The Making of a Corporatist State in Hong Kong: The Road to Sectoral Intervention

Extant Hong Kong studies have under-stated the corporatist nature of the Hong Kong state. From the 1980s, as part of its political strategy, the Chinese government had helped to build a corporatist state in Hong Kong that incorporated various sectoral elites, leading to a change in the role of the state after 1997. Through an empirical study of the behaviour of functional constituency legislators and policy outputs after 1997, this article shows that the functional constituencies as a corporatist structure introduced many sector-oriented demands. These sectoral representatives lobbied for favourable polices, increased representation for their sectors, and more state resources. This drove the post-1997 Hong Kong state to sectoral intervention, as resources were diverted to selected sectors, creating new legitimacy problems for the regime.     

网络舆情语境下提升民主党派基层组织参政议政能力的路径思考

当前,网络舆情在给我国民主党派基层组织参政议政带来机遇的同时,其突发性、偏差性、繁杂性等特性对民主党派基层组织的应急能力、政治智慧、实战水平等方面提出了严骏挑战,这就要求各民主党派基层组织应当勇于抓住网络舆情对参政议政带来的良好机遇,努力适应当前网络舆情发展的新形势,积极借助网络平台,时刻关注舆情讯息,充分汲取网络民意,深入开展网络调查与监督,着力提升参政议政能力。     

问责国家元首的实证研究——以中外历史上不同的政治生态为平台

人类历史上曾经出现过专制与民主两种不同的政治生态。在专制条件下,作为世袭的君主,其权威至高无上,不容置疑,因问责君主必将有损于其形象而不被允许。在宪政条件下,国家元首是民选的,问责制的出台自然可行,只是这样做的事实依据与法理依据何在,元首能否同一般官员一样由行政法进行问责,在问责的过程中是否应当考虑其他因素的影响,等等,因其属于政治与法律的边缘课题,不仅需要相关理论的支撑,更需要从实证的角度作出有力的佐证。作为由专制向民主的转型的威权政治形态,囿于传统思想及尊君心理的影响,欲要问责于国家元首何其难矣,因此也需要作深刻检讨。     

When identity is not reached: two cases from Brasilia

When human remains are examined, three questions always need to be answered: who is the deceased, what was the cause of death, and when did the death occur, the former question being the most relevant. The identification of half or fully skeletonized human remains is a complex process and always requires the use of methods that allow individualization beyond any reasonable doubt. However, no matter how vigorous the search for identification, this is not always achieved. Here, the author presents two cases in which identification was exhaustively attempted but not achieved despite the existence of an osteo implanted device in one case and the presence of documents in the other. In one case, we could not find a potential identity for the deceased, while in the other we found a possible identity but not a family member to provide antemortem data to confirm it. Although the scientific literature tends to favour the publication of cases with favourable outcomes, one should also learn from failures, which is the reason why the author decided to publish his unsuccessful experiences. The reasons for the failures are discussed, as well as methodological improvements for future cases.     

The growth of policies,rules, and regulations: A review of the literature and research agenda

This article reviews the vibrant literature on policy growth in political science and adjacent disciplines, thus offering a conceptual framework for situating past and future research efforts and facilitating the engagement between them. The first part presents important concepts that capture policy growth or aspects of it (rule growth, policy layering, policy mixes, policy accumulation, policyscapes, the policy state) and dominant measurement approaches. The second part provides an overview of the main drivers of policy growth in advanced democracies, discussing the role of societal demands, political competition, institutional fragmentation, and bureaucratic processes. The third part outlines the multi-faceted and far-reaching consequences of policy growth for policy, politics, and the polity. While policy growth is often portrayed as the price to pay for upholding the democratic capitalist order in constantly modernizing and diversifying societies, the existing research also points to the negative consequences emanating from increased state activity. Policy growth not only threatens to overburden bureaucracies and thereby undermine policy effectiveness; it may also transform the institutional structure of the democratic state and make its politics more complicated and conflictual.     

贯彻司法为民彰显人文关怀——关于刑事被害人救助制度若干问题研究

现代刑事被害人国家救助制度源于英国,是体现司法人文关怀的一项重要措施。在我国,现代意义上的刑事被害人救助制度肇始2004年,2009正式建立。随着实践的发展,司法实务部门和理论界对刑事被害人救助制度的研究也不断深入,取得了不少可喜的成果,对一些重大问题的认识也渐趋统一,但对我国刑事被害人救助制度究竟应当如何定位,也就是说我国刑事被害人救助制度的法律属性是什么,还需要进一步明确。作为一项新生事物,我国经济、社会发展的实际情况决定了刑事被害人救助制度在我国的发展必然是一个渐进的过程,短期内不可能期望该制度全面解决刑事被害人所面临的各种困难,因此必须要将刑事被害人救助制度与现行的其他制度结合起来,形成一整套刑事被害人保障机制。     

Bringing the Revolution to the Countryside: Rural Health Programmes as State‐Building in Post‐1952 Bolivia

Bolivia's Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario (Revolutionary Nationalist Movement, MNR) took power in April 1952 via a popular social revolution. After 1952, the party implemented state‐sponsored modernisation projects, including extending rural public health programmes. The MNR used health programmes to change rural practices, cultivate political loyalty, and expand the state's political power. Yet rural indigenous communities were hardly passive recipients of these programmes. These communities often requested government services, and they borrowed the MNR's own political rhetoric to position themselves as worthy of state attention. Public health programmes increased access to rural health care, but they also allowed state officials and rural communities to negotiate the MNR's authority.     

增强全民法律意识的基本途径

全民法律意识亟待增强。加强立法和提高立法质量,切实执法,开展“普法”教育活动,进行经常性的法制宣传,强化执法监督,提倡讲案学法,加强法律教育和法学研究,等等,都能有效增强全民法律意识。     

列宁晚年对国家机关改革的理论探索

列宁晚年对苏维埃国家机关存在的种种弊端以及改革国家机关的重要性和迫切性有着清醒的认识。他提出的一系列富有远见的国家机关改革思想,以及对改革过程中可能遇到的风险所作的分析,对推动当前我国国家机构改革仍有着重要的指导意义。     

依法立法是依法治国的首要环节

就对公共权力的制约而言 ,依法治国的全部要求包含依法立法、依法行政、依法司法三个方面 ,其中 ,依法立法是依法治国的首要环节。它的主要涵义是立法的精神和原则、立法的主体资格、立法的权限范围、立法的程序规范都必须得之于法律 ,以及对立法的合法性可以予以司法审查 ;而在所有的法律中 ,人民的利益是最高的法律。