农村妇女土地承包经营权之法律保障——以社会性别为视角

土地权利是农村妇女实现自我生存与发展的重要保障。虽然我国现行法律对农村妇女土地承包经营权有了较为明确的规定,但从实际操作来看,各农村地区侵害妇女土地承包经营权的情形还是时有发生。究其根源,仍在于男女两性的生理差别和由来已久的“男女平等”较量。因此,有必要在农村妇女的权益保障中引入社会性别视角,从提高法律法规的实际可操作性;强化行政司法救济途径等入手,为真正实现农村妇女土地承包经营权提供法律保障。     

Electoral entry and success of ethnic minority parties in central and eastern Europe: A hierarchical selection model

The paper examines determinants of electoral entry and success of ethnic minority parties in central and eastern Europe. The application of a hierarchical selection model shows that the strategic entry of minority parties depends on their expected electoral success due both to observed and unobserved factors. Drawing on formal models of electoral entry, the electoral success of new (or niche) parties is expected to be influenced by the costs of entry (determined by electoral thresholds) and the potential for electoral support. The latter depends on the reactions of political competitors and electoral demand, measured here as the size of ethnic groups and the saliency of ethnic issues. In line with these expectations, parties only run if they can expect electoral support sufficient to pass the electoral threshold. This finding would have been overlooked by a naïve model of electoral success which does not take self-selection into account.     

Personal attributes and (mis)perceptions of local environmental risk

Individuals' risk perceptions shape their attitudes and behaviors, and to the extent that governments respond to public demands, they also influence public policy priorities. Conversely, risk misperceptions—that is, when risk perceptions do not align with realities—may lead to suboptimal behaviors and inefficient public policy. This study investigates the phenomena of environmental risk misperceptions. Specifically, with an original survey that enables a direct comparison of perceived and actual environmental risks at the local level, it examines the relationships between personal attributes and risk misperceptions. The findings show that individuals exhibit optimism bias in assessing local environmental risk. On average, people rank their communities as experiencing less risk from toxic air pollution than objective measures suggest. Moreover, Whites, males, conservatives, and older people tend to have larger optimism bias and have lower chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their counterparts, respectively, while respondents who are married, poor, who go to church regularly, and have strong pro-environmental orientation, tend to have smaller optimism bias and have higher chances of possessing correct risk perceptions than their respective counterparts. The systematic misperception of local environmental risk underscores the importance of information provision and risk communication, and the sociopolitical correlates of misperception suggest that targeted and more nuanced strategies are required to correct misperceptions.     

Depression and the gender gap in political interest

It is well-documented that women report less interest in politics than men on average. We argue that depression—and the differential strategies used to cope with its symptoms—contribute to this persistent gender gap in political interest. While women tend to rely on rumination when experiencing depression, there is less agreement on men's coping strategies. Depressive symptoms should thus more greatly reduce political interest among women than among men. We analyze data from the European Social Survey and the German GESIS Panel Study. We find some evidence that depressive symptoms, even those that are sub-clinical and short-lived, reduce political interest among women, but have little or no effect on the political interest of men. These findings have implications for political and gender equality, especially with the rising prevalence of depression around the world, and contribute to our understanding of the impact of depression on political engagement.