Information and direct democracy: What voters learn about ballot measures and how it affects their votes

Limited research has evaluated what voters know about the initiatives and referendums that regularly appear on their ballots. Analyzing survey data covering nine ballot measures in three U.S. states, I explore what voters know about measures that would implement policies ranging from approving same-sex marriage to requiring identification to vote. My results show a great deal of variation across both ballot measures and type of knowledge. Specifically, I find that knowledge of endorsements and status quo policies is similar to their knowledge of civics. Policy specific facts, however, lag far behind. My results also show that voters tend to know more about moral issues. Increased campaign spending also helps voters learn about relevant endorsements, though not facts. When comparing the efficacy of facts versus endorsements, knowledge of an endorsement has a measurable decision-improving impact on voters’ choices while knowing a fact only rarely does.     

虚拟社会背景下大学生政治意识表达现状与实现机制研究——基于北京航空航天大学ihome网络社区的内容分析

虚拟社会极大改变人们的知识整合方式,也对大学生政治意识表达产生重大影响.虚拟社会下大学生政治意识表达呈现三个特点,即主动性弱化、表达话语形式大众化、对“政治”一词理解的生活化和现实化以及表达内容的多样化等.在虚拟社会下要积极构建与大学生政治意识表达相适应的实现机制：一是使大学生政治意识表达主动性在现实社会的政治教育实践中得以实现;二是培育网络意见领袖,建立多层次、全方位的虚拟社会政治意识表达实现机制;三是加强虚拟社会环境治理,建设健康、安全的虚拟社会政治意识表达秩序.     

Lock them up! Punitive aggression and populism as political vigilantism

Populist leaders and movements are incredibly diverse, but one factor that most share is the tendency to pick fights. Populists often stir up conflict and use aggressive rhetoric that would destroy the reputation of mainstream politicos. Furthermore, many of these fights have little material benefit for base-level supporters, and often actively harm them. Yet populist militants generally reward combative behavior. Why is populism so conflict prone? And why do populists so often escape negative consequences for provoking damaging dustups? I argue that these sorts of conflict are driven by an emotional impulse that lies at the heart of populism: punitive aggression. Populists view political problems as the result of malign actions by hostile outgroups, and they perceive the state as either negligently allowing or actively abetting these actions. The failure of the state to punish the guilty breeds an intense and deep-seated desire to harm those seen as violating norms and values, regardless of the cost. Observational and experimental data are consistent with the hypothesis that, while the never-ending conflict typical of populism may harm its adherents’ interests, it continues because it satisfies much more basic emotional and psychological needs. This paper suggests that confronting and challenging populists may be difficult because forceful responses will reinforce the bond between the leader and his or her followers.     

疫情信息公开的法治反思

新冠肺炎疫情信息公开存在的不足,引发对中央与地方关系、科学与政治关系、公民与政府关系的法治反思。应对疫情信息公开制度的僵化与冲突,须充分发挥中央与地方“两个积极性”,完善中央直管和属地管理相结合的疫情信息公开机制。针对疫情信息公开中科学与政治关系之争议,应合理定位科学家与政治家的角色,促进科学系统与政治系统的相互协同。面对疫情信息公开中公民话语权的保障,应从权力导向转向权利导向,防止政府对公民话语权的不当克减。     

Cornelia Sorabji (1866–1954): a pioneer woman lawyer in Britain and India

ABSTRACT

Cornelia Sorabji, born into a Parsee Christian family in Pune, was the first woman to write the BCL examinations at Oxford University in 1892. She had some initial success as a woman lawyer after she returned to India in 1893, including becoming the first woman lawyer in the British Empire to defend an accused charged with murder in 1896. In 1904, she was appointed Lady Assistant to the Court of Wards and provided advice to women Purdahnashin in northern India for nearly two decades. Yet, her ardent support for ‘British India’ eventually resulted in her opposition to Gandhi’s independence movement and, as Vera Brittain concluded, she chose ‘a wrong direction’ at a critical moment in history. Her story reveals both opportunities and constraints for women in India in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, as well as the shifting colonial relationships in British India in the context of the Independence movement of the 1930s and 40s.     

