Government for the people: the substantive elements of democracy

The most widely used understandings of the concept of democracy – normative, procedural and institutional – focus on its methods and approaches. This article argues that democracy needs also to be understood in terms of its substantive implications. Democratic rights include not only the civil and political rights associated with liberal democracy, but also the economic and social rights promoted in industrially developed countries. Liberal principles promote democracy and economic development. Social rights have developed, not just through state action, but through the independent establishment of solidarities facilitated by the exercise of democratic rights. Every established democracy has a system of social welfare provision. This is not coincidental. Democracy, economic development and social protection are intimately linked.     

法治概念属性释义

当前对法治的理解仍然比较混乱,有必要澄清。法治是个政治概念而不是个法律概念,它不同于执法和司法。法治其实就是依法治国;法治是与人治相对立的政治概念;法治不等同于法制;法治以民主为前提,并保障民主,民主是法治的灵魂。     

The Swiss social insurance system: Social security and grass‐roots democracy

The foundations of Switzerland's social insurance system can be traced to 1890 when a public referendum voted the inclusion of an article into the Federal Constitution that gave the executive the task of creating a sickness and accident insurance scheme. Currently, as in other European countries, the Swiss social insurance system is facing challenges as a result of rising health costs and demographic shifts, which are placing a growing burden on both public finances and private households. To reach policy decisions to address these challenges, the Swiss system is distinguishable from those of its European neighbours because of a continuing tradition of political decision‐making based on grass‐roots democracy: through referenda, the Swiss people remain directly responsible for the development of the national social insurance system. Importantly, not only might this unique feature of Swiss democracy lead the Swiss people more readily to accept and identify with their social insurance system but it may offer a sound democratic base upon which to build a consensual approach to address the policy challenges that lie ahead.     

论政治监督与民主自由的实现

政治民主和政治自由是人的主体性不断提升的必然要求 ,是人类社会政治发展的重要标志。民主自由的实现有赖于民主的政治体制 ,而民主政治体制的核心制度功能之一就是政治监督 ,民主自由政治的各种制度无不包含着对政治权力进行监督与制衡的机制。因此 ,政治监督是实现政治民主和政治自由的基本途径 ,民主自由的发展必须以健全和完善政治监督制度为基本前提     

Political explanations for the difficulties in congressional budgeting

Why does the congressional budget process seem so flawed? The difficulties Congress has budgeting are a direct result of the nature of a representative democracy. The American public wants contradictory budgetary actions from its representatives in Congress. Congress is a responsive body on budgetary matters, as can be seen by the strong correlations between demographics and congressional budget votes. Being responsive, however, does not make it accountable. The problems Congress faces when budgeting are in part a result of the inconsistencies of what the public says it wants. Thus, unless the contradictory desires of the American public are modified, congressional budgeting is destined to be viewed as flawed and inadequate.     

Democracy

Democracy (Greek demokratia - rule by the people, from demos, the people, kratos - rule). The term "democracy" is employed: 1) to denote government by the people, 2) to describe governments distinguished by certain legal characteristics (recognition of majority rule as the source of authority, and proclamation of freedom and equality for citizens), and 3) as a synonym for the rights and freedoms of citizens. However, no matter what the sense in which democracy is defined, it is always one political form of class dictatorship, an instrumentality in class struggle.     

The Collapsing Choice Theory: Dissociating Choice and Judgment in Decision Making

Decision making theory in general, and mental models in particular, associate judgment and choice. Decision choice follows probability estimates and errors in choice derive mainly from errors in judgment. In the studies reported here we use the Monty Hall dilemma to illustrate that judgment and choice do not always go together, and that such a dissociation can lead to better decision-making. Specifically, we demonstrate that in certain decision problems, exceeding working memory limitations can actually improve decision choice. We show across four experiments that increasing the number of choice alternatives forces people to collapse choices together, resulting in better decision-making. While choice performance improves, probability judgments do not change, thus demonstrating an important dissociation between choice and probability judgments. We propose the Collapsing Choice Theory (CCT) which explains how working memory capacity, probability estimation, choice alternatives, judgment, and regret all interact and effect decision quality.      

