Automatic thematic classification of election manifestos

We digitized three years of Dutch election manifestos annotated by the Dutch political scientist Isaac Lipschits. We used these data to train a classifier that can automatically label new, unseen election manifestos with themes. Having the manifestos in a uniform XML format with all paragraphs annotated with their themes has advantages for both electronic publishing of the data and diachronic comparative data analysis. The data that we created will be disclosed to the public through a search interface. This means that it will be possible to query the data and filter them on themes and parties. We optimized the Lipschits classifier on the task of classifying election manifestos using models trained on earlier years. We built a classifier that is suited for classifying election manifestos from 2002 onwards using the data from the 1980s and 1990s. We evaluated the results by having a domain expert manually assess a sample of the classified data. We found that our automatic classifier obtains the same precision as a human classifier on unseen data. Its recall could be improved by extending the set of themes with newly emerged themes. Thus when using old political texts to classify new texts, work is needed to link and expand the set of themes to newer topics.     

Sustainability transitions: A political coalition perspective

In the case of technology transitions to low-carbon sources of energy, there is growing evidence that even in countries with a strong political consensus in favor of a transition, the pace has been slow in comparison with the need to reduce greenhouse gases. One factor that affects the slowness of the transition is political resistance from the incumbent industrial regime. Using data on the mobilization of resistance from the fossil-fuel industry in the United States, the study builds on the growing literature on the political dimensions of sustainability transitions by drawing attention to the role of incumbent regime coalitions, grassroots coalitions in support of green transition policies, and countervailing industrial power. Case studies of political coalitions for ballot propositions in the U.S. are used to show how countervailing industrial power, especially from the technology and financial sector, can tip the balance of electoral spending in favor of grassroots organizations.     

思想政治教育专业应用型人才培养模式的重构思考--以乐山师范学院为例

在中国高等教育大众化的背景下,培养应用型的专业人才是高校的主要任务,当前以应用技术为导向提升本科培养质量的转型发展成为紧迫任务。思想政治教育专业是我国高校一个特殊重要的专业,培养更高质量和适应社会发展需要的应用人才,调整培养定位和转型发展,是普通本科院校培养思想政治教育专业人才的必由之路。本文在认真分析总结思想政治教育专业培养经验和成效的基础上,依据社会发展需要,探讨专业培养定位调整,构建精细化、个性化人才培养模式以及实现路径和策略,以期全面提高人才培养质量。     

The effect of toxicity on COVID-19 news network formation in political subcommunities on Reddit: An affiliation network approach

Political polarization remains perhaps the “greatest barrier” to effective COVID-19 pandemic mitigation measures in the United States. Social media has been implicated in fueling this polarization. In this paper, we uncover the network of COVID-19 related news sources shared to 30 politically biased and 2 neutral subcommunities on Reddit. We find, using exponential random graph modeling, that news sources associated with highly toxic – “rude, disrespectful” – content are more likely to be shared across political subreddits. We also find homophily according to toxicity levels in the network of online news sources. Our findings suggest that news sources associated with high toxicity are rewarded with prominent positions in the resultant network. The toxicity in COVID-19 discussions may fuel political polarization by denigrating ideological opponents and politicizing responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, all to the detriment of mitigation measures. Public health practitioners should monitor toxicity in public online discussions to familiarize themselves with emerging political arguments that threaten adherence to public health crises management. We also recommend, based on our findings, that social media platforms algorithmically promote neutral and scientific news sources to reduce toxic discussion in subcommunities and encourage compliance with public health recommendations in the fight against COVID-19.     

Ensuring technical competency for management of research-focused organizations

Does a national research-focused organization need a technically competent leader? This study provides preliminary answers to that question using a natural experiment underway at the Department of Energy (DOE): a leader with significant high-level management experience superior to that of his predecessors, but no relevant technical experience was appointed to run the vast scientific research operation. The following hypothesis is proposed: A major risk of allowing technically-unqualified leadership is that an amateur can be more easily manipulated by special interests against the best interests of the nation. The hypothesis is tested by technically analyzing three case studies on proposals from the Secretary of Energy. The results show 1) requests for budget cuts undermining DOE's mission, 2) requests for redundant studies wasting DOE resources, and 3) counter-productive recommendations derived from a misrepresentation of the studies' results, which indicate technical competence is important for DOE leadership. These preliminary results indicate technical competency is important for leaders running organizations that oversee research. Finally, a potential policy safe guard to the risks of extreme technical incompetence is provided, which can be applied to either independent- or politically-appointed bureaucrats.     

高职思想政治理论课程课堂实践教学对策研究

从高职院校思想政治理论课程课堂实践教学的内涵、存在的问题出发,着重阐述高职院校思想政治理论课程课堂实践教学的研究对策。     

奥林匹克运动实践中的危机倾向

现代奥林匹克运动在取得巨大成就的同时，也面临许多难以解决的问题，潜伏着严重的危机，主要是：政治干扰，民族问题，由于职业选手参赛而引发的信仰危机和参赛条件的不平等，商业化与奥林匹克理想的矛盾，商业化加大地区间体育发展的差距及其对奥运会正常赛事的干预。     

试论爱伦·坡小说的几个特点及其成因

19世纪美国著名小说家爱伦.坡的小说,偏爱冷色调,常以恐怖、变态心理为主要内容,对人物的双重性格的刻画细致入微,善于用作品的幻想表现他本人的清醒与睿智,强调文章应产生的效果,并且善于用第一人称来宣泄自身情感。这一系列特点的形成,与爱伦.坡本人的身世成长经历及其爱好密不可分。     

《中国图书馆分类法》“小说”部分类目设置分析

本文通过对《中图法》中国文学小说类目设置的分析,结合分类法的分类原则和分类实践,对小说部分类目的设置提出疑义,进行剖析,并提出修改建议。     

加强大学生政治参与的思考

培养大学生理性政治参与意识,端正大学生政治参与动机,提高大学生政治参与能力,破解大学生政治参与难题,实现大学生的有序、理性的政治参与对于增强大学生的政治责任感、归属感,加快我国政治发展、推动社会全面进步具有重要的意义。