The party choice set and satisfaction with democracy

A well-functioning democracy requires citizens’ support for its political institutions and procedures. While scholars have previously studied the role of contextual factors for explaining satisfaction with democracy, a rigorous focus on how the party choice set affects how satisfied citizens are with democracy is largely absent from the literature. This neglect of the impact of parties is surprising, given their central position within modern, representative democracies. In this article, a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the impact of party systems on citizens’ satisfaction with democracy is presented. Use is made of the combined data of the first four modules of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems project and various measures of the party system are used to capture different aspects of the party choice set: the number of parties, their polarisation, and the congruence between public opinion and the party offer. In contrast to expectations, only scant evidence is found that having a wider choice increases citizens’ satisfaction with democracy.     

Party system nationalization,presidential coalitions,and government spending

This paper argues that there is a strong relationship between geographical patterns of political parties' electoral performance and the composition of central government expenditures. When party system nationalization is high, the composition of spending will focus more on non-targetable expenditures, while targetable expenditures increase as the party system distribution of votes across different districts becomes less homogenous. However, the effect of party nationalization on spending type is conditioned by the size of the presidential coalition; targeted transfers will increase if the coalition size decreases, even if party nationalization is high. I find support for these hypotheses with an empirical analysis of district-level electoral and government expenditure data for several countries in Latin America between 1990 and 2006.     

Vote-earning strategies in flexible list systems: Seats at the price of unity

In theory, flexible list systems are a compromise between closed-list and open-list proportional representation. A party's list of candidates can be reordered by voters if the number of votes cast for an individual candidate exceeds some quota. Because these barriers to reordering are rarely overcome, these systems are often characterized as basically closed-list systems. Paradoxically, in many cases, candidates are increasingly earning individual-level preference votes. Using data from Slovakia, we show that incumbents cultivate personal reputations because parties reward preference vote earning candidates with better pre-election list positions in the future. Ironically, the party's vote-earning strategy comes at a price, as incumbents use voting against the party on the chamber floor to generate the reputations that garner preference votes.     

Multilateral CBMs on the Korean Peninsula: Making a virtue out of necessity

Abstract

As its economy has become near to collapse, North Korea has tried to avoid direct contacts with South Korea because of the ‘absorption phobia’. Instead, the North has made continuous efforts to improve its relations only with the United States, seeking a guarantee for its survival. Given this circumstance, this paper argues that useful multilateral approaches such as KEDO and Four‐Party Talks will contribute to improving inter‐Korean relations. Thus, it would be sensible to explore every possible way (even through multilateral mechanisms) until both Koreas make a breakthrough for the deadlocked inter‐Korean CBMs. But the multilateral CBMs constitute a transitional and complementary role as South and North Korea should be primarily responsible for addressing major problems such as reunification. Among the multilateral approaches, the Four‐Party Talks will be a most useful mechanism which will enable the two Koreas to resume dialogue for the peace and reunification on the Korean Peninsula. In this peace process, more positive roles of major powers are also requested.     

民办高校学生党建工作探赜

民办高校学生党建工作是关系到能否全面贯彻党的教育方针,坚持社会主义办学方向,培养德智体美全面发展合格人才的根本性问题。民办高校学生的特殊性决定了学生党建工作的特殊性和难度。我们积极探索民办高校学生入党积极分子的培养、教育途径和模式,夯实学生党员发展基础,将学生党建工作与思想政治教育有机结合,促进了学生健康成长和全面发展。     

群众路线:马克思主义政党建设的永恒主题

马克思主义政党的力量源泉在人民群众,根本价值追求是为人民群众。群众路线是马克思主义群众观的生动体现,是中国共产党实现思想路线、政治路线、组织路线的根本工作路线。党是在坚持群众路线的实践中不断壮大的。群众路线是党的建设的永恒主题,是不断经受考验和化解危险的传家宝。群众路线常讲常新,在社会主义初级阶段,群众路线问题不可能完全解决,只要党长期执政,那就必须不断进行群众路线教育。     

延安时期党内民主建设的理论探索及启示意义

党内民主是党的生命。延安时期是中国共产党党内民主发展的最好时期之一,总起来讲可分为三个阶段：党的六届六中全会推进了党内民主的制度化建设,延安整风开创了党内民主建设的新模式,党的七大对党内民主建设作出了重大理论贡献。延安时期党内民主建设的理论探索与实践。为新时期党内民主建设提供了丰富的经验教训。     

新形势下党代会代表提案制研究——党的十八大报告“实行党代会代表提案制”解读

党的十八大提出了“实行党代会代表提案制”,并把实行党代会代表提案制作为党的建设改革创新的重要举措之一。党代会代表的是广大党员的意志,因此实施党代会代表提案制意义深远。党代表提案制的实施,使党代表在任何时候都可以对人民群众关心的热点和难点问题向代表提案委员会提出,这就成为新时期整合人民群众利益诉求的一种新机制。     

Aesthetics and politics in North Korean socialist realist painting: On approved ways of seeing

This paper inquires into aesthetics and politics in North Korean socialist realist painting by way of an examination of North Korean journalist Han Chol Ju's article series “Visit to Korean Art Gallery” and three paintings in Korea Today (2010–2011). The paper explains late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's national-Stalinist conception of Juche socialist realism in On Fine Art (1991); considers one Korean painting (Chos?nhwa), two oil paintings (yuhwa), and one jewel painting (pos?khwa); and addresses approved ways of seeing in political-aesthetic experience and response in the North Korean situation.     

The logic of multiculturalism and Korean democracy

In this article, I attempt to construct a normative framework of Korean multiculturalism in the Confucian public-societal context of Korean democracy by focusing on the political implications of the claim to cultural rights (so-called ‘logic’ of multiculturalism) and cultural pluralism that it is likely to entail for Korean democracy. After examining the logic of multiculturalism that often puts multiculturalism in tension with liberal democracy, I turn to Will Kymlicka's account of immigrant multiculturalism that resolves the potential tension between multiculturalism and liberal democracy in a liberal way. Then, I construct a normative framework of Korean multiculturalism in a way that a decent multicultural society can be established on the same public-cultural ground on which Korean democracy has matured in the past two decades.