The maximum dispersion problem

In the maximum dispersion problem, a given set of objects has to be partitioned into a number of groups. Each object has a non-negative weight and each group has a target weight, which may be different for each group. In addition to meeting the target weight of each group, all objects assigned to the same group should be as dispersed as possible with respect to some distance measure between pairs of objects. Potential applications for this problem come from such diverse fields as the problem of creating study groups or the design of waste collection systems. We develop and compare two different (mixed-) integer linear programming formulations for the problem. We also study a specific relaxation that enables us to derive tight bounds that improve the effectiveness of the formulations. Thereby, we obtain an upper bound by finding in an auxiliary graph subsets of given size with minimal diameter. A lower bound is derived based on the relation of the optimal solution of the relaxation to the chromatic number of a series of auxiliary graphs. Finally, we propose an exact solution scheme for the maximum dispersion problem and present extensive computational experiments to assess its efficiency.     

Incorporation vs. Separation:

This article examines the approach to the study of women and politics in the People's Republic of China and assesses the impact of gender studies (or lack of it) on women and the larger part of society in China. The author argues that most materials for studying women and politics in China emanate from the office of the All-China Women's Federation, an appendage of the Chinese Communist Party, and not from political science textbooks. This approach, however, falls short of addressing major political and economic problems facing women of China.     

论民主形式与“记名票决”

人民当家作主的生活方式是民主内容;"票决"是民主形式,是当今民主集中制、直接民主、间接民主、协商民主和自治的集中体现。"票决"是"票决"参与者以手势、姿势、仪式、声音、文字、网投、公投等行使权利和意思表示,"票决"有公开票决和秘密票决两种。"票决"历经前资本主义、资本主义和社会主义三个阶段;"票决"从公开"票决"逐步向秘密"票决"过渡;但是,凡是能够被量化的"权利"例如股权表决,可以实行"记名票决"。青岛市市北区浮山实业总公司以其股份"记名票决"建立了经济民主制度。     

The International Political Significance of Chinese and US Foreign Aid: As Seen in United Nations General Assembly Voting

The effect of China’s rapid development on Sino-US relations and the existing international order is an important theoretical issue in current international relations research. We use empirical research methods to explore whether and how China has influenced the results of US “vote-buying” in the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) through foreign aid. We find that through the mechanisms of foreign policy preferences, vulnerability and credibility, Chinese foreign aid has decreased US manipulation of UNGA voting. However, this is not a subjective strategic choice on China’s part but the objective result of Chinese economic development. Taking the game of Sino-US foreign aid in international politics as the entry point and squarely facing the structural contradictions and competition that exist between China and the US will help us understand not only the problems and obstacles China will encounter on its future developmental path, but also the necessity and difficulty of risk control in Sino-US relations.     

Women,Political Participation,and the Arab Spring: Political Awareness and Participation in Democratizing Tunisia

This research examines the constraints to female political participation in democratizing Tunisia. Analyzing data from the Voter Registration & Voter Confidence Assessment in Tunisia Survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) in March 2011 shows stark differences between men and women in their levels of political awareness, which causes a barrier to female political participation. Substantiated by a battery of tests, this gap is primarily structured by differences in university-level education and income levels. Contributing factors to explain the gap are differences in the degree of female public presence in urban settings, as opposed to rural areas, and a lack of access to information about politics. Policy recommendations to reduce this gap are creating educational funds for women and increasing the accessibility of political information outside of the capital.     

从多数政治走向共识政治——完善县级人大代表选举投票方法的思考

中国县级人大代表选举采用的投票方法是全额连记法。此方法虽然简单易懂,却典型地体现多数政治的缺陷。在此投票方法下,一些群体的声音与利益不易得到表达,也容易触发策略性投票。而认可票制能较好地解决全额连记法存在的问题,进而实现共识政治,也有利于和谐社会的实现。中国如要改进县级人大代表选举的投票方法,认可票制是较好的选择。     

Rotten Parents and Disciplined Children: A Politico‐Economic Theory of Public Expenditure and Debt

This paper proposes a dynamic politico‐economic theory of fiscal policy in a world comprising a set of small open economies, whose driving force is the intergenerational conflict over debt, taxes, and public goods. Subsequent generations of voters choose fiscal policy through repeated elections. The presence of young voters induces fiscal discipline, that is, low taxes and low debt accumulation. The paper characterizes the Markov‐perfect equilibrium of the voting game in each economy, as well as the stationary equilibrium debt distribution and interest rate of the world economy. The equilibrium can reproduce some salient features of fiscal policy in modern economies.     

One Person,Many Votes: Divided Majority and Information Aggregation

This paper shows that information imperfections and common values can solve coordination problems in multicandidate elections. We analyze an election in which (i) the majority is divided between two alternatives and (ii) the minority backs a third alternative, which the majority views as strictly inferior. Standard analyses assume voters have a fixed preference ordering over candidates. Coordination problems cannot be overcome in such a case, and it is possible that inferior candidates win. In our setup the majority is also divided as a result of information imperfections. The majority thus faces two problems: aggregating information and coordinating to defeat the minority candidate. We show that when the common value component is strong enough, approval voting produces full information and coordination equivalence: the equilibrium is unique and solves both problems. Thus, the need for information aggregation helps resolve the majority's coordination problem under approval voting. This is not the case under standard electoral systems.     

Combinatorial Voting

We study elections that simultaneously decide multiple issues, where voters have independent private values over bundles of issues. The innovation is in considering nonseparable preferences, where issues may be complements or substitutes. Voters face a political exposure problem: the optimal vote for a particular issue will depend on the resolution of the other issues. Moreover, the probabilities that the other issues will pass should be conditioned on being pivotal. We prove that equilibrium exists when distributions over values have full support or when issues are complements. We then study large elections with two issues. There exists a nonempty open set of distributions where the probability of either issue passing fails to converge to either 1 or 0 for all limit equilibria. Thus, the outcomes of large elections are not generically predictable with independent private values, despite the fact that there is no aggregate uncertainty regarding fundamentals. While the Condorcet winner is not necessarily the outcome of a multi‐issue election, we provide sufficient conditions that guarantee the implementation of the Condorcet winner.     

“What's the Matter With Kansas?” A Sociological Answer

Thomas Frank's book poses a question: Why do working people in Kansas vote for Republican candidates when supporting them is antithetical to their economic interests? This article analyzes the statistical evidence for such alleged deviant voting and finds support for his thesis that the working class does vote Republican. Also supported is his principal causal suggestion for this hypothesized “backlash,” the decline in average county population. But both variables lack a supporting theory. A “structural ecological” explanation for both facts is introduced that claims that the fear that whites experience as the white population shrinks causes the backlash reaction and the Republican vote that Frank describes. Statistical tests support the alternative explanation and illustrate the difference between Frank's ethnography‐based arguments and the approach that most sociologists use.