Testing for sources of electoral competition under authoritarianism: an analysis of Russia’s gubernatorial elections

What drives electoral competition in competitive authoritarian regimes? Most scholarship has assumed that the outcome of these elections is decided by regime manipulation alone. Using three rounds of newly reinstated gubernatorial elections in Russia’s regions, I test this assumption. I identify three distinct measures of competition calibrated to authoritarian elections and assess whether voter preferences or regime manipulation best explain the degree of electoral competition. Relying on new data on protests across Russia’s regions, I find that regions with high protest activity have more contested elections with narrower margins of victory. The results also confirm recent scholarship highlighting the importance of voter turnout for delivering pro-regime victories.     

Voting for Movement Parties in Southern Europe: The Role of Protest and Digital Information

In recent years ‘movement parties’ such as Syriza in Greece, the Movimento 5 Stelle in Italy, Podemos in Spain and—to a lesser extent—Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal shook national party systems, breaking the consolidated dynamics of political competition. Despite growing interest in movement parties, there has been scant attention to the role of citizens adopting unconventional forms of action and using digital media in accounting for their electoral performance. To fill this gap, four original internet-based post-electoral surveys are employed showing that protesters and digital media users are more likely to vote for these parties, despite important country differences.     

Individual Differences and Political Contexts –The Role of Personality Traits and Direct Democracy in Explaining Political Protest

Building on a growing literature concerned with the link between psychological dispositions and political protest behavior, we argue that this relationship is not universal, but rather depends on contextual factors. Political context factors are able to alter the meaning and understanding of participatory repertoires. This, in turn, leads to differential effects of personality on participation. We argue that direct democracy constitutes such a political context that can act as moderating factor with regard to protest participation. In order to test this interaction between person and situation empirically, we conduct a subnational comparative analysis of the Swiss cantons. Hierarchical regression models reveal that the personality traits openness to experience and extraversion affect protest behavior directly. Most importantly, however, the link between openness to experience and protest participation is significantly moderated by direct democracy. This provides evidence for variance in the situational expression of personality traits.     

刑事抗诉权实际运行与理性思考

刑事抗诉权是检察机关履行刑事审判监督职责,确保司法公正最重要、最有效的途径.然而,由于立法规定粗糙,在实践中运行机制不畅,各种案外因素的困扰和影响,抗诉权实际运行效果并不理想,在一定程度上存在弱化现象,需要予以完善,以强化审判监督,纠正错误裁判,维护司法公正.     

检察机关行政抗诉制度之完善

行政抗诉既是一种公力救济,又具有典型的监督属性。它始终以公权力监督为主线,体现了对行政权的间接监督、有限监督。行政抗诉是为实践所需要的监督方式,目前尚存在制度上的缺陷,应当完善立法,明确行政抗诉的对象,规定抗诉案件的审级,配置检察机关抗诉应有的权力,从而维护司法公正和法制统一。     

Cutting the fuse: the explosion of global suicide terrorism and how to stop it,by Robert A. Pape and James K. Feldman

This article considers a ‘new-old’ media – that is, a relatively newly created medium with deep historical roots – that has gained increasing popularity in recent years: a subgenre of the comic book, most often referred to as the graphic novel. Presented here as an antidote to dominant interpretations of political violence ranging from the state terrorism of the Holocaust to the events of 9/11, the article briefly traces the history of graphic novels and details their growing popularity before describing and analysing representations of terrorism, both written and visual, in eight paradigmatic works that purvey variously victim, survivor and perpetrator perspectives.     

国际金融危机下西方社会震荡解析

归根到底由资本主义社会的基本矛盾运动所酿成的这次国际金融危机,又对当代资本主义造成了巨大的冲击,这种冲击遍及于其经济、政治、文化、社会和生态等各个方面。它引发的一波又一波社会震荡大体上分为五种类型：一是由危机造成的高失业率、经济衰退、政府紧缩财政措施所引发的罢工、抗议和骚乱;二是危机造成的经济低迷、失业率攀升,使西方极右势力得以把其反多元文化、反外来移民的情绪推向极端;三是危机造成的这种经济低迷、失业率攀升,又在西方国家的外来移民聚居区中埋下了街头骚乱的根子;四是危机激起了标志平民主义抗议的＂占领华尔街＂运动;五是美国等西方资本主义国家在国际金融危机期间的所作所为激起的独狼式恐怖袭击事件。这些震荡是资本主义的固有缺陷弊端在国际金融危机冲击下集中暴露的必然结果,因而即使在危机后幸存下来时它还将在一波又一波社会震荡中运行。     

简论职工文化的教育性、娱乐性和群众性

职工文化的基本特征,是其教育性、娱乐性和群众性。深刻认识、准确把握这些基本特征,对于做好职工文化工作,具有重要的指导意义。     

浅论侦查工作中的测谎知识普及

测谎研究应当突破当前单纯技术层面的研究，立足大侦查、大测谎，重视侦、测、审的综合研究，为测谎技术的更好发展寻求有效途径。对侦查人员进行测谎知识的科学普及教育是行之有效的方法之一，有助于测谎技术为侦查工作的有效服务。     

试论社会主义核心价值体系引领吉林省文化建设的实践机制

吉林省在以社会主义核心价值体系引领文化建设的过程中还存在不少问题。针对以马克思主义为社会主义核心价值体系指导思想出现的认识弱化现象和中国特色社会主义理想信念受到冲击的现象,应深化社会主义核心价值体系引领文化建设的先导权——政治保障机制研究;针对多元化社会思潮对社会道德体系的冲击现象,应深化社会主义核心价值体系引领文化建设的主导权——舆论建构对策研究;针对社会主义核心价值体系建设受到冲击现象,应深化社会主义核心价值体系引领文化建设的引导权——制度建设研究。