Shall we follow the money? Anti-mafia policies and electoral competition

Building upon the evidence that the mafia increases the degree of vote concentration, we use data on regional elections in Sicily to estimate the impact of anti-mafia policies on electoral competition. We find robust evidence that the reassignment for social purposes of property and assets seized to the mafia reduces the degree of electoral concentration. This result supports the hypothesis that policies that create social value, such as the reallocation to social-driven organizations, are more effective than those targeted to public and political institutions.     

Why do American Indians vote Democratic?

We examine the relationship between a relatively large population of American Indians in eastern Oklahoma and the slow pace of that region's partisan realignment. With a 2012 exit poll, we empirically examine whether American Indians’ cultural ties and their socio-economic characteristics affected their vote choices. Because of their greater poverty, American Indians are more economically progressive and vote more Democratic than their white counterparts.     

户主意志主导“海选”分析——以曲陂村为个案研究

村委会直接选举亦称“海选”，指在选举过程中，不预先设定候选人，由选民按照相关规则进行公决的政治制度。长期以来，学界一直认为地方政府的行政能力和村庄的宗族势力在影响着这一中国农村民主制度的成长。而本文却从实证主义出发，从目前学界忽视的一个理论视角——户主意志主导了“海选”，透过“海选”中的户主意志形成的政治的、经济的原因，发现户主意志是为了自身的家户利益而控制手中的选票，这种因个人专断而流失公共权利的行为对农村民主制度建设带来了不得后果。而改变此现状的政治路径是推进农村民主现代化和民主社会化。     

股权相对分散化趋势下双层股权制度的适用问题

双层股权制度有助于改善缺乏弹性的股权结构,保障公司创始人对公司管理权的控制。由于违反了“一股一权”原则,双层股权制度造成公司管理权与公司现金流量请求权的分离,可能诱发更大的公司道德风险,使中小股东的权益保护面临更为严峻的挑战。当前公司股权结构呈现出相对分散化的大趋势,使中小股东进行联合维权的难度进一步加大,有必要完善双层股权制度中保护中小股东的相关规范,切实保障中小股东的合法权益。     

A panacea for Latino and Black voters? Elevated turnout in vote by mail elections

This study analyzes U.S. Census data from citywide elections in Denver, Colorado from 2004 to 2007 in order to determine if a vote by mail format facilitated participation by Latino and Black voters. The multivariate results suggest that both Latino and Black voters participated more often in vote by mail elections, although the Black turnout increase was also affected by the recent change in Colorado's registration policies.     

Land of the Free,Home of the Brave: Voting Accommodations for Older Adults

Voting is a fundamental right for all United States citizens, one that usually continues for elderly people as long as they are alive. As adults age, certain issues regarding voting warrant deeper consideration than in previous years, especially those presenting as a result of impaired sight, hearing difficulty, dementia, or other special needs. What will happen to millions of men and women who have taken the right to vote for granted, but who gradually become immobile or physically impaired? What are states doing to help secure the enfranchisement of an increasing number of older adult voters? The purpose of this article is to address these issues by focusing on the following questions: What has been the historical nature of polling place accommodations for elderly people? What are states doing in terms of accommodating older voters at the polls while ensuring the integrity of the voting process? What effect has recent Help America Vote Act legislation had with regard to polling place accommodations? Our results indicate that accommodations for older voters are being made but are not yet at a level required to serve a rapidly aging population.     

Bribery or just desserts? Evidence on the influence of Congressional reproductive policy voting patterns on PAC contributions from exogenous variation in the sex mix of legislator offspring

Evidence on the relationship between political contributions and legislators’ voting behavior is marred by concerns about endogeneity in the estimation process. Using a legislator’s offspring sex mix as a truly exogenous variable, we employ an instrumental variable estimation procedure to predict the effect of voting behavior on political contributions. Following previous research, we find that a legislator’s proportion daughters has a significant effect on voting behavior for women’s issues, as measured by score in the “Congressional Record on Choice” issued by NARAL Pro-Choice America. In the second stage, we make a unique contribution by demonstrating a significant impact of exogenous voting behavior on PAC contributions, lending further credibility to the hypothesis that Political Action Committees respond to legislators’ voting patterns by “rewarding” political candidates that vote in line with the positions of the PAC, rather than affecting those same votes - at least in this high-profile policy domain.     

论破产重整中债权人利益保护的问题与对策

重整制度是濒临倒闭的企业的生存希望,在金融危机的背景下,重整制度的运用更为人们所重视。新《破产法》实施两年来,从重整制度的适用范围、重整程序的启动、重整计划的制定批准与执行等角度审视,重整制度存在着债权入利益保护方面的问题,需要我们进行反思并提出相应的对策予以完善。     

“I can’t do it if you’re watching” monitoring and reciprocity in clientelism

This study experimentally examines whether or not a private transfer can induce a voter to change an electoral choice based on reciprocity. It also explores whether or not the reciprocal effects of providing a private transfer vary according to the scope and quality of monitoring technologies. The study finds that reciprocity operates under both turnout monitoring and vote choice monitoring. It also finds that the effects of reciprocity are greater under turnout monitoring than under vote choice monitoring only when a voter’s candidate preference on policy grounds is incongruent with the candidate providing a private transfer. The quality of monitoring, however, has little impact, as the effects of reciprocity do not vary according to monitoring probabilities. I conclude by discussing the implications of the findings.     

乡村观念与农民投票偏好——一个北方农村的标本意义

中国最大的问题就是农民问题，没有农村的民主，就没有全国的民主。投票作为农村民主最基本的形式，受到现行乡村观念的极大影响。试以一个北方典型的农业乡村为标本，探析乡村观念对农民投票偏好的影响。