Two Contrasting Constituencies in the Heart of England

This article compares two parliamentary constituencies in Warwickshire: one which might be expected to be Conservative but is held by Labour, and the other, a Labour seat for over fifty years, but now held by the Conservatives. Constituency level analyses permit a more fine-grained analysis of electoral trends, taking account of demographic factors otherwise being overlooked. Labour needs to be able to appeal to the aspirational voters moving into Nuneaton.     

The electoral logic of governor rotations in Ukraine: rulers’ authority,party strength,and regional polarization

How and under what conditions do authoritarian rulers use the state apparatus to help ensure victory? To answer this question, this paper examines electoral mobilization as a rationale for the appointment of governors in hybrid regimes. Given their absolute authority to use administrative resources, autocratic rulers prefer governors who can perform well in mobilizing the electorate in their favor. However, several circumstances make this strategy suboptimal or impossible. To provide empirical evidence supporting this argument, this study conducts a survival analysis using an original dataset of gubernatorial appointments and dismissals in Ukraine from 1996 to 2017. The results confirm that electoral performance was the primary driver of governor appointments during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma. In addition, it is demonstrated that various institutional conditions, such as party strength, the weak authority of the ruler within the central government, and regional polarization resulted in the adoption of different appointment strategies by subsequent presidents.     

浅析乡、镇政府在村委会选举中的定位

规范性文件界定的乡镇政府在村委会选举中的应然地位,在现实中没有得到应有的体现,乡、镇政府在村委会选举中处于"失位"的状态。本文指出乡、镇政府在村委会选举中的应然与实然地位的差距,提出有助于发挥乡、镇政府在村委会选举中的作用的建议。     

村委会直选与农村青年工作发展的互动分析

村民自治是我国基层政治民主建设的重中之重,而村民直选是村民自治的一项主要内容。通过实地调查,探讨村民直选与青年成长和团工作的相互影响,将为改进和加强直选工作和团工作提供帮助。     

清末民初的选举资格比较述论

选举资格是选举的前提和关键，对代议政治能否良性发展、议员是否具有代表性等具有至关重大的影响。清末民初有关选举资格的法律规定，总体上存在着选举标准减少，要求降低的进步趋势，但进两步退一步，曲折复折，与代议政治的本质尚相距甚远。     

Educational challenges after year 2007 post election violence in Kenya

This paper sorts to examine the effects of post election violence on education in Kenya, after the presidential election results were disputed over by the two main presidential candidates. The rationale of the paper is due to the fact that among many other aspects of society that were affected in such a case is education. All levels of education were affected, and particularly primary and secondary education could not proceed on schedule as had earlier been planned. Other issues raised in this paper include the trauma experienced by students, loss of parents and guardians among others. The objectives of this paper therefore include： （1） To determine the effects of political violence on the education system in Kenya; （2） To establish the challenges facing students in Kenya after the post election violence; （3） To analyze individual attitudes of students towards the role of education in promoting national unity; （4） To determine how to re-imagine the role of education in promoting peace and peaceful coexistence in Kenya.     

从2018年地方选举看俄罗斯左翼政党发展态势

俄罗斯地方选举的结果往往能够反映出俄罗斯的政治社会形势、中央地方关系的变化情况以及精英的流动和发展状况,对国家杜马选举甚至俄罗斯总统选举都有一定的影响。2018年俄地方选举呈现出不同以往的特点,普京支持的“统一俄罗斯”党不仅失去多个地区的领导权,在地区立法机构的席位也大幅缩水。相比之下,俄罗斯联邦共产党则取得了不错的竞选成绩,在所有参选地区的得票率都有所提升,大幅提高了在地区立法机构中的席位占比。但是由于政治当局的打压、左翼政党内部的分裂和俄罗斯联邦共产党自身的发展局限,俄罗斯左翼政党在短期内依然无法与强大的政权党抗衡。不断进行理论创新、加强党的自身建设、联合其他左翼政党和爱国力量,才是俄罗斯左翼政党复兴的长远之计。     

我国乡村贿选及其治理对策研究

在村民委员会换届选举中，我国出现了较为严重的乡村贿选问题。乡村贿选侵犯了村民的选举权，滋生了村官腐败现象，败坏了社会风气，危及到农村的社会稳定。乡村贿选是行贿人（候选人）、受贿人（选民）等相关人员在特定的法律制度背帚下为了自身的利益而相互作用的结果。因此，需要加快法律制度建设，完善相关的法律体系，强化对贿选的惩罚力度，提高贿选的违法成本，使行贿人和受贿人双方都无利可图，从而有效地遏制贿选的发生和泛滥。     

The Political Economy of Facebook Advertising: Election Spending,Regulation and Targeting Online

Political advertising on Facebook is the latest in a long line of developments in campaign practice, and is a tool that has been mobilised extensively in elections around the world. In this article, we explore what we know about Facebook advertising at elections and ask what existing data from the UK Electoral Commission can reveal about current usage. Highlighting the principles behind Facebook advertising, we argue that existing metrics offer little insight into current campaign trends—posing analytical, methodological and normative challenges for academics and electoral regulators alike. Moreover, we argue that these challenges strike at the heart of debates about democratic responsibility and the degree to which governments should cede responsibility to commercial actors who may have differing understandings of fundamental democratic norms.     

‘Austria First’ revisited: a diachronic cross-sectional analysis of the gender and body politics of the extreme right

ABSTRACT

In this paper, Rheindorf and Wodak provide a discourse-historical analysis of extreme-right cultural politics in Austria, ranging from the blatant racism in the speeches of Vienna’s former Deputy Mayor Johann Gudenus (now MP in the Austrian parliament) to the construction of an idealized national body in the election campaigns of the Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ), its programmatic agenda in handbooks and pamphlets, and the performances of far-right pop singer Andreas Gabalier. Rheindorf and Wodak argue that such cultural politics use a wide spectrum of discursive strategies both inside and outside established party politics and that the accompanying production of an ideal extreme-right subject is informed by nativist ideology. The cross-sectional analysis demonstrates that the cultural politics of the Austrian extreme right ranges from appropriated national symbols to coded National Socialist iconography. These politics pervasively construct a gendered and racialized national body, policed by a ‘strict father’ and nurtured by a ‘self-sacrificing mother’, vis-à-vis an apocalyptic threat scenario identified with migration, intellectual and political elites, cosmopolitanism and progressive gender politics.