Political interference and regulatory resilience in Brazil

Governments face a fundamental tradeoff between regulatory independence and control. Attempts of interference have the effect of reducing the system's level of commitment and credibility. On the other hand, an administration runs the risk that the autonomy delegated to regulators might be used to pursue outcomes that may harm their interests. This tradeoff is particularly relevant when there is an alternation of power with the arrival of a new political elite with different preferences. This paper uses data from a 2016 survey on regulatory governance applied to Brazilian regulatory agencies. This data is compared to a similar survey performed in 2005. The new survey results turn out to be surprisingly similar to those of a decade earlier, suggesting strong resilience of regulatory agencies despite significant attempts at political interference by powerful presidents. The factors explaining the resilience of regulatory governance in Brazil lie in its broader institutional endowment, which moderates the effects of executive interference.     

执政生态与党内利益冲突的防范与治理

构建行之有效的党内利益冲突防范和治理机制,建设反腐败斗争的坚实堡垒,必须规范党员领导干部公共权力界限,健全党员领导干部权力监督制约机制。     

Voter responses to refugee arrivals: Effects of settlement policy

In this paper we leverage a sudden shift in refugee settlement policy to study the electoral consequences of refugee settlements. After the 2013 Norwegian parliamentary election, the newly elected right-wing government made a concerted effort to spread newly arrived immigrants across the country, with the consequence that some municipalities with limited experience in settling refugees accepted to do so. We propose that such policy changes have political consequences, increasing the salience of immigration issues and shifting voters’ preferences to the right. We further propose that successful refugee integration can move (parts of) the electorate to the left, with stronger political polarization as a possible effect of the policy change. Applying difference-in-differences techniques, we find no evidence of unidirectional shifts in voter sentiments, but support for the hypothesis of stronger political polarization.     

Striking the federal bargain in Russia: comparative regional government strategies

The central research goals of this article are to classify and explain the positions of the 89 state “governors” of Russia with regard to the most desirable federal division of power. The state governors are classified along a 5-item autonomy index based on events data and content analysis of their speeches, declarations, petitions, threats and actions from 1991–1995 as reported in two regional sources. Theoretical propositions derived from four schools of thought (essentialism, instrumentalism, relative deprivation and resource mobilization) are tested to discover which, if any, provide useful insights into the preferences and behavior of regional elites in Russia. In the end, a combined model that synthesizes elements of the above is shown to be most useful in explaining variation in elite positions.     

Beveridge at Eighty: Learning the Right Lessons

The eightieth anniversary of the Beveridge inquiry is a timely moment to consider how the landmark report is used within contemporary UK politics. Calls for a ‘new Beveridge’ reflect a desire for a rupture with the past and the creation of a radical new welfare consensus. But this reflects a misunderstanding: Beveridge's approach was organic in nature, building on decades of experimentation, politically contested rather than consensual, and intellectually pluralist rather than moored to a single ideological worldview. The real insight Beveridge offers us today flows not from his substantive agenda—which was rooted in a particular set of historic circumstances—but as an approach to securing social reform. Successful welfare advances over the last generation have drawn on these ‘Beveridgean instincts’. Rather than calling for a new twenty-first century blueprint to be handed down from above, reformers should build on experimentation and successful incremental change, from within the UK and abroad.     

社会变迁与中国行政诉讼原告资格制度的发展

行政诉讼原告资格制度发展与社会变迁之间存在着内在联系。我国市场经济的不 断发展,民主政治的不断完善,行政法治建设的不断进步,行政法治理论的不断成熟,为行政诉讼 原告资格制度的发展提供了根本动力、政治条件、实践基础及理论前提。21世纪,我国社会的经 济、政治、法制实践和法治理论仍将不断变迁,因此,行政诉讼原告资格制度必将继续向逐步放宽 的世界性标准发展。     

Discovering the Dark Side of Power: The Principal’s Moral Hazard in Political-Bureaucratic Relations

Principal agent (PA) is among the most prominent concepts for analyzing the relationship between politics and bureaucracy. Nonethelesss, the inherent bias of PA scholars to attribute moral hazard almost exclusively to the agent, usually referred to as “bureaucratic drift”, requires re-examination. Building on the spare literature in which moral hazard of the principal is considered, this paper provides empirical evidence for a neglected aspect of the PA concept. Three cases of German regulatory agencies responsible for drug control, financial services and rail safety are analyzed in critical situations which were largely perceived as bureaucratic failures. The analysis reveals that a good deal of these failures, ranging from negligence to suppressing crucial information, has to be attributed to the political principal. This is called the dark side of power because the intention is to shift blame or to dodge political responsibility. Turning conventional PA reasoning upside down, the conclusion is that the principal’s moral hazard should be considered more routinely as a potential explanation for political-bureaucratic interactions.     

《克丽丝德蓓》中的性别政治

美国学者凯特·米利特（Kate Millet）在她的著作《性别政治》一书中第一次明确地提出了性别政治的概念。米利特指出两性关系是一种统治与被统治的关系,即男性统治女性。这种权力结构长期以来被视为是理所当然的。《克丽丝德蓓》是英国浪漫主义时期诗人柯尔律治的三部代表作之一,长期以来在学术研究方面较少得到关注。《克丽丝德蓓》与作者其他两部代表作最明显的差异在于把历经磨难的主人公设定为一位柔弱少女。本文试图从男性作者视角的天使与魔鬼,男性力量的操纵与拯救和男性心理的公平与偏见等方面,阐释柯尔律治《克丽丝德蓓》中体现出的性别政治。     

Guide to Authors

正Published by China Institute of International Studies,China International Studies is China’s first English-language journal on diplomacy and international politics for formal circulation.The magazine mainly publishes the latest research achievements of Chinese scholars and specialists on     

浅谈高校改革中的思想政治工作

随着改革开放的深入发展和社会主义市场经济体制的逐步建立,社会对人才素质提出了更高要求。高等教育要充分有效地发挥思想政治的服务和保证功能,才能适应形势发展需要。