Individual Motivations,Perceived Media Importance,and Political Disaffection

Mass media have been blamed for distancing people from the political process by increasing cynicism and voter apathy. A telephone survey of 592 registered voters in Washington state tested a set of relationships among political involvement, perceived media importance, political disaffection, and efficacy. As hypothesized, political involvement was positively associated with the perceived importance of newspapers and radio talk shows. These, in turn, were negatively associated with cynicism and positively associated with efficacy. Cynicism was negatively associated with efficacy, while efficacy was positively associated with involvement. The results suggest that involvement is a key variable in the political decision making process through its relationships with orientations toward information sources. Thus, media can serve as a catalyst for involved citizen decision making. Scholars should attend to the motivational context individuals bring to the media when examining the role of the media in political decision making.     

逆向平权选举的工具依赖——国家法团主义协调机制

参与选举是维护公民政治权利的一种基本形式,通过立法落实各选举原则是保障公民选举权的逻辑前提。根据乘积原理,公民选举权的落实状况是由各选举原则所组成的关系系统决定的,挖掘各选举原则的核心要素并分析这些要素在选举中发挥作用的有效程度,就可以推导出落实公民选举权的一般情形。在我国,以逆向平权为基本运行规则的选举逻辑根植于国家法团主义内部,数量有限的各法定团体和组织以责任明确、非竞争性的方式参与各项政治选举,它们在政治表达和代理人选择方面给予国家以组织化的支持并自愿接受国家的控制。这种以利益协调为本位的制度设计,是各选举组织的民意代表功能明显不足的现实缘由。     

The role of the political context in voting indecision

A substantive portion of the electorate declares in pre-electoral surveys that they are undecided. However, little has been done in trying to understand who these voters are and how they finally decide their vote. In this article, we try to advance the literature by disentangling the circumstances under which voters are more likely to be undecided. While the traditional approach to the study of electoral indecision has been to characterize which individual traits make voters more likely to be undecided, this article provides consistent evidence showing that key elements of the political context may also affect electoral indecision. Using long-term harmonized data from Spanish pre-electoral surveys over 30 years, we find that voting indecision is influenced by two different types of contextual factors. First, there are some political contexts that reduce voters' cognitive costs when deciding their vote, i.e. the level of electoral competitiveness and the number of parties competing in the elections. Second, there are other political contexts that increase voters' social or expressive costs, i.e. the level of government popularity, since costs of expressing preference for the party in government increases when its public image is undermined.     

近期中国政府面临的主要政治问题

目前我国进入一个新的发展阶段,这个阶段不再以推动经济增长,鼓励一部分人先富起来为主要目的,而是转向维持经济的持续增长,促进经济与社会其他方面协调发展,实现全社会普遍受益。因此,在考察近期我国社会变化的基础上,从全面建设小康社会的目标出发,依据我国所处的发展阶段,以政治学的角度,分析政府面临的主要问题,并通过对这些问题的分析,指出我国政府今后一段时间内公共政策的走向,是有重要的现实意义的。     

关于社会主义政治文明建设的几个问题

政治文明是人类社会在政治生活领域的价值追求和发展取向,是我们全面贯彻科学发展观,努力构建社会主义和谐社会的重要内容和坚强保障。怎样在实践中卓有成效地推进社会主义政治文明建设,是需要我们深入思考的问题。     

法律基础课教学改革的探讨

法律基础课作为高校法制教育的主渠道和主阵地,是高校思想品德课程体系的组成部分。法律基础课教学改革,首先应正确认识其作为思想品德教育课的属性,充分发挥其思想政治教育的功效;其次,在教材体系、教学内容、教学方法、教学手段和师资队伍等方面加强建设,以提高法律基础课的教学实效。     

试论人民政协政治沟通的机制性问题及其对策

政治沟通功能是人民政协的基本功能。从建国至今,人民政协在沟通执政党、政府与民众方面发挥了十分重要的桥梁和纽带作用。但是,受多种因素的影响,目前,在人民政协的沟通过程中还存在许多机制性问题,沟通主体、沟通渠道、沟通客体、沟通方式等沟通要素难以有机结合、相互联动,致使上情难以下传、下情难以上达、沟通不畅等现象还时常存在。要改变这种状况,充分发挥人民政协的政治沟通功能,就必须健全沟通要素的功能,通过制度化建设等措施,促进沟通要素的有机结合、相互联动,形成运行有效的沟通机制。     

政党的执政资源与执政成本初探

政党的执政资源,是指政党执政所必需的能量及其来源。政党的执政成本,是指执政党维持执政地位和政权运行而耗费的执政资源的总和。但是资源的利用和耗费也是一种投入,会产生收益。政党执政是一个“成本投入——收益产出”的过程。如果政党执政的成本支出超过了执政的收益,就是执政成本过高,资源积累就会减少,就会逐渐削弱政党执政的地位,潜伏并酝酿出执政的危机。因此,执政党都要努力降低执政成本。