‘Just Thinking:’ Attitude Development,Public Opinion,and Political Representation

The role of public opinion polls in electoral democracy is undeniable because, for good or for bad, they affect, in part, the kinds of laws and policies elected officials enact. But the voices measured in polls are not perfectly representative of their populations of interest. More precisely, polls generally sing with a more “knowledgeable” accent than those they represent because of the greater tendency of the less knowledgeable to remain silent. This distortion, however, can be palliated by providing conditions more propitious to attitude development. By relying on survey-experiments conducted in Brazil and in the U.S., I present evidence that inducing people to think more carefully before answering attitude questions reduces substantially the likelihood of the less knowledgeable, which compose most of the Brazilian and American populations, to express a nonopinion response. Thus providing people with greater opportunity to think about politics—something most of them do not do very frequently—makes for more representative measures of public opinion. But the analyses also suggest that increased thought induces greater uncertainty or ambivalence among the most knowledgeable. As a whole, this paper improves our understanding on how people come to develop political attitudes and on the conditions that lead to greater attitude uncertainty or ambivalence. It also carries important lessons and implications for survey design more generally.

Three-Fifths a Racist: A Typology for Analyzing Public Opinion About Race

Is race politics primarily about symbolic racism, principled conservatism, or group conflict? After almost three decades, this debate among some of our best scholars seems scarcely closer to resolution, yet the theoretical, empirical, and normative issues at stake remain enormous. All three parties to the debate falsely assume that the causal structure driving opinion about race policy is homogenous. I reorient and advance the debate by showing how a methodological shift to a data-driven taxonomy of subjects can elucidate how race politics really is complex. I use this taxonomy to run new analyses, and to explain and assess the seemingly contradictory results of previous contributions to the debate. Each of the major parties to the debate is partially right in their account of public opinion about race politics, but about independently identifiable sub-sets of subjects.     

中国公共卫生财政资源分配公平性研究——基于社会剥夺的视角

"社会剥夺"是社会心理学的重要概念体系,本研究旨在基于社会剥夺的视角,对中国公共卫生财政分配的公平性及其公平性缺口进行定量评估.研究发现中国大部分西部和中部地区比多数东部地区具有较高的社会剥夺水平;较高社会剥夺水平的地区,其居民健康需求也较高;中国公共卫生财政资源地区间分布的公平性较差且部分地区公平性缺口较大;但公平性有逐年变好的趋势,这主要归功于政府对人均投入均等化的关注而并非对居民健康需求差异的关注.建议在新一轮医改中,政府应对公共卫生服务的"均等化"准确定位;应逐步建立以需求为导向的平等可及的转移支付机制,重点关注农业人口比重较大的地区,优先支持公平性缺口较大的地区;尽早开发科学有效的财政资源分配工具等.     

公共事业民营化改革的认识误区及观念重构

公共事业民营化改革是我国公共部门改革中最为引人注意的一项变革,但是,实践表明部分公共事业民营化改革是不成功的,究其原因当然是多方面的,但其主要原因是人们对民营化改革存在认识误区——秉持民营化改革的成效取决于产权的变更,民营化改革的价值取向是效率至上,民营化是包治百病的灵丹妙药,民营化就是私有化等错误观念.公共事业民营化改革欲取得更好的成效,必须走出传统的认识误区,进行观念重构,要深刻地认识到:公共事业民营化改革成功的关键在于引入竞争;公共事业民营化改革不但蕴涵着公共价值危机,而且面临着严峻的风险;公共事业民营化改革需要一个强有力的政府来实施有效的监管.     

城市拆迁中的利益冲突与公共利益界定——方法与路径

对城市拆迁中公共利益的内涵、特征进行了重新梳理和辨析,在此基础上,探讨城市拆迁中公共利益的界定方法及界定路径,为城市房屋拆迁中公共利益实体界定的重复性问题和程序界定的虚化性问题提出了解决方案.研究认为,在我国城市拆迁中,公共利益缺乏制度层面的明确界定是城市拆迁中的利益冲突和产生拆迁纠纷的原因,表现在强制拆迁和在补偿安置问题上的对抗;基于城市拆迁中公共利益的性质和基本特征,需要综合运用逻辑演绎、要素甄别以及排除法来界定城市拆迁公共利益,并必须同时遵循形式上的程序判断路径和实质上的内容判断路径.     

