The executive lawmaking agenda: Political parties,prime ministers,and policy change in Australia

In Westminster systems, governments enjoy a privileged position in the lawmaking process that they can use to deliver on their campaign promises and achieve their policy goals. What policy areas do governments seek to affect through lawmaking? How stable is the executive lawmaking agenda? How responsive is that agenda to changes triggered by elections or by transitions in prime minister? This study uses a dataset of 3982 Australian bills introduced between 2000 and 2017 to answer these questions. While it finds considerable stability in the policy content of executive lawmaking agendas, the analysis also indicates that Australia's executive lawmaking agenda is more responsive to changes in prime minister than to changes in the party in power. As the first application of the comparative policy agendas approaches to government bills in Australia, this article offers new insights into executive lawmaking priorities during an especially turbulent period in Australian politics.     

Introduction: not a normal election: roots and consequences

The March 2018 Italian general elections can be described as a historic turning point, another watershed moment in the turbulent history of contemporary Italian politics. After a stormy and complex legislative term, characterized by a variety of institutional and political phenomena, Italy has faced one of the most important electoral challenges since the return of democracy in the mid-1940s. After examining the major political events that led to the latest general elections, this introductory article presents and analyses the rules, the actors and the outcomes of the electoral contest that has seen the victory of two anti-establishment parties: the Five Star Movement and the League. In the concluding section, the article discusses the potential tensions that may emerge from the clash between the populist attitude of the new governing parties and the constitutional constraints of a liberal democratic regime.     

Political Time in a Westminster Democracy: The Canadian Case

Stephen Skowronek’s idea of political time is tested by applying it to Canada. Skowronek identified a recurring cycle in US presidential politics, in which a coalition was forged around a distinctive set of ideas, dominated the political scene, and then crumbled, making way for a new coalition; a president’s ability to act as an agent of change depended on his place in this cycle. The concept of political time offers insights for the study of Westminster democracies, but Skowronek’s typology cannot be transplanted from the US to the Canadian context. A political orthodoxy cannot be easily identified in Canada, and prime ministers cannot be clearly labeled as affiliated with or opposed to the ideas of a given era. Some seem determined to play a corrective role, accepting much of the orthodoxy but reconstructing some elements of it. This problem of classification is amplified by the very short term of some prime ministers, by the very long term of others, and by a multiparty system, which has meant that Canadians often end up with prime ministers who are out of synch with the dominant ideas of their age. When applying Skowronek’s ideas to Canada, they emerge as overly structural and not sensitive enough to the possibility that leaders can fail to perform according to type.     

明代勋爵承袭与勋臣宗族活动初探

明代公、侯、伯勋爵承袭遵照一套完整的勘验制度,以诰券、宗图为准,由五府、吏部执行。在这种制度的整肃下,勋贵家族组织在形式上向上古封建宗法礼制靠拢,部分族众的宗族意识不断提高,明皇朝的统治秩序与政权合理性亦借此彰显。但随着明代中后期勋臣家族生齿日繁,兼之勋爵袭封制度出现纰漏与畸变,勋贵子弟争袭爵位的现象频繁发生,宗族的秩序性受到冲击,勋臣宗族组织僵化复古,依附于国家强权而缺乏自我调节功能的特性暴露无遗。     

宋代枢密院的失势与军事决策权的转移

学术界关于宋代相权削弱的观点,其核心论据是将枢密院视为分割宰相权力的一个建制,认为宋代军权由枢密院专掌,中书宰相无权过问,仅是行政首脑而已。其实,在两宋时期,宰相的军权自始至终一直存在,并且渐次加强;与此相对应的是枢密院的权力、地位逐步削弱,并最终沦为宰相的下属机构。这一局面的形成是由宋代重文抑武的基本国策所决定的。宋初面临的主要社会矛盾也决定了以枢密使专司军政的目的是分割、削弱枢密使权力,还政于宰相。     

论三国时期的"君臣之义"

在三国时期,君臣之义属于“大义”的范畴,这是人们所公认的。故当时无论是对为君之义还是对为臣之义,都有一整套规定性内容。但和其他封建伦理道德一样,君臣之义在三国时期,也在很多时候成为了军阀、权臣和野心家进行割据、篡位的手段,成为他们种种不义行为的遮羞布。     

Welcome home: reconciliation,Vietnam veterans,and Anzac during the Hawke government

Recent studies regarding reconciliation have argued that restorative justice creates depoliticised consensus. This paper tests this argument by exploring the Hawke government’s role in the reconciliation of the Australian public with Vietnam veterans in 1987, and the opportunities that this resolution created to mark Anzac Day free of the complicating tensions that had characterised the day in the period since the Vietnam War. It argues that the restorative justice evident in the reincorporation of Vietnam veterans into national narratives of Anzac provided opportunities for political elites like Hawke to convincingly employ Anzac as an ideograph and inscribe the day with new meaning. This process had profound continuing effects for the marking of Anzac Day that demonstrate the politically limiting effects of restorative justice.     

试论诸葛亮的从政心理与丞相之路

面对曹、孙、刘三家争夺天下的政治局面 ,诸葛亮为何最终选择了刘备 ,这需要对他的从政心理作深层次的剖析。诸葛亮投奔刘备是根据自身条件作出的最明智的抉择。他看中的是刘备在军事和人力资源上的弱势 ,而不是为了拥刘反曹、中兴汉室。由于关羽成了诸葛亮丞相之路上的最大障碍 ,故其不惜假吴军之手翦除之。诸葛亮又运用权术分割了法正的部分权力。经过十余年的苦心经营 ,诸葛亮终于登上了丞相的宝座。     

When populists meet technocrats. The Italian innovation in government formation

This article provides an analysis of how the 4 March Italian electoral results have affected the formation of the government. Numerically there existed four possible governing coalitions: Five Star Movement (M.5.S.) plus Centre-Right; M.5.S. plus Democratic Party; Centre-Right plus Democratic Party; M.5.S. plus League. Once the resigning secretary of the Democratic Party decided that his party had to go and remain in the opposition and the M.5.S. declared that they would not enter any coalition that included Silvio Berlusconi, politically only one coalition remained feasible. After a long process of negotiations revealing that their platforms could converge, Di Maio’s M.5.S. and Salvini’s League reached an agreement, identified the head of the government, drafted a list of Ministers. The president of the republic constitutionally legitimate refusal to appoint one of those ministers because of his anti-Euro and anti-European stances seemed to wreck the agreement. Also, in order to avoid a non-partisan government and, probably, snap elections, the M.5.S. and the League downgraded the controversial minister and proceed to the formation of the government led by neophyte law professor Giuseppe Conte. In the first week of June an unprecedented government duly received the confidence of the Italian parliament.     

孟子孝论对孔子思想的发展与偏离——从"以正致谏"到"父子不责善"

在家庭伦理层面上,孔子孝论注重父子自然亲情,倡导子女人格平等,父义则从,父不义则谏;主张以义辅亲,"以正致谏"。孔子、曾子"以正致谏"的谏亲原则被孟子完全地移植到社会政治伦理中,泛伦理化的倾向有增无减。孟子"君臣相责以善"的"善"之内涵当为仁义,即以仁义这一最高价值理性衡评君臣之间关系。"君臣相责以善"施行的前提是将君臣关系重新论证为以德相交的"友",而非传统意义上的以势利相交,"返祖"化现象的背后是为其民本主义政治立场张目。但是,必须指出的是,孟子"父子不责善"思想已经有别于孔子、曾子与子思在家庭伦理语境中倡导的以义辅亲的伦理精神。