Voting Advice Applications and the Estimation of Party Positions – A Reliable Tool?

Data contained in Voting Advice Applications (VAA s) is not only a prerequisite for the vote recommendations they provide but can also be used for estimating party positions in low‐dimensional spaces. Given that VAA s can be designed differently in terms of their number of items and their measurement level, how much can one trust the party positions obtained from this source? We tackle this question by exploiting relevant variation in a real‐world setting: three VAA s offered at the 2017 Lower Saxony election. Despite substantial design differences, the policy spaces extracted through an inductive scaling approach are highly convergent. Simulated random item removal from the pooled dataset of all three VAA s furthermore suggests that about 40 items yield satisfactory reliability of the party positions. Finally, we find that a priori assigning VAA ‐items to ideological dimensions is potentially problematic as the interpretation of resulting party spaces may differ from the ones derived inductively.     

网络民主热的冷思考

网络民主热潮的背后,折射出了现实政治的诸多困境.它的“一枝独秀”很大程度上缘于现实参与渠道的不畅通、多元民主力量的缺失以及代议机构功能不足等,它的有效治理取决于现实政治的容纳和对接,有赖于多元民主力量的壮大,以及各种民主形式之间的优势互补.     

A New Progressive Patriotism

The need to hold capital to account and to bend markets to the common good is as powerful as ever, yet it is becoming steadily harder to create an electoral or political majority for such an idea in societies that are fractured and divided. The fundamental bond between voters and parties depends on political identity relationships; old ones are fading, new ones need to be created. The most dynamic politics in advanced capitalist societies are those of nation, people and place. The strategic challenge for the left is to create a new progressive patriotism that can embed radical ideas in a common sense of national purpose.     

Trade Measures and Climate Compliance: Institutional Interplay Between WTO and the Marrakesh Accords

This article examines the potential of trade measures to induce more climate-friendly policies, focusing on the relationship between global trade rules and the Kyoto climate regime. At the core of this interplay is the normative consistency of trade-related rules in the two regimes and any hierarchical relationship between them. The stronger clout of the WTO and its compulsory dispute settlement system suggest that issues involving competing claims would be referred to WTO bodies. Such bodies have so far been restrictive regarding the exceptions in WTO agreements to the general ban on embargoes and discrimination. The normative compatibility of the two regimes will also depend on their participatory interplay, specifically how they differentiate groups of actors as to rights and obligations. Non-members of WTO receive the least protection, and their vulnerability to climate-related trade measures is largely determined by their interdependence with states that consider employment of such measures. Among WTO members, the findings of a dispute settlement body would presumably differ depending on the status of the target under the Kyoto Protocol. A non-complier with Kyoto commitments would be more shielded than a non-party, because by joining the Kyoto regime a non-complier has exposed itself to regime-internal and less trade intrusive measures that should be exhausted first. A third dimension of interplay is linkage, or efforts to influence the regime interplay. To date there has only been moderate cross-agency coordination, but considerable attention is paid within each regime, including in the Millennium Round of trade negotiations, to the desirability of avoiding conflict between them.     

从古希腊历史看政治观的形成

政治观是社会意识领域里不可或缺的一部分,它的形成经历了一个漫长的历史过程。古希腊的城邦政治是西方政治文明的源头,从古希腊的历史中可以清晰的看出,政治观世界观发展的过程是逐步形成的过程。     

社会主义民主政治建设的新突破--村民自治对中国政治发展的深远影响

村民自治是中国农民对社会主义民主建设的各种各样民主的新形式,是对社会主义民主发展的新贡献。村民自治将重新塑造农村民主政治的主体、改变农村传统的政治文化、辐射城市民主化进程、加速政治体制的进一步改革。     

论清末湖南的法学教育

从清朝末年的维新运动时期开始 ,湖南已有中西合璧的近代法学教育。 2 0世纪初 ,湖南的法学教育已经以多种方式进行 ,主要包括以学生为对象的国内学堂教育 ,以官员为对象的课吏馆或仕学馆的培训教育和组织出国留学法律。其中 ,学堂法学教育又从仅作为一般课程教育发展为法学专门学堂教育。清末湖南的法学教育服从于兴学育才、推行新政、挽救清王朝的大目标。结果 ,不但培养了法学人才 ,而且造就了推翻满清封建王朝的生力军。清末湖南的法学教育又为民国初年湖南法学教育的发展奠定了基础。     

关于社会主义政治文明建设与多党合作制度的思考

多党合作制度体现政治文明的本质,多党合作制度和政治文明有着共同的价值取向;多党合作制度是政治文明的优势所在;是与中国共产党通力合作的需要。多党合作制度诠释政治文明的内涵,有着中国特色与创新,在致力于围绕中心、服务大局方面有着突出的特点。     

Strengthening Citizenship in Brazil's Democracy: Local Participatory Governance in Porto Alegre

In Latin America, and particularly Brazil, inequality and social exclusion continue to plague the quality of democracy despite two decades of transition and consolidation. Still, in Brazil, the Workers' Party has been remarkably successful over the past decade, explicitly addressing the problem of social exclusion and 'incomplete citizenship'. This paper provides an analysis of the case of Porto Alegre covering the four Workers' Party municipal administrations from 1989 to the present in order to assess the significance of social incorporation and citizenship for the quality of democracy in Brazil. The paper discusses some conceptual notions that are relevant for the question of democracy in Brazil, particularly the role of citizenship and civil society in 'deepening' democracy. Then the paper goes into the evolution and dynamics of Porto Alegre's system of 'participatory budgeting'. The paper's assessment of this experience with respect to its performance, depth and robustness shows that 'participatory budgeting' has had positive effects with respect to the provision of public goods services, the quality of governance, and citizens' participation in what is seen as a new 'public space' shared by the local state and grass roots organisations. The paper concludes by relating the case experience to the question of citizenship, civil society and democracy and by reflecting upon its wider implications for the current and future quality of democracy in Brazil.     

国家、社会与政治——英语学界当代中国政治研究

英语学界当代中国政治研究模式大致经历了三个发展阶段极权主义分析模式(1940-1960)、现代化以及多元论分析模式(1960-1970)和国家-社会分析模式(1980-).本文对各个分析模式不同的理论预设和学理指向作了尝试性的考察,并抽绎出这一衍变过程对汉语学术界当代中国政治研究可能具有的某些启示意义.