Political engagement and participation of Thai citizens: the rural–urban disparity

The nature of citizen participation and engagement in public life in Thailand has changed dramatically over the last decade. This article focuses on explaining the changing pictures of political engagement – political interest, knowledge, and efficacy – among rural and urban Thai citizens since the House of Representatives election in 2001. The major attempt made in this article also to explain how these changes affect patterns of political activism (i.e. in voting, political contacting, and protesting activities), particularly between the rural and urban Thai voters. Relying on three latest survey data taken from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems, the article suggests that the factors facilitating greater political participation are relatively different between rural and urban residents, and such differences cannot simply be explained as a result of a deeper engagement in the patron–client relationship of the rural than of the urban. Indeed, those differentiations depend on several factors and vary according to different kinds of political activity.     

Degrees of influence: Educational inequality in policy representation

Education plays an important role in the political, social and economic divisions that have recently characterised Western Europe. Despite the many analyses of education and its political consequences, however, previous research has not investigated whether government policy caters more to the preferences of the higher educated than to the preferences of the lower educated. We address this question using an original dataset of public opinion and government policy in the Netherlands. This data reveals that policy representation is starkly unequal. The association between support for policy change and actual change is much stronger for highly educated citizens than for low and middle educated citizens, and only the highly educated appear to have any independent influence on policy. This inequality extends to the economic and cultural dimensions of political competition. Our findings have major implications for the educational divide in Western Europe, as they reflect both a consequence and cause of this divide.     

Political trust during the Covid-19 pandemic: Rally around the flag or lockdown effects?

How can we explain the rise in diffuse political support during the Covid-19 pandemic? Recent research has argued that the lockdown measures generated political support. In contrast, I argue that the intensity of the pandemic rallied people around political institutions. Collective angst in the face of exponentially rising Covid-19 cases depresses the usual cognitive evaluations of institutions and leads citizens to rally around existing intuitions as a lifebuoy. Using a representative Dutch household survey conducted over March 2020, I compare the lockdown effect to the dynamic of the pandemic. I find that the lockdown effect is driven by pre-existing time trends. Accounting for non-linearities in time makes the lockdown effect disappear. In contrast, more flexible modelling techniques reveal a robust effect of Covid-19 infections on political trust. In line with an anxiety effect, I find that standard determinants of political trust – such as economic evaluations and social trust – lose explanatory power as the pandemic spreads. This speaks to an emotionally driven rally effect that pushes cognitive evaluations to the background.     

法制现代化与传统儒家政治哲学

在法制现代化驶进快车道的今天,对儒家政治哲学持什么样的立场,是不可回避的话题。传统儒家政治哲学有一定的糟粕,在很大程度上阻碍着法制现代化的进程,但其中也不乏理性和智慧,值得我们去挖掘和弘扬。     

罪刑法定主义的哲学视域

对刑法基本原则的深刻理解来自于探寻其生命源泉。英国1215年《大宪章》与罪刑法定主义之间的联系被过分夸大了。罪刑法定主义的道德基础是个人主义的道德观,其政治条件一个是政教分离,一个是王在法下。罪刑法定主义仅仅立足于民主主义是不够的,还须立足于立宪主义,其根基在于人的尊严和自治,而其前提是商品经济的发展。     

政治系统理论视野的刑事政策科学

刑事政策抑或刑事政治的同一性决定了政治系统与刑事政策科学的关联程度。基于此,政治系统理论视野展开的刑事政策科学问题,既有助于探寻刑事政策学科的有机结构、制约机制,避免刑事政策的恶为利用,更好地完成其指导执政党、国家的刑事司法任务。     

互联网对当代大学生政治参与的影响

互联网的发展对大学生的政治参与产生了积极的影响,它激发了大学生政治参与的兴趣,拓宽了大学生政治参与的渠道,培育了大学生的参政精神。但是,由于缺乏必要的法律规范和制度保障,大学生通过互联网进行政治参与遇到一些问题。因此,必须坚持以马克思主义为指导,加强大学生网络道德教育,加强网络法制建设,为大学生政治参与营造一个健康、有序的网络环境。     

六十年公民政治权利宪政历程的回顾与思考

中华人民共和国成立,实现了人民当家作主的政治制度,但是公民政治权利的发展经历了一个曲折的过程。我国公民政治权利的发展呈现主体矫变、内容衍变以及实践方式巨变的历史特征,透视出社会主义民主政治建设的公民政治权利诉求。     

孔子的政治伦理思想浅探

孔子的政治伦理思想,在内圣层面,要求为政者加强以“仁”、“礼”为核心的道德修养;在外王层面,孔子主张通过恢复和重建尊卑有序的西周政治层级,选拔德才兼备的人才,教化民众,以实现一种纯以道德礼教调整人与人之间关系的理想社会。     

公安院校思想政治教育工作的“两并举”

公安院校作为高等教育的一个重要组成部分,担负着为公安战线培养合格专门人才的重任。新形势下不断加强公安院校思想政治教育工作,提高公安大学生的思想政治素质,对加强公安队伍建设、促进公安工作发展,具有十分特殊的意义。而公安院校思想政治教育要取得实效,必须围绕政治坚定、业务精通、作风优良、执法公正的高素质公安人才的培养目标,以科学发展观统领思想政治教育工作的全局,突出特色,创新方法,实现教师思想政治教育工作与学生思想政治教育工作“两并举”。