Don't call me a populist! The meaning of populism for western European parties and politicians

In recent years a common understanding of the core elements of populist communication has been achieved in academia. Yet, we know less about how the term populism is used by political parties themselves, despite widespread assumptions about the use of populism as a battle term to disqualify competitors. Based on a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of Twitter content from mainstream and populist actors in six western European countries, this study finds that populism is indeed used by mainstream parties in a pejorative way in order to label political competitors. Yet, not only populist but also mainstream competitors are labeled populist by the center parties linking a variety of different negative meanings to the term, which are often of a less demonizing nature not questioning the legitimacy of others. Populists in Italy and France refer to the term in a positive way, while Spanish and German populists rather reject the label.     

血液样品中乙醇稳定性的实验研究

目的考察在不同存放条件下含乙醇的血液样品中乙醇浓度的变化情况。方法采用顶空-气相色谱法,以异丙醇为内标,对存放条件不同的血液样品中乙醇进行检测。结果冷冻(-10℃)条件存放1至30天,血液样品中乙醇含量无显著变化;冷藏(4℃)条件存放1至30天,血液样品中乙醇含量变化不显著;室温(28℃~33℃)条件存放1至30天,血液样品中乙醇含量显著改变。结论含有乙醇的血液样品,在冷冻、冷藏条件下可较稳定的存放30天;在室温条件下存放30天血液样品中乙醇浓度发生显著变化,不可在此条件下存放。     

华人政治地位与马来西亚的政治分层

本文通过分析马来西亚华马两族执政党的不同地位、政府公共职位的族群分配比例以及选区划分的族群利益倾向,探讨马来西亚族群政治分层以及族群在政治领域存在的结构性差异.结果表明,华人明显处于政治弱势,在族群权益博弈中的地位由此大为削弱.     

Mixing Habermas with Bayes: Methodological and Theoretical Advances in the Study of Deliberation

Two challenges stand out in the study of deliberation: the development of appropriate methodological tools and the development of more unified analytical frameworks. On the one hand, analysing deliberative processes is demanding and time‐consuming; hence we tend to have only few and non‐randomly selected cases at the group or context level. In addition, the real world of deliberation presents us with a complex matrix of nested, cross‐classified, and repeated speakers. This article shows that Bayesian multi‐level modelling provides an elegant way to tackle these methodological problems. On the other hand, we attempt to enrich comparative institutionalism with individual characteristics and psychologically relevant variables (such as group composition). Focusing on Swiss and German parliamentary debates we show that institutional factors ‐ in particular, consensus systems ‐, the gender composition of committees and plenary sessions, and age matter for the quality of deliberation. Furthermore, we also show that partisan affiliation ‐ government or opposition status of MPs ‐ affects deliberative quality and can refine institutional arguments. We conclude that a multi‐level approach to deliberation focusing on contextual and actor‐related characteristics and using Bayesian hierarchical modelling paves the way toward a more advanced understanding ‐ and methodological handling ‐ of deliberative processes.     

激活思想政治课教学的方法探究

思想政治课是对学生进行公民品德教育和马克思主义常识教育的必修课程,由于多种因素的影响,思想政治课教学面临的问题越来越突出。要解决这些问题,激活思想政治课教学,必须增强教学的实效性、主体性和实践性,并充分发挥教师的主导作用。     

论法律的安定性

法律安定性不仅是法律自身的逻辑自恰性、连续性和体系化,更应该从法律与社会生活的适应关系中去理解。法律须被明确规定、实用而且保持相对不变,否则,法律平等、合目的性将无法实现。在转型社会法律安定性是在应对法律移植与本土资源、法律与方法和法外空间等紧张关系中实现的。     

The social logic of political choice: Picking a political party in the context of immediate social circles

The Social Logic of Politics places social learning at the center of political choice. People develop their political preferences, knowledge, values, perceptions of ability, and decisions about political behavior in interactions with others, usually members of their social circles. Political attitudes and goals are not derivatives of exogenous economic preferences. They are not the results of careful calculations, in which optimization of personal needs guides the mode of reasoning. This theoretical stance draws sustenance from recent work across the social science, even as it harkens back to established, if neglected principles of political analysis. My thanks to Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck for his encouragement and for the critical comments of several anonymous referees and to Josip Dasović and Jennifer Fitzgerald, my co-authors of Partisan Families: the Social Logic of Bounded Partisanship in Germany and Britain (Zuckerman et al. 2007). Material from that book appears in this essay.     

