The Relationship Between State Government Performance and State Quality of Life

Abstract

This article examines the relationship between government performance and quality of life in the American states. We contend that the management capacity of state governments should have direct, tangible impacts on the overall social and economic well‐being of state citizenry. In order to test this idea, we examine the influence of state management capacity (using the 1999 Government Performance Project grades), alongside other economic and political variables, on two prominent measures of state quality of life—The Morgan Quitno “Most Livable State” Index and State Policy Reports' (SPP) “Camelot Index.” We find that both state economic conditions and governmental policy priorities have significant impacts on state performance levels. But, our results clearly indicate that the management capacity of state governments also contributes directly to improving the overall quality of life for state citizens.     

坚定不移高举中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜

中国特色社会主义伟大旗帜具有完整而科学的内涵。旗帜是政治方向,道路是实现途径,理论体系是行动指南,制度是根本保障。     

论先进文化与社会主义和谐社会的构建

构建社会主义和谐社会是一项庞大而复杂的系统工程,其中一个重要方面就是要不断发展先进文化。当前,我国的文化建设事业还存在着诸多现实的、具体的问题。这些问题将不同程度地影响和制约着社会主义和谐社会的构建。我们要立足于构建社会主义和谐社会的伟大实践,更加自觉地推进社会主义先进文化建设。     

马克思共产主义理论及其当代价值浅析

马克思在唯物史观和剩余价值论的基础上,指出资本主义必定灭亡,共产主义必定实现,并描绘了共产主义社会的基本特征。实现共产主义将是一个漫长的过程。充分认识共产主义实现的必然性和长期性,对推进中国特色社会主义建设和坚定共产主义理想信念具有重要意义。     

论规制堕胎行为的考量

堕胎的问题,无论是医学伦理学还是生命伦理学抑或在法学领域内已早有讨论,但对胎儿是否为"人"或"位格之属性"尚未有定论。再者,就胎儿和孕妇关系而言,从"位格"特性之实体性、关系性、目的性分析了作为合二为一的"独立性实体"与"关系性实体"之间的关系,作为"关系实体"的胎儿应受到应有的尊重。德国联邦宪法法院坚持国家利益的立场,限制堕胎行为,对自由堕胎行为进行了规制,但也存在例外情形;美国堕胎案中,最高法院在韦德案秉持的是一种自由主义,堕胎是孕妇的一项宪法所保护的隐私权,而在凯瑟案中最高法院采取了限制堕胎自由,国家为了保护潜在的生命,可以限制堕胎。自此,堕胎自由式微,国家对胎儿有保护义务。     

"五族共和"思想的内涵与实质探析

"五族共和"思想包括共和政体下"国家之统一"、"民族之统一"和民族(种族)平等三重含义.孙中山代表南京临时政府对"五族共和"思想及其政策主张的表述来自此前"共和统一会"对"统一"的解释.由于辛亥革命胜利后,资产阶级认为国内的种族不平等和政治不平等问题均已解决,因此,"五族共和"思想表现在民族问题上的实质属于资产阶级性质的民族同化,通过民族同化从而实现民族的统一.     

The inconsequence of negative statehouse evaluations on ballot measures: Evidence from survey experiments

Existing scholarship about ballot measure voting and elite cuegivers suggests that the express endorsement of an unpopular legislature on a statewide ballot measure will depress voter support. Despite seven tests across two decades on both high- and low-profile measures, it did not. This null finding is in keeping with macro-level patterns of strong public support for the more than 4000 legislative referrals approved by voters in the past century. Consequently, we propose that the influence of an elite endorsement on voter behavior is more complicated than past research suggests. Specifically, in keeping with the seminal observation made by Hibbing and Theiss-Morse (1995) that American political cynicism is more a matter of distaste for certain political practices than for actual political institutions, we suspect that when voters are overwhelmed by policy proposals that are both unfamiliar and complex, they may find assurance in the imprimatur of their General Assembly.     

论国家机关、国有事业单位不能成立单位犯罪——以经济分析法学为视角

将国家机关、国有事业单位作为单位犯罪的主体会导致大大降低相关犯罪的刑罚成本,并不利于对此类犯罪的预防。根据以经济分析法学方法进行的分析,国家机关、国有事业单位均不宜成为单位犯罪的主体。     

美、英司法审查受案标准的演化及其启示——以私人承担公共职能为考察对象

起始于上世纪70年代末的公共行政改革,通过合同外包、行政分权等多种手段,使私人成为某些情况下公共职能的承担者。私人对公共行政的实质性参与,引发了诸多行政法问题,其中最紧迫的挑战在于如何将司法审查拓展至承担公共职能的私人主体,而这取决于司法审查受案标准的确定。美、英两国的司法审查已分别对私人承担公共职能作出了回应,即将"行为标准"纳入司法审查受案标准的判断体系,我国可考虑在现有的"主体标准"之下,扩展引入"公共职能"标准,以回应公共行政主体多元化的改革现实。     

Déjà vu All Over Again: Investigating Temporal Continuity of Adolescent Victimization

An important theoretical issue in the study of criminal victimization focuses on state dependence or the extent to which prior victimization causally affects subsequent victimization. Framing this issue are two conceptual arguments that posit divergent predictions regarding the impact of past victimization. While “victim labeling” suggests that the experience of prior victimization increases victimization in the future, “victim rationality” suggests that past victimization decreases subsequent victimization. To date there has been little longitudinal research that explicitly evaluates these competing viewpoints. In response, the current study uses panel data from a sample of adolescents to assess the merit of these opposing theoretical frameworks. Against this theoretical backdrop, it is shown that prevailing strategies for the analysis of panel data—random-effects and fixed-effects—produce erroneous results that add confusion to the debate regarding the nature of state dependence processes in criminal victimization. Drawing from advances in econometrics, two estimators that can overcome the problems that plague more traditional panel data models are used to provide a test of the competing victimization perspectives. Results from those analyses suggest support for the thesis that past victimization increases subsequent victimization, but the magnitude of this positive relationship is more modest than is indicated by analytic models that have been utilized in prior longitudinal victimization research.