Party system dynamics and the making and breaking of Italian governments

This paper explores the dynamics of the highly fluid Italian legislative party system. It uses the same theoretical approach as the paper by Laver and Kato (this issue) to explore the making and breaking of governments in Italy following electoral reform. Under office-seeking motivational assumptions, the electoral system provides incentives for parties to band together into cartels in order to fight elections, with the winning cartel forming a government coalition. Inter-electoral legislative party competition, however, within a structure of permissive rules on the formation of legislative party groups, provides incentives for at least some members of the winning cartel to defect. The facility with which legislative parties can split and combine in Italy creates a highly dynamic decisive structure underpinning the making and breaking of governments. This cannot usefully be analysed with traditional models that take parties as unitary actors and assume that the party system is essentially fixed for the entire inter-electoral period.     

Where Have All the Ministers Gone?

The relationship between ministers and public servants has been a longstanding topic among students of Australian public administration. Recent debate has centred on issues of supposed politicisation and excessive responsiveness in the Australian Public Service (APS), caused, in part, by the weakened tenure of department heads (secretaries). The recent Moran report has little to say on this relationship. It endorses changes to the appointment processes for secretaries which are presumably designed to strengthen secretaries’ independence from their political masters. It adopts a view of citizen‐centred service and strategic leadership that appears to marginalise ministers. Its approach to public sector leadership is taken from international management theory that works well in a business context and in the United States (US) government system. It is less well‐suited to Westminster‐style systems.     

试论我国期货市场监管模式的选择

期货市场是所有金融市场中风险最大 ,最需要进行监管的市场。从期货市场发展看 ,它同监管是密不可分的 ,没有政府的监管 ,就没有当今世界健康的期货市场。我国期货市场起步晚发展快 ,因此 ,建立适合我国的期货市场监管体系是非常必要的。这一体系的目标模式应该是 :在政府集中统一监管下 ,充分发挥市场自律组织的作用 ,即把政府监管与市场自律监管结合起来。     

Mind the gap: How party–voter incongruence fuels the entry and support of new parties

This article examines to what extent ideological incongruence (i.e., mismatch between policy positions of voters and parties) increases the entry of new parties in national parliamentary elections and their individual-level electoral support. Current empirical research on party entry and new party support either neglects the role of party–voter incongruence, or it only examines its effect on the entry and support of specific new parties or party families. This article fills this lacuna. Based on spatial theory, we hypothesise that parties are more likely to enter when ideological incongruence between voters and parties is higher (Study 1) and that voters are more likely to vote for new parties if these stand closer to them than established parties (Study 2). Together our two studies span 17 countries between 1996 and 2016. Time-series analyses support both hypotheses. This has important implications for spatial models of elections and empirical research on party entry and new party support.     

浅议秘密侦查之立法

秘密侦查手段是对付走私、贩毒、贩运假币,有组织犯罪等无被害人的隐蔽性、复杂性案件的一项卓有成效的侦查措施。然而,秘密侦查措施由于其方式的隐蔽性,手段的技术性,视角的穿透性等特点导致了侦查机关在实施秘密侦查时不规范,秘密侦查手段的效率难以发挥。我国应该借鉴外国的经验,对秘密侦查在立法上进行授权,对秘密侦查适用范围、条件、程序等进行规定,尽快制定有关法律,把秘密侦查纳入法制化的轨道。     

不动产登记申请的法理与规则

登记申请是不动产登记的主要启动机制。申请行为本质上为有相对人的表意行为,但不属于法律行为,具有程序法行为的特质。登记申请应当实行到达生效主义,不能撤销但可以撤回,撤回登记申请须在登记完成前进行。登记申请的主要效力在于对登记机关的形成力、对登记程序的启动力、对物权变动的彰显力、对登记顺位的预定力。因虚假的登记申请资料引致的登记错误,登记机关应当对受害人承担赔偿责任,尔后向登记申请人追偿。     

TRAITS AND STATES: INTEGRATING PERSONALITY AND AFFECT INTO A MODEL OF CRIMINAL DECISION MAKING*

We propose and test a model of criminal decision making that integrates the individual differences perspective with research and theorizing on proximal factors. The individual differences perspective is operationalized using the recent HEXACO personality structure. This structure incorporates the main personality traits, but it carries the advantage of also incorporating Self‐Control within its personality sphere, and an additional trait termed Honesty‐Humility. Furthermore, the model offers a new perspective on proximal predictors, “states,” of criminal decisions by adding affect (i.e., feelings) to the rational choice–crime equation. The proposed model is tested using scenario data from a representative sample of the Dutch population in terms of gender, age, education level, and province (N = 495). As predicted by the model, personality was both directly and indirectly related to criminal decision making. Specifically, the traits Emotionality, Self‐Control, and Honesty‐Humility were mediated by both affect and rational choice variables. Conscientiousness operated only indirectly on criminal decision making via rational choice. Together, the findings support a trait‐state model of criminal decision making.