Do competitive districts get more political attention? Strategic use of geographic representation during campaign and non-campaign periods

MPs are elected as delegates of their electoral district to represent their constituents' interests. Geographical representation is considered a central quality indicator for legislative systems. Yet whether the strategic use of geographic representation is affected by tactical campaign considerations has received less attention. The availability of social media data on a fine-grained level allows us to fill this gap by studying the following question: To what extent do politicians strategically use geographic representation during electoral campaign and non-campaign times? I combine literature comparing campaign and non-campaign periods with studies on strategic incentives for MPs to geographic representation. Empirically, I rely on quantitative text-analytical tools to study German politicians’ tweets from the entire 19th legislative period (2017–2021). My findings have important implications for the geographic representation literature as they imply that MPs use geographic references strategically, especially during campaign periods. Prospective competitive districts receive substantially more political attention already during non-campaign periods, yet further amplified during electoral campaigns.     

Politics by denunciation: Political whistleblowing against members of parliament in Italy

Judicial investigations into politicians are a fundamental component of politics, with these investigations often leading to public scandals. Yet, empirical evidence of the strategic determinants of judicial investigations is intrinsically hard to gather, a problem that has significantly limited the study of this important phenomenon. This paper studies the politics behind judicial investigations by leveraging new data on prosecutors’ informants in 1125 episodes of misbehavior of Italian MPs involved in different crimes (1983–2019). Results provide evidence in favor of a political use of denunciations for corruption crimes: when a party weakens, the likelihood that political enemies denounce past misbehavior of members of the weakened party increases, suggesting that the political use of denunciation is elastic to changes in the electoral performance. Furthermore, weakened MPs are more likely to be accused of misbehavior that happened a long time before the accusation, which further supports the argument that accusations are politically motivated.     

Party factions and coalition government: portfolio allocation in Italian Christian Democracy

In this paper I elaborate a recently advanced argument about government formation, and assess it by studying the factions of the Italian Christian Democratic Party (DC). I contend that the costs of making and breaking coalitions depend on political institutions and on the configuration of actors in policy space. Comparisons across parties in Italy and other countries support this argument. So also do comparisons across party factions. The Christian Democratic factions that incurred the lowest office costs to build coalitions were those at or near the left–right median in Italy's core party. When electoral rules were rewritten in the DC, internal party competition over portfolio allocation changed as well. The paper's conclusion outlines how the argument would guide further research on party factions.     

马来西亚政党政治的变化及其走向

巫统一党独大是马来西亚长期以来政党政治的一大特点 ,但是 1999年末马来西亚第 10次大选却表明这种局面正在发生明显的变化 ,这必将对马来西亚的政局产生深远的影响。本文试从马来西亚政党政治变化入手 ,分析变化的成因 ,并对今后一个时期马来西亚政党政治和政局的发展趋势作一展望。     

广西打造国际区域经济合作新高地的思路

广西打造国际区域经济合作新高地,除了自身积极加大与东盟的合作外,更重要的是要打造促进中国与东盟经贸合作的平台。以沿海、沿边和沿江可以打造三大合作板块,以服务贸易带动货物贸易和投资合作可以打造十大专项的合作板块,一起形成国际区域经济合作新高地。工作重点是将“南宁渠道”上升到“南宁思想”,把西江经济带打造为新的区域合作平台以及加大与越南的合作,为南宁一新加坡经济走廊打好基础。     

一种新的国际经济协调机制的建构——简评G20机制在应对全球经济危机中的作用

随着世界经济全球化的深入发展和新兴经济体的崛起,为应对全球经济危机而临时召开的二十国集团领导人会议（简称G20峰会）逐渐取代八国集团首脑会议（G8）,成为调整各国经济金融政策、维持和促进全球经济增长的主要国际经济金融合作平台。至此,G20正式形成二十国集团财长央行行长会议和二十国集团领导人会议（简称G20峰会）并行召开的国际经济协调合作框架,成为协调各国经济金融政策的主要机制。     

试论发展广西与周边国家的民族文化旅游

中国-东盟自由贸易区于2010年1月1日如期建成。广西是边境民族地区,作为中国-东盟的连接地带,能用于国际贸易的商品很少,要在自由贸易区中争到更多贸易份额,需要发展民族文化旅游资源丰富的优势,发展与周边国家的民族文化旅游。要把广西建成旅游大区、强区,建成中国连接东盟的旅游大通道,同时开发广西与东南亚的海洋文化之旅,使广西成为与周边国家连成一片的国际旅游目的地。     

中国与东盟社会主义国家政治交往实践：现状、成果及问题

中国与越南、老挝这两个东盟社会主义国家的政治交往内容丰富,形式多样,富有成效。这种政治交往加深彼此了解,增进友好互信,扩大各领域互利合作,推动各自国家的社会主义建设,提升社会主义的影响力,促进中国与东盟的合作,维护地区和世界的和平稳定与发展。中越、中老的政治交往也在一些问题上存在着矛盾和分歧有待解决。     

Comparing Candidates and Citizens in the Ideological Space

Little is known about the ideological relationship between the Swiss political elite and the general public. Based on the Selects 2007 candidate and voter surveys, we compare the value orientations of both groups by applying ordinal factor analysis. First, we test whether political leaders or their supporters are more ideologically polarized. Second, we investigate whether ideological congruency between the electorate and representatives varies from party to party. Third, we examine whether winning candidates are ideologically more remote from their party supporters than unsuccessful candidates. We find that ideological polarization is larger within the political elite than within the general public. As a consequence, representatives of parties with rather extreme value orientations represent the moderate electorate rather poorly. Similarly, successful candidates are found to be more distant from their party supporters than unsuccessful candidates. These findings challenge traditional spatial voting theory but accord nicely with the directional model of voting behavior.     

全球金融危机下东亚货币金融合作的路径选择

当前的"美元体制"在今后相当长时期内具有可持续性.正是在布雷顿森林体制和"美元体制"下,东亚各经济体的工业化和经济发展取得了巨大成功,成为"美元体制"的主要受益者和支撑者,也自然成为全球金融危机的主要受害者.现阶段的东亚货币金融合作巴经取得了一定进展,但东亚各经济体尚不具备推进国际货币体系改革的能力;同时,东亚货币金融合作应改变应对危机的实用主义哲学,以促进区域经济的持续、稳定增长为目标进行更加长远的路径设计,在区域整体层面和局部层面两个层次上加快货币金融合作的深化发展.在此过程中,人民币国际化战略的实施将使中国在区域货币金融合作中占据较为有利的地位,但其能否成功一方面取决于中国经济结构能否进行顺利的调整,使中国成为能够替代美国的区域内最终产品市场的提供者,另一方面也取决于中日两国能否比较顺利地开展汇率政策的协调与合作.东亚地区复杂的历史、文化、政治和社会背景等因素,决定了该地区难以出现"一家独大"式的货币合作模式.因此,中日两目的协调与合作在很大程度上决定着东亚货币金融合作的未来.