Gaughran vs the UK and public acceptability of forensic biometrics retention

This commentary provides a response to the European Court of Human Rights ruling in the case of Gaughran vs the United Kingdom on 13 February 2020. The Court ruled that the indefinite retention of DNA, fingerprints and facial images from all convicted adults was disproportionate. Using data from a survey on public attitudes, we examine the public acceptability of the police retention of forensic biometrics from the population.     

“放管服”改革的行政法意义及其完善

与先前行政审批制度改革相比,党的十八大以来大力推进的"放管服"改革更加强调权力调整的动态性、整体性、系统性,其对于优化政府职责、转变监管方式、深入推进国家治理体系和能力现代化具有明显的积极意义。但此轮"放管服"改革依然沿袭了行政审批制度改革的运动化、政策化思路,并不完全符合法治政府建设的基本要求。从职权法定、监管工具的动态调整、优化公共服务的基本法则三个方面,"放管服"改革的行政法意义和合法性风险可以得到更加清晰的呈现。要提升"放管服"改革的法治品性,需要以《行政许可法》的有效实施为核心,通过设立专门的社会化的"放管服"改革委员会、激活行政许可评价制度、引入更广泛的专家和社会参与、完善试验改革的授权制度、优化规制工具分析评价制度几个方面来实现。     

上海大型居住社区高质量发展的理论分析与政策探讨——基于上海市五个大型居住社区的经验调查

本文基于上海市五个大型居住社区(以下简称"大居")的问卷调查与实地走访,梳理了上海"大居"现有就业机会、服务资源的配置情况以及居民需求状况。调查显示,上海"大居"在社区商业设施配套、公共交通设施、文体娱乐活动、物业管理服务以及教育资源等公共服务配套方面仍存在供需失衡问题,尚不能满足居民更高层次的需求。因而,要通过加快优质公共服务资源的导入,扭转"大居"弱势群体集聚的薄弱态势,推动人口结构优化,带动市场化资源的注入,培育"大居"社区内生增长动力,将"大居"建成多阶层、多群体共荣共享的高品质社区。     

‘You Can't Always Get What You Want’: The effects of winning and losing in a referendum on citizens' referendum support

In Western democracies, many citizens support the use of referendums. However, as referendums create satisfying outcomes for citizens with majority views, they could generate ambivalent feelings among voters for the minority option. Little is known about the effects of winning or losing a referendum for citizens' referendum support. This article analyses multiple-wave survey data from five referendums in Bavaria (Germany), Finland and the Netherlands. The findings show that losers' referendum support decreases in nearly all cases, but there is very limited evidence for an increase of winners' referendum support. Nevertheless, the results clearly indicate a winner-loser gap, suggesting that referendums have relatively more positive effects for winners' than for losers' referendum support. As such, this article extends previous findings of the non-stability of referendum support. As the legitimacy of democratic institutions depends upon losers' consent, these findings have important implications for the democratic potential of referendums.     

Environmental Stressors and Food Security in China

This article considers the immediate forces influencing China’s food system and food security. By immediate is meant events of the reform period, from the late 1970s to 2008. It begins by asking the question that has preoccupied specialists since the publication of Lester Brown’s Who Will Feed China? in 1995: How much arable land does China have? Is that land area sufficient to insure grain sufficiency? To insure food security? The article focuses on the human pressures on the food production environment, and then treats the effects of socioeconomic change: land, air, and water degradation. The core of the article examines six responses of the state to both perceived and actual environmental stressors: policy restricting arable land conversion, China’s one-child policy, investment in irrigation systems, the South–North Water Diversion Project, large-scale afforestation and reforestation campaigns, and the program to convert marginal agricultural lands to forests and grasslands.     

Policy dynamics and the evolution of state charter school laws

Baumgartner and Jones (1993) showed how radically new policies emerge on government agendas as a consequence of exogenous shocks to policy subsystems displacing privileged interests. But how do these policies evolve post-punctuation? In this paper, we present three different models of policy change. Policies may revert to the old status quo if displaced interests re-assert themselves, or they may be “locked-in” by new interests now reaping the benefits. Alternatively, they may incrementally change as lawmakers “learn” how to better meet target population needs, particularly by witnessing how other jurisdictions address similar problems. We test these models with data on change in state charter schools laws over time. We find that whether old status quos are overthrow, and the fate of charter policies when they are enacted, is influenced more by competing political interests, especially interest groups, than elite and public perceptions of broad systemic crises. Yet, we also find that changing demands on the state and learning from the successes and failures of neighboring states also play significant roles.     

Revisiting the 'Responsibility to Protect'

The Declaration on 'the responsibility to protect' (R2P), unanimously endorsed by the Security Council in April 2006, identified both national and international responsibilities in relation to genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. This was highly significant in appearing to accept that the prevention of mass atrocities was a legitimate international concern. Subsequently, there has been some disappointment about the limited practical impact of R2P, and also anxiety that its progress may be impeded by the fear that it is designed to legitimise military intervention. However, this article concentrates on a different concern. Arguing that an earlier version of R2P (in the International Commission on Intervention and Sovereignty of 2001) linked the issues with those of human security and development, it suggests that the contemporary focus is far narrower, undermining its critical potential with regard to the policies of the global North and reducing its appeal to developing countries.     

Examining the Link Between Issue Attitudes and News Source: The Case of Latinos and Immigration Reform

This paper explores whether an individual’s news source can explain their attitudes on immigration. We focus on the Spanish-speaking population in the U.S., since they have the option of accessing their news in English, Spanish or in both languages. Our audience influence hypothesis predicts that Spanish-language news will cover immigration in a more positive and informative manner than will English-language news. Thus, Latinos who use Spanish-language news may have a higher likelihood of possessing pro-immigrant sentiments than Latinos who only use English-language news. Content analysis of Spanish and English-language television news segments reveals variations in the tone and substance of these news outlets. Analysis of Latino survey respondents indicates that immigration attitudes vary by news source. Generational status also influences Latinos’ immigration attitudes, though its impact is not as great as one’s news source.

青年的政策觉识与支持老年父母的关系:一项香港与上海的比较研究

这项研究探讨香港与上海两地青年的公共政策或社会责任、子孙或家庭责任、个人责任的觉识对其照顾、接纳和承担照顾父母的意愿的效应.研究结果显示:(1)对政府或社会的养老政策责任的觉识愈高者则照顾父母的意愿明显地愈高;然而,对老年人的自立生活具愈高的觉识者,其照顾父母的意愿却愈低;(2)对倡导尊敬老年人的觉识愈高和对老年人的自立生活的觉识愈低者,其接纳照顾父母的意愿愈高;(3)对政府责任的觉识愈高者和对个人责任的觉识愈低者,其承担照顾父母的意愿愈高.文章同时就倡导两地照顾或供养父母的政策启示进行讨论.     

Mayor short and the I.W.W. Agricultural workers

The following article analyzes the under-researched theme of Indian migration during indenture in British Guiana and Trinidad. It is understood that Indians were brought to the Caribbean under a series of restrictive colonial policies that stymied free movement. However, it is argued that some Indians resisted these very colonial regulations and exercised their individual right to migrate and subsequently dictate their own lives. Some independently took illegal action to acquire freedom while others waited until their contracts expired to migrate. While the number of those who migrated was consistently smaller than those who remained on the plantations, migration was a permanent feature of the plantation system that lasted as long as indenture itself. Indian migration during indenture can be conceptualized into three overlapping historical phases: (1) desertion from the plantations; (2) migration from the plantations to settlements (rural) to urban areas; and (3) intra-regional migration from one Caribbean island to the other.