Going Negative

SUMMARY

In this paper we explore the relationship between candidate attack messages and news coverage during the earliest stages of the presidential nomination process. How effective are attack messages in generating media coverage? Are certain types of negative content more likely to gain coverage? Using data from the 1996 Republican presidential nomination campaign, we examine the candidate press releases that issued an attack on an opponent and the subsequent news coverage linked to it. We find that while candidates are more than willing to go negative even during the early stages of the campaign, these negative messages are no more or no less likely to generate press coverage during the early months of the presidential nomination campaign than are other types of candidate messages.     

全球治理与中国的战略选择

全球治理的理论起源于20世纪冷战终结之际,随着全球化的深入发展而形成。从现代世界体系和国际关系的发展角度来看,全球化最为直接的影响在于对传统大国产生巨大的冲击,即不断地将原来以国家为中心的国际体系逐步推向一个由多元权威结构构成的多元中心的全球体系。在全球化不断发展的国际环境下,大国之间的关系已经并非原有传统的、局限的、简单的大国关系,而是在多元行为体互动的过程中以合作为基础发展演变的大国关系,在这样的大国关系中,全球治理必然对大国关系产生巨大的影响。     

胜利油田班组建设的现状与思考

班组是企业的细胞,是企业各项工作的落脚点和具体实践者。胜利油田要在“打造世界一流、实现率先发展”中当先锋、打头阵、做表率,首先需要具备过硬的基础管理水平,班组建设就是强基固本的重要举措。班组建设应从精细管理入手,以文化为引领,以制度为保障,创新机制载体,丰富创建内容,把握关键,突出重点,全面深入开展“紧贴一个中心,健全两项机制,狠抓三个内容”的“123”工程,最大限度地激发班组员工的积极性和创建热情,从而更好地推动企业发展。     

以创新驱动战略助推东营“两个率先”目标实现

根据党的十八大关于驱动创新战略任务和东营市努力实现“两个率先”的目标要求,系统地思考东营市实施创新驱动发展战略,推进东营市达成实现目标条件,对科技进步和创新提出了更加全面、更加紧迫的需求。深刻认识并充分发挥科技创新的支撑引领作用,制定和实施创新驱动战略,完善区域科技创新体系,全力依靠创新驱动提高发展的质量和效益,是实现“两个率先”目标的保障。     

Estonia caught between East and West: EU conditionality,Russia's activism and minority integration

This article takes a subjective approach to studying norm compliance in order to determine how EU conditionality and Russia's activism have affected elite attitudes toward minority policies, majority–minority relations, and language use in Estonian society in the post-accession period. The results of a Q method study and semi-structured interviews with integration elites in spring 2008 reveal four distinct viewpoints. The study casts doubt upon the success of EU conditionality in Estonia by demonstrating that European minority rights norms remain contested and have not been internalized by a substantial portion of elites. In addition, the study points to an important role for Russia's activism in the development of a more inclusive society. Russia's activism actually works against minority integration by reinforcing pre-existing domestic norms that are not compatible with European minority rights standards and by aggravating tensions over history and language, which frustrate integration efforts. This article ultimately contributes to studies on the effects of international pressure on minority integration by pointing to the need for greater attention to the ways in which multiple actors at both the international and domestic levels structure the influence of EU conditionality.     

Contextualising NEPAD: regionalism,plurilateralism and multilateralism

There is a dearth of literature on the nature and scope of the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development (AU/NEPAD) in relation to trends in the international trade system. Available literature concentrates on the neoliberal character of the programme and views it as exposing the uncompetitive African economies to the hostile international economic environment. Contrary to this view, this article argues that AU/NEPAD, because of its three-part approach within contemporary trade trends, could be a viable strategy to promote economic development in the continent. Firstly, AU/NEPAD promotes reformed developmental regionalism, since it combines collective self-reliance of member states with ‘strategic linking’ into the global market. Secondly, it connects strategic linking to new partnerships through plurilateralism, as depicted by the G8 Africa Action Plan. Finally, AU/NEPAD promotes multilateralism through engagements with the World Trade Organisation, the UN and the World Bank.     

Economic partnership agreements: African–EU negotiations continue

When they were first proposed by the European Commission to the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries — all signatories to the Lome and Cotonou agreements which provided them with preferential access to the European market — economic partnership agreements were presented as supporting regional integration and development. However, most African states regarded economic partnership agreements with suspicion, fearing that the agreements would limit their market access and their policy space. Progress on negotiations has been slow, and more than two years after they were supposed to have been concluded there are still a number of outstanding issues that the individual African regions and the European Commission have to resolve. This paper explores some of the difficulties and the progress made thus far, and proposes some measure that would address the concerns around development and regional integration in the context of the challenges posed by the global financial crisis.     

Introduction: Regional powers in contest and engagement: making sense of international relations in a globalised world

Over the last couple of years, ‘African ownership’ has become a buzzword in many fields. Economic development initiatives like the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) are based on it, partnership agreements like the Joint AU–EU Africa Strategy are built around it and its central concept of Africanisation guides virtually all external relations of the continent. African leaders (rightly) insist on it, international organisations (rightly) preach it and many non-African actors are (unsurprisingly) hiding behind it. The concept of African ownership is so omnipresent today that it is more than surprising that the simple question of who actually owns it has not yet been asked. It is the declared purpose of this paper to disentangle rhetoric from reality and identify the owner as well as the limits of African ownership in the sphere of peace and security.     

Regionalism,personalism, ethnicity,and violence: parties and voter preference in the 2010 parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan

On the basis of interviews, census data, and precinct-level electoral results from the October 2010 parliamentary election in Kyrgyzstan, this paper examines the influences on the party vote in Kyrgyzstan. Instead of traditional socioeconomic variables, this study finds that regionalism (North vs. South), ethnicity, personalism, and violence offered the most compelling explanations of party preference in Central Asia's most competitive election. The paper also examines the contextual factors that constructed and filtered voter demand, from Kyrgyzstan's political and economic conjuncture in 2010 to its unusual party system and electoral rules.