大碰撞、文化大交融的背景下，如何保证和增强社会主义意识形态对大学生群体的吸引力和凝聚力，这是社会主义意识形态领域中备受关注的内容之一，也是大学生思想政治教育中遇到的一个重大课题。积极探索增强社会主义意识形态对大学生吸引力的有效途径，对于在全社会开展社会主义核心价值体系的宣传教育，增强社会主义意识形态的吸引力和凝聚力大有裨益。     

试论中国特色政党制度功能与价值的变动规律

中国特色政党制度的功能与价值在不同的历史时期呈现出不同的特点，在同一历史时期不同功能发挥的强弱也有较大差异。这表明：政党制度的功能与价值在特定的历史阶段有主导与非主导方面，但随着社会政治生态和社会结构的变迁其主导与非主导方面也是变动不居的。对中国特色政党制度功能与价值的主导与非主导方面及其变动规律进行研究，明确现阶段我国政党制度功能与价值建设的着力点，可以为推进中国特色政党制度发展提供必要的目标指向。