要把党内民主原则贯穿于党的工作方法之中——重读毛泽东《党委会的工作方法》

要建立民主的、正常的党委会内部关系就要贯彻党内民主原则。贯彻群众路线和开展调查研究是党委会的基本工作方法。党内民主和党内团结，是相辅相成的两个重要方面。党委会不但要增强自己内部的团结，而且还要通过正确的工作方法，不断加强党内的团结统一，增强党的凝聚力和战斗力。     

有用的宪法与有限的宪法——奥巴马的宪法观研究

美国现任总统奥巴马曾有长达十年以上芝加哥大学法学院宪法教师的经历，研究其宪法观有多方面的意义。奥巴马对宪法的讨论集中在他的大作《无畏的希望》第三章“我们的宪法”中，其核心观点是：宪法既是有用的，也是有限的。奥巴马的宪法观启示我们不要疏远宪法、不要迷信宪法、不要苛求宪法。     

个体工商户：中国市民社会的重要力量及价值

个体工商户作为中国社会的一个特殊经济群体，长期以来对中国经济发展做出了巨大的贡献，从个体工商户显性的经济作用到其潜在的精神气质，都可以毫不怀疑地说个体工商户是构建中国市民社会的一支重要力量。但近年，个体工商户的数量出现了下降趋势，这是经济发展的必然结果还是社会制度对这个群体照顾不周？对于个体工商户这样一个较为特殊的经济群体，法律应该如何对待？西方国家经济发展的实践证明，个体工商户或小商人并不是经济不发达的衍生品，也不是经济发达的淘汰品，中国市场经济的发展仍然需要大量的个体工商户，法律应当为个体工商户的发展创造更加宽松的制度环境。     

法治行政模式及其实现途径

行政模式决定于政治模式,与民主政治模式相对应的是法治行政模式。法治行政有着多方面的理论诉求,诸如宪政民主、市场经济、契约文明、自然法理以及人本原理等方面。这种模式是未来中国建设法治政府、走向法治社会的理想制度选择,它以确立宪法秩序、健全行政法体系、完善司法审查、实行党政分开、强化行政监督为实现途径。     

“实事求是”的社会主义民主

民主是一个历史范畴,它的形成和发展是一个自然的历史过程,是一个渐进的发展历程,是要遵循一定客观规律的.因此我国的社会主义民主要采取渐进的、稳妥的措施,不能追求形式上的民主,要实事求是地看待我国的民主.     

法治话语、法律议论的公众型构过程与背景——以社会诉讼为载体

将民主讨论的过程及其效果置于特定语境之中,并引入到“社会诉讼”的分析手段中解读,可以发现法律议论的型构过程是复线并动态互构的,理想逻辑与社会伦理的讨论场景下的博弈效果呈现非均质的状态,并以对话方式走向沟通与共识。     

Two strategies for building a personal vote: Personalized representation in the UK and Denmark

Across parliamentary democracies, elected representatives constitute the link between citizens and government. MPs can connect with voters via the party label, or through personalized forms of representation, which is seen to be increasing in importance. However, scholars disagree on what explains variation in MPs' use of personalized representation strategies. In this article, we argue that politicians use different strategies to personalize the link between themselves and citizens: a constituency-oriented and a person-oriented strategy. To test our argument, we develop a new and novel dataset with behavioral measures of personalized representation. Using a content analyses of 698 British and Danish MPs’ personal websites, we demonstrate that the use of personalization strategies is conditional on the incentives MPs face in terms of electoral insecurity, candidate selection procedures, and the electoral context of the system. Our findings show that the level and type of personalized politics vary across political systems and may pose different types of challenges to party democracies.     

Mobilizing different types of voters: The influence of campaign intensity on turnout in direct democratic votes

A well-established body of literature links voter turnout to political campaigns. In this view, intensive campaigns increase the perceived salience of a decision, fostering information-seeking and, ultimately, turnout. The existing literature has also advanced our understanding of how direct democratic institutions influence turnout in elections. Yet we still know little about whether and to what extent campaign efforts influence voter turnout in direct democratic votes, and we know even less about who is mobilized. We claim that campaign intensity has differentiated effects across voters, depending on voters’ participation profile. To test this claim we use a rich dataset of official turnout data covering more than 40 direct democratic votes in Switzerland. The results support our claim. While intensive political campaigns overall foster citizens to turn out to vote, they do so especially for “selective” (or “intermittent”) voters, who need to decide anew at each ballot whether to turn out or not. Interestingly, we also find that frequent abstainers are not immune from campaign effects, and get almost as strongly mobilized as selective voters in highly intensive campaigns.     

Losers lose more than winners win: Asymmetrical effects of winning and losing in elections

Being on the winning or the losing side in elections has important consequences for voters’ perceptions of democracy. This article contributes to the existing literature by showing that being on the losing side has persistent effects over a surprisingly long time. Based on a dataset that measures voters’ satisfaction with democracy three years after elections were held, it first shows that losers are significantly more dissatisfied with democracy than winners on both input and output side measures of perceptions of democracy. Furthermore, the article shows that turning from winning to losing has significant negative effects on voters’ satisfaction, and that this finding is robust across a number of different specifications. These results are remarkable given that the data used is from Denmark – a country that constitutes a least-likely case for finding effects of being on the winning or the losing side.     

What can deliberative mini-publics contribute to democratic systems?

Can deliberative mini-publics contribute to deepening the democratic dimensions of electoral democracies? The question is framed in this article using a problem-based approach to democratic theory–to count as democratic, political systems must accomplish three basic functions related to inclusion, communication and deliberation, and decision making. This approach is elaborated with an analysis of a real-world case: a deliberative mini-public with a citizens’ assembly design, focused on urban planning convened in Vancouver, Canada. This example was chosen because the context was one in which the city's legacy institutions of representative democracy had significant democratic deficits in all three areas, and the mini-public was a direct response to these deficits. It was found that Vancouver's deliberative mini-public helped policy makers, activists and affected residents move a stalemated planning process forward, and did do so in ways that improved the democratic performance of the political system. Depending on when and how they are sequenced into democratic processes, deliberative mini-publics can supplement existing legacy institutions and practices to deepen their democratic performance.