The Winner Takes It All: Revisiting the Effect of Direct Democracy on Citizens’ Political Support

Despite the strong theoretical expectations about the beneficial effect of direct democratic instruments on citizens’ political support, the empirical evidence is scarce and inconsistent. We add to this literature by studying the effect of the use of a direct democratic process on citizens’ political support and its underlying causal mechanism. Using a unique research design that combines a strong test of causality with a high level of ecological validity, we surveyed inhabitants of a Belgian neighborhood that held a local referendum and a comparison group (i.e. inhabitants of a comparable neighborhood without referendum) before and after the referendum (n = 1049). Using difference-in-differences analysis and first difference regression analysis, we show that in line with our expectations the increase in political support following the referendum is not driven by involvement or procedural fairness perceptions but by an increase in support levels among the winners of the decision. Moreover, despite the contested nature of the issue, losers’ level of political support did not decrease significantly after the result of the referendum was announced.     

Pathways from Childhood Maltreatment to Unsupportive Emotion Socialization: Implications for Children’s Emotional Inhibition

Journal of Family Violence - Adults who have experienced child maltreatment report problems with emotion regulation (ER) and parenting difficulties, which have been associated with maladaptation in...     

Institutionalized Evaluation and Intergovernmental Relations: The Case of Coastal Zone Management

The enactment of national environmental management programswas prompted, in large part, by the perceived failure of stateand local government officials to deal adequately with pollutioncontrol and resource management problems. Paradoxically, theimplementation of several important environmental managementprograms relies heavily on these same state and local officials.Congress has sought to resolve this paradox by requiring federalevaluation of state and local environmental planning and managementactivities. Many of these evaluations are little more than routinefiscal audits. However one agency, the Office of Coastal ZoneManagement, has sought to develop a systematic evaluation processfocusing on all aspects of state coastal zone programs. Theseevaluative efforts have led to intergovernmental tensions, mostnotably with regard to the purposes and methods of evaluation,the appropriate roles of federal and state officials, and theresources available for evaluation. In spite of these tensions,there is broad agreement about the value of the evaluation processand its potential applicability in other contexts.     

Perceptions of domestic violence and mock jurors' sentencing decisions

The purpose of the investigation was to examine the influence of the victim's provocation and hopefulness on the sentencing of a husband convicted of domestic violence. It was hypothesized that mock jurors would assign less-severe sentencing if the victim was provoking and hopeful. Mock jurors read one of four factorial court case combinations of provocation and hopefulness and rendered an individual predeliberation sentence and a group postdeliberation sentence. Analyses revealed a significant effect of provocation, indicating that participants reduced the sentencing for the defendant when the wife was provoking relative to when she was not provoking. The analyses also revealed an effect of gender on predeliberation sentencing, with women delivering more-severe sentences than men. The effect of gender was not present in the postdeliberation sentencing, indicating that deliberation produced a sentencing compromise between women and men. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Kritische Ereignisse,Memory Frames und Protest in Südkorea (1980–1987)

Am Fallbeispiel der südkoreanischen Demokratiebewegung geht es um die Frage, wie sich die kollektive Erinnerung an vergangene Ereignisse (?Memory Frame“) auf den Verlauf von Protestwellen auswirkt. Der Artikel beginnt mit einer Diskussion von Sewells ?Eventful History“-Ansatz. Davon ausgehend wird im zweiten Schritt das Konzept der Memory Frames entwickelt, das der Analyse von Geschichtskonstruktionen in Protestbewegungen dient. Im dritten Schritt werden die Memory Frames der vormodernen Choson-Dynastie, der Nachkriegsdiktaturen und der Demokratiebewegung einander gegenüber gestellt. Im vierten Schritt geht es darum, welche historischen Ereignisse für den Memory Frame der Demokratiebewegung ausschlaggebend waren. Im fünften Schritt wird gezeigt, wie sich mit dem Konzept der Memory Frames der rhythmische Verlauf von Protestwellen in Südkorea (1981–1986) erklären lässt. Die Untersuchung mündet schließlich in dem Ergebnis, dass die regelmäßigen Rhythmen auf einem eigendynamischen Kreislauf aus Erinnerung, Protest, Konfrontation und Bestätigung beruhten.     

Sponsorship Effects in Online Surveys

Political Behavior - Many academic surveys administered online include a banner along the top of the survey displaying the name or logo of the researcher’s university. These banners may...