Electoral colorism: Candidate skin color and list placement in Ecuador

To what extent does candidate skin color influence party list placement in proportional representation systems? While candidate skin color is increasingly understood to play an important role in politics, the extent to which it shapes electoral opportunities and outcomes remains unclear. In this paper, we investigate whether party elites in list proportional representation systems place darker-skinned candidates in lower, less advantageous list positions than their lighter-skinned copartisans. Drawing on party lists from Ecuador’s 2021 National Assembly elections and an original measure of candidate skin color, we find evidence that candidate skin color is a significant determinant of list placement. This finding indicates that party lists reinforce color-based inequalities in political representation and reveals that a candidate’s skin color shapes their chances of winning elected office.     

网络传播对青年民警思想政治工作影响的新思考

网络正在以巨大的信息容量和快速同步的传幅方式对社会、经济、政治、文化等诸多领域造成影响。网络具有散布性、全球性、开放性、即时性、综合性等特点,也给新时期青年民警思政工作带来难得的机遇和严峻的挑战。利用网络的特性,以“网络政工”为触手,发挥技术优势,采用灵活多样的手段,可以提高青年民警政治思想工作的科技含量。遵从网络发展客观规律,从科技化、信息化和建立现代队伍管理制度的高度出发,以建设精干、高效政工队伍为理念,可以造就出符合时代特点的新型政工网络。     

Understanding Political Knowledge and its Influence on Voting Preferences in the 2007 Federal Election

In this article we propose a model to explain how voters’ perceptions of their ideological proximity to a party affect their propensity to vote for that party. We argue that political knowledge plays a crucial moderating role in the relationship between party proximity and voting propensity. It is necessary, however, to distinguish between institutional knowledge (information about the political system) and party knowledge (information about the parties’ left–right positions). An analysis of survey data from the 2007 Swiss federal elections supports our main hypothesis that party knowledge enhances the link between party proximity and voting propensity. Institutional knowledge may have additional influence, but clear evidence for this effect was obtained only for propensities to vote for the Swiss People's Party (SVP). Overall, the impact of political knowledge was found to be substantial, even after controlling for the outstanding influence of party identification and other predictors of voting propensities.     

新型政党制度所蕴含的中国智慧

中国共产党领导的多党合作和政治协商制度是从中国土壤中生长出来的新型政党制度,充分汲取了中国传统民本智慧、和合智慧、包容智慧,展现出了无与伦比的内在优越性,实现了群众根本利益与群体特殊利益的有机统一、实现了政党关系的非对称性和谐、实现了通过政党协商进行科学民主决策、实现了集中力量办大事,从而克服了垄断型一党制和竞争型两党制、多党制的固有弊端。作为和谐型多党制的新型政党制度充分展现了中国智慧,为世界政党制度发展与进步提供了新方向和新选择。     

两岸政治定位的瓶颈

面对破解＂两岸政治定位＂这一难题,两岸学者都做出了努力。本文探讨双方已有的共识与分歧,并重点分析两个最受关注的方案———台湾学者张亚中的＂一中三宪论＂与大陆学者刘国深的＂球体理论＂。研究发现台湾学者始终坚持＂中华民国是主权国家＂的底线,而大陆学者则在如何面对＂中华民国＂问题上前进了一步。本文认为＂是否敢于突破底线＂与＂是否存在解决难题的意愿＂是两岸政治定位问题的两个瓶颈,希望两岸学者在现有基础上继续前进,不要后退,坦诚交流,共同建构两岸和平发展的理论框架,寻求更多更好的解决方案。     

重庆警察学院“院局共育”的特色路径探究

以重庆警察学院为例,从区域特色、师资特色、专业特色和实训特色四个方面探究重庆警察学院院局共育的特色路径。研究结果认为重庆警察学院在特色路径的探索过程中立足地方需要,凸显区域特色,创新师资建设,彰显师资特色,设置前沿专业,突出专业特色,利用实战平台,强化实训特色,构成了重庆警察学院四位一体的教育新机制。     

Party competition and citizens' political attitudes in the American states

Democratic theorists argue that vigorous competition between candidates/parties is essential for democracy to flourish because it engages citizens' political interest and ultimately makes elected officials more accountable to their constituents. Using data on citizens' perceptions of government responsiveness to their political opinions from the American National Election Studies and the Ranney measure of party competition for control of state government, we examine the effects of competition on citizens' political attitudes from 1952 to 2008. Our analysis reveals that citizens feel government is more responsive to them when there is greater competition between the two parties for control of government in their state. However, this relationship is confined only to citizens who identify with the party that controls government in their state. We also find that the relationship between competition and efficacy is strongest among citizens with lower levels of education and income. These results suggest that vigorous competition for control of state government can have important implications for citizens' political attitudes.     

Elections as a democratic linkage mechanism: How elections boost political trust in a proportional system

Elections offer a privileged moment in representative democracy, when citizens have the opportunity to express their views, both on the track record of the incumbent government, as on the way the country should be governed in the future. Procedural fairness theory assumes that taking part in a decision making procedure that is perceived to be fair, strengthens the legitimacy of the entire process. Most of the empirical research assumes that the attitudinal effects of elections are mainly due to the fact that one's preferred party wins the elections. In multi-party systems, however, such a clear distinction is not always possible and therefore it is hypothesized that the winner-loser-logic is weaker in this kind of party system. In this study we rely on a unique Belgian panel study to ascertain how electoral participation has an effect on political trust. The results show that in a proportional system all voters rise in political trust following their participation in elections. The winner-loser effect is not significant. Furthermore, the analyses suggest that especially the respondents with the initially lowest trust levels gain most by participating in elections. The theoretical implication of this finding is that apparently elections are still considered to be an important and legitimate linkage mechanism between citizens and the political system.     

EU Simulations and Engagement: Motivating Greater Interest in European Union Politics

While the effects of simulation-based courses on the knowledge of participating students may be marginal in relation to standard lecture and discussion-based courses, this article argues that the greatest leverage is gained by increasing participating students’ level of interest in the subject of study and in politics more broadly. Participants tend to become increasingly absorbed in their roles and in the politics of the institutions at the center of the simulation. To better consider this possibility, we conducted a survey of students participating in the 2015 Mid-Atlantic European Union Simulation and of appropriate control populations. The survey results indeed suggest that, much more than simply acquiring knowledge about the EU, the simulation experience serves to generate more robust interest in the subject of study.     

论弗朗西斯科·圭恰迪尼的政治思想

弗朗西斯科.圭恰迪尼(Francesco Guicciardini,1483-1540)是意大利文艺复兴时期最伟大的历史学家和政治思想家之一。对于与圭恰迪尼同时代的马基雅维里,西方学界的研究成果可谓硕果累累,国内学界对马基雅维里的研究也取得了丰富的成果,各类论文专著相继面世。然而与这种状况相比,对圭恰迪尼的研究则显得较为薄弱。然而随着共和主义思想的复兴,圭恰迪尼对于研究当代共和主义的思想来源的重要性已经得到重视。除此之外,圭恰迪尼的分权制衡思想,政治现实主义思想以及诸如国家理性这样的重要政治词汇的提出,对后世政治思想的演进也有很大的启迪性。