Zero-tolerance schooling: education policy,crime, and democracy in post-Soviet Georgia

This paper explores the consequences of the massive investment in criminal justice in Georgia following the Rose Revolution of 2003. We argue that this resulted in “governing through crime” – the outflow of criminal justice practices and logics into other unrelated policy spheres. We demonstrate this by looking at responses to the issue of safety in schools. We show that up to 2007, despite a moral panic surrounding school violence, policy-makers were able to resist knee-jerk punitive reactions in favor of evidence-based, preventive approaches in the relatively transparent atmosphere of Mikheil Saakashvili's first term. By 2008, however, schools increasingly began to become the objects of central government intervention and education policy became harsher and more punitive. In 2010, Police Academy-trained School Resource Officers were introduced into all schools throughout Georgia, with troubling consequences for both teachers and students. The paper shows that this move was primarily the result of the more interventionist, executive-driven, and opaque policy-making process in Saakashvili's second term, which left unchallenged the circulation of personnel, expertise, and policy from the hypertrophied criminal justice institutions into the education sphere.     

Jurisdiction size and local government effectiveness: Assessing the effects of municipal amalgamations on performance

The optimal jurisdiction size has been debated since Plato and Aristotle. A large literature has studied economic and democratic scale effects, but we have almost no knowledge of the effects of jurisdiction size on the effectiveness of local services. This is due to two methodological problems. First, selection bias and reverse causality often render change in jurisdiction size an endogenous variable. Second, there is a lack of empirical indicators of effectiveness, and most studies therefore focus on spending measures. Extant research thus studies economies of scale, leaving effectiveness of scale unexamined. We address both problems in a quasi-experimental study of public schools. Our findings from the school area indicate that jurisdiction size does not have systematic effects on effectiveness. Our analysis therefore supports recent studies of economic and democratic scale effects that indicate that the search for the optimal jurisdiction size is futile.     

Rapporteur-shadow rapporteur networks in the European Parliament: The strength of small numbers

Specialisation and delegation of policy leadership within committees is the norm rather than the exception in legislatures around the world. Yet, little research has studied the sub-groups of lawmakers who serve as policy leaders on particular bills. This article uses conceptual and methodological tools from social network analysis to investigate the groups’ composition and relational structure. It tests the proposition that limited human resources lead lawmakers from small parties to more frequently engage with a greater number of colleagues from other parties across a wider range of policy areas. This may have important relational benefits that have the potential to outweigh the structural disadvantages of small party size. The article examines whether small party lawmakers participate more, are more central and have greater potential for brokerage in policy-making networks, or if the constraints associated with small party size and/or particular ideological leanings prevent their realisation. Empirically, the analyses focus on working relationships between rapporteurs and shadow rapporteurs in the adoption of reports by standing committees of the 7^th European Parliament, 2009–2014. Methodologically, a mixed methods approach is employed. The quantitative analyses show that small party size does not affect legislators’ participation in policy-making networks, but that it increases legislators’ centrality and brokerage potential. Regarding ideology, being committed to democratic participation as a good in itself has a positive association with all three outcomes, while attitudes to European integration show no effect. The qualitative data suggest that the relational benefits of belonging to a small party partially mitigate the structural disadvantages associated with it. They also indicate that policy making in the European Parliament is quite inclusive, as any systematic exclusion tends to be the result of self-marginalisation.     

The Value of Waiting in Lawmaking

Political actors and legislative bodies often invoke net present value calculations to support proposed legislative change. This paper explores the idea that adopting a law is like investing in a productive asset to identify possible misleading applications of net present value calculations. Investment involves incurring a present cost in the expectation of future benefits. Legal systems can be regarded as making investment decisions when incurring present lawmaking costs that will generate benefits over time. Lawmaking investments share, in varying degrees, three important attributes with other investment decisions. First, lawmaking costs cannot be recovered if the enacted rules prove to be ineffective or undesirable at a later time. That is, lawmaking investments are partially or completely irreversible. Second, there is often uncertainty over the future benefits of the legislation. Chosen rules may prove ineffective or changes in the social or economic circumstances may render them obsolete over time. Third, like any investment decision, timing is an issue for lawmakers to determine: lawmaking innovation or revision of current rules can be postponed. Often delays in such investment decisions come at a cost, given the forgone benefits of the investment in the immediate future. This paper focuses on the value of waiting in lawmaking, illustrating the interaction among the above factors in identifying the conditions that determine the optimal timing of legal intervention. The basic model is followed by two extensions. In the first extension, we allow for some learning and informational benefit from the immediate implementation of the new law. In a second extension, we allow for political time preference to affect the lawmaking choice.     

试论如何解决公民参与政府决策的困境

公民参与政府决策有常态参与和非常态参与。公民的参与有种种限制,而且作为分散的个体其影响也往往是微不足道的,但通过强大的组织力量来间接参与政府决策,将会产生很大影响。     

试论公安决策情报工作

公安决策情报工作是直接服务于公安决策的一项基础性工作,具有目标明确、突出服务、突出应用的特点。它服务公安决策,具有耳目、预测、参谋、反馈、宣传等功能。做好公安决策情报工作,应坚持以马克思主义为指导思想、坚持实事求是、坚持理论与实践相结合、坚持深入实际、坚持科学真理等原则。     

会话中话题转换的关联性解释

本文旨在从认知语用学的角度,运用关联理论对会话中话题转换现象的理解过程进行分析.分析表明:话题转换的“不关联“是存在于语义层次上的,而在语用层次上,话题转换的两个话题之间存在最佳关联.这种关联性不取决于建立在话语语言意义上的前提,而存在于明示交际行为本身.     

攻防态势与政治联合的最佳规模

赖克认为,在零和游戏中,政治联合会自动生成能够确保获胜的最小规模,即政治联合的最佳规模,但这一理论很难解释1991年海湾战争和2003年伊拉克战争期间美国领导的政治联合在规模上存在的巨大差异。本文认为,攻防态势与政治联合的规模之间存在重要联系。防御型政治联合旨在制衡威胁,政治联合背后的基本逻辑是威胁平衡,政治联合的规模一般较大;进攻型政治联合多是为了追逐利益,其构建的内在逻辑是利益平衡,政治联合的规模一般较小。     

论基层司法职权的优化配置与运行——以中部某基层法院法官办案专业化分工的样本为视角简

基层法院不存在运行专业化合议庭的制度和资源基础,面对案多人少的巨大压力,中部某基层法院民一庭推行法官办案专业化分工实践,据此数据统计对比,分析了基层法院推行民事审判专业化分工的成效及不足在此基础上,论证专业化分工的价值内涵,提出完善民事审判专业化分工的路径：要科学合理均衡分案,完善多样化审理机制;要提升人民陪审员的参审能力和水平;要加大培训力度,适当进行法官轮岗;要建立完善相适应的审判考核管理评价机制,提高一线法官的办案能动性.     

论检察机关诉讼职能与监督职能的优化配置

近年来,我国有部分检察机关在职能配置方面做出改革,将诉讼职能与监督职能进行不同程度的分离。两职能的分离可以在一定程度上减少检察机关作为控方当事人和中立监督者之间的角色冲突,提升內外监督的适用效果。但在实践中,两职能在功能和运行上都难以分离,即使分离也会导致诉讼效率上的问题。因此,我们应正视检察机关职能配置改革中的局限性;坚持以诉讼职能为主,监督职能为辅的基本原则;在原运行模式的基础上,采取将一部分职能适度分离的优化进路;不同层级检察机关可结合各自特点,采用不同的职能配置模式。