Clarity of responsibility and foreign policy performance voting

Do voters’ assessments of the government's foreign policy performance influence their vote intentions? Does the ‘clarity of responsibility’ in government moderate this relationship? Existing research on the United States demonstrates that the electorate's foreign policy evaluations influence voting behaviour. Whether a similar relationship exists across the advanced democracies in Europe remains understudied, as does the role of domestic political institutions that might generate responsibility diffusion and dampen the effect of foreign policy evaluations on vote choice. Using the attitudinal measures of performance from the 2011 Transatlantic Trends survey collected across 13 European countries, these questions are answered in this study through testing on incumbent vote the diffusion‐inducing effects of five key domestic factors frequently used in the foreign policy analysis literature. Multilevel regression analyses conclude that the electorate's ability to assign punishment decreases at higher levels of responsibility diffusion, allowing policy makers to circumvent the electoral costs of unpopular foreign policy. Specifically, coalition governments, semi‐presidential systems, ideological dispersion among the governing parties and the diverse allocation of the prime ministerial and foreign policy portfolios generate diffusion, dampening the negative effects of foreign policy disapproval on vote choice. This article contributes not only to the debate on the role of foreign policy in electoral politics, but also illustrates the consequential effects of domestic institutions on this relationship.     

Choosing to be political: some reflections on youth activism in the US

This article explores youth activism in the US, not through the lens of collective action, but as the product of personal choices. By drawing on existentialism, and particularly on the work of Jean-Paul Sartre, this article proposes to shift the focus of the debate from youths’ collective action to the self – a conscious self that observes, perceives and makes sense of the surrounding world through personal experience. It is this conscious self that decides how, and whether, to intervene against the ‘wrong’ that the self experiences. In this perspective, it is not only the acts (of citizenship) that matter, but the conscious process through which the self chooses to become political. Such an understanding will ultimately help uncover not only how the undocumented act and how to conceptualise their acts but also how they perceive and experience their current status and who they want to become.     

Multinationals as global institution: Power,authority and relative autonomy

This article aims to inform the long‐standing and unresolved debate between voluntary corporate social responsibility and initiatives to impose binding legal obligations on multinational enterprises. The two approaches share a common feature: neither can fully specify its own scope conditions, that is, how much of the people and planet agenda either can expect to deliver. The reason they share this feature is also the same: neither is based on a foundational political analysis of the multinational enterprise in the context of global governance. Such an analysis is essential for providing background to and perspective on what either approach can hope to achieve, and how. This article begins to bridge the gap by illustrating aspects of the political power, authority, and relative autonomy of the contemporary multinational enterprise. The conclusion spells out some implications for the debate itself, and for further research.     

美日安全合作:从地区走向全球

美日同盟是美国维持亚太秩序的重要基石,也是日本外交政策的基轴,随着中国的崛起,美日双方已然意识到原有的同盟框架难以应对来自中国的挑战。为此,美日通过制订新的《美日防卫合作指针》,强化美日同盟,加强双方在全球范围内的安全合作。然而,美日安全合作同时也面临着质疑与否定,在美日两国内,长期以来一直存在着对美日同盟的争论。未来美日安全合作将如何发展,不仅取决于日本的安全感知,更取决于美国在国内国际新形势下将会采取的战略。由于美国新任总统特朗普一以贯之的对日负面认知,使得日本政府和国民对于特朗普的对日政策不抱期待。然而,特朗普上台后并不会撤走驻日美军,更不会让美日同盟解体,同时,商人出身的特朗普并不反对自由贸易,其反对的是无法贯彻其意志的自由贸易。因此,在特朗普总统任期中,其特有的个性和自信,将会使未来美国的对日政策打上"特式"烙印,这为美日关系的发展增加了许多不确定因素,美日同盟可能面临新的危机。     

地方政府环境责任冲突及其化解

地方政府具有三种环境责任:政治责任、行政责任和法律责任。地方政府的环境政治责任和行政责任之间、行政责任内部存在冲突,其本质是国家利益和地方利益的矛盾以及地方环境利益和地方经济利益的矛盾。化解地方政府各种责任形式之间的冲突,应该从两个方面着手:贯彻地方政府的法律责任和对地方政府进行诱导刺激。     

Responsibility Determination: Free Will and Legal Responsibility in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

Free will is the foundation of determination of responsibility. Genetic enginnering represented by technologies of gene editing, artificial medical devices and AI have fundamentally challenged the concept of free will and so have significantly influenced determination of legal responsibility. These challenges are fundamental, not instrumental, and can be divided into two aspects in legal philosophy. First, the direct challenge, that is, the emerging technology represented by genetic engineering and artificial narrow intelligence (ANI) has challenged the concept of free will. Second the would-be ultimate challenge, that is, presented by an artificial general intelligence (AGI) agent that is considered to reach humanlevel free will, can be a legal subject, thus taking full legal responsibility. The direct challenge constitutes a new “forgiveness” condition for taking responsibility. The would-be ultimate challenge deserves significant attention, because the concept of free will is not only about human responsibility, but also about human dignity.     

人身侵权责任相关问题研究

早期社会人身侵权的公法与私法救济的界限相对模糊,随着社会的发展,人身侵权责任在公法与私法的配置上发生分离,两者相互影响并指导司法实践.人身损害行为带来的损害赔偿责任分为人格利益补偿与财产性利益的补偿.人格利益包括生命利益与人身健康权利,财产性利益的补偿可以分为积极利益的补偿与预期利益的补偿.而根据我国当前国情,在司法实...     

Is China Headed for a Debt Crisis?

正AS local government debts pile up,there are concerns about the effects on the Chinese and world economy.To evaluate the risk posed by such debts,the State Council in 2011 and 2013 instructed the National Audit Off ice to comprehensively examine the debt status of regional government bodies.The two audits–one     

贵州省国有企业履行社会责任的展望和思考

工业强省战略实施以来，工业企业总体发展态势趋好，贵州众多国有企业纷纷投身社会责任实践，在责任意识、理论发展和实践效果上实现了“三个突破”，呈现出企业责任意识持续增强，利益相关方满意度持续增加，社会期望值持续增高和履责环境持续优化“三增一优”的阶段性特征。企业主动履责、政府引导激励、行业全力助推、社会共同参与“四位一体”的良好势头逐渐形成。     

论刑法中原因自由行为之责任基础

＂原因自由行为＂是现代刑法学的一大课题。虽然现今刑法理论通说均已承认它属于具有可罚性的一种犯罪行为类型,然而,依据责任主义的一般规律,无责任则无犯罪。如果认定原因自由行为具有可罚性,那么,主张原因自由行为不适用无责任能力或限制责任能力之规定的理论依据又何在？笔者从分析原因自由行为与责任主义的冲突与调和路径入手提出原因自由行为的责任基础。