Democracy, Social Relations and Ecowelfare

Like Marxists before, greens are trenchant critics of the commodification of human life by consumer capitalism. They have been persistent advocates of less materialistic ways of living but, as such, have been easily dismissed as champions of frugal, small‐scale community living. This essay argues that a society which fostered non‐materialistic ways of living could offer more rather than less to its citizens if it put at the centre of its vision the quality of human and social relations. A relational perspective insists that human capacities—aesthetic, spiritual, practical/intellectual, ethical and convivial—are developed through our relations to others and to nature, including the nature and otherness in ourselves. The primary aim of an ecowelfare society should be to create the conditions for such human capacities to flourish in a balanced way. The essay frst describes four areas of our everyday social relations where qualitative change is necessary if a democratic culture is to flourish. Capitalism privileges the development of the practical/intellectual and, in consequence, our over‐extended technical powers now put the world at risk. Green democracy must be approached in this light. Participation in political discussion and decision making at all levels of society enhances individual and collective ethical and convivial capacities and therefore fosters citizens who have the capacity to respond to social and ecological insecurity. To be convincing, green democracy needs to recognize the actual complexity of society, a complexity that direct, face‐to‐face models of democracy cannot deal with. In opposition to the markets and managerialism of existing governments greens should develop a vision of the extended democratization of all levels and institutions of society, from housing estates and health centres to universities and non‐departmental public bodies like the Arts Council. In doing so it must recognize the differences, tensions and conflicts in all communities irrespective of whether these are generated around place, identity or lifestyle. It must therefore promote the maximum diversity of democratic forms.     

Conflicting evidence and decisions by agency professionals: an experimental test in the context of merger regulation

Many important regulatory decisions are taken by professionals employing limited and conflicting evidence. We conduct an experiment in a merger regulation setting, identifying the role of different standards of proof, volumes of evidence, cost of error and professional or lay decision making. The experiment was conducted on current practitioners from 11 different jurisdictions, in addition to student subjects. Legal standards of proof significantly affect decisions. There are specific differences because of professional judgment, including in how error costs and volume of evidence are taken into account. We narrow the range of explanations for why professional decision making matters.     

Propagation of Individual Bias through Group Judgment: Error in the Treatment of Asymmetrically Informative Signals

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty - Group decision making is commonly used in juries, businesses, and in politics to increase the informational basis for a decision and to improve judgment accuracy....     

Is democracy pro poor in Sub-Saharan Africa?

This study examines if democracy reduces poverty in 40 Sub-Saharan African countries for the period 1999–2018. For this purpose, we employ the Generalised Method of Moments. The results show that democracy is not directly associated with poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. However, this observation hides important non-linearities and an interesting pattern of policy complementarities. Indeed, democracy is associated with poverty reduction in countries where economic growth is strong and human capital high. The robustness tests carried out do not change these results. This means that poor economic growth and weak human capital not only have a direct negative effect on the well-being of SSA countries, but also prevent the poor in those countries from benefitting the gains of democracy. Therefore, in order to reduce poverty in SSA, policy makers should continue the process of democratization while simultaneously adopting policies of economic development and human capital building. Democracy in isolation is useless for the poor in SSA.     

Democracy,Participation, and Life Satisfaction*

Objectives. We examine whether democracy, political participation, and differing systems of democracy influence individual levels of subjective well‐being. Methods. We use individual data on life satisfaction and characteristics related to satisfaction for approximately 46 countries. We estimate ordered probit models with country and time dummy variables and cluster‐adjusted robust standard errors. Results. Democracy is positively correlated with individual levels of well‐being. The opportunity to participate in the political process and whether the democracy is parliamentary or presidential are related to individual well‐being. Conclusions. Democratic institutions influence subjective well‐being. The well‐being of individuals with minority political views decreases in parliamentary systems.     

