The Evolving Structure of the Environmental Justice Movement in the United States: New Models for Democratic Decision-Making

Over the last two decades in the United States, mainstream environmental organizations have reduced, rather than increased, democratic participation by citizens in environmental problem-solving. The environmental justice movement, on the other hand, has served to enlarge the constituency of the environmental movement by incorporating poorer communities and oppressed people of color into environmental decision making process; build community capacity by developing campaigns and projects that address the common links between various social and environmental problems; and facilitate community empowerment by emphasizing grassroots organizing over advocacy. This paper outlines the different components in the environmental justice movement. It is our contention that if researchers and policymakers continue to conceive of the ecological crisis as a collection of unrelated problems, then it is possible that some combination of regulations, incentives, and technical innovations can keep pollution and resource destruction at tolerable levels for more affluent socioeconomic populations. However, poor working class communities and people of color which lack the political–economic resources to defend themselves will continue to suffer the worst abuses. However, if the interdependency of issues is emphasized as advocated by the environmental justice movement, then a transformative environmental politics can be invented.     

Democratic Political Competence: Clearing the Underbrush and a Controversial Proposal

Though the link between democracy and an appropriately trained citizen is obvious, the theoretical and empirical nature of this association is murky despite mountains of scholarship addressing this topic. Part of this problem is that the term democratic competence has been stretched almost to the point of uselessness. This constant adding of desired traits—many of which are ideologically driven—misdirects effort away from such complex problems as the relationship between individual attributes and collective capacities. Moreover, recent research has often been guilty of using data of uncertain relevance to demonstrate a competence that seems largely an analytical artifact. We conclude by offering an approach that stresses old- fashioned traits such as patriotism that seem necessary to the existing, and quite democratic, status quo.     

浅议邓小平的民主法治思想与人本发展观

崇尚法治,反对人治是邓小平法治思想的基础和核心,民主法治思想与人本发展观的完善是邓小平理论的结晶,它的立法、执法、守法等基本思路对维护社会主义市场经济的新秩序,具有广泛深远的意义。     

The Politics of Universalisation: Establishing National Health Services in Southern Europe

Italy, Portugal, Greece and Spain have enacted reform laws during the last 20 years with the intention of turning their health insurance systems into national health services. Universalisation of access to public health care was at the centre of the political debates which led to the passing of the reform laws. This article analyses the policy-making processes that allowed for such institutional change, as well as achievements and shortcomings of the implementation processes that followed. The analysis draws on the insights of the actor-centred neo-institutionalist approach in the policy sciences.     

论司法权运行的民主性——以自组织理论为分析工具

自组织理论作为研究自然界复杂性现象和事物的方法和工具,也应该适用于广义自然界下的人类社会这一复杂系统。比较可以发现,作为人类社会子系统的司法权运行系统,存在开放性、两造的非平衡性结构、证据裁判及非线性攻防特征,这与自组织的四个基本条件是吻合的,或者说司法权运行系统具有自组织性。同时,司法权运行中所必备的整体性视野、非决定论思想和不可逆理念也与自组织理论的哲学特性契合。司法民主是司法权运行系统的自组织性体现。以自组织理论分析司法权的运行,可以避免比较法、逻辑理性等法学视域的狭隘,为司法民主寻找更为客观的社会学和自然科学意义上的根据。     

What Makes Terrorism Salient? Terrorist Strategies,Political Competition,and Public Opinion

This article analyzes the determinants of terrorism saliency in public opinion. It is usually assumed that after a terrorist attack, terrorism becomes automatically salient. However, this assumption is only true in those countries where terrorist attacks are exceptional events. In democracies that have suffered domestic terrorism for decades, the evolution of terrorism saliency does not only depend on the frequency or intensity of terrorist attacks. In this article it is claimed that the tactics carried out by terrorist groups (the type of victim, especially) and the dynamics of political competition (especially the ideology of the incumbent) are also factors that explain the evolution of terrorism saliency. The article also analyzes how these two factors interact with citizens’ predispositions to explain variation in their reactions to terrorist threat. The empirical test relies on a novel database from monthly public opinion surveys in Spain from 1993 to 2012.     

新时期我国社会主义民主政治建设的新思考——现行《宪法》实施30年来我国社会主义民主政治建设的回顾与展望

人民民主是我国社会主义国家政权的本质,发展社会主义民主,实现人民当家做主是我国宪法、宪政的核心使命。秉承这一使命,我国现行《宪法》实施30年来,极大地促进了我国社会主义民主政治的发展。然而,在当前我国社会主义建设的新时期,社会主义民主政治也面临着不少问题与挑战。因此,有必要结合既有成就,正视新时期的挑战,通过进一步推进我国现行《宪法》的实施,探索社会主义民主政治发展的新路向。而培育社会主义民主文化,关注公民身份、提升公民的民主行动能力,走社会主义民主渐进发展之路,促进我国社会主义民主制度的完善与创新则是最为重要的环节。     

司法审查正当性的证成路径及其评析

对于美国宪政结构中司法审查与民主的悖论问题,西方学界致力于改造传统多数主义的民主观念并提出相应的宪法解释技术来论证司法审查的正当性,这表现为伊利的程序性民主与司法监督、德沃金的合宪性民主与道德解读、波斯纳的精英式民主与实用主义审判、哈贝马斯的协商式民主与程序主义司法等诸多具有代表性的理论范式。事实上,司法审查的正当性证成不能仅仅依靠重构民主观念的外部论证来实现,还需要依靠法官精湛的判决论证技术的内部路径来提升。这说明司法审查与民主的悖论是宪政结构中构成性的内在矛盾,而司法审查与民主的互动则是宪政具有生命力的内在源泉。     

国际法基本属性之思辨

以法学基本理论为依据,采用比较研究的方法,辨析了国际法的基本属性.国际法具有法的一般性质--规范性和强制性.国际法比国内法具有更显著的平等性和民主性.无论作为法的一个部门,还是作为一个法律体系,国际法都是独立的.     

中国公司法之构造缺陷及克服

作者认为 ,中国公司法在实践中存在以下缺陷 :有限公司与股份公司的组织机构之间区别模糊、国有独资公司定位不当、股份公司之董事会缺少有效约束、监事会的监督职能虚拟化以及对关联公司以及公司集团的约束不力。为更好地发挥公司在市场经济中的作用 ,实有改革有限公司制度以及重新塑造股份公司之董事会与监事会关系的必要。此外 ,还应当增加对关联公司与公司集团的法律规定。