Democracies in crisis

The main contribution of this study is to identify democracies in the world that are at risk of becoming non-democracies. It is hypothesized that if democracies have a low level of legitimacy and have low effectiveness, they are at risk of becoming non-democratic regimes. These types of democracies are called weak democracies. Of the seven democracies that are identified as weak democracies between 2000 and 2010, the weakest of them, Mali, has already fallen. However, looking at the results of this study, it is not surprising that the democratic regime in Mali fell. The other six countries that are identified as weak democracies are Benin, Mongolia, Lesotho, El Salvador, Belize, and Mexico. The democratic regimes in these six weak democracies should be observed in more detail in the future to predict whether they are close to falling and losing their democratic institutions, or whether they will recover and no longer be weak democracies.     

党政合设、合署的历史演进、时代价值与实现路径——基于最佳性考量的视角

党政合设、合署的组织形式是我国党政机构改革的一项重要内容,也是一种具有中国特色的制度安排。从实践层面看,在其发展演进的历史脉络中,蕴含了追求效率的最佳性考量。但从理论层面看,传统的行政法理论尚不足以阐释党政合设、合署的实践。因此,从理论上也呼唤最佳性考量。将最佳性考量运用于党政合设、合署的实践具有鲜明的时代价值,有助于坚持党的领导,推进行政组织最佳设置;有助于贯彻党的意志,保证行政任务最佳履行;有助于落实党的宗旨,实现最佳行政法治建设。行政法在对党政合设、合署实践进行回应时需要运用最佳性考量,秉持中国立场,并贯彻于理论创新和制度完善,促进改革的推进。     

Playing in the sandbox: state building in the space of non-recognition

For unrecognised states in the international system recognition of sovereign statehood is the ultimate goal. Not being ‘a state’ means being excluded from global networks. However, even in the most basic definitions and criteria for unrecognised states there is a period of relative autonomy accorded due to non-recognition. This is a period when political actors can use isolation to establish the state’s narrative, identity and structure. It is this period that provides the foundations for external interaction. It is in this period that the state is born. This article examines another side to the politics of recognition: the politics of non-recognition. Drawing on the contemporary examples of Somaliland and Kurdistan, the article assesses the benefits as well as the costs of non-recognition.     

Assessing models of citizenship in the EU: the idea of responsive citizenship

There is an interesting debate about democracy and citizenship in the EU. Views diverge about the features of democratic deficits currently facing the EU and accordingly, about the scope for Union citizenship. The paper suggests an analytical distinction between asymmetric and symmetric normative models of dual – national and Union – citizenship. Moreover, it proposes an alternative model of dual citizenship that puts emphasis on the responsiveness of citizens vis-à-vis phenomena that undermine democratic governance and the claim for equal respect and concern. One of the main ideas of responsive citizenship is that effective democratic control should complement procedural legitimacy in the EU as a means to prevent phenomena of political domination and guardianship. This is possible through the combination of competences ascribed on citizens through national and Community legislation vis-à-vis national and Union executive bodies.     

法律论证的正当性标准

法律论证是寻求法治合法性的一种理论追求,它承载着一项重要的使命,即寻求达致司法公正,实现社会正义之方法。通过运用论证方法,实现个案裁判之公正,彰显法治之目标。实践中,由于论证理路之不同,如何把握论证正当性标准便产生了不同观点。颇具代表性的有逻辑有效性、可接受性、融贯性。但由于每一种标准都具有一定的适用场域,它们有的是程序正义中的标准,有的是实体正义中的标准。因此,任何一种标准都不能单独作为法律论证的正当性标准,应当把它们综合运用到法律论证当中去。     

民主政治下的为民之道——对政治、行政及其关系的一个分析

在现代化进程中,处理传统方式与现代方式之间的关系,更为合理的思路在于,在现代方式的主导下,容纳并发挥传统方式的长处,而不是相反。由此,就政治、行政及其关系而言,民主政治下的为民之道、价值主导下的治理逻辑、程序机制下的服务意识,应该成为中国政治和法律发展的一种可取方向。     

The Denial of Virtue

When a New York City man risked his own life to save a stranger on the subway tracks, the New York Times interpreted his behavior not in terms of virtue but as a product of certain ‘hard-wiring’ he happened to possess. In denying virtue, the Times followed a school of thought that is pervasive in social science (referred to in this paper as the ‘individualists’) who, for example, explain charitable donations by pointing out tax deductions, explain volunteer work by revealing the opportunities contained therein to meet other singles, and so on. Actually, the assumptions and arguments which ground this widespread ‘denial of virtue’ are both empirically and normatively flawed, and the theory itself is belied by data about people doing good for moral reasons. Evidence drawn from personal introspection, from empirical studies of human behavior, from analysis of voting as a civil act, from interpreting peoples’ reaction to Alzheimer’s disease, from critical inspection of the logic of ‘individualist’ social explanations, and from a normative criticism of the products of the ‘individualist’ approach all support a rejection of the ‘individualist’ approach. The deniers of virtue should heed the evidence and pay mind to the amoralizing consequences of their erroneous theories.

我国公共政策主体合法性危机的展呈、危害及其矫正

公共政策合法性危机的一个重要向度是政策主体危机。政策主体危机往往会带来降低公共政策威信的消极性后果。型塑和完善以政策决策主体为核心、参议主体和参与主体共同参与的多方位、多层次的合理的决策权力体系是消解政策主体合法危机的治理之道。     

物证收集的合法性问题

物证的收集是物证发挥证明作用的前提.物证的合法性实质上就是物证收集的合法性,它与具体的诉讼制度有关,并经由社会的变迁而改变.对物证以及物证鉴定中不可或缺的物证比对样本的收集以宽严相济的法律来规范,既有利于保障人权,也有利于案件的最终处理.     

Governance,Proceduralisation and Justice: Some Challenges to the Legal Paradigm

In 1989, Rudolf Wiethöltner alleged that we are witnessing a ‘failure of law’ in terms of its obligation to achieve ‘just law’. This paradox at the very heart of law – in essence, the impossibility of the realisation of legal justice twinned with the law's inability to cease trying to attain this goal – has been accommodated to a degree by the utilisation of a proceduralist paradigm that relies upon the contingency of governance, but this is now coming under renewed scrutiny. This article will put forward three arguments in this respect. The first section will argue that the turn to governance and the resultant procedural paradigm are both consequences of the ‘failure of law'; the second will point to the inherent weaknesses of the procedural paradigm that can be said to stem from this very failure; while the third will discuss some of the challenges issued to those still reliant upon the legal paradigm.