公共选择理论视角下提高公民科学素质的对策

根据布坎南的公共选择理论,各种特殊利益之间的"缔约"在公众中进行集体选择中起着关键的作用,而并非公众所认为的"根据公共利益进行选择"的结果。无论是企业行为还是各种公共选择,其结果均来自各个利益主体的相互较量和博弈。提高公民科学素质工程无论对于国家实力提升、社会均衡发展还是公民个体都是一个无法回避的公共选择,然而在具体政策的制定与措施的实施方面,仍缺少相应的理论依据。基于公共选择理论,从政府支持、科普组织以及主体参与等三方面进行分析和探讨。     

中国梦的再解读与中国特色和平发展道路

中华民族近代以来的最伟大梦想就是实现中华民族的伟大复兴,即中国梦。中国梦是国家富强、民族振兴的国家梦,中国梦是社会和谐、人民幸福的个人梦,中国梦是和平、发展、合作、共赢的世界梦,中国梦与世界各国人民的美好梦想相通,但中国梦不是霸权梦。实现中国梦不能走世界革命的老路,也不能走霸权主义的邪路,必须坚持走有中国特色的和平发展道路,中国特色的和平发展道路是中国共产党人带领全国人民在革命、建设、改革、发展的现代化进程中,根据时代发展潮流和国家根本利益作出的战略抉择,是在改革开放的实践中已经被反复证明的实现中华民族伟大复兴的正确道路。中国梦与中国特色的和平发展道路相辅相成、不可分割。     

Elections in Western European parliaments

Parliaments often elect holders of important extra‐parliamentary offices such as heads of state, constitutional judges, heads of audit institutions and ombudsmen. What drives the behaviour of parliamentary actors and the outcome of such elections? This article explains actor behaviour theoretically, drawing on spatial factors, principal‐agent arguments about the importance of nonspatial candidate characteristics and signaling arguments about competitive considerations beyond the specific election. Empirically, it provides the first comparative analysis of such elections outside the United States Senate using original data on 100 elections for four external offices in 14 Western European parliaments. The findings show that spatial variables, nonspatial candidate characteristics and features of the competitive context systematically affect the election outcome. The article contributes to comparative parliamentary research in general by demonstrating how parliamentary activities, other than lawmaking, can be analysed using established theories and by showing that consensual aggregate outcomes can be explained within a competition‐based rational choice model.     

How Second Order Are Local Elections? Voting Motives and Party Preferences in Belgian Municipal Elections

A defining characteristic of second-order elections is that voters base their decision on considerations that were developed for a different policy level. Therefore, this kind of elections does not contribute to the quality of democratic representation. Municipal elections are often considered as second-order elections. In this article, we use data from an exit poll (n = 4,591) held during the 2012 municipal elections in Belgium. Results suggest that although voters predominantly invoke local aspects as determining their vote choice, still three-quarters votes for the same party locally as for federal elections. Among voters who deviate from their federal party preference, knowing local candidates and concern about local policy issues are the main sources of deviation. The conclusion therefore is that local candidates do make a difference and contribute strongly to the salience of electoral decisions on the local level.     

论涉外民事法律选择方法(模式)的范式转换

"规则"与"方法"之争是当今涉外民事法律适用中的主要议题。从国际私法的历史发展看,各国学者基于不同立场和观念提出诸多法律选择方法,这些方法在理论层面上呈现出三种不同的样态,即"方法论意义上的法律选择模式"、"本体论意义上的法律选择模式"以及代表当代国际私法基本走向的"混合型法律选择模式"。就我国国际私法理论研究和涉外民事裁判的实践而言,研究涉外民事法律选择方法的范式转换对于我们正确认识和运用《涉外民事关系法律适用法》具有十分重要的现实意义。     

Conceptualizing Usage in Voting Behavior for Political Marketing: An Application of Consumer Behavior

Political marketing has borrowed and adapted many terms from mainstream marketing, such as image management (segmentation, targeting, and positioning) and consumer (voter). In marketing, the terms “user” and “usage” have been established, yet their application to political marketing is less clear. This paper analyzes the feasibility and usefulness of usage in the political context. Drawing from the literature on usage, a model is developed and applied to four voting environments: Britain, Australia, Russia, and Belarus. One critical factor that emerges is the concept of choice, whereby the voter may chose to indicate their preference for one party yet be forced to use a different party as chosen by collective choice. Another issue is the potential for habitual voting behavior to limit decision making. It is concluded that usage needs to be contextualized specifically for political marketing.     

Household Energy Consumption and Housing Choice in the U.S. Residential Sector

Energy use in residential buildings accounted for 21% of U.S. CO₂ emissions in 2013. Efforts to reduce energy use in the residential sector have been overly focused on improving energy efficiency of buildings. This article incorporates housing policy debate into energy policy, hoping to provide new opportunities for planners to participate in residential energy policy. Using data from the latest Residential Energy Consumption Survey, structural equation modeling has been applied to isolate the direct and indirect effects of household and housing characteristics on residential energy use. Results show that more than 80% of a household's indirect effect on energy consumption happens through the building characteristics, which is characterized as the housing choice effect on energy consumption. Planners can participate in residential energy management efforts by influencing housing needs and priorities of communities towards more sustainable compact housing units.     

TESTING A BAYESIAN LEARNING THEORY OF DETERRENCE AMONG SERIOUS JUVENILE OFFENDERS*

The effect of criminal experience on risk perceptions is of central importance to deterrence theory but has been vastly understudied. This article develops a realistic Bayesian learning model of how individuals will update their risk perceptions over time in response to the signals they receive during their offending experiences. This model implies a simple function that we estimate to determine the deterrent effect of an arrest. We find that an individual who commits one crime and is arrested will increase his or her perceived probability of being caught by 6.3 percent compared with if he or she had not been arrested. We also find evidence that the more informative the signal received by an individual is, the more he or she will respond to it, which is consistent with more experienced offenders responding less to an arrest than less experienced offenders do. Parsing our results out by type of crime indicates that an individual who is arrested for an aggressive crime will increase both his or her aggressive crime risk perception as well as his or her income‐generating crime risk perception, although the magnitude of the former may be slightly larger. This implies that risk perception updating, and thus potentially deterrence, may be partially, although not completely, crime specific.     

WHEN PARENTS CAN CHOOSE TO HAVE THE “PERFECT” CHILD: WHY FERTILITY CLINICS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO REPORT PREIMPLANTATION GENETIC DIAGNOSIS DATA

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD) is a procedure used to screen embryos for certain genetic conditions before implantation via in vitro fertilization (IVF) so the desired embryos can be chosen for implantation. The procedure was originally used to prevent the birth of children with deadly genetic disorders, but it is now used for more controversial reasons, such as to select for sex. Limited information is available regarding how PGD is used in the United States and there are many ethical concerns surrounding the practice of PGD, most notably that it could lead to the creation of designer babies and eugenic practices. This Note proposes amending a federal act to require fertility clinics to report PGD data through an existing web‐based system. This data can then be used by policymakers to federally regulate PGD practices.     

非营利组织问责:概念、体系及其限度

随着非营利组织在公共治理中扮演着越来越重要的角色,其问责已成为近年来人们关注的热点。本文在对非政府组织问责的概念、类型、内容等进行梳理的基础上,通过对非营利组织委托抑或代理人角色定位的厘定、自主性与依赖性的平衡选择以及自律与他律结合方式的探讨,阐明其问责的限度。