Regime type versus patronal politics: a comparison of “ardent democrats” in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

Kazakhstan is home to the longest serving ruler in post-Soviet Eurasia while Kyrgyzstan is among the region’s most competitive polities. Do these regime differences correspond to divergence in political attitudes, as an extensive body of literature posits? Are Kyrgyzstanis more likely to strongly support democratic ideals? Are Kazakhstanis less likely? Contrary to expectations, data reveal the two populations to be attitudinally indistinguishable when it comes to strong support for practices associated with democracy. Whatever country differences we find are minor or statistically insignificant. We explain this convergence by shifting focus away from the political features that distinguish the two nascent democracy versus consolidated authoritarianism to those that they hold in common. Notwithstanding major constitutional reform in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, politics there, as in Kazakhstan, remains fundamentally patronal, or patronage- based. Mass attitudes, we argue, align in many ways with the countries’ shared patronal politics, rather than with their contrasting regime types.     

Revisiting Transnational European Consociationalism: The European Union a Decade After Lisbon

This article discusses the notion of consociationalism as applied to the EU and assesses whether the institutional and procedural changes introduced by the Treaty of Lisbon (ToL) and by the management of the Euro and refugee crises still warrant considering the EU as a case of consociational democracy. Our contention is that the changes introduced by the ToL bore the promise to strengthen the consociational structural traits of the Union but that the further institutional and procedural changes engendered by the management of the Euro and refugee crises have made the behavioral dimension of consociationalism all the more necessary just as the accommodating orientation of the political elites had begun to evaporate. We support this argument by looking at empirical evidence which allows us to offer a set of propositions on the effects of the recent crises on the attitudes of the European elites towards the future of EU democracy.     

Gender Differences in Political Knowledge: Distinguishing Characteristics-Based and Returns-Based Differences

This study assesses whether gender-based differences in political knowledge primarily result from differences in observable attributes or from differences in returns for otherwise equivalent characteristics. It applies a statistical decomposition methodology to data obtained from the 1992–2004 American National Election Studies. There is a consistent 10-point gender gap in measured political knowledge, of which approximately one-third is due to gender-based differences in the characteristics that predict political knowledge, with the remaining two-thirds due to male–female differences in the returns to these characteristics. The methodology identifies the relative contribution of the predictors of political knowledge to each portion of the gap, and then uses this information to elucidate the underlying sources of the political knowledge gender gap and its prognosis. Education is the characteristic that most clearly enlarges the gap, with men receiving significantly larger returns to political knowledge from education than women. Group membership reduces the gap as women obtain gains in political knowledge from belonging to organizations that do not accrue to men. However, these gains are not sufficient to significantly reduce the gap.

The Attitudes of the Chinese Middle Class Towards Democracy

Little has been done to quantitatively establish the connection between the middle class and a specific regime type. In an effort to fill in the gap, this study uses Asian Barometer survey dataset to examine the attitudes and orientation of China’s rising middle class. We find that the Chinese middle class does show higher democratic orientation than those we categorize as lower class, but only if class is defined by occupation or by self-identification, and not by income level. We interpret this result to mean that economic development offers new life experiences with the creation of new types of professions and enhances people’s agreement with modern democratic values by arousing people’s consciousness of their new social class status.

农村治安新动向及解决途径

转型期农村利益调整,致使暴力性侵财案件、报复性治安案件和群体性事件频发。村级组织软弱涣散,群防群治机制欠缺,执法后续监督不到位,农村公安工作基础薄弱,是影响农村治安的主要因素。创建农村社会治安稳定局面,有待提高农民法制素质,调整农村社会生活中的各种关系,建立健全村、乡（镇）的组织功能,强化农村基层公安派出所的治安保障能力,还可以尝试开展治安承包,通过有偿方式和市场行为辅助解决农村治安防控问题。     

论公民文化视野下少数民族地区民主政治建设

民主政治建设是少数民族地区现代化建设的重要内容,不仅包括制度建设内容,而且也包括政治文化建设的内容。然而,少数民族地区民主建设面临着各少数民族成员民主制度、机制缺乏,民主意识淡薄以及注重宗教信仰、法治意识缺失。要培育少数民族地区民主型政治文化的基础和条件,就不得不建立和完善现代民主制度和机制,充分开发利用各种政治社会化手段。     

改革深化中高校思想政治教育职能谈

我国高校正面临着改革深化的现实,高校思想政治教育面临着种种的机遇、挑战与选择,透视高校思想政治教育现状,打破已经不适应高校现状的旧的思想政治教育范式,在改革深化的背景下如何认识高校思想政治教育的职能,发挥思想政治教育生命线作用,是每一位思想政治教育者的责任。     

正确处理工会的任务与基本职责的关系

我国的工会法既规定了工会应当完成的任务,又规定了工会的基本职责,这种规定在国有经济占主导地位的时候既不存在理论上的障碍,也不存在实际上的问题。但随着社会主义市场经济的发展,利益主体日益多元化,在国家、企业和劳动者利益不一致的时候,正确处理工会的任务与工会基本职责的关系,不仅有重大的理论意义,也有非常重要的实践意义。     

浅论我国企业文化建设

企业文化是企业全体员工共同持有、共同遵守的企业精神、价值标准、基本信念和行为准则。要搞好企业就必须认识到企业文化建设中存在的各种问题及对策,加强企业文化建设。     

和谐社会背景下的刑事司法功能解读

和谐社会建设已经成为我国社会发展的时代主题,和谐社会的构建离不开刑事司法的保障.刑事司法功能的全面发挥,必将有利于促进我国和谐社会建设的顺利进行.笔者在考察和谐社会与犯罪关系之后,对我国刑事司法功能进行了创造性解读.并在此基础上,对我国刑事司法功能运行进行了理性反思,分析刑事司法功能发挥之障碍,并提出应对之策,以促进刑事司法功能的全面实现.