Opinion formation in foreign policy: the Swiss experience

Applying John Zaller's model of opinion formation to survey data covering 15 years (1981–95) of direct democracy in Switzerland, this paper provides a contribution to the debate about opinion formation in foreign policy. On the one hand, the Swiss experience contradicts the widespread view that citizens are poorly informed about and little interested in foreign affairs. On the other hand, direct democracy often translates into governmental defeats in this field. We address these mixed results and show that opinion formation in foreign policy is not a special case, and differs from that in domestic policy only with respect to the circumstances under which it occurs. In particular, we highlight the unusual type and level of conflict within the elite on foreign policy issues, which translates into distinct patterns of attitudes among the public.     

清朝治理云南边疆民族地区的思想及举措

清朝治边思想的核心仍是传统的"守中治边"及"守在四夷".以这一思想为指导,清廷在前半期注重边疆的巩固与管理,并作出了重要贡献.在经济方面,清朝把移民与云南的开发以及实现人口合理分布联系起来,造成了规模空前的平民移民垦荒运动.清朝还把云南看作国家赋税和金属产品的重要供给地,使云南成为全国经济发展不可缺少的重要环节.     

对三个公安基本理论问题的思考

在实施依法治国、依法行政和依法治警的条件下 ,公安机关的职能应该有区别于其它社会部门的职业性表述 ;除了继续贯彻执行党委领导下的群众路线这一根本路线外 ,应该拟定一个指导新时期公安工作的基本路线 ;传统的公安工作政策应该有所调整和创新。     

略论依法推进农村科技政策体系创新

农村科技政策体系创新是社会主义新农村与现代农业建设的必须选择,面对目前科技政策实现困境,有必要通过强化法制理念、加强立法工作、加大法制宣传、搞好认真执法、加强法制监督来实现农村科技政策的法制化,以此推进农村科技政策体系创新的步伐。     

刑事政策演进视阈下的“破小案”

随着社会治安形势的发展，基本刑事政策由“惩办与宽大相结合”向“宽严相济”演进，随之具体刑事政策亦将由“严打”向“破小案”演进。考量法律的严肃性和执法的公正性，在刑事执法层面，警察机关应树立起“破小案”的工作理念。     

网络经济对我国经济发展的影响及对策

近年来,网络经济作为一种新型经济运行模式获得了飞速的发展,并成为新的经济增长点.对中国来说,这既是机遇,也是挑战.我们必须采取积极的应对措施,迎头赶上这一世界潮流,才能在未来世界经济发展格局中占有一席之地.     

法价值对物权变动模式选择的影响——安全与效率的博弈

交易安全和经济效率都是法的价值目标,二者之间是此消彼涨的关系,交易安全作为社会本位的法理念,在经济全球化的今天,应受到优位保护,这也是现实经济生活的需要。而效率作为经济发展的指标,是二元化立法模式的首要价值目标,法律作为调控、规范社会秩序的手段,理应对效率给予必要保护。基于对不同立法价值的追求,物权变动二元化立法模式的建立是切实可行的。     

福利制度的结构与社会政策

福利制度的结构决定了福利国家与社会政策之间有着一定的联系,只有从这一结构出发,制定社会政策时才可能避免简单化,使政策体现不同福利国家的具体差异,更好地实现福利的目的。     

Overview of: “Crime Place and Pollution: Expanding Crime Reduction Options Through a Regulatory Approach”

Research Summary Crime reduction policy has focused almost exclusively on offenders. Recent studies and evaluations show that expanding our policy portfolio to include places may be highly productive. We show that there is considerable research showing that crime is concentrated at a relatively few locations, that high-crime places are stable, that changing places can reduce crime, that displacement is not only far from inevitable but also less likely than the diffusion of crime prevention benefits, and that owners of high-crime places can be held accountable for the criminogenic conditions of their locations. We link these findings to environmental policy, where environmental scientists, economists, and regulators have developed a broad set of regulatory options. The core of this article describes a portfolio of environmental policy instruments directly applicable to crime places. We also discuss major decisions local governments will need to make to implement various forms of regulation, and we list challenges that governments must anticipate in planning for such implementation. We argue that a regulatory approach to crime places has the potential to lower the cost to taxpayers of reducing crime by shifting costs from governments to the relatively few place owners whose actions create crime-facilitating conditions. Policy Implications Taking a regulatory approach to crime places substantially expands the crime policy options under consideration. Regulatory options may increase local governments’ effectiveness at reducing crime while reducing governments’ costs. This is because regulatory approaches have the potential to shift some portion of the financial burden for crime fighting to owners of criminogenic locations. Policy makers can select between means-based anticrime regulations that focus on how place owners manage their locations and ends-based regulations that focus on the number of crimes allowed at places. Both of these approaches contain several alternative regulatory instruments, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Experimenting with various regulatory instruments could lead to the development of a range of new crime reduction policies. In addition, a regulatory approach has implications for the funding of policy research. Means-based regulatory instruments require governments to develop evidence that the means they regulate have the desired impact on crime. Ends-based regulatory instruments shift this burden to the regulated places.     

The Quest for Community Development in Nigeria: Interrogating the Utility of Fourth-Tier System of Government in Imo State

The recent establishment of fourth-tier system as a distinct, but coordinating level of government in Imo State came with the expectation that it would facilitate community development. However, the underdevelopment situation of most communities dashed this expectation. Thus, this recent study adopted theory of postcolonial state as our analytical framework to interrogate the development utility of the fourth-tier system using mixed research methods for evidence gathering and analysis. The analysis revealed that the system grossly underperformed its development functions resulting from lack of stakeholders’ supports, which should be the basis for determination and implementation of fourth-tier system in Imo State.