The Strange Revival of Bicameralism

The turn of the twenty-first century witnessed a surprising reversal of the long-observed trend towards the disappearance of second chambers in unitary states, with 28 countries – all but one of them unitary – adopting the bicameral system. This article explores this development by first setting it in the context of the historical evolution of second chambers and the arguments that support bicameralism, and then exploring the characteristics that distinguish today's second chambers from first chambers. A ‘census’ of second chambers in 2014 is used to provide data on second chambers in federal and unitary states, to facilitate comparison with earlier data, and to distinguish between ‘new’ and longer-established second chambers. The article concludes that newly established second chambers are concentrated predominantly in political systems where liberal democratic principles are not established, suggesting that the debate over their role in democratic states is set to continue.     

道德难题与立法选择——法律道德主义立场及实践检讨

传统的法律道德主义者认为国家对道德事务享有判断权,并且在必要时为了保护社会可以动用法律限制公民的道德自由。然而该理论却无法回应"道德民粹主义"和"经验主义"的批评,在此基础上发展出来的新法律道德主义理论尽管精致,但仍然面临着"帕累托挑战"和"权衡难题"。有关法律道德主义的主要争议并不在于道德是否能够入法,而在于其入法的限度和具体方式。中国的立法、执法及司法的各阶段中均存在着不尽相同的法律道德主义形态,隐藏于其背后的"道德的法律强制"值得警惕,我们无法一劳永逸地确定出一条自由社会的道德底线,而注重各种价值之间的权衡却实属重要。     

革命政治文化传播与清末民初政局

清末社会出现了许多重要的政治群体,以孙中山为首的中国同盟会及其他进步社团,吸收了西方民主共和的新思想,形成了反封、排满、批判传统文化的革命政治文化,并利用舆论工具迅速传播,发挥了变革政治体系的功能和作用,对清末民初政局有着深刻的影响。     

邓小平对中国特色政治文明建设的重大贡献

邓小平对我国政治文明建设所做的贡献表现在掀起思想大解放运动,奠定了政治文明建设的思想基础;建设社会主义民主与法制,提供了政治文明建设的重要内容和原则;推行政治体制改革,开辟了政治文明建设的有效途径。     

习近平关于加强党的政治建设的理论探析——基于《摆脱贫困》的研究

习近平在宁德地区工作期间大力推进闽东地区经济发展、脱贫致富,同时也十分重视抓党的政治建设,强调必须坚持马克思主义的指导地位,增强为人民服务的党性观念;加强党的政治领导,充分发挥党组织的核心作用;从严治党,清廉从政,把廉政建设引向深入;坚持走群众路线,练好密切联系群众这个基本功。习近平在宁德期间关于党的政治建设的理论思考,对于当前中国共产党加强党的政治建设具有十分重要的时代价值。     

Campaigning in an unprecedented election: issue competition in the French 2017 presidential election

Abstract

The 2017 French presidential elections featured an eventful campaign, produced astonishing results, and presented important signs of party system change. This paper analyses the main lines of divide of the demand and the supply side of electoral competition. It analyses the structure of citizens’ preferences, as well as the candidates’ strategic issue opportunities, relying on issue yield theory. To that end, it combines data from an original individual-level survey with information about the candidates’ Twitter messages. It is found that the traditional model of two-dimensional political space, characterised by an economic (left–right) and socio-cultural (integration–demarcation) dimension is largely challenged. On the supply-side, the analysis offers additional evidence for the central role played by the integration–demarcation divide, while showing that the traditional left–right conflict has not fully disappeared.     

大国战略竞争与美国对华技术政策变迁

世界政治领导国的对外技术政策很大程度上源于应对大国战略竞争的需要。当美国面临直接、迫切的大国战略竞争压力时,更愿意通过放宽技术进口和出口限制来争取合作者、应对竞争者,即"利用强者打败更强者"。自20世纪70年代以来,美国对华技术政策经历了从逐步放松再到加强限制这一过程。苏联的安全竞争压力迫使美国在加强对苏技术出口限制的同时,放宽对华技术出口限制。日本的经济竞争压力促使美国在加强对日技术进口限制的同时,放宽对华技术进口限制。应对直接、迫切的大国战略竞争压力,会促使世界政治的领导国更重视当期利益,同时也为潜在竞争者的成长提供机会。而当苏联和日本对美国构成的大国战略竞争压力逐渐褪去时,美国对华技术政策再度面临调整压力,以致于今为甚,通过发起对华贸易战,打压中国高新技术产业,全面收紧了对华高技术进出口限制。美国的技术竞争将是今后很长时间中国技术进步难以绕过的阻碍。     

新中国成立初期中国共产党领导政治建设取得的辉煌成就

新中国成立初期,中国共产党带领人民实现了从民族危难到民族独立的转变,并朝着民族复兴的目标阔步向前。在此阶段,我党始终坚守政治性这一根本属性,重视政治建设,于摸索中前进,于前进中总结。在推进新民主主义向社会主义过渡,并建设社会主义的过程中,中国共产党守正创新,领导中国人民逐步建立完善的政治制度体系;解放思想,正确看待社会主义矛盾问题;以人为本,巩固发展社会主义民主与法制;实事求是,坚持确立党和国家的领导制度。     

Reflective political reasoning: Political disagreement and empathy

As political polarization increases across many of the world's established democracies, many citizens are unwilling to appreciate and consider the viewpoints of those who disagree with them. Previous research shows that this lack of reflection can undermine democratic accountability. The purpose of this paper is to study whether empathy for the other can motivate people to reason reflectively about politics. Extant studies have largely studied trait-level differences in the ability and inclination of individuals to engage in reflection. Most of these studies focus on observational moderators, which makes it difficult to make strong claims about the effects of being in a reflective state on political decision making. We extend this research by using a survey experiment with a large and heterogeneous sample of UK citizens (N = 2014) to investigate whether a simple empathy intervention can induce people to consider opposing viewpoints and incorporate those views in their opinion about a pressing political issue. We find that actively imagining the feelings and thoughts of someone one disagrees with prompts more reflection in the way that people reason about political issues as well as elicits empathic feelings of concern towards those with opposing viewpoints. We further examine whether empathy facilitates openness to attitude change in the counter-attitudinal direction and find that exposure to an opposing perspective (without its empathy component) per se is enough to prompt attitude change. Our study paints a more nuanced picture of the relationship between empathy, reflection and policy attitudes.     

Recreating the Third World Project: possibilities through the Fourth World

Abstract

In this paper, we make a theoretical argument that the Third World be returned to its political origins to inspire an updated Third World Project (TWP), revived as a global movement for progressive, anti-imperialist forces, through the Fourth World movement, which highlights internal colonialism. Both the TWP and the United Nations recognise only nation states as full members. We examine how a Third World strategy that brings in the Fourth World, or indigenous, minority and/or stateless groups, can help oppressed groups gain more autonomy and rights through a transnational solidarity rooted in empathy. We trace the intellectual roots and history of the TWP and consider obstacles in bringing together the TWP and the Fourth World movement. A Fourth World strategy corrects the TWP’s implicit approval of an underlying imperialism, and the TWP provides the Fourth World movement a model to accomplish its goal of resisting uncritical modernity.