Errors have been made,others will be blamed: Issue engagement and blame shifting in prime minister speeches during the economic crisis in Europe

This article investigates prime ministers’ communication strategies during the most recent economic crisis in Europe. It argues that when electoral risk is high but governments’ policy options are severely limited, prime ministers will use specific communication strategies to mitigate electoral risks. Two such communication strategies are analysed – issue engagement and blame shifting – by applying state-of-the-art quantitative text analysis methods on 5,553 speeches of prime ministers in nine European Union member states. Evidence is found for both strategies. Prime ministers talk about the economy more in response to both high (domestic) unemployment and low (domestic) gross domestic product growth. Furthermore, it is found that the (domestic) unemployment rate is the most consistent predictor of blame shifting: as the domestic unemployment rate goes up, this is followed by an increase in blame shifting towards banks, Greece and the Troika of the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund.     

Racial attitudes & political cross-pressures in nationalized elections: The case of the Republican coalition in the Trump era

While scholars have found that Trump was able to capitalize on the racial attitudes of white voters, it is less clear how these racial attitudes influenced vote-choice across partisan and ideological cleavages in the electorate. It is also unclear whether racial attitudes affected voting at the congressional level or electoral outcomes at the aggregate level. Using a novel measure of racial attitudes at the subnational level and survey data, we make three clear findings: (1) Trump and Republican congressional candidates benefited from conservative racial attitudes both at the aggregate level and among white voters, (2) this electoral benefit for Republicans persisted during the 2018 midterm elections, and (3) the effect of attitudes on vote-choice did not significantly vary across partisan and ideological cleavages in the white electorate. Our findings suggest that, even during the era of highly nationalized and partisan elections, racial attitudes are still a mechanism by which Republicans can win significant electoral support among Democrats and relatively liberal voters in the white electorate. These findings have implications for the growing salience of race in the Republican electoral coalition.     

Coming out of the shadow? Studies of local governments in Central and Eastern Europe in European academic research

This article is an analysis of the changing role of research on local governments in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) within mainstream European studies. It refers to dependency theory (Wallerstein, Prebish) as applied to scientific research. It classifies CEE as being in the semi-periphery of academic research. The empirical analysis consists of two parts: (1) qualitative review of the most important of the comparative studies of European local governments. It includes a discussion on the role of local governments and researchers from CEE in these studies; (2) quantitative based on an analysis of articles published in international journals and citations for those articles in Scopus. The analysis covers 14 countries (all new member states who joined the EU from 2004 onwards, plus the Balkan countries: Albania, Macedonia, and Serbia).     

检察机关廉政文化建设的路径探索

检察机关廉政文化建设是一项系统性工程。目前,检察机关的廉政文化建设在工作机制、工作载体等方面相对薄弱,因此,应借鉴国内外廉政文化建设的先进经验,围绕廉政文化建设的量化指标,探索一条适合检察机关廉政文化建设的具体路径。     

论我国中小企业界定标准的完善

为了扶植中小企业发展，各国均制定有促进中小企业发展的法律政策，这些法律政策首先要解决的问题就是对扶持对象——中小企业进行科学的界定。我国目前中小企业划分标准在实施中遇到了一些问题，应该采取定性和定量标准相结合的方式，重新界定小企业的内涵，简化中小企业的划分指标，细化中小企业划分标准，并将中小企业界定标准覆盖到全部第三产业。     

论矛盾转化中量变积累的形式与条件

矛盾转化是唯物辩证法的重要范畴。转化是质变,但有其量变积累,没有“渐进过程”,就不会有“中断”。探讨转化的量变积累的各种表现形式和条件,对于深化理解矛盾转化范畴的内涵具有重要意义。     

国际社会视角中的美国死刑问题评析

在西方发达国家中,美国是除日本外唯一保留死刑的国家,其死刑政策受到了其他西方发达国家、国际人权组织和社会进步团体的强烈抨击。本文以国际社会为视角,揭示了美国死刑制度中存在的对未成年人和精神智障者适用死刑、人种歧视、忽视被逮捕的外国人应当享有的权利几方面的问题,以及这些问题产生的原因和本质。     

多元文化政策下的阴影——试析澳大利亚的反种族歧视

澳大利亚政府自二十世纪七十年代以来 ,逐步废除了白澳政策 ,推行多元文化政策。但二十年来 ,白澳政策阴魂不散 ,不时爆发种族主义事件和言论 ,华人和其他亚裔人深爱其害。另一方面 ,澳大利亚的种族主义也受到本国主流社会、亚洲国家和华侨华人的批评和反对。本文试就对种族主义的表现、发生的原因以及各方面的态度和反应作进一步的探讨。     

西方女权主义思想在中国的变异

西方女权主义思想在 2 0世纪的中国遭遇到尴尬 ,尤其是对“女权主义”这一外来词语形成的种种曲解或误解 ,造成了众多女性学者对于“女权主义者”立场的不认同等 ,而隐于这种现象背后的原因在于异质的中西文化。女权主义与中国特定的文化相遇和碰撞 ,产生了某种程度的变异 ,由原来激进的、女性自主的行动演变为温和的、有男权参与的、凭借社会政治手段实现的解放妇女的运动。“女权主义”与“女性主义”、“妇女解放”与“解放妇女”的差异不应仅仅被视为词语的偏正关系的变化 ,而更有着深刻的内在民族文化心理上的原因。     

浅析物权的消灭

物权的消灭在《物权法》体系中有着不可忽视的重要地位.我国《物权法》虽然规定了物权的变动,但是对物权的消灭却未有完善、全面的规定,致使国家大量资源闲置,无法得到有效利用.通过对物权的消灭进行研究,以期探究物权的消灭对中国物权法体系结构的重要意义.