Civil society in Georgia: expectations versus reality

Academic analysts, political commentators and activists in Georgia are almost unanimous in their assessment that the public in Georgia is generally passive, civil society is weak, and that this may be one of the key reasons why Georgia – despite numerous democratic openings – keeps failing to consolidate its democratic institutions. In order to measure the strengths and weaknesses of Georgian civil society, the present article uses interviews with respondents from the Georgian non-governmental organization sector and academia on two areas: (a) citizen participation: to what extent is civic participation in the public sphere aimed at advancing shared interests and (b) influence on policy-making: to what extent is Georgian civil society able to foster popular influence on political and economic developments. This paper applies the concept of delegative democracy to contemporary developments in Georgia, and argues that one of the major factors which contribute to this trend in Georgia is a weak civil society and, therefore, a lack of intermediary institutions to safeguard democratic norms.     

论新形势下我党对社会意识形态的领导

一个社会的稳定和发展,必须要有一种强大的主流意识形态作为其精神支柱。执政党作为一个国家的领导集团,要想保持强大的执政基础,获得广大民众的长期支持,则必须注重对这样一种主流意识形态的构建。当前在改革开放和社会主义市场经济深入发展的新形势下,如何进一步加强马克思主义主流意识形态的指导地位,继续引领和不断整合多样化的社会思潮和思想观念,就成了摆在我党面前的一项紧迫任务。     

改革开放以来中国多党合作制度的发展及其启示

改革开放以来,中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度不断完善和发展,成为中国特色社会主义民主政治建设的重要内容。只有继续坚持衡量我国政党制度的四条标准,才能进一步推进多党合作制度建设,为世界政党文明增添更加鲜活的内容。     

论执政党的社会整合

社会整合是执政党的重要功能。应对社会矛盾、加强社会管理、增强社会协同、健全利益表达和协调机制。是社会整合的重要内容。当前,社会矛盾呈现出利益性、群体性、复杂性等特点,社会矛盾的新变化客观要求执政党要建立党委领导,政府负责,社会协同,公众参与的社会管理格局。完善这一新格局,需要建立健全社会利益表达、社会利益协调、社会观念引导等机制。     

Short-Term Forces and Partisanship

One of the most intriguing aspects of the debate regarding the persistence of party identification is that proponents of different schools of thought have each managed to use the same quasi-experimental data and similar state of the art techniques to defend their point of view. In this article we argue that this debate cannot be resolved with quasi-experimental data alone and propose another method that we believe can help us triangulate in on the correct answer: experimentation. Two experiments are performed and analyzed. The first tests the hypothesis that party identification is updated in response to the vote choice; the second tests the hypothesis that candidate evaluations influence party choices. The results of our experiments provide some additional support for the traditional conception of partisanship as the unmoved mover of American politics.     

The Effects of Age and Political Exposure on the Development of Party Identification Among Asian American and Latino Immigrants in the United States

This article seeks to understand the development of partisanship among the largest of contemporary immigrant groups, Asian Americans and Latinos. Identifying the processes that underlie the acquisition of partisanship is often complicated because the associated concepts are not easily isolated from one another. In particular, among those born in the U.S., distinguishing between the separate effects of age and political exposure on partisan development is especially difficult since age usually serves as an exact measure of exposure to the political system and vice versa. Because immigrants' length of residence does not correspond directly to their age, tracking the acquisition of party identification represents one way to untangle the effects of age and exposure on partisanship. A strong relationship between the number of years an immigrant has lived in the U.S. and the acquisition of partisanship is found. Further analysis shows that naturalization, gains in English language skills, and media use also contribute to immigrants' acquisition of partisanship. This study reveals that a process of reinforcement through exposure to the political system underlies the development of political attitudes across diverse immigrant groups.     

国际冲突中调停者的偏向与调停效果

在国际调停领域,人们普遍认为,调停者的公正和中立有利于冲突的解决。然而近期学界有新的观点,认为若调停者偏向冲突中的某一方,将更有利于缓解冲突。对这两种相互对立的说法,作者认为调停者的偏向会影响冲突双方的心理预期,进而影响最终结果。若冲突双方中一方有极度不安全感,且处于收益框架,认为谈判会有收获,此时调停者偏向不安全感强的一方的效果要比不偏不倚的调停效果好。若弱势一方处于损失框架,担心参与调停会危害国家生存,此时调停者偏向不安全感强的一方的调停效果未必更好。在朝核危机六方会谈中,中国偏向朝鲜的立场可以使朝鲜信任中国,进而参与六方会谈,显然中国对六方会谈发挥了重大作用。然而,中国的偏向立场虽然使朝鲜乐意参与谈判,但对朝核危机的彻底解决却难以取得成效,由于中国偏向朝鲜,朝鲜认为中国的支持是不会改变的,反而使朝鲜有恃无恐,美朝双方针锋相对,各不相让,最终致使六方会谈难有进展。因此,调停者的偏向立场有利于推动冲突双方参与谈判,但不一定有利于冲突的最终解决。     

论加强党的执政能力建设的几个维度

一个政党要维持和增强人民的认同,巩固自身执掌政权的地位,就必须不断地提高执政能力。中国共产党作为居于领导地位的执政党,必须将党的执政能力建设作为主线贯穿于伟大工程与伟大事业二者之中。文章立足于政治生态学的基本原理,依据政治体制改革渐次展开的逻辑,把中国共产党置身于国家、社会、党自身三大政治系统之中,着力研究党的执政能力建设在这些领域中所面临的挑战及其解决思路。     

党对军队绝对领导根本原则形成的历史逻辑

党对军队绝对领导原则的产生与近代中国国情和中国革命道路紧密相关。近代中国国情和中国革命特点决定了中国共产党必须拥有武装力量才能取得革命成功;近代中国军权私有化的弊端决定了军队必须在党的领导下才能真正成为革命力量;工农武装割据、农村包围城市的特殊革命道路决定了党对军队的领导必须是"绝对"的领导。     

Policy,office and votes: An experimental investigation of the dynamic aspect of party goals

Political parties face hard choices when balancing desires to influence public policy, to gain executive office and to win votes. The existing literature examining such party preferences has traditionally focused on rather static aspects of the parties, such as size, policy positions and the level of intraparty democracy. This article argues that party actors' sophisticated estimations of whether to enter into coalition can be affected by fluctuating public opinion, thereby having a more dynamic aspect. Drawing on a survey experiment on youth politicians in Norway, we test how perceived standing in the polls affects how politicians weigh up policy versus office and votes versus office. The experimental effect of perceived standings was investigated in addition to the respondents' positions within the party, as well as their parties' former governing history, political orientation and size. Results show that, in the presence of the treatment condition (party is perceived to do well in the polls), the preference for policy over office is lessened. We find no experimental effect for vote versus office. These results advance our understanding of the dynamic aspects of party goals and coalition formation.