The electoral connection in presidential systems: non-legislative actions inside the Chilean congress

The purpose of this article is to explore how the features of districts affect representation activities in the Chilean Congress. Based on an analysis of interventions by deputies in the so-called Incidents Hour (Hora de Incidentes), we argue that district conditions affect the kind of appeals that deputies make. Specifically, we test two main hypotheses: a) that the degree of rurality of districts predicts greater use of policy intervention at the local level (local credit claiming), and b) that distance from the centre is an incentive for deputies to taking a position on local issues (local position taking). This article contributes to an understanding of how institutional spaces in the Congress serve not only as instruments for legislation but also, and with equal relevance, for representing constituents at the district level.     

论无权代理

当享有选择权的相对人认为向无权代理人追究其权利更有利时,则可主张狭义的无权代理。相反,若认为向其本人追究责任更为有利时,则可主张表见代理,这样更有利于保护善意无过失的相对人。由此可见,相对人权利的更好保护与相对人更多的注意义务是分不开的。     

Measuring attitudes toward grievance systems: A procedural justice perspective applied to the workplace

Contractual grievance procedures have long been utilized in union-management relationships to resolve workplace disputes. Little research attention, however, has focused on determining unionized workers' perceptions of and attitudes about such procedures. This study develops an instrument designed to measure worker attitudes toward the grievance procedure (ATGP). The survey items and conceptual framework are based on prior research in the areas of administrative and procedural justice. Employing a national sample (N=1080) from a single union, the results support a multidimensional attitudinal measure. Four key dimensions of workers' assessment of the grievance procedure were found: (i) Fairness, (ii) Effectiveness, (iii) Representation, and (iv) Importance. The structure of the measure was stable across identified sub-groups in the sample. Some differences in the attitudinal assessment on the four dimensions emerged depending upon union office holding and the grievance-filing experience of the respondents. Last, potential future applications of the instrument are discussed.     

析表见代理中的有理由相信原则

随着市场经济的发展 ,我国的法制体系也越来越健全 ,尤其是作为调整整个市民社会的民法规范及其相关规定也趋于完善。我国《合同法》第四十九条确立的新制度 ,即表见代理制度的立法规定更进一步完善和强化了合同作为人类社会基础的调节作用。然而作为广义上的无权代理的表见代理 ,它在其责任承担与实施该行为的法律效力上却存在一些学理上和事实上的障碍 ,因而本文将就构成表见代理行为有效的要件 ,即“相对人有理由相信”这一原则作一粗陋的分析 ,以澄清一些法律枝节。至于本文疏漏之处 ,均系本人疏懒及学力不逮所致。笔者不揣学力浅薄划成此文 ,唯以抛砖引玉慰 ,切祈请前辈先进不吝良言 ,予以教正。     

论检察理论创新

检察工作的历史和发展、检察工作的现状、检察改革的深化以及时代均要求检察理论创新。创新检察理论,要与时俱进。检察理论要创新发展,还要正确处理好继承、发展和借鉴的关系、基本理论研究与应用性理论研究的关系和思维创新与坚持马克思法学研究方法的关系。     

Gender-Related Political Knowledge and the Descriptive Representation of Women

Past scholarship has documented that women tend to know less about politics than men. This study finds that political knowledge of one kind—knowledge about the actual level of women's representation—is related to support for having more women in office. Individuals who underestimate the percentage of women in office are more likely than individuals who know the correct percentage to support increasing women's representation. Meanwhile, individuals who overestimate the percentage of women in office are less likely to support increasing women's representation. Ironically, women are more likely than men to overestimate the presence of women in office. I also find that gender predicts support for having more women in office, with women more supportive than men. Women would be even more supportive of electing more women to office if they were as knowledgeable as men about the extent of women's underrepresentation.     

Choosing between Impossible Alternatives: Creating a New Constituency Map for Wales, 2004

The allocation of at least 35 parliamentary constituencies to Wales in the 1944 House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act meant that Wales was over-represented in the House of Commons. Subsequent decisions by the Boundary Commission for Wales, operating within a set of mutually contradictory rules, increased the number of Welsh seats to 40 and exacerbated the country's over-representation in the House, relative to the situation for England.
In its Fifth Periodic Review, the Boundary Commission has determined not to recommend any further growth in the number of Welsh constituencies, but its method of doing this has created substantial inequalities within the country, with the area around Cardiff significantly under-represented relative to the situation in North Wales. These inequalities will also apply to the Welsh Assembly. The political parties did not challenge these recommendations, presumably because they felt that their interests were best served by the inequalities. Analysis shows that alternative sets of recommendations would have been somewhat more egalitarian, but within an overall structure of unfairness guaranteed by the unworkable rules under which the Commissions must operate.     

Electoral institutions, partisan status, and political support in Lesotho

Does the introduction of proportionality in electoral systems help to boost popular evaluations of democracy? This article takes advantage of an electoral reform in Lesotho to conduct a natural experiment. We trace shifts over time in popular political support, using Afrobarometer data collected before and after reform to measure mass satisfaction with democracy and public trust in political institutions. We find both direct and indirect effects. In the aggregate, Lesotho's transition from a majoritarian to a mixed electoral system is directly associated with increased levels of citizen support for the country's state and regime. Importantly, however, formal institutions have only indirect effects at the individual level, where a person's informal partisan status – as a member of a winning majority or losing minority – mediates the impacts of institutional change.     

Nationwide inclusion and exclusion thresholds of representation

The theoretical inclusion and exclusion thresholds are, respectively, the vote shares below which a party cannot possibly win a seat, and above which it cannot possibly fail to do so. They are important in evaluating how hospitable electoral systems are to small parties. Previously, they have been calculated at the district level. Here the theory is extended to the national level. Surprisingly, the inclusion threshold depends on the smallest district in the country — not the largest. The exclusion threshold depends on all districts. The theoretical results are compared to empirical observations for 23 electoral systems. The inclusion threshold is indeed close to the minimal vote share that ever led to a seat in the national assembly. In stark contrast, the exclusion threshold is much higher than the maximal vote share that ever failed to produce a seat in practice. The total number of districts emerges as a significant variable.     

Democratic Party Control Reduces Gender Inequality

Women earn less than men who work in the same job with the same level of experience. We know much about this gender wage gap but relatively little about its political or partisan sources. In this article, we examine the effects of party control of state government on gender inequality in income, wages, unemployment, and poverty. Employing both a regression discontinuity design and a dynamic difference‐in‐difference analysis, we find that electing a Democratic majority to the state house leads to substantial improvement in women's incomes, wages, and unemployment relative to men—especially in recent years. We also show that greater female representation in office and more liberal policymaking on policies related to women's rights could be driving that process. We find, however, fewer clear effects on poverty and less robust results for partisan control of the governor's office or the state senate. Parties and politics matter, but not always.