How voters' perceptions of junior coalition partners depend on the prime minister's position

Recent studies document that voters infer parties' left‐right policy agreement based on governing coalition arrangements. This article extends this research to present theoretical and empirical evidence that European citizens update their perceptions of junior coalition partners' left‐right policies to reflect the policies of the prime minister's party, but that citizens do not reciprocally project junior coalition partners' policies onto the prime minister's party. These findings illuminate the simple rules that citizens employ to infer parties' policy positions, broaden understanding of how citizens perceive coalition governance and imply that ‘niche’ parties, whose electoral appeal depends upon maintaining a distinctive policy profile, assume electoral risks when they enter government.     

Of Distributive Politics and Pork Barrel System: Why Not Epistemic Governance Approach?

The paper attempts to situate distributive politics in the context of epistemic governance. The paper also seeks to analyze the various structures and systems, actors, agents and stakeholders, and norms and behaviors involved within the realm of theory and praxis in distributive politics. It borrows from the epistemic work targets espoused by Alasuutari and Qadir (2014), namely the environment, actors and virtues. Finally, the paper proposes an epistemic governance as policy approach in distributive politics as it tries to argue the shift of power from the hands of the political elites to the hands of the politically astute epistemes.     

Subnational competitive authoritarianism and power-sharing in Bosnia and Herzegovina

ABSTRACT

Incremental democratic decline is evident in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), but measures of democracy conceal an uneven subnational distribution of autocratization. So far there has been limited research on the drivers and constraints to subnational autocratization. This paper aims to contribute to the literature on power-sharing by exploring instances of illiberal politics enacted by parties in government at the subnational level in BiH. Evidence is gathered through semi-structured interviews and analysis of three specific cases of illiberal politics. We find that the political contest in BiH is purposefully contained within ethnic and subnational boundaries and constrained through several layers of institutionalized multilevel and ethnic checks and balances. The main drivers of subnational autocratization are opportunities that arise from the institutional framework established during early democratization and postwar structures that blend executive dominance with economic power and informal party networks, and occasionally from an individual actor’s perceptions of threat. Democratization in BiH will need to address subnational politics and deep-rooted power structures if it is to be successful.     

从性别政治到性欲政治——台湾女性思潮变迁的一个侧面

近30年来，台湾女性运动与思潮发展迅猛。特别在上世纪90年代，焦点一度从争取参政权、财产权等公共领域转入“私领域”，更多地关注女性的性欲和身体。这一发展，深刻地显示了台湾社会女性思潮的重大变化。     

庸人政治、偏激取向与民主社会的异化

现代社会民主化进程中往往呈现出两种现象:一是庸人往往占据高位,而那些事变创造性人物则越来越为主流社会所遗弃,导致新思想对社会产生作用的时滞越来越长;二是呈现出强烈的极端性和好斗性,那些拥有权力优势的国家和个人更易于实行机会主义。究其原因,这体现了当今民主体制的缺陷和相关条件的不成熟。一者,如果对民主选举的范围和内容不进行界定,那么多数至上规则中获得优胜的往往是基于影响力原则而不是贤能原则;二者,如果社会大众的教育水平没有达到一定程度,那么集体行动往往会呈现出狂热和非理性。     

人大学的法学之维

人大学在法学知识体系中的产出量、重要学科地位有待提高。不宜继续沿用“人大制度学”、“人大制度研究”等称谓,一般应采用“人大学”、“人大法学”等称谓。人大法真包含于宪法,但是,宪法学真包含于人大法学,不过,宪法学与人大法学真包含于人大学。研究的主体是人大法及人大法学,反对片面地从研究内容上将人大学与宪法学完全割裂开来。以往人大学研究的理论苍白,很大程度上与研究方法的边缘性知识熏陶、训练之缺乏有关。人大学的法学之维阐释是永无止境的,惟其如此,不断提高人大学的理论性与实用性并希冀给法学人能在这个领域不断追求知识增量的愿望和持久的信仰。     

公民社会对民主的推动及困境

在政治实践中，公民社会遇到了理论和实际上的困境，公民社会以强有力的自我调节功能，推动着社会主义民主向纵深发展。     

和谐社会理论在思想政治教育中的指导作用

中国共产党提出的社会主义和谐社会理论,是中国共产党对马克思主义的再认识。和谐社会理论反映了时代要求和中心任务的需要;反映了社会主义建设实践的需要。因此,我们应进一步加强和改进新时期思想政治工作,科学定位,重新构建工作内容,努力探索新的工作方法,使政治思想教育更好地在经济建设中发挥其服务保证作用。     

The 1996 Split of the Islamic Movement in Israel: Between the Holy Text and Israeli-Palestinian Context

This article aims to explain the causes and meaning of the formal split of the Islamic Movement in Israel into two factions—following the decision to participate in the elections to the fourteenth Knesset (Israeli parliament) on May 29, 1996—while locating these in a larger theoretical framework. This split resulted from a delicate combination of doctrinal-ideological controversies relating to secular electoral competition and historical-political-tactical controversies that are rooted in the Israeli-Palestinian context. Specifically, the split of the Islamic Movement in Israel derived from two interpretations of the Islamic belief: a more literal or concrete interpretation and a more abstract one.