中国社会主义民主政治的发展选择——十七大政治发展理论解析

“坚定不移发展社会主义民主政治”是党的十七大向世人发出的发展社会主义民主政治的庄严宣示：政治发展实质是政治关系的变革和政治权力与政治权利的调整,取决于政治价值选择,“人民当家作主是社会主义民主政治的本质和核心”决定了中国社会主义民主政治的发展目标和发展道路。     

从马克思的财政理论到西方财政政治学的兴起——议会财政权理论的历史性梳理

财政是政府的命脉,财政权是主导国家财政资源配置乃至政治权力配置的关键要素。目前,西方国家议会的财政权已形成一个完备的制度体系,对议会财政权的理论研究也走向更深的层次。本文从阐述马克思的财政理论入手,着重介绍以亚当.斯密为代表的传统学派、以诺思和布坎南为代表的新制度主义学派和公共选择学派对议会财政权问题的论述以及当代以威尔达夫斯基为代表的财政政治学理论的兴起过程,在系统地梳理议会财政权理论历史发展脉络的基础上,阐明其在政治学研究领域的重要地位。     

从权力的制约和监督上推进社会主义民主政治建设——学习列宁晚年发扬民主、改革党和国家机关的思想

社会主义国家发展的历史证明,发展社会主义民主政治必须努力建立社会主义的权力制约和权力监督的体制和机制。列宁晚年在领导俄国社会主义建设的过程中,不但大胆探索落后国家建设社会主义的经济道路,而且努力探索社会主义国家的民主政治建设道路。列宁关于发扬民主、反对官僚主义、改革党和国家的机构、加强对权力的制约和监督的思想。对于我们今天推进社会主义民主政治建设和构建社会主义和谐社会具有重要意义。     

Do we need warm leaders? Exploratory study of the role of voter evaluations of leaders’ traits on turnout in seven European countries

Previous research on leader effects has focused exclusively on the impact of voters’ evaluations of leaders on vote choice, disregarding possible effects on the prior step of deciding whether or not to turn out to vote. In line with the personalisation of politics thesis, leaders have a higher impact among dealigned voters. Previous studies have demonstrated that leader effects are stronger among voters who voice their dealignment – namely party switchers. However, the potential impact of leaders among those who exited (i.e., who have abstained) is still unstudied. Could leaders have a mobilisation effect and therefore trigger turnout decisions? What characteristics of party leaders are more relevant in this regard? This article is the first comparative study to examine how the evaluation of party leaders’ traits influences voter turnout in general elections. The work incorporates data from election studies across seven countries with different social contexts (Portugal, Spain, Ireland, Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Hungary). Characteristics of leaders were grouped into two dimensions – competence and warmth – in accordance with the stereotype content model and relevant studies on leaders’ traits evaluation. Multiple binary logistic regression models were performed to analyse the predictive power of competence and warmth on turnout, controlling for sociodemographic, political ideology variables and voters’ past political behaviour. Results reinforce the personalisation of politics theory, showing the utmost relevance of warmth personality traits of leaders in voter turnout decisions. Competence personality traits were found to be relevant only in some situations. Interaction effects were also demonstrated between warmth evaluations and identifying with a right-wing party as well as past political behaviour with both warmth and competence.     

Women are more likely than men to blame structural factors for women's political under-representation: Evidence from 27 countries

Over time, gender and politics research has made progress in identifying those factors that result in low numbers of women in political institutions and in making evidence-informed suggestions about how to ameliorate them. These factors include discrimination in party recruitment processes, male-dominated political culture and broader gender inequalities in society. In contrast, little is known about public opinion regarding these drivers of women's political under-representation, especially whether to who or what women assign blame for the under-representation of women in politics differs from men. This article provides the first discussion and analysis of blame assignment for women's numeric under-representation in politics. In doing so, it outlines and operationalises a framework that distinguishes between meritocratic explanations of women's under-representation, whereby the blame for women not holding political office in greater numbers is assigned to women themselves, and structural explanations, whereby social forces external to women are seen to result in their numeric under-representation. Cross-national data from 27 European countries is used to show that women are significantly more likely than men to assign blame for women's numeric under-representation to structural factors. The hierarchical nature of the dataset is exploited using multilevel models and significant differences in levels of structural blame assignment between countries is found as well as between-country variation in the probability of women assigning blame to structural explanations for women's under-representation. Finally, the category of structural explanations is disaggregated in order to assess their relative prominence and to provide strong corroborative evidence that women predominantly assign blame for women's under-representation to political culture over other structural blame factors. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of the study's findings for policy makers contemplating the pursuit of gender equality policies aimed at increasing women's political representation and makes suggestions for the direction of future research in this area.     

Cardinals or Clerics? Congressional Committees and the Distribution of Pork

Journalistic and academic accounts of Congress suggest that important committee positions allow members to procure more federal funds for their constituents, but existing evidence on this topic is limited in scope and has failed to distinguish the effects of committee membership from selection onto committees. We bring together decades of data on federal outlays and congressional committee and subcommittee assignments to provide a comprehensive analysis of committee positions and distributive politics across all policy domains. Using a within‐member research design, we find that seats on key committees produce little additional spending. The chairs of the Appropriations subcommittees—the so called “cardinals” of Congress—are an exception to the rule. These leadership positions do generate more funding for constituents, but only from programs under the jurisdiction of their subcommittee. Our results paint a new picture of distributive politics and call for a reexamination of its canonical theories.     

Driving Development from Below: The Advantages and Limitations of Vernacular Politics in the Bolivian Altiplano

Anthropologists studying the Andean community politics have increasingly emphasised the role of pragmatic, informal ‘vernacular’ political strategies in achieving material and political empowerment of the poor. However, while the concept of vernacular politics marks an advancement over binary and often polarised discussions of the role of local communities in development processes, studies have not fully explored the full range of implications of vernacular strategies on development processes. While researchers have demonstrated the substantial agency that local community actors have to influence development processes, the extent to which this influence effectively resists or reinforces the logic of public policy implementation has not been studied. This article explores the techniques used by rural communities in their interactions with public institutions in rural Bolivia. It shows that community organisations' vernacular political strategies have mixed outcomes: on the one hand, they allow the rural poor to assert their own agendas vis‐à‐vis the state so that they can benefit from public spending, while on the other hand, their tactics have the potential to entrench the influence of local power brokers and perpetuate inefficient uses of public funds. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Emerging donors and new contests over aid policy in Pacific Asia

Abstract

The rise of emerging donors has unleashed new political contests over aid policy, some of which have occurred at the domestic level. This article locates the special edition's analysis of these contests within the existing literature on emerging donors, draws out the key findings of included papers, and considers their implications for policy. It argues that domestic contests have had significant influence over aid policy in both emerging and established donors, the agendas at work have varied from case to case reflecting countries' different political economies, and aid policies represent a ‘work-in-progress’ rather than an expression of immutable models.     

The Charismatic Body Politics of President Putin

Vladimir Putin's image and brand make sophisticated, culturally embedded use of his biography, martial arts expertise, and idiolect, with his physical self strongly privileged in the modes of his self-presentation. As a politically marketable product, his public persona enjoyed broad appeal among Russian voters in the period 2000–2011, when he and his United Russia party operated in an electorally uncompetitive environment. Since the urban protests of 2011–2012, Russia's political scene has become much more dynamic. Having initially configured himself as a charismatic leader whose very body symbolized a new and confident Russia, during his third presidential term, which began in 2012, Putin finds himself facing new presentational challenges that he may or may not be equipped to meet.