Dealigned or Still Salient? Religious-Secular Divisions in Chilean Presidential Elections

With countries like Chile facing secularisation, some research predicts religious-secular cleavages will ‘dealign’, while other research suggests these cleavages will persist so long as religious-secular divisions are reflected among presidential candidates. Using surveys of first-round voting intentions in the five most recent presidential elections in Chile, the analysis shows that religious-secular divisions in voting appear when candidates are divided clearly along religious-secular lines (and not when divisions among candidates are blurred). These findings suggest researchers need to account for the impact candidates' positions have on the appearance of religious-secular divisions before declaring that dealignment has occurred.     

Trying not to lose: The electoral consequences of unilateral reform efforts and the social pact formation process

The existing social pact literature claims that governing parties offer social pact proposals because they anticipate they will receive an electoral benefit from social pact agreements. Yet the available data on social pacts inform us that in a substantial minority of cases social pact proposals fail to become social pact agreements. In an effort to better determine the political calculations made by governments before they propose a social pact, this article examines the effect of implementing reform legislation unilaterally, social pact proposals, social pact proposal failures and social pact agreements on the vote share of government parties in 15 Western European countries between 1981 and 2006. It is found that social pact proposals do not have any electoral consequences for governing parties, unilateral legislation and social pact proposal failures reduce the vote share of governing parties, and social pact agreements provide an electoral benefit to parties in minority governments only. These findings suggest that governing parties propose social pacts in a good faith effort to complete a social pact agreement; and that such an agreement is not a way for these parties to gain votes, but to avoid the electoral punishment associated with enacting unpopular reforms unilaterally.     

社会公众股类别表决的法理基础——用比较的方法分析

本文首先指出我国目前所谓的“分类表决”不太规范,应称之为“社会公众股类别表决”,以有利于公司法在此基础上构建我国统一的类别表决制度。然后分析了国外及港台的类别表决制度的法理基础,最后用比较的方法分析了我国社会公众股类别表决制度的法理依据及其利弊。     

Parliamentary Voting Procedures in Comparison

Increasingly, scholars of legislative politics propose comparative analyses of parliamentary voting behaviour across different countries and parliaments. Yet parliamentary voting procedures differ dramatically across parliamentary chambers and ignoring these differences may, in the extreme, lead to meaningless comparisons. This paper presents a first glimpse at a comprehensive data collection effort covering more than 250 parliamentary chambers in 176 countries. Focusing on European legislatures it assesses what explains the differences in the rules among chambers. It is found that incentives linked to MPs’ visibility contribute to explain the transparency of the adopted voting procedures.     

Explaining Explanations: How Legislators Explain their Policy Positions and How Citizens React

Legislators claim that how they explain their votes matters as much as or more than the roll calls themselves. However, few studies have systematically examined legislators’ explanations and citizen attitudes in response to these explanations. We theorize that legislators strategically tailor explanations to constituents in order to compensate for policy choices that are incongruent with constituent preferences, and to reinforce policy choices that are congruent. We conduct a within‐subjects field experiment using U.S. senators as subjects to test this hypothesis. We then conduct a between‐subjects survey experiment of ordinary people to see how they react to the explanatory strategies used by senators in the field experiment. We find that most senators tailor their explanations to their audiences, and that these tailored explanations are effective at currying support—especially among people who disagree with the legislators’ roll‐call positions.     

The enfranchisement of citizens abroad: variations and explanations

Today, a large majority of states allow at least some of their emigrants to take part in home country elections from abroad. This article first looks at the diffusion of external voting laws and shows that over the past 25 years they have become widely-adopted and are no longer limited to specific professional categories of citizens. Second, the article explains the international diffusion of external voting by discussing the “norm-internationalization hypothesis” and the “electoral-competition hypothesis.” Third, the article attempts to demonstrate that these hypotheses cannot explain why, in a democratic context, states continue to implement a series of hurdles that deter emigrants from using their newly gained rights. Looking at recent developments in Latin America and the Middle East and North Africa, it concludes that the diffusion and variations of external voting laws result from transnational negotiation processes in a context of democratic transformation among various actors whose interests are strongly affected by the inclusion or exclusion of these new voters.     

Strategic voting,information, and ethnicity in emerging democracies: Evidence from Kenya

This paper explores the conditions under which voters in emerging democracies support non-viable candidates. We argue that cognitive biases and the geographic clustering of minor-party supporters in ethno-political enclaves lead to misperceptions about the electoral prospects of minor-party candidates, weakening strategic defections both among co-ethnic and non-co-ethnic supporters. We explore these arguments using original survey data from Kenya's 2007 presidential election, a contest that featured a minor-party candidate, Kalonzo Musyoka, who stood little chance of electoral victory. Despite this, results show that most of his supporters chose to vote for the candidate, failing to perceive that he was not a viable contender. The findings suggest that theories of political behavior in multi-ethnic settings can be enriched by drawing upon insights from the political psychology literature on belief formation.     

把落实科学发展观作为公安监管"三基"工程建设的着力点

为了准确界定公安监管基层基础工作的范围和重点,找准基层基础工作的着力点和突破口,公安监管工作要以科学发展观为指导,切实把公安监管基层基础工作的切入点定位于强化民警队伍建设,着力体现以人为本的新理念;切实把公安监管基层基础工作的突破口定位于强化监管基础设施、技术装备和后勤保障建设,着力体现全面发展的新理念;切实把公安监管基层基础工作的基本点定位于强化监管业务规范化建设,着力体现协调、可持续发展的新理念.     

论上市公司股东代理权征集滥用的规制--以新《证券法》第90条为对象

股东代理权征集对上市公司治理具有"双刃剑"的作用,其优势与弊端共存的特性使其更需严格规制以防止被滥用。从法理层面进行分析、并结合以往征集投票权实践所暴露的问题可知,新《证券法》第90条相比以前法律规范虽有重大进步,但仍存在对代理权征集滥用规制的不足。可以运用代理人道德风险理论、信义义务理论解释和规制代理权征集滥用行为。分析新《证券法》第90条规定可知,对征集人资格、条件和行使权利程序规定的不足,对征集过程中信息披露和违法征集损害赔偿责任等事项的粗放式规定都可能带来代理权征集的滥用。为了更有效地规制代理权征集滥用行为,应从限缩征集人资格和条件、确立代理权征集决策程序的内部控制机制、强制披露包括征集目的在内的法定信息披露制度和差异化信息披露制度、实施证券"看门人"见证制度等入手,进一步完善新《证券法》第90条规定和加强对代理权征集滥用的规制。