Is the Democratic Party’s superdelegate system unfair to voters?

Among the reasons for the historic nature of the 2008 Democratic primary race was the attention paid to the “superdelegates”. The competitiveness of the primary and the important role the superdelegates played has led to calls for reform. This paper develops a formal model that explains why superdelegates selected one candidate over the other and why some superdelegates committed early in the primary season while others waited. Hypotheses are tested using an original dataset collected during the 2008 Democratic primary. The results suggest that although some superdelegates made their decision based on personal, idiosyncratic factors, for many superdelegates, Democratic voters played the most important role in their commitment process.     

Electoral institutions and campaigning in comparative perspective: Electioneering in European Parliament elections

This article develops and tests a number of competing expectations (institutional, party and individual) about what influenced the campaign activity of individual parliamentary candidates for the 2004 European Parliament elections. The principal interest is in the effects of variations in the design of electoral institutions across the Member States of the European Union. Based on the analysis, it is argued that an important distinction needs to be made between campaign effort and campaign goals, with electoral institutional factors having a more significant role over the latter.     

论护国运动中的联邦主义

在护国军政府中,无论是欧事研究会,还是进步党和西南地方实力派,都有联邦主义诉求,这使得护国运动具有强烈的联邦主义色彩。联邦主义的出现,既有其一定的思想基础,又有浓厚的工具主义色彩。随着护国运动的结束,联邦主义逐渐沉寂。20世纪20年代初,在中国空前分裂的特殊格局下,联邦主义又演变为声势浩大的联省自治思潮和运动。     

“微改革”对宣贯群众路线的作用

群众路线教育实践活动取得了重要的阶段性成果,在未来教育活动中,要着力解决人民群众最关心、最直接、最现实的民生问题。微改革,即从细微之处研究能够解决实际问题的改进办法,一点一滴地推出改革举措。微改革利于保持先进纯洁党性,利于弘扬为民务实清廉,利于提高群众工作能力,利于解决强烈突出问题,在走群众路线的道路上将起着非常重要的作用。     

我国视损伤残疾评定标准问题研究

视损伤评价是制定视损伤残疾标准、统一标准适用的基础。由于基本问题缺乏界定与研究,导致我国残疾标准制定困难、理解适用混乱,影响了鉴定意见的科学性。应解决视功能含义、确定视残疾与个体残疾的关系、拣选检验指标、开展视残疾生存质量调查和一体评价视损伤等主要问题,加强残疾理论与法学、临床医学等其他学科的交叉研究,建立适合我国社会发展需求的残疾评价体系,促进残疾评定的科学化和标准化。     

How to Win the UK Referendum on the European Constitution

Opinion polls suggest the UK Government faces an uphill task in winning the forthcoming referendum on the European Constitutional Treaty. This article provides a detailed analysis of the factors that are likely to decide the referendum outcome. Using recent survey data, we analyze the factors that influence individual-level support for the Constitutional Treaty. These results show that it is not only general attitudes towards European integration which are likely to play an important role, but also partisanship and satisfaction with the government. Given the low levels of information about the Constitution and the large number of undecided voters, the campaign itself will be crucial to the outcome. We argue that while information alone will not necessarily persuade voters, a successful campaign strategy by the yes-camp could make a decisive difference by motivating and informing voters, as well as setting the agenda for the debate.     

论“民主”反腐的机制与机率探析

推进党的反腐败工作和反腐倡廉建设,必须将民主理念和民主手段引入其中,将民主提升为惩防腐败的新治本之策,着力建立健全＂教育、制度、监督、民主＂并重的惩治预防腐败体系。这就必须切实关注＂民主＂惩治预防腐败的机制与＂民主＂惩治预防腐败的机率。     

Greek Political Marketing Online

Abstract

The new communication system of interconnected computer networks is altering the nature of political communication in many innovative and significant ways. In Greece, the development of the Internet as a mass communication medium has a history of no more than five years, and it is far from being a fully fledged medium of political communication. With the exception of relatively few cases, the use of the Internet has been shown to increase during the pre-election campaign periods. This paper presents the results of a research project, which explores the personal Web sites of the Greek parliamentarians in an off-campaign period. The research was conducted through the systematic observation, examination, and analysis of a sample of personal Web pages owned by cross-party elected members of the Greek Parliament.     

Going Negative

SUMMARY

In this paper we explore the relationship between candidate attack messages and news coverage during the earliest stages of the presidential nomination process. How effective are attack messages in generating media coverage? Are certain types of negative content more likely to gain coverage? Using data from the 1996 Republican presidential nomination campaign, we examine the candidate press releases that issued an attack on an opponent and the subsequent news coverage linked to it. We find that while candidates are more than willing to go negative even during the early stages of the campaign, these negative messages are no more or no less likely to generate press coverage during the early months of the presidential nomination campaign than are other types of candidate messages.