Facing the future: young people's awareness of the 2001 British general election advertising campaigns

This paper presents findings from a national survey of ‘potential’ first time voters at the 2001 British general election. It investigates these young people's awareness of the advertising used by the main political parties during this election. Overall what emerges is a young electorate aware of the advertising, who were interested in the election itself and nearly half of whom say they voted in it. Consequently the findings reject the notion that young people are generically unaware of and disinterested in party political messages. In addition the findings indicate that the political parties' print advertisements—to some degree—are penetrating the first layer of young people's message processing, suggesting they are a useful aid in capturing the youth vote. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications     

关于天津市地方禁毒立法的探索

二十世纪八十年代后,毒品在中国又开始死灰复燃。针对日益严重的毒品违法犯罪,国家制定了一系列法律法规,在禁毒斗争中发挥了巨大作用。但是,由于毒品问题的特殊性和我国国情,仅全国统一禁毒立法还不够,尚需地方立法的细化和补充。本文根据对天津毒品问题的分析和对其他省、市、自治区已有地方禁毒立法的研究比较,指出了制定天津地方禁毒立法的必要性,提出了天津禁毒条例的体系设想,力求为天津的禁毒立法提供某些启示和借鉴,推动我市地方禁毒立法进程。     

A Party of a Different Color? Race,Campaign Communication,and Party Politics

Although studies have examined the contents of party images and the impact of those images on candidate evaluations, we do not have an understanding of the conditions that lead to party image change. In this article, I examine the impact of racialized campaigns on perceptions of individuals' party images. Moreover, I explore the factors that mediate the campaigns' effects. I argue that the success of a strategy's ability to alter party images depends on the strength of the individuals' extant party images. Using the 2000 Republican National Convention as a case study, I find that party images are indeed malleable. Further, I find that race, party identification, and education mediate party image change.     

抗战时期中国共产党对国民党地方实力派的统战工作

国民党地方实力派是中国近代历史条件下演化出来的情况复杂、派系众多的军事政治集团,中共与这些派系的关系是国共关系史的重要组成部分。国民党地方实力派在抗战时期表现不同,因而中共的统战政策也随之有所变化。对这一时期统战工作的研究或许对目前的台湾问题有所启示。     

建立服务型地方政府的路径探讨

面对社会主义市场经济的深入发展及我国加入WTO的新的行政生态环境,服务型地方政府的建立已刻不容缓。中央与地方之间权限的清晰界定、地方政府之间的合作与竞争、地方政府自身的角色转变和管理改革是服务型地方政府建立的可行路径。     

地方政府制度创新与民营经济发展——温州制度变迁的轨迹与分析

地方政府作为制度创新的主体之一 ,在推进民营企业的制度创新过程中起着特殊的重要作用。本文以温州民营经济发展为背景 ,分析了温州地方政府在与民营经济发展的互动中制度创新的背景和方式。温州地方政府积极响应民间的制度创新活动 ,对民间的制度创新活动进行保护、协调和组织 ,为民营经济发展提供了一个相对开放、自由和合法的制度环境。地方政府的制度创新极大地促进了温州民营经济的发展。     

法治政府指标:适度政府与统一政府

适度政府与统一政府是法治政府的基本特征和重要指标。调整和重构政府与社会、市场、中介机构和行业组织关系 ,从全能政府走向适度政府 ,是法治政府建设的基本内容 ;认识和实践统一市场、统一政府和统一法制的逻辑关系 ,通过法制统一实现政府统一 ,是法治政府建设的重要选择。行政许可法制对于促进政府职能转变和适度政府建设、抑制地方主义、部门主义和建设统一政府 ,具有重要的现实意义。     

Candidates' Ideological Locations,Abstention, and Turnout in U.S. Midterm Senate Elections

Many spatial models of voting suggest that citizens are more likely to abstain when they feel indifferent toward the candidates or alienated from them. In presidential elections, previous research offers evidence that alienation and indifference affect individuals' probabilities of voting. We find evidence that indifference and alienation also affect the decision to vote in midterm Senate elections, a context not previously explored. These individual-level effects imply that candidates' ideological locations should influence aggregate turnout by affecting the proportions of citizens who feel indifferent toward or alienated from the candidates. Our aggregate-level analysis supports this (at least in contests featuring two previous and/or future members of Congress). Our findings underscore the importance of the electoral context for understanding citizen behavior and suggest that elections featuring at least one centrist candidate may be normatively appealing since they stimulate participation.     

Dog Whistles and Democratic Mandates

Manipulative mixed messages from candidates to voters affect what governments are entitled to do in office. A party that wins an election gains a 'mandate to rule'. But there is a second type of mandate: a 'policy mandate' to enact specific policy proposals central to the winning party's campaign. Mixed-message politics in general can undermine policy mandates, and the use of 'dog whistle politics' - telling one group of voters one thing, while allowing or encouraging another group to believe another - makes the inferring of policy mandates especially problematic. Referendums provide only a partial remedy to dog whistle politics. Winning a clear policy mandate means forgoing dog whistle politics, despite the short term electoral advantage they may deliver.     

Money for our people? Decentralisation and corruption in Romania: the cases of the equalisation,infrastructure and pre‐university education funds

In spite of the attempts, in the most recent years, to introduce simple, accountable and rule‐based mechanisms governing the flows of funds for Romanian local governments (LGs) there is evidence showing that deviations from the norms are still widespread and undermine the stated goals of many policies. This article aims to explore to what extent the political factor (party affiliation, i.e. local informal power networks) interferes with the allocation of public funds as far as three main areas of decentralised policy are concerned: (i) the general purpose equalisation transfers; (ii) the Roads Fund grants and (iii) the transfers for financing the pre‐university education. These components represent a relatively large share of the local budgets and are illustrative for two important attributions Romanian LGs perform today: maintaining the local infrastructure and providing essential social services. Through a set of variables—measuring, on the one hand, the real pattern of resource allocation and on the other hand, the intensity of politicisation in the three areas—we tested the hypothesis that intergovernmental financial flows in Romania are to a large extent captured by rent‐seeking groups. It turns out that this is indeed the case with the funds for infrastructure, and much less so with the transfers financing pre‐university education. Some conclusions from these contrasting situations are drawn which reflect on the broader discussion, the link between decentralisation and corruption. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.