Small Parties and the Senate Revisited: The Consequences of the Enlargement of the Senate in 1984

An intriguing feature of electoral systems is that apparently insignificant modifications of their constituent rules can have important consequences. One such potentially important change, following the increase in the size of the Senate in 1984, was the shift from five to six places for each state to be filled at each half Senate election. Attention has been drawn, most notably by Sharman \[1986. 'The Senate, Small Parties and the Balance of Power.' Politics 21(2): 20-3], to the capacity of this change to reduce the representation of small parties, with adverse consequences for the role of the Senate in national government. A decline in Labor's share of the vote and growth in support for minor parties are identified as the primary reasons why the predicted outcomes have not eventuated. The paper speculates about the possible future relevance of Sharman's argument.     

Minor Parties and the Legislative Process in the Australian Senate: A Study of the 1993 Budget

In 1993, minor parties in the Australian Senate played a prominent role in negotiating changes to the ALP government's budget. The term 'obstructionist' was widely applied by the media and the Labor Party in describing these actions, particularly when it came to the Greens' (WA) efforts to change aspects of the budget bills. This article develops a conceptual framework through which the behaviour of the minor parties in the Senate might be viewed. Using the 1993 budget as an example, the article considers the capacity of minor parties to bring about legislative changes, as well as the type and level of resistance they pose to the executive.     

Shirking and Ideology: Defense in the Senate

A repeated finding in political science is the influence of a representative's so-called ideology on roll call voting in the U.S. House and Senate. Many of these studies attempt explicitly to separate the impact on roll call voting of "personal" ideology from that of constituency ideological preferences. In these studies, personal ideology is viewed as a form of shirking in which members pursue their own policy preferences rather than those of their constituents. This paper shows, at least for the case of defense in the Senate in the 1980s, that the evidence is sufficient to reject the claim that shirking represents the consumption of personal ideological policy preferences. Instead, the apparent impact of shirking on defense voting was an instrumental, reelection-oriented response to President Reagan's ability to muster popular support for his defense build up, and thus cannot be regarded as shirking at all.     

Postmaterialism and the Vote for the Senate in Australia

There is a disagreement in the political science literature regarding the impact of postmaterialism upon Australian politics. Elim Papadakis, and Ian McAllister and Clive Bean argued that postmaterialist values were expressed through support for the minor parties in the 1990 federal election. But David Gow, analysing the same data, found no evidence supporting postmaterialist theory. In this research note, I re-analyse the data and present fresh evidence which suggests that there is a postmaterialist effect associated with voting for the minor parties in the Senate. My analysis also addresses the question of modelling the vote for the Senate to adequately account for the representation of new politics values by the minor parties.     

The Australian Senate as a 'House of Review'

The contested term 'house of review', which is commonly applied to the Senate, is discussed in light of evidence from recent political debates. The Senate is seen to review government action in general rather than simply legislation forwarded from the House of Representatives. Review implies scrutiny of a government held responsible for decisions. It is to be distinguished from the process of negotiating over the substance of policy in which responsibility is shared between the government and other parties. If review is associated with holding responsible governments accountable, it is not an intrinsically upper house function but a parliamentary function which a Senate with an anti-government majority is better fitted to perform. Strong bicameralism is not inherently incompatible with responsible government.     

南京参议院议员人数与《临时约法》的效力

一般认为《临时约法》的制定和颁布是南京参议院最重要的立法成就之一。它粗线条地勾勒了中华民国过渡时期政治体制的基本轮廓,通过法律形式确立了自由、平等等资产阶级的立国原则,对近代中国政治发展产生了深远影响。但笔翻阅有关资料发现,关于《临时约法》是否有效的问题还有不同声音。     

Issue Salience and Bill Introduction in the House and Senate

I propose that many if not most bills introduced in the House and Senate represent electoral position taking on the part of members. Thousands of bills are introduced every year, only a fraction of which are passed into law, much less seriously considered in the chamber. Moreover, bills are very good position-taking devices in that they can appear to voters to be a credible step in the electoral process. I search for electoral motivations by examining the content of the bills members introduce. For five different policy areas, and in both the House and the Senate, I find strong correlations between indicators of issue salience in members’ districts and the number of bills the member introduces within the policy area. In addition, in the House the relationship between salience and bill introduction is strongest among vulnerable members, although in the Senate vulnerability does not influence the relationship.     

民俗文化的地方性表现--以京东高碑店村的节日传统为个案

在“国家一社会“的对峙框架下,“地方“①在中国社会秩序形成过程中的重要性,是为许多中国研究的学者所认可的.本文试图将“地方“与“地方性“这两个对中国民众的社会存在方式具有根本性意义②的概念,贯穿于传统节日文化的探讨之中.我们知道,任何一种节日习俗在各个地方的表现都不可能是均质的,而要发现节日地方性表现的丰富性及其所包含的文化解释,就必须将研究的视角由宏观向微观逐渐转移.这样,村落作为地域性社区的基本空间单位的重要性就凸现了出来.……     

20世纪30-40年代的实业界星五聚餐会

星五聚餐会是由中国银行总经理张公权发起而逐渐形成的一个以定期的聚会、座谈为主要活动方式的社会团体。1932年3月,该团体开始在上海举行定期聚餐座谈,抗战时期先后迁到香港、重庆等地举行,抗战胜利后主要在上海、重庆举行,一直延续到1952年为止。在前后20年间,星五聚餐会的聚餐座谈活动多达近千次,极少间断。与聚餐会直接相联系的有各地中国国货公司的创建,以及包括西南实业协会在内的抗战时期后方各主要工业团体组织。随着星五聚餐会影响的扩大,在抗战时期的昆明、贵州、桂林、成都以及抗战胜利后的武汉等地的工商实业界中,都出现了星五…     

The Purification of the Body in Tantric Ritual Representation

Indo-Iranian Journal -     

美国与1966年联合国中国代表权问题

1964年以后,国际社会支持中国恢复在联合国席位的力量日益增强。在1966年联合国关于中国代表权问题的讨论中,为阻止中国进入联合国,美国投入了极大的精力。在这一过程中,美国及其盟国和蒋介石集团发生了尖锐的矛盾,经过讨价还价,美国在盟国的压力下作了相应的让步,美蒋最终达成妥协,中国仍然被排除在联合国之外。