COMMUNICATION PROCESSES AND THE ‘NEW PUBLIC SPACE’ IN ITALY AND THE USA: A LONGITUDINAL APPROACH

Since the time of ancient Greece, democracy and communication have ineluctably been linked. Seen with the eyes of the Greek citizens, the agora was a somewhat mystical space where direct involvement and face‐to‐face communication processes paved the way to the kratos of the demos. After more than two thousand years, communication still remains closely linked to democracy, but the ever expanding dimension of modern societies calls for political representation. Consequently, the electoral arena has become a fictitious public space making democracy work. With the agency and the communication theories in the background, the present authors claim that following the advent of the most incredible technological discontinuity in history, things seem to have taken a jump back in time. The widespread dissemination of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in fact, was crucial to the emergence of a ‘new public space’ bringing with it the poetry of a mirrored image of the ancient agora. Such new public space will be analysed with reference to the US and Italian governments at a federal and central level in order to gain a better understanding of how government‐citizens relationships are fashioned in both contexts. As we will see, each understanding of democracy argues for a different design of government‐citizens relationships. Consequently, both positive and recalcitrant attitudes towards a citizens’ greater involvement in policy making are often due more to cultural than to technological barriers. Their removal has to pass through the awareness that ICT may have profound consequences for democracy: their real power lies in their capacity to integrate political representation with new forms of citizens’ direct involvement in public life while consequently reinvigorating the pluralistic attitudes of the agora even in large‐scale modern democracies.     

提高选人用人公信度的对策研究

在对影响选人用人公信度的四个主要问题探讨的基础上,研究提出了相应的对策,即:加快政治民主化进程,实现不同主体间权利义务设置的合理化;着力打破体制和机制性障碍,广泛选用各类德才兼备的优秀人才并在动态调整中实现人岗的高度匹配;注重健全完善程序,创新工作方式方法,不断推进干部选用机制的规范化;建构科学的评估目标体系,进一步完善选人用人评估机制。     

The impact of civil war on foreign direct investment flows to developing countries

We investigate the impact of civil war on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows to developing countries. We employ a new data-set that disaggregates FDI inflows to primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. Second, we control for a richer set of economic and institutional variables that could determine FDI inflows including population, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, the degree of trade openness, exchange rate variability, inflation, the governance structure of the host country using International Country Risk Guide data and its regime type using the POLITY autocracy–democracy data. We also address the reverse causality between FDI and conflict and the potential endogeneity of explanatory variables by employing dynamic system generalised method of moments (GMM) techniques in estimation. Our results indicate that primary sector FDI flows to developing countries are not significantly affected by civil war, whereas secondary and tertiary sectors FDI are more sensitive to such outbreak, potentially leading to reversals of existing FDI. Among institutional variables, government stability and control of corruption are more significant compared to regime type, law and order, and bureaucratic quality.     

论抗战时期沈钧儒的宪政思想与政治主张

沈钧儒是近代中国宪政运动的旗帜、民主政治的斗士。抗战时期,沈钧儒本着团结抗战、民主建国的政治主张,积极发动和参加民主完政运动,提出了一系列影响深远的完政思想,为爱国民主统一战线的建立作出了卓越贡献。     

论我国社会主义新农村法治建设

社会主义新农村建设是中国时代发展和社会主义和谐社会构建的必然要求,而农村法治是建设社会主义新农村的根本保障。自改革开放以来,中国农村法治建设取得了巨大的进步,但目前面临的问题仍然不少。中国农村法治建设须在农村立法、法律意识、基层民主以及法治运行等方面予以大力加强。     

强化责任追究是加大党内监督力度的有效途径

在建立党风廉政建设责任制的基础上，强化责任追究是加大党内监督力度的有效途径。只有扎扎实实地抓好责任追纠各项工作的落实，才能达到从源头上防止和治理腐败的目的。     

On the Political Economy of Low Skilled Immigration and the Welfare State

This paper inquires into the collective decision making on both unemployment insurance and immigration. It is shown that low skill immigration typically increases the contribution rate to the unemployment insurance system. This can translate into higher benefits, the increase of the economy-wide unemployment rate nonwithstanding. The host country allows for immigration only if high skilled natives are sufficiently powerful. Furthermore, political rights of immigrants are restricted to a minimum.     

Independent Collective Representation: Providing Effectiveness, Fairness, and Democracy in the Employment Relationship

Protection against arbitrary management action has always been a concern of employees. Enlightened managerialism has been one approach to addressing these concerns. This approach is compromised by the conflicts of interest that characterize the employment relationship in a market system. We argue in this paper that independent collective representation functions to protect employees while leaving the employer with sufficient freedom to manage. Trade unions, as a counter weight to the exercise of absolute managerial power, complement a pluralist democratic system. The exercise of absolute power, the absence of accountability and countervailing checks and balances, are foreign to any democratic polity. At enterprise level, trade unions manage the ongoing tensions and conflicts between democratic humanistic values and market values.     

Democratic Choice of an Education System: Implications for Growth and Income Distribution

We use an OLG model to examine democratic choice betweentwo modes of government support for education: subsidies forprivately purchased education and free uniform public provision.We find little conflict between democracy and growth: the samefactors that generate popular support for subsidization overfree uniform provision—large external benefits, a largeexcess burden, and little inequality—also favor its relativegrowth performance. Furthermore, restricting the franchise toan upper-income elite may also reduce growth. Two extensionsexamine the effect of intergenerational mobility and indicatethe theoretical possibility of periodic swings in the balancebetween public and private spending.     

“话语民主”语境下的草根民主——从毛泽东的底层民主到网络的民主实践

毛泽东在20世纪20年代就明确提出了农民的"话事权"理论,不仅包括话语权,还包括办事权。建国以后,毛泽东又借助"大字报"的形式将其"话事权"理论付诸实践。毛泽东底层民主的实践旨趣与哈贝马斯"话语民主"的理论旨趣隐隐呼应。哈贝马斯提出了现代多元化社会中的人们在公共领域进行交流、沟通的商议民主理论,以唤起越来越多的底层民众投入到公共议题的商议中来。网络民主实践与"大字报"有类似之处,在实践中,根据哈贝马斯的理论,网络既是草根民主的新载体,也是滋生网络暴力的温床。