The social logic of political choice: Picking a political party in the context of immediate social circles

The Social Logic of Politics places social learning at the center of political choice. People develop their political preferences, knowledge, values, perceptions of ability, and decisions about political behavior in interactions with others, usually members of their social circles. Political attitudes and goals are not derivatives of exogenous economic preferences. They are not the results of careful calculations, in which optimization of personal needs guides the mode of reasoning. This theoretical stance draws sustenance from recent work across the social science, even as it harkens back to established, if neglected principles of political analysis. My thanks to Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck for his encouragement and for the critical comments of several anonymous referees and to Josip Dasović and Jennifer Fitzgerald, my co-authors of Partisan Families: the Social Logic of Bounded Partisanship in Germany and Britain (Zuckerman et al. 2007). Material from that book appears in this essay.     

Tony Blair's 'Media' Speech: The Commentators

Tony Blair's speech challenged the media over its standards in his valedictory lecture. Many of his charges about the absence of balance, attacks on motive and a pack mentality stand up, even if some are exaggerated and also applied well before his arrival in 10 Downing Street. Mr Blair's solutions did ot match his critique. What is required is a more self‐questioning media, being held to account on the internet and on specialist blogging sites. Vigorous criticism, requiring justification, is a more credible rout than tighter regulation. Tony Blair's speech on the changing pressures on the media is both interesting and convincing in its diagnosis (although generally reported in ways that did not reveal this). It is less convincing in suggestions for change: the fact that on‐line media will fall under Of‐com, and so under its minimal ‘content regulation’ will have little impact. Effective change could begin with other types of (self or other regulation). Some steps towards change might include minimal requirements for journalists and editors to accept elementary forms of accountability, such as disclosing conflicts of interest and payments made for ‘stories’. The scale of media coverage may be crucial in determining the allocation of aid, yet the attention the media pays to particular causes is arbitrary. Many serious disasters are not reported and as a consequence do not receive adequate aid, so that the victims of the crisis will lose out. Chronic long term problems, like famine, are ignored in favour of ‘sudden emergencies’. Reporting seeks sensation and simple stories which influences the way that aid agencies respond to the media. The complex background to a faraway disaster is often overlooked and not properly reported. Tony Blair's speech describing some of the news media as ‘feral beasts’ contained one paragraph which contained an insight into his views on new media. It was known that the outgoing Prime Minister was uncomfortable with some aspects of new technology but his remarks reveal a wider disappointment with how new media has failed to deliver changes which he had hoped for in political communications.This paper records Mr Blair's problems with new media and argues that by focusing on how the new technologies might provide a better way for politicians to by‐pass the traditional media he has missed the point of their wider benefits.     

东南亚地区形势:2008年

在刚刚过去的2007年,东南亚各国经济保持较高速度的增长;展望2008年,虽然有一些困难和不稳定因素,但是,总的而言,仍然是一个好年头.美国经济衰退给世界经济带来许多不确定因素,也给东南亚经济蒙上一层阴影.然而,时过境迁,美国经济虽然是影响东南亚经济的一个重要因素,但已经不是唯一的因素,美国一打喷嚏,东南亚就感冒的年代已经一去不复返了.东南亚政治在2008年基本能够保持稳定,马来西亚顺利举行大选;泰国前总理他信回国,新总理沙玛一再强调是他信的代言人,新政府执行了一条没有他信的他信政策.东盟通过了<东盟宪章>,它标志着这个地区性国际组织进入一个新的时代.东盟与各个大国的关系也比较顺利,日本在东南亚又有一些新的动作,福田首相继承其父亲老福田的路线,加强了东南亚外交.     

L'impact du mode de scrutin sur l'élection des femmes à l'Assemblée fédérale Suisse (1995‐2003)

Cet article analyse l'impact du système électoral sur l'élection des femmes à l'Assemblée fédérale (1995‐2003). La littérature a souvent mis l'accent sur l'importance du système proportionnel en vue de l'amélioration de la représentation des femmes au Parlement en se concentrant souvent uniquement sur le taux de femmes élues. Dans cet article, nous argumentons qu'il est nécessaire d'étudier les trajectoires des candidats et de prendre en compte à la fois les candidats hommes et femmes. Nous montrons que l'effet women‐friendly du système proportionnel au Conseil national semble davantage jouer au niveau de la stratégie de désignation des candidats et des candidates que lors de leur élection, et ce particulièrement pour les partis politiques du centre et de droite.     

在蓝绿两极化困局下“脱色政治”的努力

当蓝绿对峙推进到"北蓝南绿"的区域政治的极端形式时,其结构性困境也在逐一显现。蓝绿两极化政治并非台湾政治发展的宿命。由"颜色政治"向"脱色政治"发展,是走向常态化执政的任何一位台湾政治领导人都无法回避的选择。而突破当下政治的结构性困局,建立超越"颜色政治"的公共伦理,对两岸关系具有多重意涵,大陆因素可以在促进岛内区域政治向有利于两岸关系方面的,发挥实质性的影响力。     

20世纪40年代罗家伦对近代中国民族国家建构与民族发展问题的理论探讨

20世纪40年代,罗家伦顺应中国走向现代化的趋势,从民族与经济、政治、教育、人口、宗教、法律制度、语言文字、地理环境等方面关系的角度探讨了近代中国民族国家建构问题,形成了较为系统的民族发展理论。罗家伦将中国民族国家的建构与现代化联系起来,他所注重的工业化、科学化、民主化以及人的现代化,实质上都是现代化的基本内容。他的民族国家建构理论的主流,正是中华民族在落后的历史条件下,希望通过借鉴世界各国先进的技术和经验,通过自己的发展和创造,赶上先进国家、实现民族现代化的具体体现。     

Institutional determinants of the largest seat share

The degree of predominance of the largest party in a representative assembly affects government formation and survival. The seat share of the largest party, in turn, is constrained by the interaction of assembly size and electoral district magnitude in the following way. When all S seats in an assembly are allocated in districts of magnitude M, a logical quantitative model proposes that the largest fractional share is s₁ = (MS)^−1/8. As a curve, the model is found to fit with R² = 0.509, considering data from the averages of 46 periods in 37 countries, during which the electoral rules were essentially steady. As a worldwide average, the expression s₁(MS)^1/8 = 1 holds within 1%. Deviations from this average express the impact of various country-specific political and socio-cultural factors that can be investigated once the basic institutional constraints are controlled-for. This means that the degree of largest party predominance may be engineered to hover around a desired average by adjusting assembly size, and district magnitude, while keeping country-specific factors in mind.     

农村群体性事件的政治成因分析

农村群体性事件是当前一定社会、经济、文化等各种社会矛盾的综合反映,其干扰了农村社会生产、生活秩序,成为影响农村稳定的重要因素。本文从农村群体性事件的内因和外因两方面入手对农村群体性事件的政治成因提出一些理性思考。     

做好职工思想政治工作是工会的政治责任

职工思想政治工作是党的思想政治工作的重要组成部分,协助党政做好职工思想政治工作是工会的政治责任。     

法治主义与管理现代化问题探析

传统中国社会之政治管理与经济管理建基于人治文化之上。近代以来,西方科学传入中国,但迄今为止,管理科学在实践上多被视作为一种技术科学,因而与法治文明很难确立起有效的现实联系。全球化在即、后现代化来临,随着中国“入世”,未来阶段我国社会现代意义上的政治管理、经济管理、文化管理以及国家安全职能管理均当建主在全方位的宪政与法治文明历史基石之上。