Toward Defining the Causal Role of Consciousness: Using Models of Memory and Moral Judgment from Cognitive Neuroscience to Expand the Sociological Dual‐Process Model

What role does “discursive consciousness” play in decision‐making? How does it interact with “practical consciousness?” These two questions constitute two important gaps in strong practice theory that extend from Pierre Bourdieu's habitus to Stephen Vaisey's sociological dual‐process model and beyond. The goal of this paper is to provide an empirical framework that expands the sociological dual‐process model in order to fill these gaps using models from cognitive neuroscience. In particular, I use models of memory and moral judgment that highlight the importance of executive functions and semantic memory. I outline each model as it pertains to the aforementioned gaps in strong practice theory. I then use the models from cognitive neuroscience to create an expanded dual‐process model that addresses how and when conscious mental systems override and interact with subconscious mental systems in the use of cultural ends for decision‐making. Finally, using this expanded model I address the sociological debate over the use of interview and survey data. My analysis reveals that surveys and interviews both elicit information encoded in declarative memory and differ primarily in the process of information retrieval that is required of respondents.     

Life expectancy as a constructed belief: Evidence of a live-to or die-by framing effect

Life expectations are essential inputs for many important personal decisions. We propose that longevity beliefs are responses constructed at the time of judgment, subject to irrelevant task and context factors, and leading to predictable biases. Specifically, we examine whether life expectancy is affected by the framing of expectations questions as either live-to or die-by, as well as by factors that actually affect longevity such as age, gender, and self-reported health. We find that individuals in a live-to frame report significantly higher chances of being alive at ages 55 through 95 than people in a corresponding die-by frame. Estimated mean life expectancies across three studies and 2300 respondents were 7.38 to 9.17 years longer when solicited in a live-to frame. We are additionally able to show how this framing works on a process level and how it affects preference for life annuities. Implications for models of financial decision making are discussed.     

Nontransitive preferences in decision theory

Intransitive preferences have been a topic of curiosity, study, and debate over the past 40 years. Many economists and decision theorists insist on transitivity as the cornerstone of rational choice, and even in behavioral decision theory intransitivities are often attributed to faulty experiments, random or sloppy choices, poor judgment, or unexamined biases. But others see intransitive preferences as potential truths of reasoned comparisons and propose representations of preferences that accommodate intransitivities. This article offers a partial survey of models for intransitive preferences in a variety of decisional contexts. These include economic consumer theory, multiattribute utility theory, game theory, preference between time streams, and decision making under risk and uncertainty. The survey is preceded by a discussion of issues that bear on the relevance and reasonableness of intransitivity.     

Who governs or how they govern: Testing the impact of democracy,ideology and globalization on the well being of the poor

This paper examines the effects of regime type, government ideology and economic globalization on poverty in low- and middle-income countries around the world. We use panel regression to estimate the effect of these explanatory variables on two different response variables: national poverty gap (104 countries from 1981 to 2005) and child mortality rate (132 countries from 1976 to 2005). We find consistent and significant results for the interactive effect of democracy and government ideology: strong leftist power under a democratic regime is associated with a reduction in both the poverty gap and the child mortality rate. Democracy, on its own, is associated with a lower child mortality rate, but has no effect on the poverty gap. Leftist power under a non-democratic regime is associated with an increase in both poverty measures. Trade reduces both measures of poverty. Foreign direct investment has a weak and positive effect on the poverty gap. From examining factors that influence the welfare of poor people in less developed countries, we conclude that who governs is as important as how they govern.     

Politics and bias in risk assessment

Whereas formal risk assessments can rationalize decision making in organizations, political and other biases remain. This article examines the origins of risk analysis in conflicts of political interest. The history of probabilistic risk analysis in the nuclear industry illustrates the problem. This involves the nexus between experts and political judgment (focusing on expert behavior in the wake of Chernobyl), and the connection between risk analysis and ideology in decision making (focusing on the issue of deliberate deception in risk assessment).     

多民族国家民主化道路的复杂性研究——以不丹为例

民族为民主国家提供了身份认同的基础。多民族国家内的民族冲突,成为其民主化道路的重要障碍。不丹民主化过程中产生的民族分裂问题,就属于此例。不丹在实现政治民主化的同时,推行以民族同化与融合为目的的民族不丹化政策。1985年以后,这种不丹化政策由劝导变为强制。拒不接受被同化的不丹尼泊尔族,被迫离开不丹逃往尼泊尔沦为难民。不丹所面临的民族与民主困境,在多民族国家中普遍存在。不丹政府有必要借鉴其他国家的成功经验,尽快走出困境。