How to stay populist? The Front National and the changing French party system

Abstract

The main aim of this contribution is to assess the relevance of the notion of ‘exclusionary populism’ for the characterisation of the Front National (FN) in France. Since its emergence in the 1970s, several categories or notions have been applied to this political party. Once considered as the resurgence of a traditional extreme right, it has since been classified as a case of a new European right-wing extremism, or as one of the neo-populist parties that obtained electoral successes in the 1990s. The recent evolution of the party has also been described as a sort of ‘normalisation’. Is therefore ‘exclusionary populism’ still a category that can grasp the evolution of the party, as well as its present position in the French party system? To answer this question, this article examines political discourses and various electoral platforms of the Front National to gather some empirical evidence. The argument is twofold: The Front National, despite its ‘dédiabolisation’ strategy, is still a classic populist party characterised by exclusionary populism and a sort of ‘catch-all populism’; its evolution is, however, dependent on the recent evolution of the French party system.     

党员身份认同与中国特色社会主义事业主体意识的自觉

党员身份是党员内化党章、准则、政治信念和价值系统等为自我思想体系并进行自我认知和确认的独特标识,是新时期对中国特色社会主义事业实现主体的事实或理论概括,身份管理是其力量生成和团结的思想和观念基础。自从中国共产党成立以来,党员身份从起初的信念约束状态到阶级属性再到政治身份管理过程,呈现出不同阶段自我管理的具体形式。从主体意识、现实经验来看,新时代中国特色社会主义事业主体沿着"我是共产党员、真正懂得中国特色社会主义思想的共产党员、正确对待中国特色社会主义实践的共产党员"等路径形成和发展身份认同,是团结一切力量和保证"党的在场"的关键所在,对于实现"第二个百年"奋斗目标具有重大理论价值和实践意义。     

Marginalisation or legitimation? Mainstream party positioning on immigration and support for radical right parties

Abstract

Does mainstream party positioning contribute to marginalising or legitimising niche party positions? This article argues that voter perceptions of the legitimacy and credibility of niche party positions play a role in individuals’ propensity to vote for niche parties. It finds that the adoption of more restrictive immigration positions by mainstream parties increases the likelihood that those people who do not recognise the issue competence of radical right parties on immigration will vote radical right. However, for individuals who already perceive the radical right to be competent on immigration, mainstream party adoption of more restrictive immigration positions has no effect on propensity to vote radical right. In addition, the increase in the propensity of individuals to vote radical right is predominantly a function of mainstream left parties adopting more restrictive immigration positions. These results imply that mainstream parties risk fuelling radical right party support by adopting more restrictive immigration positions.     

习近平新时代党的形象观论析

政党的形象是政党内在气质的外显自溢和执政施策的全面展示,内蕴于政党文化之中,体现了政党的软实力和魅力,是政党执政的无形资源。党的十八大以来,习近平在治国理政过程中特别重视党的建设包括党的形象建设,他的有关论述和实践方略既坚持了马克思主义的基本立场,又注入了中国特色和时代特色,具有理论性、系统性和创新性,是习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想的重要内容。习近平党的形象观,围绕着新时代构建什么样的党的形象、怎样建设新时代党的形象这个主线,回答了如何认识党的形象、为何重视党的形象、党的形象何以生成和如何建设党的形象等重大理论课题。在形成依据上,有着深厚的理论根基、迫切的现实要求和强烈的时代呼唤;在核心内容上,从马克思主义政党形象、伟大使命担当形象、坚持立党为公执政为民形象、建设新的伟大工程形象、负责任国际形象五个方面铺陈展示;在建设进路上,主要从六大建设、两型媒体、三类人群、三位一体、两个面向五个维度进行勾勒与探索,对于新时代党的形象建设有着重大的理论意义与实践价值。     

Tarasoff in Missouri: The jurisprudence of a mental health provider's duty to warn and protect non-patients of potential risks from patients

In 1976, the Supreme Court of California issued its well-known Tarasoff Principle. From this principle, other courts found a duty to warn, and some found more than just a duty to warn, a duty to protect. As courts in other states adopted a version of the Tarasoff Principle, they issued a wide variety of third-party liability rules. In light of the dynamic, everchanging Tarasoff jurisprudence in the United States and recent relevant appellate court opinion in Missouri, a timely updated summary and update of Tarasoff-related jurisprudence in Missouri is warranted. In the present analysis, we compiled the four appellate court decisions that pertained to the questions of Tarasoff-like third-party liability in the State of Missouri: Sherrill v. Wilson (1983), Matt v. Burrell (1995), Bradley v. Ray (1995), and Virgin v. Hopewell (2001). We reviewed all legal measures for clinicians to protect nonpatients in Missouri, not just those that relate to protecting nonpatients from violence as in a Tarasof-like scenario. Thus, this paper concisely provides a compendium of such options and allows for a meaningful comparison of which legal, protective measures are mandatory and which are permissive, thereby evoking the question of whether measures of protecting nonpatients from a patient's violent acts ought to be mandatory duties or permissive application of professional judgment.     

国家治理现代化与执政方式的完善

执政者是国家治理中最为关键的能动者,其执政方式的合理与否直接决定着国家治理的效果,也关系到执政者的地位。中国共产党是国家治理现代化的倡导者和推动者,也因应着现代化的需要不断进行着自身的现代化。党的执政方式有很强的历史传承性,深受党的革命历程和成功经验的影响。党建立新中国后,开始在自己创建的国家治理体系中进行执政方式的现代化探索,当下正进行第三次现代化的探索,要根据国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的总要求抓住关键环节,加以改进和提高。     

Federal Political Fragmentation in Mexico's 2015 Elections

The 2015 congressional, gubernatorial and mayoral elections in Mexico display the continuation of political changes that started 15 years ago. The most notorious change in 2015 is the electoral success of non-mainstream parties, which have increased their vote share vis-à-vis the mainstream parties, the Party of National Action (PAN), the Revolutionary Institutional Party (PRI), and the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD). These mainstream parties lost important vote shares, although the PRI has shown itself to be more resilient to electoral volatility than the other parties. The increase of volatility in Mexico favours the alternation of the parties in power; however, it also increases political fragmentation. This article argues that in a context of growing electoral volatility and political fragmentation, presidential authority is weakened, giving rise to the dispersion of power to other levels of government. Furthermore, the article suggests that party volatility presents important territorial variation in Mexico.     

Pathways of democratisation to human development in post‐communist countries

The article investigates the consequences of post‐Cold War regime transitions on human development in the former Soviet bloc. Relying on a mixed‐methods research strategy that combines econometric and qualitative comparative analysis, it proceeds through three consecutive steps. First, there is a discussion of how democratic institutions may solicit governments’ attention toward social issues. Second, the relationship between democratisation and human development in 21 post‐communist countries is tested. Third, democracy in its core attributes is unpacked, and qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is used to identify a few alternative institutional configurations favouring human development. The analysis reveals that not only full democracies, but also some hybrid regimes, have been successful in this task.     

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.