The foreign policy of the Zuma government: pursuing the ‘national interest’?

It was after much anticipation that members of the new Jacob Zuma foreign policy executive announced that, for the duration of their term, South Africa's foreign policy would be based on the doctrine of advancing ‘the national interest’, conceptualised simply as the ‘most vital needs’ of the country. However, almost two years since taking control of the levers of policy and political power, the South African government has yet to spell out in detail what constituted the national interest or how such interest would be pursued. In spite of this lacuna, senior members of the new foreign policy inner-elite continue to proclaim the national interest, and proceed to spell out grander foreign policy goals that they would pursue under the banner of a ‘new’ developmental agenda. These include consolidating the African agenda; deepening South–South cooperation; expanding South–North relations; strengthening foreign political and economic ties generally; and participating in a global system of governance. To date, this proclamation that the national interest will be the beam that will guide foreign policy has remained little more than a statement of intent and much conjecture. The challenge is to move beyond rhetoric and intentions and to define the national interest and to articulate a coherent foreign policy going forward. This will require concrete proposals on the basis of thorough-going domestic–foreign policy linkages.     

Do the Media Influence Foreign Aid Because or in Spite of the Bureaucracy? A Case Study of Belgian Aid Determinants

Bureaucrats are considered to play a determining role in how much media signals influence the allocation of foreign aid. As foreign aid decision-making is assumed to be a predominantly bureaucratic matter, bureaucratic responsiveness to media has often been concluded from the observation that foreign aid responds to media attention. Yet, studying this bureaucratic responsiveness directly has proven to be a challenging task due to the difficulties in quantitatively measuring bureaucratic activities. This study examines the different determinants of foreign aid in Belgium from 1995–2008 and addresses the question of bureaucratic responsiveness to media directly by isolating aid that is exclusively decided by the bureaucracy.     

Media Coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court: How Do Journalists Assess the Importance of Court Decisions?

Agenda-setting theory is central to understanding the connection between media and American government. Indeed, legislative and executive branches of American government are often characterized by their publicity-seeking behavior. This is not true of the judicial branch. However, the importance of media coverage is magnified for the United States Supreme Court because, lacking the public affairs mechanisms of the other two branches, the Court is dependent on media dissemination of information about its decisions. Despite this important role, little is known about what attracts media to cover Supreme Court cases. We ask what case characteristics attract media attention. We examine the effect of case variables on general media coverage of Court decisions (a concept we call “newsworthiness,” measured by whether mention of a given case decision appears on the front page of the New York Times) and on inclusion of a case on a list of legally significant cases over time (a concept we call “legal salience,” measured by the appearance of a case in the Congressional Quarterly's Guide to the Supreme Court). Examining cases over a 54-year period, we identify characteristics of cases appearing in either the New York Times or the CQ Guide or both. We conclude media news values may not always lead to coverage of the most legally salient cases, but some overlap indicates several cues used to judge immediate newsworthiness of cases stand the retrospective evaluation of legal significance.

[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resources: issue area matrices and predicted probabilities of case characteristics.]     

All News is Bad News: Newspaper Coverage of Political Parties in Spain

Spain has a highly partisan media system, with newspapers reaching self-selected partisan audiences and espousing explicitly partisan editorial preferences. Do the newspapers of the left and right differ in how they cover politics in ways that can be predicted by their partisan leanings? We review theories of issue ownership, journalistic standards, and information scarcity and test hypotheses derived from each. We find that the parties converge substantially in virtually every aspect of their coverage. Few differences emerge when we look at what topics are covered or in the dynamics of which topics gain attention over time. However, we confirm important differences across the papers when they make explicit reference to individual political parties. Journalistic norms result in a surprising focus on the faults of one’s enemies, however, rather than the virtues of one’s allies. Our assessment is based on a comprehensive database of all front-page stories in El País and El Mundo, Spain’s largest daily newspapers, from 1996 through 2011.     