Beyond German Politics: Comparing European Polities Explicitly

The reluctance of British political science to continue an earlier comparative politics tradition did not deter Gordon Smith from steering a path between a predominant false particularisation and a minority push towards false universalism. A comparison of the first and fifth editions of Politics in Western Europe shows the continuing thrust of a political sociology approach, with political and social structures and forces having priority over constitutional and institutional provisions. Unapologetically 'old-fashioned' in eschewing law-like generalisations, comparison's prime purpose is to improve our understanding of individual countries: in Gordon Smith's case, it started and finished with Germany.     

英国女性囚犯的现状研究及其启示

随着英国成为西欧女性监禁率最高的国家,其在女性囚犯的管理方式和制度的问题和诟病逐渐显现出来。英国监狱制度一向被认为是比较完善和系统的,但是英国女性囚犯在监狱中遭受着持续暴力、药物滥用、脱衣搜身制度、男性主导的监狱文化以及与家庭沟通的过度限制,给她们的身心生活均造成了严重而持久的影响,导致监狱内精神疾病和自杀现象频发,但同时也引起了替代羁押刑及措施的研究和应用。这给同样处于女性囚犯数量持续增长现状的中国敲响警钟,我们应当重视以下对策研究:建设个性化的女子监狱;不断完善离监探亲制度;加强社区矫正制度的应用。     

Gendering transnational radio: women listeners and the BBC Empire and Overseas Services, 1932–1967

ABSTRACT

The BBC World Service, today a respected broadcaster on the global stage, had its origins in the BBC Empire Service of the 1930s. Shortwave radio broadcasts from London explicitly targeted isolated white men in the geographically dispersed British colonies and dominions, with the intention of strengthening them in their imperial endeavours. BBC staff positioned women at the margins of programming and scheduling decisions. Yet for some women listeners radio was a crucial constitutive element of their multi-sensory empire (and post-empire) experience. This paper draws on the BBC Written Archives collection to explore the neglected topic of gender in relation to international broadcasting, focusing on how white women ‘exiles’ and settlers used and understood radio in their daily lives from the 1930s to the 1960s. BBC Overseas broadcasting, as the Empire and later General Overseas Services, provides a fruitful channel into further exploration of the gendered nature of the transnational domain, illustrating women's agency in the complex webs of empire.     

马来亚印度人国大党的成立及早期政治活动(1946~1957)

二战前,马来亚印度人指向祖籍国印度的民族主义和爱国主义明显加强,进而暂时消除、弥合了印度人群体中一些分化因素,这是马来亚印度人国大党成立的重要社会背景。在尼赫鲁的积极推动下,1946年8月,马来亚印度人国大党正式成立。虽然马来亚印度人国大党深受尼赫鲁和印度国大党的影响,该党成立之初也支持当时的印度政府和印度国大党的反殖反英运动,但它并不隶属于印度国大党。自成立后至1957年,马来亚印度人国大党先是主要致力于开展印度民族主义的活动,不久又深度卷入马来亚制订民主宪法的斗争中,积极争取对印度人有利的公民权问题。在马来亚积极争取独立的浓厚政治氛围中,经过一番犹豫之后,1955年3月,经正式商谈之后,马来亚印度人国大党选择全面加入巫统马华联盟。同年7月,巫统、马华公会和马来亚印度人国大党结成的三大民族政党联盟在竞选中获胜。马来亚联合邦随后正式成立,马来亚印度人国大党作为执政联盟成员之一,长期参与执政。印度人群体的相对弱小及其社会内部的严重分化,部分程度地削弱了马来亚印度人国大党在马国政治中的地位和作用。它的政治活动对马来亚的政治民主化和多元化起到了一定的推动作用。     

新型政党制度的政治功能及其治理优势——基于中国民主政治内在规定性的分析

国家权力来自人民是现代民主政治的核心理念。如何实现人民的选择,保障人民权利成为民主政治发展的重大关切。中国民主政治类属于人民民主,其价值理念与历史实践内在赋予了执政党以领导核心地位,并要求以民主集中制为组织原则,实现广泛、真实的民主。中国新型政党制度作为中国民主政治的一项基本制度安排,在利益代表、政治参与和民主监督等政治功能方面与民主政治的规定性要素相契合,并在实践过程中体现出政治平衡、政治稳定、政治整合的显著治理优势,为社会主义民主政治发展与国家治理体系和治理能力现代化建设奠定稳固基础。