What's the point of voting advice applications? Competing perspectives on democracy and citizenship

Voting advice applications (VAAs) are interactive online tools designed to assist voters by improving the basis on which they decide how to vote. Current VAAs typically aim to do so by matching users' policy-preferences with the positions of parties or candidates. But this ‘matching model’ depends crucially on implicit, contestable presuppositions about the proper functioning of the electoral process and about the forms of competence required for good citizenship—presuppositions associated with the social choice conception of democracy. This paper aims to make those presuppositions explicit and to contrast them with two possible alternative perspectives on VAAs, associated with deliberative and agonistic conceptions of democracy and citizenship.     

Was treibt die Stimmbürger an die Urne? Eine empirische Untersuchung der Abstimmungsbeteiligung in der Schweiz, 1981‐1999

Zunächst werden die theoretischen Überlegungen kurz dargelegt, die zur Entscheidungs‐ bzw. zur Mobilisierungshypothese führen. Zudem wird die Theorie des ‘expressiven Wählens’ vorgestellt, und es wird auf zwei weitere Hypothesen über Bestimmungsgründe der Stimmbeteiligung eingegangen. Danach wird der Schätzansatz beschrieben, bevor wir uns mit den empirischen Ergebnissen beschäftigen. Sie sprechen nicht nur sehr stark für die Mobilisierungs‐ und gegen die Entscheidungshypothese, sondern zumindest bei den fakultativen Referenden spielen auch die erwarteten (bzw. befürchteten) finanziellen Auswirkungen eine entscheidende Rolle. Allerdings sind sie nur bedingt mit der Theorie des expressiven Wählens vereinbar.     

略论打击犯罪与保障人权在立法上的平衡

打击犯罪与保障人权是一对矛盾体,要使二者达到一种大体平衡,立法上的平衡是根本。在当前我国的刑事犯罪形势下,实践中普遍存在着保障人权的立法偏弱和在立法方面不顾国情的问题。为此在立法上必须坚持程序法与实体法相结合,坚持理论依据、考虑国情、循序渐进的原则,加快我国保障人权的立法进程,真正实现打击犯罪与保障人权的平衡。     

我国警察心理训练的现状及展望

警察心理训练是提升警察身心健康水平和工作绩效的一种有效形式，近年来已经被普遍应用于全国许多公安队伍的教育训练活动之中。文章总结了目前我国各公安机关对警察进行心理训练的基本现状，并指出了在训练对象、训练内容、训练方式方法、训练教官等方面存在的不足，且提出相应的建议，最后展望了今后我国警察心理训练的发展方向。     

对“两型社会”建设的思考

两型社会建设是一个长期实施长期受惠的系统工程,只有充分发挥社会各界的主观能动性,最大限度地减少资源消耗,最大范围的对消耗资源产生的废弃物进行再利用和循环利用,最大可能对在目前技术水平和经济条件下没有再利用价值的废弃物进行环境无害化处理,才能真正看到两型建设的带来的实惠和美好。     

Voting Advice Applications and electoral turnout

In the last two decades Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have become popular tools among voters, especially in several countries with a multi-party system. In this paper we test if the use of VAAs stimulates electoral participation. We use survey data from the Netherlands, where such tools are widely used. In order to overcome methodological problems of earlier studies, we use techniques that model the effect of confounding variables as a problem of selection into the treatment (VAA usage). We estimate that VAA usage accounted for about four per cent of the reported turnout in the election. The mobilising effect was largest among groups that typically vote in relatively small numbers, such as young voters and those less knowledgeable about politics.     

Expected utility or learned familiarity? The formation of voters' coalition preferences

In most modern parliamentary democracies, it is unlikely that single party governments will be formed, meaning that a voter's preferred party presumably has to share cabinet offices and negotiate policy compromises in a coalition government. This raises the question of how voters evaluate potential (coalition) governments, especially since recent studies have shown that coalition preferences influence voting behaviour. In this paper, we combine theories of voting behaviour, government formation and political learning to derive expectations regarding the factors that may impact voters' coalition preferences. We test our hypotheses by analysing survey data from the German federal and state levels. The results of a mixed logit regression analysis support our arguments: Voters' coalition preferences not only depend on the perceived policy distance between the positions of voters and the most distant party within combinations of parties, but also on predominant patterns of government formation.     

水上交通肇事逃逸犯罪的法律探析

我国交通运输业的迅猛发展使传统水上航运的地位日渐突出,同时,水上交通肇事犯罪事故也不断增多,而现行法律对水上交通肇事逃逸犯罪的处罚力度显然不够。因此,有必要对水上交通肇事逃逸犯罪进行法理上的分析,并在此基础上进一步完善其在立法和执法方面的法律法规。     

《道路交通安全法》主要内容解读及相关问题思考

2003年10月28日十届全国人大常委会第五次会议通过的《道路交通安全法》的相关内容值得探讨。详细解读《道路交通安全法》的主要内容,可以看出《道路交通安全法》存在的问题,例如在草案法律名称、相关概念表述、交通管理的主体、裁决处罚权限规定、交通事故责任的认定等方面存在不足,因此,建议对《道路交通安全法》进行修改,希望能为立法机关提供有益的参考意见。     

Factors Associated With College Students’ Responses to Rape-Disclosure Scenarios: Influence of Gender,Rape Characteristics,and Opinions About Health Professionals

ABSTRACT

Few studies examine the role of friends in victims’ decisions to seek help from health professionals. This study used a sample of college students (N = 637) to examine the factors that may influence whether students would advise a friend to seek help from health professionals. After providing an open-ended response to a vignette, students answered a series of questions about formal support providers, attitudes toward women and rape victims, and their background. Findings suggest a gender divide on the advice given, and more students who responded to an acquaintance-rape scenario recommended that a victim contact health professionals in comparison to those whose scenario depicted an intimate partner rape. Implications are discussed, focusing on the role of friends and campus policy in minimizing the impacts of victimization.