Brothers’ Keepers?

Relying on rarely analyzed public opinion data from the 1930s and early 1940s, we take issue with the notion popular in contemporary liberal circles that the New Deal era represented a period of expansive commitment to the security and well-being of the poor and politically disenfranchised. At least where the public is concerned—as opposed to the progressive policy makers in the Roosevelt administration—the jobless were regarded with suspicion, immigrants should be forced to “go home,” women belong in the kitchen not on the shop floor. The harsher the economic conditions (by state), the more conservative were the public attitudes. Hence New Deal legislative victories accrued despite rather than because of public support.

Public Opinion and Collective Obligations

This article attempts to identify the general principles that underlie public reasoning about collective obligations and that help explain when political parties can create new obligations or defend existing ones. I use these principles to President Clinton’s unsuccessful attempt to create government health-care plan and attempts by President Bush to privatize Social Security. The success of a party in selling – or defeating – an obligation depends upon what people believe about the competence and capacity of government and the value of autonomy – choices made by each citizen; whether people perceive the obligation as providing floors or establishing ceilings by limiting choice or otherwise restricting opportunities for the better-off; and whether the program is more like insurance or more like welfare. A party’s ability to maintain credibility with voters also depends upon whether party leaders can suppress issues that threaten intra-party elite pacts. When attempts to suppress “taboo” issues like “stem cells” or “black crime” fail, the party loses credibility with its voters and attempts to defend or sell obligations fail.

Preferences,Knowledge, and Citizen Probability Assessments of the Terrorism Risk of Nuclear Power

How does the American public assess risk when it comes to national security issues? This paper addresses this question by analyzing variation in citizen probability assessments of the terrorism risk of nuclear power plants. Drawing on the literature on how motivated reasoning, selective information processing, and domain‐specific knowledge influence public opinion, we argue that heterogeneous issue preferences and knowledge of nuclear energy and homeland security have important explanatory power. Using original data from a unique 2009 national survey in the United States, we show that Americans are divided in their probability assessments of the terrorism risk of nuclear power plants. Consistent with our theoretical expectations, individuals who support using nuclear power to meet rising energy demands, who are generally less concerned with terrorism, or who are more knowledgeable about terrorism and nuclear security tend to provide lower assessments of the likelihood that nuclear power plants increase terrorist attacks, and vice versa. The findings have implications for the literature on public opinion, risk assessment, energy policy and planning, and homeland security.     

涉检网络舆情的应对与引导制度评析

要提高涉检网络舆情研判能力,必须充分认识加强涉检网络舆情应对工作的重要性,重视检察机关自身建设;建立涉检网络舆情应对机制,在制度上形成规范,防范网络舆情危机的发生。     

社会转型期公众民意表达科学化的理性思考

当前,我国正处于社会转型深化期和攻坚期,公众民意表达发生了深刻变化,呈现出利益诉求不断扩大的趋势,突出表现为多元化、差异化和群体化等新特点。在面对公众民意表达时,政府与公众应在公共理性的框架内,寻求理性和有序的解决途径。为提升公众民意表达的科学化水平,必须加强和创新社会管理,大力营造党委、政府、社会和公众理性互动的社会管理环境,创新发展治理型的社会管理制度,不断拓宽政府主导的规范高效、理性有序的社会管理路径。     

Testing the power of arguments in referendums: A Bradley–Terry approach

How can we determine which arguments in a referendum are most persuasive? We show that the Bradley–Terry model has several features that make it well-suited to this task, and thus preferable to other, more conventional approaches. Using a survey experiment conducted during an electoral reform referendum in Ontario, Canada in October 2007, we demonstrate how unstructured and structured Bradley–Terry models can be straightforwardly fitted and interpreted. In doing so, we gain insight into the factors which determine support for electoral reform. We identify a status quo bias and find that power varies with mention of fairness, local control over candidate selection, and the role of political parties. We conclude by discussing the limits, extensions and further applications of such models in electoral studies and political science more broadly.     

创新社会管理背景下涉警网络舆情危机处置探析

现阶段,我国正处于改革的攻坚期、发展的黄金期和社会矛盾的凸现期,涉警网络舆情危机时有发生。涉警网络舆情危机具有突发性、传播性、破坏性和交互性等显著特点。因此,公安机关应及时掌握涉警网络舆情动态,运用"公安网络舆情引导管理系统",完善涉警网络舆情预警研判和应急处置机制,掌握网络舆论引导主动权。     

The file on operation “Priboi”: A re-assessment of the mass deportations of 1949

Abstract

Using information from documents found in the Russian State Military Archives, this article discusses the organization and execution of the Soviet mass deportations from the Baltic States in March 1949 — code-named Operation “Priboi” by the USSR MVD. These findings are presented for the first time in English, in the context both of established historiographical interpretations and recent literature on the deportations. The aim is to encourage a scholarly reassessment of Operation “Priboi” as a crime against humanity perpetrated by the Soviet occupation regime, but supported by indigenous collaborators to a far greater degree than previously assumed.     

Exif信息在数码照片真实性鉴定中的应用

Exif信息检验是数码照片真实性鉴定的一个重要角度,如何充分挖掘和利用Exif信息对于数码照片真实性鉴定具有非常重要的意义.本文在JPEG格式分析基础上,介绍了Exif信息的提取方法,讨论了Exif的缩略图、压缩质量等信息在数码照片真实性鉴定中的应用.     

司法鉴定意见纠错机制及制度探讨——以面向社会服务的鉴定机构和鉴定人为视野

司法鉴定意见是鉴定人进行科技实践的产物,因而出现错误鉴定意见是不可能完全避免的。在法定的重新鉴定之外,由原司法鉴定人在程序规定的范围内通过＂复核鉴定＂自我纠正司法鉴定意见的错误不失为一种有效的对策。基于此,以面向社会服务的司法鉴定机构和鉴定人为研究的视野,以复核鉴定为基本形式,探讨司法鉴定意见纠错的机制并创设相应的制度,将有利于诉讼和司法鉴定。