Political knowledge about electoral rules: Comparing mixed member proportional systems in Germany and New Zealand

Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral systems are considered by some to be “the best of both worlds” because they combine single member district representation with proportional outcomes. Critics, however, maintain that such systems cause voter confusion leading some voters to cast misinformed votes. Survey data from Germany and New Zealand are used to investigate voter's political knowledge of the electoral system and their voting behavior. The findings suggest that knowledge about the electoral system is similar in New Zealand and in Germany. Although some may very well find the system complex, there is no evidence to suggest that a lack of knowledge about the electoral system influences voting behavior. The results undermine the claims made by skeptics who fear that misunderstanding threatens the legitimacy of electoral outcomes.     

Measuring the strength of voter turnout habits

Voting in one election makes a person more likely to vote in future elections. Researchers often interpret the over-time turnout persistence as evidence of psychological habit formation. But there are few theoretically motivated or empirically validated measures of voter turnout habit. This study contributes by clarifying the concept of turnout habit and developing and validating a seven-item measure of the concept. The paper describes turnout habit as a durable disposition to vote determined by an ability to automatically initiate voting and self-identify as a frequent voter. The new measure is validated using U.S. and UK survey data. Turnout data are from both voter files and self-reports. Varied methodological approaches, including a confirmatory factor analysis and receiver operator characteristic curve analysis, provide evidence of the measure's validity. Habit predicts future turnout independent of election-specific considerations, self-predictions, and age. The habit measure discriminates between eventual voters and abstainers as well as respondents' own self-predictions. Self-report voting habit measures appear valuable for answering theoretical questions about why people vote and practical questions about how best to identify likely voters in survey data.     

现代公民文化引领下的我国民族认同与国家认同探析

民族认同与国家认同是一对矛盾,既对立又统一,在一定条件下还可以相互转化,而“冲突论”和“一致论”在界定民族认同与国家认同关系上无疑都具有片面性,基建与此基础上的“同质化”与“异质化”两种整合思路也只能是一种理想状态。文化与公民文化具有内在的粘合作用,因而在现代公民社会中培育新的公民文化应当是解决民族认同与国家认同问题的契合点。     

试析我国政党制度的演进与毛泽东邓小平的民主政治建设思想的发展

要加强我国的民主政治建设，必须发展完善我国的政党制度。以毛泽东、邓小平为首的中国共产党第一代和第二代中央领导集体创立的中国特色的多党合作制度，是中国近现代政治发展的历史结果，开拓了新时期中国民主政治发展道路的新途径。     

“解严”后台湾政治转型引论（1986-2002）

“解严”后台湾政党政治逐渐迈入程序政治的议程，但由于其转型过快与政治体系内部党争的复杂性，执政党的政策民众化诉求尚未真正实现，尤其表现在陈水扁执政的八年时间内。分析其间的政党政治，可以更清晰地看到现代政治运作的复杂性。     

日本首相参拜靖国神社问题评析

日本首相小泉纯一郎在上任后不到两年的时间内连续3次参拜靖国神社,这不能不引起爱好和平的人们的警 惕。本文在对小泉首相的言行进行分析的基础上,从其历史观、日本国内外形势的发展变化和某些日本政要的行为模式这 几个角度入手,尝试探讨其为何如此执著于参拜该神社的深层原因。     

企业-政府互动依赖关系与企业政治行为

随着现代商业体系的不断发展,企业在政治上的成功与在市场上的成功同样重要,于是企业政治行为就逐渐成为了企业战略的重要组成部分。通过对西方企业政府关系和企业政治行为的相关理论的回溯和总结,在分析企业与政府之间的互动依赖关系之上,将企业政治行为与企业战略相联系,讨论了在激烈的竞争环境下政府管制和公共政策对企业的影响,认为企业要合理地实施政治行为,可以根据自身不同的资源状态和个体独特优势状态,在个体独立策略、集体性策略和混合策略中进行平衡和选择。最后指出,我国的企业政治行为研究需要在学习借鉴西方理论的基础上,结合自身特殊的国情,从研究内容、研究方法等各个方面进一步进行拓展和创新。     

事业单位改革：理念、制度与组织——以教育、医疗改革为例

“十一五”规划纲要中提出了“加快推进事业单位分类改革”的战略部署。事业单位的改革需从理念、制度和组织三个轴心指向来综合考虑改革的目标选择、制度安排和组织架构。真正意义的事业单位是政府为了满足公共需要专门设立的公立公益部门,惟一的价值取向是为社会提供公共产品。其耗费补偿主要来自财政预算, 应实行“收支两条线”资金管理模式。     

转型时期中国政治资源的充分开发

转型时期,中国政治资源的开发受影响政治资源总量的多种因素制约。而这一时期,政治资源严重流失的现状,使其充分开发显得尤为紧迫。转型时期,中国政治资源的充分开发主要通过两种途径来实现。一是对中国政治资源利用经验的总结分析,二是对国外政治资源利用经验的借鉴。     

Undemocratic Democracy: Venezuela and the Distorting of History

President Hugo Chávez has been the subject of much frenzied comment, as much at academic conferences as in the press. Criticism has been to a great degree personalised against his very visible public profile. The crisis of democracy in Venezuela has been widely ascribed to faults committed by the traditional parties since the early 1980s and reflected in the coterminous rise in crime and violence. Support for Chávez, or even objective comment, has been at a premium. This article looks at the crisis of democracy across a wider timescale and sees the ‘most stable democracy in Latin America’ to have been deeply flawed from the outset. It reflects an earlier propaganda campaign, similarly short on meaningful analysis, aimed at undermining the popularity of a previous unconventional leader of Venezuela, Marcos Pérez Jiménez. It is claimed that Venezuelans want to preserve democracy but are also ready to support military coups to oust corrupt or inefficient politicians. Is Chávez merely representative of transient anti‐party feeling or could the history of Venezuelan democracy have caused a more fundamental change in relationships between the mass of the people and their leader?