Not just ‘friends and neighbours’: Canvassing,geographic proximity and voter choice

The impact of local campaigning on voter choice has been studied within the theme of mobilisation. Grassroots effort can attract votes efficiently, but campaign contact is (potentially) endogenous, so results showing positive effects could be flawed. Experimental solutions to this problem are possible, but could also have low external validity. Drawing on the electoral geography literature, this article suggests that endogeneity concerns can be addressed through so‐called ‘friends and neighbours voting’. One source of endogeneity is that that candidates may tend to canvass those living close to their own homes, and those canvassed would be expected in any case to be prone to support local candidates. The problem of endogeneity is reframed and treated as an omitted variable bias. Using unique Irish data on the geographic location of the homes of candidates, as well as data on the location of the voters, the analysis confirms that canvassing has a positive impact on candidate choice independent of the effect of geographic distance. More importantly, these two variables interact. The results point to the relevance of the geographic dimension of electoral politics in driving the endogeneity bias in local campaigning studies.     

地方人大常委会重大事项议决权的法理分析

重大事项议决权是地方人大常委会的一项法定职权.地方人大常委会的这一职权具有从属性、抽象性、综合性.行使重大事项议决权要坚持自主创制性和民主参与性,同时还要注意到实体和程序的结合性.地方人大常委套应就重大事项不议决与议决不当承担相应的法律责任或政治责任.地方人大常委会重大事项议决责任的问责主体有原选区选民和原选举单位两类;问责方式主要是罢免.     

Local Social Ties and Willingness to Intervene: Textured Views Among Violent Urban Youth of Neighborhood Social Control Dynamics and Situations

Social control in urban neighborhoods has been studied for over a century in America, yet our understanding of the dynamic nature of social relations for exerting informal social control remains limited. The present study uses detailed reports from those most likely to be the target of local control efforts—violent youth in extremely disadvantaged urban locations—to re‐examine two features of this work: variations across different hypothetical scenarios widely used in this research, and connections between local ties and intervention type and likelihood in actual events. In‐depth qualitative interviews from 159 violent males aged 16–24 from two distressed New York City neighborhoods identify ways in which responses to commonly used scenarios of informal social control are age‐ and space‐graded. Reports on the transactional nature of social control in violent events show how local ties may undermine, rather than support, social control processes. It would appear that we need to consider more carefully general suggestions about local ties encouraging more informal social control, move to a more textured, multithreaded view of these connections, and incorporate age‐ and space‐graded dynamics into future studies of social control.     

管辖选择权：行政案件管辖制度改革之一剂良方——基于行政诉讼中“官官相护”滋生“告状难”现象的分析

从行政诉讼原被告及法官三方力量博弈的角度看,受制于现行行政案件管辖制度,"当地法院管辖"、"法院裁定管辖"使得强势的行政权与次强势的司法权强强联合成为现实,进而导致弱势的原告"告状难"。司法权行使去当地化,阻断行政权对司法权的不当干扰;司法权行使去裁定化,杜绝司法权不当行使;赋予原告充分的案件管辖选择权,提升其对抗行政权、司法权的能力,促成三方力量平衡,是解决民告官"告状难"的一剂良方。     

越级上访产生的原因及其治理

《信访条例》第4条明确规定,信访工作应当坚持分级负责等原则。分级负责原则说明,上访必须按程序进行,遵循“逐级上访”的原则,而不能“越级上访”,越级上访不利于解决问题。之所以会产生越级上访的现象,原因很复杂,但主要原因在于一些地方政府对访民不重视、信访机制运行不畅等。因此,治理越级上访,需要推进信访体制改革,破解越级上访的症结;坚决贯彻落实信访责任追究制度;树立法治权威,建设法治社会;提升信访等政府部门治理与善治的能力与水平。     

地方政府职能转变评估研究

政府职能转变是当代中国社会转型中的重大现实问题。对地方政府职能转变进行评估是一项复杂的系统工程,是促进政府职能转变的重要手段。对地方政府职能转变进行评估必须以科学发展观为指导,在厘清地方政府职能转变相关概念的基础上,构建起涵盖评估对象、评估内容和依据、评估主体、评估指标、评估结果运用等基本构成要素的评估框架。     

SOCIETY

正Green Coverage China’s forests such as that pictured to the right covered21.63 percent of the country’s land at the end of 2013,a rise of1.27 percentage points compared to five years ago,a State Forestry Administration survey showed.Total forest areas grew to208 million hectares at the end of2013,up from 195 million hectares five years ago.Growing stock per hectare increased by 3.91 cubic meters to 89.79 cubic meters over the past half a decade,according to a report of the five-year survey released on February 25.     

THIS WEEK

正OFFERING A HElPING HAND Chinese medical workers take a boy suspected to have contracted Ebola to the ward for observation in a hospital in Freetown,capital of Sierra Leone,on October 11.A group of 30 doctors and nurses from the Beijing-based 302 Military Hospital,which specializes in treating     

The Impact of Assembly Size on Representativeness

Choosing the number of seats in a legislature is a balancing act between efficiency and representativeness. This article focuses on representativeness and hypothesises that the larger the assembly, the higher the vote–seat proportionality, the higher the number of parties represented, and the higher the representation of otherwise under-represented groups. An approach using simulations of elections is introduced and applied in testing the hypotheses in the case of Danish local elections. Two thousand six hundred and forty-six elections are simulated, and a positive, but non-linear, relationship is demonstrated between number of seats and proportionality, number of parties, and percentage of women councillors.