A comparative analysis of voter turnout in regional elections

Elections to regional assemblies have become increasingly important as the power and responsibilities of regional governments have increased. Yet, few studies have attempted to explain the considerable variation in turnout in regional elections from one region to another. This article conducts a cross-sectional examination of voter participation in regional elections across nine multi-level OECD states between 2003 and 2006. It contends that standard models of voter turnout in national elections are insufficient to explain variation in turnout in regional elections and argues for the use of independent variables tailored to capture variation across regional communities and regional political institutions. Our findings suggest that variations in the strength of political autonomy and the strength of attachment to the region among the electorate have a strong and positive impact on the level of turnout in regional elections.     

公民概念之演变

探寻公民概念在历史长河中的演变轨迹、分析普遍意义的公民概念 ,对于我们当今领略宪法意义上的公民之精神极为必要。从古希腊与城邦一体的公民、古罗马时期公民的政治身份与民事身份的剥离、中世纪臣民意识的泛滥、市民阶层的悄然兴起 ,到近代资产阶级革命时期公民概念的个人理念凸现以及现代国家之公民概念外延法定、内涵趋于泛化的发展历程表明公民概念始终以政治权利为核心。     

论传统社会户籍身份法律制度

户籍制度是中国传统社会极具特色之处。中国在先秦时代就形成了户籍制度。户籍是封建国家据以征调赋税、劳役、兵役以及区分人户职业和等级的重要凭证,也由此形成了独具特色的中国户籍身份制。     

印尼华人信仰的多教混合与华人文化认同

印尼华人信仰多教混合,供奉多元神祇,呈现着一种重现世,重实用的色彩.这是中国民间宗教的多元取向特性在海外的延续,更是印尼华人主体意识的投射,是他们赖以进行文化身份定向的"经验".     

Who Liberalizes? Explaining Preferential Trade Liberalization

Despite the growth in research on preferential trade arrangements (PTAs), few studies have systematically explored why some PTAs have been more successful than others at liberalizing trade among members. In this paper I test four hypotheses concerning intra-PTA liberalization: a regional system structure hypothesis, an international institutions hypothesis, a domestic institutions hypothesis, and an economic hypothesis. Although all four types of variables are statistically significant, only international institutions have substantively large effects on intra-PTA liberalization. This suggests that policymakers have considerable latitude to promote integration, as the impact of “choice” variables such as international institutions far outweighs that of “given” factors such as regional system structure or the nature of member economies.     

Further insights into the construct of criminal social identity: validation of a revised measure in a prison population

The current study objective was to develop a revised version of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity (MCSI) with an increased number of indicators to more reliably capture three MCSI dimensions. Dimensionality and construct validity of the Measure of Criminal Social Identity – Revised (MCSI-R) was examined among a sample of systematically selected inmates (N = 2192). Four competing models of the MCSI-R were specified and tested using Mplus with weighted least squares with mean and variance adjustment estimation. Bifactor model with three meaningful factors (cognitive centrality, in-group affect and in-group ties) while controlling for the general factor was the best fit for the data. Good composite reliability of the three MCSI-R dimensions was established. The three subscales of the MCSI-R evidence differential predictive utility for prisonization, number of incarcerations, self-esteem and violent offending. Practical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

中国古代身份信息管理初探

中国历代王朝都建立了户籍管理制度。在户籍登记中包含了身份信息的内容,如姓名、住址、相貌、职业等。统治者通过定期的登记与核实、严密的社区基层组织的管理、严厉的惩罚制度来保证登记信息的真实准确。古代社会借助官府的户籍登记信息、基层组织管理者、连坐制相纠相察,实现对人口的验证、查询。但古代静态的人口管理模式无法应对人口流动的社会趋势,身份信息管理常有失灵状况。     

拓朴学与指纹同一检验理论

拓朴学的研究对象是几何图形在一对一的双方连续变换下不变的性质 ,这种性质称之为拓朴性质。拓朴学是指纹检验的指导理论之一 ,指纹的同一性检验就是确定指纹之间的拓朴性质     

A bit of a dirty word: ‘feminism’ and female teachers identifying as feminist

Following the identification of a gap in the literature around reasons for contemporary women’s self-identification as ‘feminist’, this paper discusses an empirical study of an intergenerational group of contemporary Australian female teachers collaboratively designing English curriculum around girls’ media. The paper explores the group’s shared conversations around feminism, over a series of meetings, as we (teachers and researcher) plan curriculum and negotiate broader subject positions possible for girls and women. These contexts include the competing discourses of feminism and postfeminism and how these mediate texts chosen for study, our pedagogical approaches, and the ways we experience our own lives. In this study, we struggle to find a shared language, across generations, with which to work collaboratively in a community of practice committed to the critical study of media, but involving different individual orientations to ‘feminism’. This is a space in which impediments to the feminist study of girls’ media quickly emerge. The paper also serves as a reminder that feminist scholarship takes place in schools, as well as in the academy, and that the gender studies work teachers do in schools is potentially whole population work, worthy of keen attention in the gender studies academic mainstream.     

The integration of British undergraduate men’s public and private masculinities

Abstract

Recent research has highlighted British heterosexual men espousing gay-friendly attitudes, and adopting ‘softer’ gendered behaviours. In contexts where overt homophobia is increasingly stigmatized, it is possible that these public avowals of attitudes do not correspond with privately held beliefs. In this article, I draw on a two-year covert insider-ethnography of undergraduate men to investigate men’s private attitudes related to homosexuality and their embodied masculinities. In these contexts, these men were found to be as emotionally open, inclusive and homosocially tactile as they were in public. Drawing on Goffman’s notion of front and backstage, I contend that these men’s masculine identities are ‘authentic’ components of themselves, and are more than strategic presentations of self.