Tony Blair's 'Media' Speech: The Commentators

Tony Blair's speech challenged the media over its standards in his valedictory lecture. Many of his charges about the absence of balance, attacks on motive and a pack mentality stand up, even if some are exaggerated and also applied well before his arrival in 10 Downing Street. Mr Blair's solutions did ot match his critique. What is required is a more self‐questioning media, being held to account on the internet and on specialist blogging sites. Vigorous criticism, requiring justification, is a more credible rout than tighter regulation. Tony Blair's speech on the changing pressures on the media is both interesting and convincing in its diagnosis (although generally reported in ways that did not reveal this). It is less convincing in suggestions for change: the fact that on‐line media will fall under Of‐com, and so under its minimal ‘content regulation’ will have little impact. Effective change could begin with other types of (self or other regulation). Some steps towards change might include minimal requirements for journalists and editors to accept elementary forms of accountability, such as disclosing conflicts of interest and payments made for ‘stories’. The scale of media coverage may be crucial in determining the allocation of aid, yet the attention the media pays to particular causes is arbitrary. Many serious disasters are not reported and as a consequence do not receive adequate aid, so that the victims of the crisis will lose out. Chronic long term problems, like famine, are ignored in favour of ‘sudden emergencies’. Reporting seeks sensation and simple stories which influences the way that aid agencies respond to the media. The complex background to a faraway disaster is often overlooked and not properly reported. Tony Blair's speech describing some of the news media as ‘feral beasts’ contained one paragraph which contained an insight into his views on new media. It was known that the outgoing Prime Minister was uncomfortable with some aspects of new technology but his remarks reveal a wider disappointment with how new media has failed to deliver changes which he had hoped for in political communications.This paper records Mr Blair's problems with new media and argues that by focusing on how the new technologies might provide a better way for politicians to by‐pass the traditional media he has missed the point of their wider benefits.     

L'impact du mode de scrutin sur l'élection des femmes à l'Assemblée fédérale Suisse (1995‐2003)

Cet article analyse l'impact du système électoral sur l'élection des femmes à l'Assemblée fédérale (1995‐2003). La littérature a souvent mis l'accent sur l'importance du système proportionnel en vue de l'amélioration de la représentation des femmes au Parlement en se concentrant souvent uniquement sur le taux de femmes élues. Dans cet article, nous argumentons qu'il est nécessaire d'étudier les trajectoires des candidats et de prendre en compte à la fois les candidats hommes et femmes. Nous montrons que l'effet women‐friendly du système proportionnel au Conseil national semble davantage jouer au niveau de la stratégie de désignation des candidats et des candidates que lors de leur élection, et ce particulièrement pour les partis politiques du centre et de droite.     

论文化矛盾与社会稳定的关系

文化矛盾是指社会思想文化领域内和人们的精神世界中的矛盾和冲突,它本质上是社会物质利益矛盾的反映,但又具有自身的相对独立性,通常表现为人们的信仰、思维、观念、意识、心理、情感等方面的一系列矛盾和冲突。文化矛盾和文化冲突是影响社会稳定的一个特殊而关键的因素,是引起社会动荡的内在诱因。全球化进程中的文化冲突和我国社会转型时期的文化矛盾,已对我国社会稳定和国家安全构成不容忽视的影响。化解文化矛盾,必须提高领导和工作艺术,正确处理实践运作中的一些重大关系。