Increasing Representative Accountability through Electoral Laws: The Consequences of the 2008 Romanian Electoral Reform

The paper tests the effects of the 2008 Romanian electoral reform on the behaviour of MPs with the help of personal interviews conducted post reform. The reform was meant to make MPs more responsive to the needs of constituents, which in turn should lead to more constituency input in the legislative process, while at the same time yielding proportional results. The paper finds that there are few channels for the transmission of constituents' needs to MPs, and the existing channels are used for petty requests that have little to do with the legislative procedure. This in turn encourages the development of clientelistic ties between representatives and voters, which benefit wealthier candidates. The study also finds that although the new system translates votes into seats closely, small parties may still be disadvantaged because of what Duverger (1954 Duverger, M. (1954). Political parties: Their organization and activity in the modern state, New York, NY: John Wiley. [Google Scholar]. Political parties: Their organization and activity in the modern state. New York: John Wiley) calls the psychological aspects of the wasted vote problem.     

EXPECTATIONS AND CAPACITY OF PERFORMANCE MEASUREMENT IN NGOs IN THE DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT

There are many obstacles to promoting learning as an outcome of performance measurement in non‐governmental organizations (NGO) social service providers, especially in less developed countries. Building upon a conceptualization of accountability as a multifaceted set of relationships through which funders, or principals, and non‐profit providers, or agents, jointly shape organizational learning, and performance, this study expands our understanding of how accountability mechanisms affect learning within service providers. This paper explores the role that funders play in shaping performance measurement, or monitoring, practices within NGOs serving disadvantaged children in developing countries. We examined the experience of service providers in Egypt and Colombia to assess how the barriers to use of performance data and learning may be addressed. We conducted interviews using the same protocols with program managers in six non‐profit providers in each country that provide services to children, and we also interviewed major donors in the arena of children's services in the USA. We probed the NGO managers' experiences with performance measurement to identify obstacles and potential solutions to improve the use of the data to promote learning. Our findings support previous research about the potential for upward accountability mechanisms to influence internal learning. We suggest that funders should be held accountable for how the incentives and disincentives they provide to grantees affect their internal learning about how to improve their services. This notion of ‘reverse accountability’ means that funders need to be strategic and intentional when they design reporting mechanisms that affect the learning behaviours within their grantees. In line with our call for reverse accountability, we offer a model demonstrating our notion of the two‐way flow of accountability and we offer recommendations to help improve the performance reporting environment for NGOs who are addressing complex problems with less than adequate capacity. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Examination of Oversight and Review in the Child Welfare System

Abstract

Child welfare agencies are accountable to the community not only because they spend public dollars, but also, most critically, because they are charged with protecting vulnerable children. Over the past three decades multiple oversight processes have been initiated as part of an effort to improve accountability in public child welfare. In agencies around the country an array of advocates and monitors regularly review the performance of individual caseworkers. While caseloads grow in number and complexity the ranks of the workforce have not kept pace. The result is too many people watching too few workers serve too many vulnerable children and families.

This paper examines the cumulative effect of five groups of “watchers” that oversee child welfare services. It suggests that every group of watchers should be able to demonstrate that their activities contribute directly to the achievement of system goals.     

政府购买律师主持行政听证法律服务合同出租运作流程及其规制探索与研究

政府主导和主持行政处罚听证、行政许可听证、价格决策听证及行政立法听证,是政府应提供的法律服务之公共产品,政府通过购买法律服务,由律师主持行政听证,是公共权力让渡的合同出租,是个全新的课题,此类合同出租如何运作,其流程是什么,应怎样予以规制,都需要探索和研究.     

规范检察机关参与非法证据排除程序探析

新《刑事诉讼法》对非法证据排除进行了相关规定,明确了检察机关参与非法证据排除主体性地位。检察机关参与非法证据排除意义重大,有利于从根源上防止非法证据的出现,也有利于克服我国一元制庭审模式的弊端,从而规避非法证据进入庭审对法官的影响,确保法官公正审判,维护司法正义。这就迫切需要对检察机关参与非法证据程序进行规范,才能以之指导检察实践。     

刑事诉讼中指定管辖若干问题探讨

在刑事诉讼法中,指定管辖以其灵活性和必要性在司法实践中广泛应用,但由于刑事诉讼法对指定管辖的规定较为简单,导致指定管辖在司法实务中操作性不强,难以全方位保障相关诉讼环节。完善刑事诉讼中的指定管辖,应明确其原则和适用范围以及公检法管辖权的法律效力。     

忧虑的放大与程序的缺失——基于程序视角的民事诉讼法律监督

民事诉讼中的法律监督牵涉到审判机关、检察机关的权力配置与程序运行。从实践的角度分析,对法律监督有损审判独立的忧虑被无端地放大,而程序的缺失又直接制约着民事诉讼中法律监督效能的发挥。涉诉信访与法律监督的制度整合既有利于缓解涉诉信访的压力又弥合了法律监督程序的缺失。同时,改变对法官违法的内部惩戒机制,将惩戒程序的启动、惩戒结果的决定与被惩戒对象所在系统相分离将有助于对民事诉讼中审判人员违法行为的预防与惩戒,最终有助于法律监督的目的即司法公正。     

走出刑事诉讼证人证言的怪圈——新《刑事诉讼法》颁行背景下的讨论

刑事诉讼证人证言在诉讼证明中的地位十分重要,但长期以来,在这种证据的运用和审查判断中存在着一些怪圈。本次《刑事诉讼法》的修改对于证人证言现存问题的解决意义重大,但是,欲走出刑事诉讼证人证言的怪圈,还需要更多的努力。     

The effects of circulatory capitalism on democratization: Observations from South Africa and Brazil

This article argues that the democratization processes taking place in South Africa and elsewhere in emerging market economies cannot be separated from the global economic context within which these processes are taking place. The article illustrates that the mainstream political economy literature has not paid sufficient attention to the issue of the limits and constraints placed upon these newly emerging democracies by the new financial architecture, particularly the derivatives market, which now determines the value and price of emerging market currencies. The article concludes that the workings of this market not only heavily favour the interests of developed countries but that they deeply question the accountability of politicians in those emerging markets and thereby endanger the legitimacy of the democratic project in large parts of the post-colonial world. The article is divided into three sections: first, a critique of some of the leading political economy analyses and their position on the relationship between open-economy policies and democracy; second, an account of the development of the derivatives market since 1973 and a theorization of its implications for currency movements, particularly monetary volatility, of emerging market currencies; third, an illustration by way of the South African and Brazilian cases of the policy implications of currency volatility for creating improved social and economic conditions.     

Democracy's Quality and Breakdown: New Lessons from Thailand

In what may amount to a new phase in the study of democratization, assessments of democracy's quality have become quite common. This article attempts to assess democracy's quality in Thailand under the recent Thai Rak Thai government. It begins by enumerating some of the conceptual difficulties that bedevil these measuring exercises. The account makes use of a ‘sequenced’ framework involving electoral mandates, policy responsiveness, and accountability. Analysis reveals a ‘mixed’ record under Thai Rak Thai, one in which the government's strong mandates and high levels of responsiveness were offset by executive abuses, corrupt practices, limits on civil liberties, and gross violations of human rights, behaviours in which many elites and mass-level constituents acquiesced. It shows also, however, that when these elites and constituents sought later to impose accountability, they resorted to direct action, further eroding the quality of democracy. Thus, the article demonstrates too that democracy's quality can be diminished in ways that, far from placating rival elites, so inflame tensions that it can finally break down.