协商民主视野下的政协改革研究

协商民主作为20世纪后期兴起的理论,引起了我国学者的广泛兴趣。在我国民主政治的理论探讨与实践发展中,协商民主理论的发展,为我国政协制度建设另辟了一条蹊径。基于协商民主的理论视野,如何推进人民政协的自身建设以适应当代民主政治的发展要求,已提上日程。     

建国初期司法改革运动述评

建国初期的司法改革运动是新中国法制建设史上的重大事件。开展此次运动是当时巩固人民政权、实行人民民主专政、维护革命秩序的要求,成绩很大。但是由于对旧法观点包括西方资本主义国家的法律思想未能采取实事求是的态度而予以全盘否定,对新中国后来的法制建设和法学发展产生了不可低估的负面影响。回顾、总结此次运动的经验和教训,正确处理法律的阶级性与普世性、司法与政治、司法官职业化与司法大众化以及司法程序化与司法便民化之间的关系,对于当前进行的司法体制和工作机制改革具有重要的现实意义。     

新闻报道与民主建设的关系思考

随着我国经济的高速发展,公众价值观念得到了很大的改变,而民主意识的崛起则是其重要的组成部分。以现实变动为己任的新闻传媒,理应坦然面对并积极报道。十七大提出的"健全民主制度、丰富民主形式,拓宽民主渠道",对建设社会主义民主政治具有重要的指导意义,新闻传播应努力为之宣传、呐喊,并为保障公众的知情权、拓展公众的民主理念、健全与完善社会政治生活而发挥重要的推进作用。     

借鉴中井院特色教法 提升政工干部培训质量——《中国井冈山干部学院发展战略研究报告》研读启示

中国井冈山干部学院实施品牌战略,形成了独具特色的9种教学方法。提升政工干部培训质量,必须积极学习借鉴中井院教法。讲授式教学做到专题要专,教员精讲;研讨式教学做到准确设问,研究为先;现场式教学做到整体设计,教员主导;案例式教学实现自主开发案例,防止教学偏差。     

Sowing the seeds of skepticism? Electoral-integrity beliefs among political elites

Elections in many democracies have come under attack “from within”, with political elites challenging the integrity of the electoral process and calling its outcomes into question. Such allegations may delegitimize democratic outcomes and compromise citizens' confidence in elections. Yet aside from their rhetoric, little is known about political elites' electoral-integrity beliefs. This study breaks new ground by investigating how political elites perceive the integrity of elections, and which factors may account for differences in their electoral-integrity beliefs. Using innovative data from the 2021 candidate survey of the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES), the empirical analysis shows that political candidates exhibit mostly positive views about the integrity of the electoral procedures and the 2021 election, while being more skeptical about the fairness of the campaign period. Moreover, the findings show that negative campaign experiences, an affiliation with a populist political party, and electoral defeat are important drivers of candidates' skepticism about the integrity of elections. These findings provide novel insights on the nature, background, and diagnostic significance of political elites’ electoral-integrity beliefs in modern democracies.     

Do Citizens Tolerate Antidemocratic Statements?

Antidemocratic statements by politicians have become part of politics in several backsliding democracies. Yet, we know little about how ordinary citizens think antidemocratic statements should be dealt with. We employ conjoint experiments fielded in the United States, Germany, and Hungary to investigate the extent to which citizens think undemocratic and other controversial statements should be restricted. Specifically, we randomly assign antidemocratic statements – threatening electoral integrity directly or indirectly – along with other controversial statements to hypothetical politicians running for elections. We show that citizens wish to ban antidemocratic statements relative to generic placebo statements. Moreover, this willingness corresponds to their willingness to ban other forms of controversial statements that either represent offenses to different identity markers or induce material risks. We also find that the willingness to ban antidemocratic statements is evident across the three countries and regardless of gender, education, age, and partisanship, with only modest differences in the results between countries and subgroups. Our findings thus indicate that citizens generally care about democracy, which is good news for democracy and electoral integrity, but also that they do not care more about democracy than other fundamental values related to material costs or identity markers.     

Politically Alienated Through Low‐Wage Work? Evidence from Panel Data

Does low‐wage work lead to political alienation? Even though low‐wage sectors have grown in the advanced industrialized world, empirical evidence so far is sparse. This paper uses household panel data to investigate the effect of low‐wage work spells on political alienation. We argue that repeated low‐wage work spells lead to preference divergence between a low‐income and the median‐income earner, leading to withdrawal from democratic politics among low‐wage earners. Using Swiss household panel data and fixed‐effects regressions, we show that the accumulation of low‐wage work spells decreases systemic trust. In a second step, we demonstrate that an interaction of eroding systemic trust with low‐wage work is associated with increased individual abstention probabilities. These results highlight the threat of a systematic under‐representation of low‐wage workers in the political sphere.     

Does poor health cause political passivity even in a Scandinavian welfare state? Investigating the impact of self-rated health using Swedish panel data

Poor health is generally believed to cause political passivity. Prior studies that satisfactorily acknowledge the causality problems involved are mainly limited to considering turnout and the U.S.A., so we lack knowledge of how non-electoral participation is affected in other countries. This article considers Sweden, characterized by a generous welfare state and an extensive public health system. Using unique panel data, which allow more thorough analyses of causality, poor health was found to have a negative effect on voting but not on non-electoral participation. By primarily focusing on other countries than Sweden and the U.S.A., it is a task for future longitudinal research to show whether the belief that poor health lead to political passivity is incorrect—or whether Sweden is an exceptional case, due to the barriers to participation being particularly low there.     

Voters’ evaluation of (contra-)prototypical political candidates. An experimental test of the interaction of candidate gender and policy positions cues in Flanders (Belgium)

Following social psychological models of impression formation, information about candidates' policy positions shapes voters' impressions of their personal qualities (Rahn et al., 1990). This paper presents an experimental test of the impact of the inclusion of information about candidates' policy positions on the prevalence of issue competence stereotypes in Flanders (Belgium), i.e. the idea that male and female candidates have different areas of issue competence. Respondents are found to primarily base their evaluation of the presented candidates on the policy positions presented by the candidate and the extent to which they agree with the presented policy positions. It can therefore be concluded that the inclusion of information about candidates' policy positions trumps the effects of candidate gender on voters’ preferences. This decreased stereotype reliance is potentially beneficial for female candidates because it also decreases the chances of a voter bias.