Theory and Concept Development in Political Marketing

Abstract

In this article we argue that the state of theory and concept development in political marketing needs to be related to several epistemological as well as topical themes and issues. Seven meta-theoretical issues are discussed with regard to current theoretical position of political marketing research and some initial recommendations are made on how these issues can be developed further. The second part of the article focuses on topical aspects of theory and concept development in political marketing and highlights nine themes for further research. These themes of political marketing are singled out because of their characteristics which show them to be significantly distinct from commercial marketing practice, and therefore need more careful modelling in concepts and theories of political marketing.     

网络媒介的公共领域治理潜能及其障碍——基于公共空间的构建和政策议程设置的探讨

本文从政府治理的视角切入，从规范的层面研究理想的公共领域对于公民社会不断发展背景下的政府治理所具有的价值和功能，具体包括公共空间的构建和政策议程设置模式的转变。然后从经验层面选取网络媒介，分析网络媒介在中国语境下实现上述两点公共领域的治理价值上所具有的潜能以及阻碍其潜能充分实现的多种障碍因素，在此基础上提出相应的纠改方法以求网络媒介的治理潜能能够得到最大限度的发挥。     

Winnowing in Environmental Policy: Jurisdictional Challenges and Opportunities

While scholars developed an understanding of the processes moving issues from the systemic to the institutional agenda, we know little about the inner workings of the institutional agenda. Winnowing theory addresses this gap by examining the leadership, bill sponsor, and contextual factors helping bills move through the institutional agenda. By expanding winnowing theory to incorporate a fragmented policy domain, the environment, we find that multiple referral status actually helps a bill's chances of receiving attention and passing through the committee.     

WTO多边投资协定议题与中国的基本策略分析

进入 2 0世纪 90年代之后 ,在经济全球化的驱动下 ,制订新一代国际投资法典的动议再次被提上国际经济立法的议事日程。对中国有无必要推动多边投资协定谈判问题的分析 ,应以维护本国经济利益为归依 ,并采取务实的手段。目前 ,就引入该谈判议题本身 ,中国并无明显的经济利益。然而 ,在WTO“一揽子协议”方式下 ,为了使南北双方能从整体上求得“双赢”的结局 ,如采取“议题交易”的安排 ,中国不无接受多边投资协定议题的可能性 ,但仍得以日后谈判采取“渐成式”的“自下而上”模式为前提条件。     

Political Competition,Agenda Power,and Incentives to Innovate: An Empirical Examination of Vested‐Interest Theory

Technological innovations are by no means Pareto‐improving. I build on the argument that incumbent innovators can use political means to block rival innovations by emphasizing that the competitiveness of political system and some political institutions may diminish their ability to do so. I specify an institutional mechanism of agenda power, which provides newcomers with an improved ability to enter the game. The number of agenda power holders varies significantly among political systems, electoral systems, and administrative structures. With a sample of about 100 countries and across 20 years I show that politically competitive regimes, majoritarian electoral rules, and federal structures supply more holders of agenda power in comparison to their counterparts and, other things being equal, produce more innovations.     

中国对联合国和平安全议程的参与和塑造

恢复联合国合法席位50年来,中国持续融入国际体系,对联合国事务的参与和贡献日益提高。冷战结束后,由于一些国家国内冲突加剧及西方国家在国际上处于强势地位,国际社会对安全威胁来源及联合国作用的认识发生显著变化,由此引发联合国国际和平安全议程的重大调整及规范竞争。中国将联合国安理会作为推行国际和平安全理念及方案的重要平台。安理会中的议程设置、方案选择、投票权、联盟结构等四个方面构成了中国参与和塑造联合国和平安全议程的基本制度框架。中国日益重视利用担任轮值主席国的机会塑造安理会议程,但未能充分参与决议草案起草且被排斥在美英法组成的核心磋商圈之外。作为安理会常任理事国,中国对安理会关键性决策具有重大影响力,并在叙利亚等问题上显示了使用否决权的意志。中国在安理会注重与其他发展中国家的政策协调,并与俄罗斯保持了较高的一致性,然而美国及西方国家在安理会仍居于主导地位。展望未来,中国在联合国和平安全议程中的角色应随着客观环境和需求的改变而作出调整;提升中国理念和方案的吸引力,通过交流、交锋促进与世界其他国家的相互理解与合作,将是中国联合国外交面临的长期任务。