Banking supervision and the politics of verification: the 2014 stress test in the European Banking Union

The statistical methodology known in financial terminology as ‘stress testing’ was used by the European Central Bank in 2014 in order to assess the solidity of the banks in the eurozone. This audit process is analysed here as a problem of truth production or ‘veridiction’ in the sense developed by Michel Foucault in his 1978–1979 lectures at the Collège de France. In order to prove effective, the stress test had to deliver knowledge on banks, objectified and actionable at once, but also controlled by the idea of avoiding ‘market panic’. This epistemological dilemma is at the core of the politics of verification, which consists in the distribution of restraint and responsibility between non-risky and risky banks. This qualitative investigation is focused on France and is based on interviews with relevant policy actors and documentary analysis.     

Partisan Media and Engagement: A Field Experiment in a Newly Liberalized System

How does media exposure affect political engagement in newly liberalized systems? Some celebrate newly vibrant and diverse media, believing that they mobilize citizens. Others worry that these outlets, which are often partisan, dampen engagement. We theorize that exposure to political programming engenders interest in politics irrespective of program bias, but that interest does not necessarily beget action. Partisan media affect participation only when altering attitude strength, and thus motivations. To evaluate media effects on interest and participation, we conducted a field experiment in Ghana, in which subjects in tro-tros (commuter vans) were randomly exposed to different types of live talk radio. We find that partisan and nonpartisan media increased political interest, but not participation. Instead, exposure to alternate perspectives on cross-cutting media (i.e., those biased against subjects’ partisan preferences) heightened ambivalence and dampened participation, measured as signing a petition to parties. Partisan media simultaneously increased interest and decreased participation.     

田径定向越野课程教法初探

田径运动是学校体育教学的重点之一，开展传统田径项目丰富了学校体育文化的建设，提高了学生的体质．但在全面推选素质教育以适应学生个性化发展的要求方面，传统田径项目有许多缺陷。为改革拓展传统田径教学内容和方法．提高田径教学内容的健身性、实用性、趣味性和娱乐性，定向越野课程应机而生。定向越野运动对学生各种能力、综合素质的提高都有很大的促进作用，同时又能充实和丰富学校体育教学内容。定向越野方式方法多样，基本技术较多，是一门崭新的田径课程，开设时间相对较短，认识还不十分充分，在对定向越野课程教法的深入研究基础上提出的理论与实际相结合的五步教学法．对该课程的开展具有一定的指导作用。     

附条件不起诉之进一步构建——基于我国《刑事诉讼法修正案》之思考

《中华人民共和国刑事诉讼法修正案》将附条件不起诉制度化是正确之选。但是相对于附条件不起诉所可能发挥的积极作用和空间相比,其规定却显得过于保守和谨慎。为此,应在现有的基础上从适用范围、考验期限和考验内容三个方面进一步加以构建。     

“同心”思想与新形势下统一战线服务毕节试验区建设研究

党的十八大报告对统一战线提出了＂促进思想上同心同德、目标上同心同向、行动上同心同行＂的要求;作为新时期＂同心思想＂重要策源地的毕节试验区,需要精心贯彻落实好＂顶层设计＂,以＂同心思想＂推进＂同心行动＂,勇于试验探索,实现科学发展。     

Can governments use Get Out The Vote letters to solve Europe’s turnout crisis? Evidence from a field experiment

Declining levels of turnout are a problem in European elections. Are Get Out The Vote campaigns the solution to the problem? While many studies have investigated such campaigns in the US, little is known about their effect in Europe. The article presents a field experiment in which encouragement to vote in an upcoming Danish election is delivered to more than 60,000 first-time voters using direct personal letters. Eight different letters are designed, based on the calculus of voting and prospect theory. The sample is randomly divided into treatment groups or the control group. Using validated turnout, small positive effects of receiving a letter on turnout are found, with little difference across letters. The letters mostly mobilised voters with a low propensity to vote and thus increased equality in participation. In sum, while letters have some effect, they are not likely to be a panacea for solving Europe’s turnout challenges.     

Intervention Theatre: performance,authenticity and expert knowledge in politicians’ travel to post-/conflict spaces

ABSTRACT

This article explores the role of official travel activities by politicians to post-/conflict spaces in German foreign policymaking. Starting from the observation that official travel justifications stress the value of authentic insights and unfiltered information, while journeys in practice are meticulously planned and staged, it asks what kind of knowing is possible, how actors make sense of the staged nature of field trips, and how multiple performances create and/or undermine notions of authenticity and first-hand expertise. The article shows that official on-site visits are composed of multiple conscious performances by all actors involved, but that these performances do not undermine the notions of authenticity and expertise. On the contrary, knowledge authenticity—or truth claims on the basis of authentic insights—and related expert authority are produced through travel-as-performance. The emphasis policymakers put on on-site presence and (the performance of) localized knowledge contradicts intervention literature’s generalized finding of a prioritization of technocratic over localized knowledge. The article draws on politics and performance scholarship and authenticity theories in tourism studies to make sense of a wealth of empirical material on the claims, practice and functions of German MPs’ journeys to post-/conflict spaces as part of broader political struggles over policy knowledge.     

“被迫”与“自愿”：民办教育企业课程咨询员加班现象研究 —— 基于对 T 市 DN 公司的田野调查

随着经济的快速发展,白领群体因频繁加班导致的"过劳死""抑郁症"现象层出不穷,白领群体的"加班"已经成为当前职场中的常见现象。近些年又出现了"无薪加班""自愿加班"等一些新的加班现象,极大地影响了白领群体的生活质量甚至身体健康,因此受到了学术界的广泛关注。其中,"民办教育机构课程咨询员"的自愿加班不容忽视。调查发现,种种"自愿加班"背后其实隐藏着难言的"被迫手段"。研究选取T市一家大型民办IT教育机构的课程咨询员作为调研对象,利用布洛维的"赶工游戏理论"和戈夫曼的"拟剧理论",同时引入"关怀文化"的概念对加班的维持方式进行探索。研究得到三个结论:1.民营企业管理者在制定"游戏规则"时,"后台规则"是导致加班的根本原因;2."关怀文化"是缓解两种规则冲突的调和手段;3."自愿加班"现象虽然看似是员工极具奉献精神的体现,但实际上背后是由一整套制度逻辑所"推动"的。     

Roads of change: political transition and state formation in Nepal’s agrarian districts

This paper explores the political field that has opened up in the wake of the recent civil war in Nepal. We focus on cultural-political developments in agrarian districts, where some of the most intriguing openings, and indeed the most pernicious closures, can be witnessed (as opposed to the national-state restructuring that commands more media and popular attention). Our research asks what spaces open up in the emerging political field at the district scale to entrench or transform dominant cultural codes and sedimented histories of socio-economic inequality. Preliminary research identifies specific sectors of local governance that have emerged as significant sites of struggle over the shape and meaning of ‘democracy’, namely forest management and infrastructure development. The primary contribution of the paper lies in specifying an analytical approach to the study of ‘post-conflict’ governance at the local scale via three conceptual terrains of inquiry – governance and planning, political subjectivity, and cultural politics. The ultimate objective is to develop a framework for assessing the conditions of possibility for a democratic restructuring of economy and society to accompany the official political institutions of liberal democracy.