Advancing the study of political cleavages through experimentation: Revisiting regionalism and redistributive preferences in Canada

The maintenance of welfare state policies requires citizen support for the provision of a social safety net through taxation and redistribution. Research has shown that a diverse political polity presents a risk to the welfare state; however, Canada bucks the trend and does not see citizen support for economic redistribution decline in response to immigration-based population diversity. Using Canada as our case, we argue that scholars of welfare state politics and redistribution should turn their attention to other sources of population heterogeneity in an effort to better understand how different political cleavages affect citizens’ redistributive preferences. We use an online experimental survey to manipulate the in-group identity of 500 Canadians. The survey enables respondents to identify with other in-group identities along regional, linguistic, income-group, and urban/rural characteristics. Our results find that while Canadians do have a strong baseline preference for redistributive behaviour, regional and linguistic cleavages moderate this outcome.     

论公安机关警力下沉的制度建设

公安部将2006年确定为“基层基础建设年”,其工作目标的重点之一就是总警力的85%要下沉,但实际操作中却存在一系列的问题,要实现警力下沉必须从制度上予以保障。即:一是建立新警定岗基层所、队和机关民警下派制度;二是建立科学、公平的薪酬奖励制度;三是建立优先从基层提拨任用干部的制度。我们只有建立和完善警力下沉的保障机制,才能用制度来保证基层基础建设工作长效性的实现。     

宪法概念的分析整合与重新界定

有越来越多的学者对传统的宪法概念提出质疑 ,认为传统宪法概念未能揭示它的本质属性。笔者在几位学者明锐的思想及新颖观点的影响和感召下有所启示 ,并试着发表一点见解。笔者认为 ,宪法是调整国家权力在社会中的初次分配和从总体上赋予公民基本权利及协调二者关系的根本法。笔者认为这个定义明确指出了宪法的调整对象 ,揭示了宪法的根本属性 ,能清晰地表达宪法同其他部门法的关系 ,跳出了传统宪法理论的束缚     

Opportunity,responsibility and the market: interrogating liberal equality

This article scrutinizes the claim that liberal egalitarians are now the last real torchbearers for the principles of egalitarian reform. This claim might appear eccentric on the surface, but is increasingly common in leftist circles following the recent abandonment of such principles by formerly socialist parties. Programmes of 'social inclusion', for instance, are now widely criticized for substituting a desire to tackle economic inequalities with an incitement for us to become obedient, productive citizens. Focusing here on the claim that liberal egalitarians pose a radical alternative to this kind of discourse, I show that the real deficiencies of much liberal egalitarianism not only resemble but in many ways actually provide the sort of discourse within which parties like New Labour operate.     

Why Overcoming Prejudice is Not Enough: A Rejoinder to Richard Rorty

Abstract

Misrecognition, taken seriously as unjust social subordination, cannot be remedied by eliminating prejudice alone. In this rejoinder to Richard Rorty, it is argued that a politics of recognition and a politics of redistribution can and should be combined. However, an identity politics that displaces redistribution and reifies group differences is deeply flawed. Here, instead, an alternative ‘status’ model of recognition politics is offered that encourages struggles to overcome status subordination and fosters parity of participation. Integrating this politics of recognition with redistribution enables a coherent Left vision that could redress injustices of culture and of political economy simultaneously.     

Paradoxical class: paradox of interest and political conservatism in middle class

ABSTRACT

Considering the importance of class analysis in understanding social issues, the present paper has used this level of analysis as an important factor in the economic, social and political attitude of society. Accordingly, three main classes, including the upper class, the middle class, and the lower class have been divided and their attitudes towards redistribution of wealth (as a non-conservative policy) have been evaluated. Given the current economic inequality, in the case of adopting the policy of redistribution of the wealth, the lower and middle classes will benefit economically, since they possess less wealth than their population percentage. Nevertheless, the results of the survey revealed that only the lower class assented to redistribution of the wealth, while upper and middle classes largely dissented to it. The study seeks to address this question that why the middle-class dissents to redistribution of wealth, despite its economic benefits. In order to answer that, we resort to another survey of the members of the middle class, in which the role of non-economic interests – including social and political interests, has been evaluated. Finally, the conclusion suggests that the majority of the middle class faces a paradoxical status in the area of economic, political, and social interests.     

A distributional theory of economic democracy

In the twentieth century, while political democracy triumphed economic democracy failed both as an idea and in practice. A case for reviving the idea of economic democracy is made in terms of protecting political democracy. Economic democracy has conventionally been understood as a matter of bringing economic power under the control of collective political power. The idea is here reformulated as a matter of redistributing economic power between persons, of giving people a share in economic power directly rather than through elected representatives. Political democracy is assumed, which is to say that political power is under the control of the middle class. The question then is under what conditions the middle class might want and think it could use political power to redistribute economic power. The conclusions are that there is in advanced capitalist democracies considerable scope for the redistribution of economic power between the rich and the middle class. As for the empowerment of the poor, however, anti-poverty policies beyond the containment of poverty are unlikely to emerge today in countries where that did not happen under earlier historical conditions.     

农民问题的解决：大国现代化的必由之路——英、法、美、俄的历史分析

农民问题在资产阶级革命中占有极其重要的地位。从农业社会向工业社会过渡,农民必须接受“改造”,以便融入新社会。农民问题的解决取决于土地再分配的形式。英国、法国、美国和俄罗斯在这方面都走过了不同的道路,并对这些国家的现代化产生了很大的影响。随着农民的涌入大城市,城市化遂成为一种常见的现象,我们必须采取强有力的措施,以阻止它的某些消极后果在中国出现。     

Marginal vote seeking in multi member districts

Differences in the number of seats that similar vote shares can deliver make some votes more marginal than others. In multi-member district systems, high-marginal-return votes are very volatile and research has assumed that parties do not go after them. This paper rejects this assumption, introducing a theory of marginal vote seeking across multi-member districts. By leveraging a novel mathematical algorithm and a cross sectional data set, we find evidence that parties seek marginal votes in these systems despite their volatility. In the case of the poverty alleviation programs used here, their use to attempt to secure marginal votes overwhelms the program’s poverty alleviation goals. Estimates suggest that a district’s share of a program’s budget can increase by as much as 8% simply because of this district’s likelihood of delivering marginal votes.     

中国传统社会权力主导资源分配现象剖析

中国传统社会特殊的体制结构决定了政治权力的中心和主导地位 ,形成了政治权力主导和支配经济资源分配及配置的局面。这首先表现为王朝建立之初的后革命时期的资源再分配过程中 ,其次也反映在各个王朝常态演进的各个时期里 ,其本质正是马克思所说的“权力捉弄财产”。这一情况的普遍存在 ,在中国古代不仅造成了市场的扭曲 ,还带来了根深蒂固的权力崇拜 ,给近代以来的中国现代化进程带来了严重的负面影响