新加坡网络内容管理的经验及启示

新加坡作为世界网络互联程度最高的国家之一,在网络内容管理方面采取“三管齐下”的方针,一是实施轻触式管理制度,二是鼓励行业自律,三是加强公众教育,提高网络安全意识。近年来,随着网络应用的日益广泛,新加坡出台了《分类许可证制度》、《互联网操作规则》和《垃圾邮件控制法案》等政策法规以完善其网络管理。新加坡网络内容管理既实行严格的法律制度,也实行价值观宣传等柔性管理政策。新加坡相关政策的制定不仅符合其本国历史文化及发展实践,还随着网络的广泛应用以及政府的重视而日益完善,其成功经验值得学习和借鉴。     

Does Public Spending Improve Citizens’ Quality of Life? An Analysis of Municipalities’ Leisure Supply

This paper offers new evidence regarding the impact of public spending on the supply of leisure services on citizens’ spare-time quality of life. Using data from 103 Italian capital municipalities covering the period 2007–2010, the analysis revealed that public spending on leisure impacted spare-time quality of life in various ways, depending on the category of spending. Spending for tourism essentially followed an upward path, linearly enhancing citizens’ spare-time quality of life. Surprisingly, municipalities’ spending on sport- and culture-related services had a non-linear impact. Hence, spending on sports within a maximum threshold reveals a positive impact on spare-time quality of life, whereas passing over a minimum level of public spending for culture-related projects had a positive effect. This paper provides helpful suggestions for policymakers who approach decisions that address whether it is worth spending on leisure, which is typically a non-basic need but one that must be properly satisfied by municipalities in today’s service-based society.     

Attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in Asia and the Pacific: a quantitative assessment of current theoretical models beyond western countries

This article empirically assesses the validity of current theoretical models of attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the Asia-Pacific region. This paper takes representative data from the World Values Survey and implements a multilevel model to test five of the main theories in the literature: the human capital theory, the social capital theory, the political orientation theory, the contact/group threat theory and the economic competition theory. The results from the analysis lend credence to the important effects of human capital, social capital and political-ideological variables on respondents’ attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy. However, the results provide mixed and weak evidence for the contact/group threat theory and the role of economic determinants. Importantly, economic determinants tend to be more powerful in shaping people's attitudes toward immigration policy than shaping attitudes toward immigrants as people. Altogether, this article sheds new light on the validity of current theoretical models based on western countries for other areas of the world. Finally, the results from the paper also support the usefulness of non-economic, as opposed to purely economic, models in the understanding of individuals’ attitudes toward immigrants and immigration policy in the Asia-Pacific region.     

Public–private partnerships (PPPs) in local services: risk-sharing and private delivery of water services in Spain

Local governments are increasingly utilising the public–private partnership (PPP) model as a means of organising service delivery in the public–private domain. This article examines the experiences with construction and operation of 131 PPP wastewater treatment plants in the region of Aragon, Spain. The study highlights how an inadequate management of construction risk and unsuitable transfer of demand and revenue risk resulted in significant time delays in execution of the PPP projects. The research also shows how the involvement of public bodies at local, regional and national level further added to the complexity of implementing the projects. The findings contribute to the literature on local service delivery and provide insights regarding risk transfer in long-term PPP contracts for the delivery of local services in general and water services in particular.     

Power and Public Chambers in the development of civil society in Russia

Embodying a state vision of how civil society ought to function and be designed by the authorities, Public Chambers in Russia have been criticized as means of state control. This state dominance is the starting point in this article, which asks what room to manoeuvre a regional Public Chamber has. Drawing upon fieldwork this article examines how members and local observers of the Public Chamber give meaning to this activity. The analysis assesses the role of state dominance, discussion of routines and responses to local demands, and concludes that these incremental developments form civil society in Russia.