Deconstructing Deliberation in the Appraisal of Medical Technologies: NICEly Does it?

Appraisals of medical technologies undertaken by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) have significant implications for the setting of priorities for health care expenditure in the NHS in England and Wales. NICE has been characterised as a deliberative body, an evaluation which reflects the recent attention paid by those working within the health policy community to the establishment of mechanisms which deliver procedural justice, in the absence of societal consensus upon the substantive values which should underpin distributive choices in health care. This article critically interrogates the assessment of NICE as deliberative in character. It also considers the relationship between legitimacy and deliberation in this policy context, in light of the claim that 'thickening proceduralisation' by establishing and enhancing deliberative structures and processes is a useful strategy for addressing regulatory problems.     

强化权力制约，实施全程监督

要有效地监督和制约权力,必须努力实现权力公开透明运作;必须充分发扬党内民主,强化权力监督;必须完善权力监督体制和机制.     

论江泽民社会主义民主观的科学内涵

十三届四中全会以来 ,以江泽民同志为核心的党的第三代中央领导集体 ,高举邓小平理论伟大旗帜 ,在社会主义民主建设的理论与实践上进行了创造性的探索。江泽民的社会主义民主观 ,体系科学 ,内涵丰富 ,从理论层次上可分为三个方面 ,即对建设社会主义民主重要性的认识和概括 ,对什么是社会主义民主的认识和概括 ,对民主政治建设具体途径、措施的认识和概括     

Personalist Politics, Clientelism and Citizenship: Local Elections in El Alto, Bolivia

The article investigates the citizenship practices of urban Aymara in a neighbourhood of El Alto, Bolivia, through an examination of the municipal elections of December 1999. Using ethnographic methods, I focus on the instrumental and affective sides of clientelism, a central feature of Bolivian elections. I argue that clientelism is a part of citizenship practice, a means of engaging with the state in the person of the politician. A majority of the Bolivian population are marginalised from the oligarchic mestizo system of government, as represented by the traditional political parties. However, at local level, and especially during election campaigns, there is more permeability, and this article sees clientelism as a set of strategies through which citizens attempt to make politics, and politicians, more representative and responsive.     

现实社会主义的生存与发展探析

苏东剧变后,全球社会主义运动遭遇重大挫折。中国改革开放20余年的辉煌成就向世界证实,能在现代生存和发展的现实社会主义只能是面向市场的、民主的、世界的社会主义。     

Is Britain Facing a Crisis of Democracy?

This article contributes to the debate in this journal about the state of British democracy. I criticise the tendency to use a ‘demand–supply’ dichotomy in interpreting the strong distrust experienced by institutions and politicians, and especially the idea that all the blame for current problems is to be attributed to the inadequateness of the British political tradition (BPT). By referring to international data on democracy and to recent British trends in both public attitudes and institutional innovations, a more nuanced picture on the state of democracy emerges. I argue that the BPT is not incompatible with incremental changes that have already introduced innovations in the way politics works in Britain today, and that the task of empowering citizens is one of the most delicate aspects in this process of innovation.     

Is governance democratic?

This paper argues that governance can engender undemocratic inequality, exclusion and populism. It does so by analysing the concept of governance, and unearthing three theoretical justifications for it: one libertarian, one radical and one republican. These justifications are in turn refuted by showing how they respectively undermine a process-view of democracy, neglect structural avenues for accountability and encourage elites to wield power.     

Against Global Parliament

Experimentation is often thought to be a key quality of any legitimate democratic system. Employing global parliamentary proposals as a heuristic, this article suggests that top‐down models for global democratization – proffered by liberal cosmopolitans and world government scholars – may create path‐dependencies which foreclose options for experimenting with alternative institutional designs in the future. Drawing upon historical institutionalism, the structure, sequence, and setting of top‐down proposals are outlined to show how experimentation with other forms of democracy may be constrained in problematic ways. Following this assessment, the article suggests that striving for democratic values under a pluralist arrangement of global governance may facilitate incremental institutional development and promote experimentation over time.     

论权力资源的法律调控方式

对权力资源实施法律调控 ,需要以民主宪政制度为基础并建立分权制衡体制。除此之外 ,还应注意对相关权力实行重点调控 ,注重以法律形式确认和保障权利 ,从法律上健全权力的责任追究制度。契约形式是区别于传统命令方式的权力资源法律调控的新形式。除法律形式外 ,权力资源的实现还有非法律形式 ,应当合理界分两种权力资源实现形式的适用范围