Regulating Lobbyists: A Comparative Analysis of the United States, Canada, Germany and the European Union

Lobbying is central to the democratic process. Yet, only four political systems have lobbying regulations: the United States, Canada, Germany and the EU (most particularly, the European Parliament). Despite the many works offering individual country analysis of lobbying legislation, a twofold void exists in the literature. Firstly, no study has offered a comparative analysis classifying the laws in these four political systems, which would improve understanding of the different regulatory environments. Secondly, few studies have analysed the views of key agents—politicians, lobbyists and regulators—and how these compare and contrast across regulatory environments.
We firstly utilise an index measuring how strong the regulations are in each of the systems, and develop a classification scheme for the different 'ideal' types of regulatory environment. Secondly, we measure the opinions of political actors, interest groups and regulators in all four systems (through questionnaires and elite interviews) and see what correlations, if any, exist between the different ideal types of system and their opinions. The conclusion highlights our findings, and the lessons that can be used by policy-makers in systems without lobbying legislation.     

利益衡量在税法中的应用——以个人所得税为视角

利益衡量是指对发生冲突的各种利益进行估量后,考虑应置重于哪一方利益的一种思考方式。在税收领域,国家与纳税人、纳税人与纳税人、追求社会利益最大化与维护私人财产权以及税法与其他法律之间冲突的协调是税法的重要课题。广泛的利益冲突为利益衡量在税法中的应用提供了契机,利益衡量为探讨税法中各利益主体之间利益的平衡协调提供了一种方法。     

侵犯商业秘密罪若干问题探析

自1997年刑法颁布以来,对商业秘密基本上形成了以民法保护为主、刑法保护为辅的法律保护格局,但是理论上和实践中均有一些争议和问题。侵犯商业秘密罪的主观罪过不应当包括过失,“重大损失”是一个比较抽象的概念,有必要通过司法解释予以明确,刑罚设置应当增加资格刑,罚金刑应优先,要明确罚金数额。     

公安信息用户群体需求研究

用户需求是信息系统发展的动力 ,研究用户的群体需求对促进我国正在建设中的公安信息系统的完善 ,加强公安机关同人民群众的联系和促进现代法制理念的传播具有重要的意义。目前我国公安信息系统主要有公安业务用户群体、研究用户群体、决策用户群体、教育训练用户群体、群众用户群体 ,他们对公安信息需求的内容不同 ,也各自有不同的特点。因此公安信息系统的建设 ,要贯彻从实际出发 ,不断满足各类群体的需求 ,争取更大的生存和发展空间。     

公共政策中的集团决策模型及在我国的适应性

如何制定出科学有效的、反映各方面利益并为社会所普遍认同的公共政策,是所有现代政府所面临的基本问题以及获得政治合法性的关键所在。通过描述社会政治现象,分析政府行为,探讨集团决策模型的起源、基本内容、主要缺陷及其在我国现实政治中的发展等问题,建立起公共政策决策中的集团决策模型的基本理念和分析框架,可为我国公共政策决策的科学化和民主化提供有益的思路。     

Sleaze or clear blue water?: the evolution of corporate and pressure group representation at the major UK party conferences

There has been growing academic and public interest in corporate political lobbying in both the UK and EU in recent years. In Britain, links between politicians and commercial interests have been one of the areas examined by the Committee on Standards in Public Life (‘the Nolan Committee’ and now ‘the Neill Committee’). A visible but under‐researched aspect of political lobbying by firms and other groups is the range of activities that take place at annual party conferences. An exhaustive study of these activities at the three main British party conferences between 1994–97 is reported, covering the period from Tony Blair's first appearance as party leader to the aftermath of the 1997 General Election. There is clear growth of visible lobbying, particularly at the Labour conferences, over the period leading up to the election, and a dropping off in 1997; particularly at the Conservative conference. The implications of the results for organisations, and particularly for public affairs practitioners, are considered. Copyright © 2002 Henry Stewart Publications     

中国少数民族传统家庭中夫妻关系模式的比较研究

本文运用跨文化的比较研究方法 ,对中国少数民族传统父系家庭、母系家庭和母系父系并存家庭中夫妻的权利与地位进行比较研究。认为在父权家长制家庭中 ,男尊女卑的社会性别歧视表现在家庭生活的诸多方面。但部分父系家庭在特定条件下也有妻子当家长 ,拥有较多家政权 ,掌握经济权利 ,以及男女平等的现象。在母系家庭中普遍是妇女当家长 ,并在家庭中占有较高的地位。而在母系父系并存家庭中 ,则夫妻均可担任家长 ,家庭关系比较平等。文章最后分析了影响不同少数民族传统家庭中夫妻关系模式的多种因素 ,并对某些西方学者认为的单一经济因素作用论提出了批评     

On the Robustness and Validity of Groups

In response to Nagin's comment on our paper, Methodological Sensitivities to Latent Class Analysis of Long-Term Criminal Trajectories, we reconsider the robustness and validity of group-based approaches to criminal trajectories and introduce additional issues for future research. We emphasize the limitations of typological approaches and the dangers of reifying the idea of distinct offender groupings for research and policy. We also clarify misunderstandings about the use of hierarchical linear models for studying trajectories of crime. Our basic conclusion is that methods in criminology need to be more tightly linked with theory.     

谨慎地看待法律职业化

法律职业化是国家法治化的内在要求。从历史考察和理性分析的视角来看 ,现代社会中的法律职业阶层首先是一个利益集团 ,其次才是一种“职业” ,是一个知识、思维方式和信仰共享的共同体。因此 ,在我们积极主张和推动法律职业化发展的同时 ,也应当看到职业集团与生具有的利己本能 ,在法律职业阶层同样根深蒂固。如果没有社会不同分工的普遍职业化以及法律职业本身对集团利益的超越 ,我们就有理由对法律职业化持一种谨慎的态度。