Institutional determinants of invalid voting in post-communist Europe and Latin America

Implications from three theoretical models explaining the incidence of invalid voting are tested using data from all presidential elections in post-communist and Latin American democracies. Institutions such as the rule governing the possibility of reelection, compulsory voting, the rule for electing presidents, and the concurrence of elections, all powerfully shape the incidence of invalid voting. The article utilizes an interactive framework which implies that the effect of electoral rules is strongly conditioned by features of political competition. Although there is evidence consistent both with the voter error and protest models of invalid voting, most of the variation in invalid voting rates is explicable by the stakes associated with casting a valid as opposed to an invalid ballot.     

Trading old errors for new errors? The impact of electronic voting technology on party label votes in Brazil

In the mid-1990s, Brazil introduced electronic voting technology that reduced residual ballots and consequently expanded de facto enfranchisement. We employ a regression discontinuity design similar to that of previous studies of the Brazilian electronic voting technology to show that electronic technology also caused a sharp rise in party label votes (votos de legenda) that can only be explained by voting error. We show that this error offsets a large portion of the gains in enfranchisement, highlighting the fact that even generally positive changes in voting procedures can have negative effects. Our results also suggest that party label votes should not be considered a measure of party strength in the Brazilian context.     

Winning the ‘losers’ but losing the ‘winners’? The electoral consequences of the radical right moving to the economic left

Voters with lower socio-economic status are now consistently overrepresented among the radical right electorate. According to the ‘new winning formula’, many radical right parties increasingly move to the left on socio-economic issues to cater to these voters. This study tests a crucial assumption underlying this formula: whether radical right parties with socio-economically left-leaning positions actually attract more working class voters. By mapping class characteristics of the electorate of 10 radical right parties at three time points (based on surveys) against these parties' positions on the economic dimension (according to experts), this study shows that the ‘class gap’ - the extent to which class indicators predict voters' propensity to vote for the radical right - is significantly larger for socio-economically leftwing parties.     

Stakeholder citizenship: the complexities of Polish migrants’ citizenship attachments in the context of the Scottish independence referendum

This article focuses on the experiences of Scotland’s largest foreign-born minority group, namely Poles, in the run-up to the Scottish independence referendum in 2014. We draw on 20 in-depth interviews to explore our participants’ intentions and justifications for voting (or not) in the referendum. We found that our participants tended to emphasise the jus domicili principle when justifying their eligibility to vote in the referendum. However, our participants extended the jus domicili principle in their justifications to also include the intention to stay in Scotland as a central aspect of their continuing stake in (and right to vote in the referendum to determine) Scotland’s future. Through exploring our participants’ justifications for voting in the referendum, we were able to examine and better understand how migrants constitute their citizenship through articulating their substantive attachments (social, economic and relational or familial) in their adoptive country and in their country of origin.     

我国举证时效制度之检讨

举证时效制度乃指民事诉讼当事人的举证行为须在规定之期限内完成,若当事人怠于举证将会受到证据失权或费用制裁之惩罚的一项证据规则。其制裁方式主要有二：证据失权与费用制裁,若当事人因故意或重大过失导致举证逾期其可能承担证据失权之后果;若当事人因轻微过失导致逾期,需承担费用之不利益。周全的审前准备程序和答辩失权规则是其存在的基础,完善审前程序与建立答辩失权制度是我国举证时效制度充分发挥效用的保证。     

The Private Interests of Public Officials: Financial Regulation in the US Congress

Legislators' private financial holdings affect policy decisions. Due to financial self‐interest, we theorize that legislators whose personal investment portfolios include equities from firms affected by proposed policies vote for legislation that benefits those firms. We also theorize that legislators with greater personal exposure to equity investments support policies that benefit equities markets generally. We create a novel data set of legislators' personal stock investments and examine major congressional actions since the 1990s on financial deregulation and market intervention. US House members who own stocks in firms who benefit from financial deregulation vote for deregulation. House members with greater exposure to financial and automotive stocks support the financial and auto bailouts, respectively. General exposure to equities markets is also associated with support for key legislation boosting markets. The normative implications are significant, as legislators' private interests influence decisions in the public sphere.     

Multi-level voting and party competition in vertically simultaneous elections: the case of Ukraine

Vertically simultaneous elections to state-wide and regional legislatures provide us with a naturally occurring experiment in which to examine regionalism and multi-level voting. We examine the 2006 vertically and horizontally simultaneous state-wide and regional elections in Ukraine to determine how the internal dynamics of regionalism within a state account for the dissimilarity of voting behavior across electoral levels. Drawing on the party competition literature, we demonstrate that variations in both supply (parties) and demand (voters) produce considerable dissimilarity between regional and state results, with lower levels of consolidation and greater fractionalization at the regional level. We show that political cleavages operate differently across levels, that regional distinctiveness rather than regional authority better predicts first order-ness in regional elections, and that voters display varying tolerance for polarization at the regional and state level.     

Perceptions of blind proficiency testing among latent print examiners

In recent years, scholars have levied multiple criticisms against traditional proficiency testing procedures in forensic laboratories. Consequently, on several occasions, authorities have formally recommended that laboratories implement blind proficiency testing procedures. Implementation has been slow, but laboratory management has increasingly expressed interest in initiating blind testing in at least some forensic disciplines, with some laboratories conducting blind testing in almost all disciplines. However, little is known about how a key population perceives blind proficiency testing, i.e., forensic examiners. We surveyed active latent print examiners (N = 338) to explore perceptions of blind proficiency testing and determine whether beliefs varied between examiners who work for laboratories with and without blind proficiency testing. Results suggest that examiners do not hold particularly strong beliefs about such procedures, but that examiners who work in laboratories with blind proficiency testing procedures view them significantly more positively than those who do not. Further, examiner responses provide insight into potential obstacles to continued implementation.     

检察机关适用刑事和解的程序问题研究

刑事和解已经成为我国各地检察机关广为实践探索的刑事司法改革措施,但由于缺少法律依据,程序适用上的不协调问题比较严重。本文对检察机关在审查起诉、呈捕以及审判阶段如何适用刑事和解的程序问题进行了研究,并探完了如何防止刑事和解中滥用检察权的途径,以促进相关立法的完善以及刑事司法改革的顺利开展。