Plea decision-making: the influence of attorney expertise,trustworthiness, and recommendation

ABSTRACT

Attorney recommendations influence defendant plea decisions; and the degree of influence likely rests on the perceived trustworthiness and level of expertise of the attorney (factors of source credibility). We explored attorney source credibility factors and how these characteristics influence defendants’ plea decision-making. MTurk participants read a hypothetical plea scenario and were asked to imagine themselves as the defendant in a DWI/DUI case making a plea decision; in the scenario, we manipulated the defense attorney’s level of trustworthiness, expertise, and plea recommendation. There was a significant interaction between attorney recommendation and trustworthiness on defendants’ plea decisions; participants who were advised to accept the guilty plea were more likely to plead guilty when the attorney was high in trustworthiness compared to low in trustworthiness. Attorney trustworthiness did not affect plea decisions for defendants advised to reject the guilty plea. Importantly, attorney trustworthiness affected defendants’ decision to follow the attorney’s recommendation and ultimate plea decision (regardless of expertise), and attorney expertise affected defendants’ confidence in their decision (regardless of trustworthiness). Results suggest individual-level characteristics of defense attorneys affect the influence of the attorney and their recommendation, and ultimately defendants’ plea decision-making.     

Signaling Resolve: Leaders,Reputations, and the Importance of Early Interactions

How do leaders develop reputations for resolve across repeated interactions? While scholars find that leaders can acquire individual reputations for resolve, we know relatively little about how these leader-specific reputations form to begin with. This article examines how leaders develop reputations for resolve from the very beginning of their tenures and present three key hypotheses regarding these leader-specific reputations. First, statements are more influential to reputational assessments during initial interactions. Second, statements create expectations of future behavior, which interact with a leader’s subsequent actions to influence reputation development. Third, initial perceptions of resolve significantly condition later assessments. Through a process tracing survey experiment, I find evidence that resolute statements are more substantively influential during early interactions. I also find early perceptions of resolve do significantly influence later perceptions. Furthermore, statements create expectations of future behavior, and it is by meeting or defying these expectations that a leader’s reputation for resolve is improved or injured within the experiment. These results remain robust even when controlling for contextual factors, including state characteristics. The implications of these findings for both scholars and policy makers are discussed, and this study illustrates how individual leaders develop these reputations for resolve across interactions.     

初探辩诉交易制度的引入和改造

辨诉交易制度是一项起源于美国的刑事司法制度,目前已被西方国家广泛采用.我国是否可以将这项司法制度作为他山之玉加以引入,理论界和司法实务界存在较大争议.从辩诉交易制度包含的公正和效率的辨证关系分析,在我国引入该制度有一定的必要性.我国对辩诉交易制度的移植不能全盘引入,而应当是取其精华进行借鉴,使之本土化,对不足部分采取必要措施加以防止.     

Dealmaking Disrupted: The Unexplored Power of Social Media in Negotiation

While social media has had profound effects in many realms, the theory and practice of negotiation have remained relatively untouched by this potent phenomenon. In this article, we survey existing research in this area and develop a broader framework for understanding the wider roles and effects of social media on negotiation. Through a series of detailed case studies, we explore how social media can drive important negotiations either off the rails or toward beneficial outcomes—and how savvy practitioners can harness this often‐neglected factor to their advantage, or else find themselves outmaneuvered by more digitally sophisticated parties. Applying the lens of the “3D negotiation” approach developed by Lax and Sebenius, we describe a number of potentially decisive roles that social media can play to enhance actions by negotiators “at the table,” with respect to deal design, and “away from the table.” In this 3D context, we show how social media can help negotiators learn about their counterparts (interests, perceptions, relationships, and networks), directly and indirectly influence the parties, mobilize supporters, and neutralize potential opponents. We show that being proactive—both in cultivating digital influence or allies and in building resilience to threats across online information ecosystems—can provide critical advantages for negotiators navigating a hyperconnected world. We develop a preliminary framework to help identify the full range of platforms, tools, and methodologies appropriate for the use of social media in negotiations, including network mapping software and open‐source intelligence techniques. Throughout our analysis, we stress the importance of ethical and privacy considerations.     

On the theoretical basis for plea bargaining system

Before discussing the introduction of the plea bargaining system to China’s criminal justice system, it is necessary to study its theoretical basis. Among which, the following aspects should be focused on: the philosophical viewpoint of pragmatism is its thinking basis; the concept of contract is its cultural basis; the structure form of adversary procedure is its systematic basis; and the system of right to silence and discovery of evidence are its symbiotic basis. __________ Translated from Tribune of Political Science and Law, 2002, (6) (in Chinese)     

从日本劳动立法看我国集体谈判权的保障

集体谈判,对劳动关系的调节十分重要.尽管如此,很多国家并未把集体谈判权作为一项独立的权利加以保障.而且,即便确立了集体谈判制度,也并不意味着集体谈判权一定能够得到保障.我国现状即是如此.而日本劳动立法把集体谈判权的保障放在重要地位,对日本劳使关系的调节起到了不可低估的作用.检视日本劳动立法及其实践可以发现,建立行政救济制度,将拒绝谈判作为不当劳动行为加以规制;建立司法救济制度,将回应谈判、诚实开展谈判从法律上义务化,是保障集体谈判权的核心和关键所在.     

公司治理与交易安全

公司治理就是在股东、债权人、职工等利害关系人之间对公司经营权力、利益进行配置的机制,现代公司由于投资主体的多元化和法人财产权的确立出现了两权分离下的“代理人经营风险”;公司经营的扩大,在实现自己经营目标的同时可能会对他人甚至公共利益构成威胁,如何保证公司以最低的组织成本追求其经营目标,并在对自己的行为负责的框架内部运行,这就是公司治理所要解决的问题,也是维护市场经济交易安全的需要,公司治理中的交易安全主要通过公共监控和公权力来实现,但交易安全的最终目标在于增进效益的提高,因此,不能为追求安全而无视经济效率,成功的公司应是微观上实现资本增值的最大化,宏观上必须受社会责任约束。     

Coalition Prospects and Policy Change: An Application to the Environment

In most developed democracies, parties adjust their positions to polls and public opinion. Yet, in a coalition government, the policy that emerges is often the outcome of negotiations between governing parties. We argue that the credibility of exit threats by current coalition members and the importance of outside parties for the formation of potential alternative coalitions both matter for policy adoption. Building on a new data set measuring the expected coalition‐inclusion probabilities of parties in parliamentary democracies, we estimate the effect of coalition prospects on an important policy outcome—environmental policy stringency—in nine European countries between 1990 and 2012. Our findings demonstrate that only polling shifts that alter coalition probabilities affect outcomes. Changes in the coalition‐inclusion probability of green parties—regardless of whether they are in government—predict changes in the environmental policy stringency of sitting governments. Political polls, in contrast, do not.     

集体协商功能及影响因素:中外文献比较与启示

中国推行集体协商制度10多年,但理论研究不够.集体谈判制度是西方经过长期的劳资冲突后形成的就劳动报酬和利润分享的协商谈判机制.中国集体协商概念强调劳动关系的协调性而非对抗性.学术界认为集体协商可以改善劳资关系、提高劳动者收入、提高员工满意度和促进企业效率.中国企业的集体协商正在从上到下推行,功能与效果还不明显.西方集体谈判受经济形势、国家法律、双方谈判力量等因素影响；中国集体协商主要受政府政策及地方工会的影响.集体协商实践极需要加强理论研究,包括界定概念与本质；证实集体协商的效率和影响因素,为探索中国集体协商道路奠定基础.