Determinants of legislative turnover in Western Europe, 1945–2015

This article explains legislative turnover in eight West European legislatures over 152 general elections in the period 1945–2015. Turnover is measured as the rate of individual membership change in unicameral or lower chambers. It is the outcome of a legislative recruitment process with a supply and a demand side. Decisions made by contenders affect supply, while decisions made by parties and voters influence demand. Such decisions are shaped by four political and institutional factors: the institutional context of political careers, or structure of political career opportunities; political party characteristics; electoral swings; and electoral systems. Ten specific hypotheses are tested within this theoretical framework. The structure of political career opportunities is the most decisive factor explaining variability in turnover rates, followed by electoral swings and political parties. Electoral systems show less substantive effects. Electoral volatility is the predictor with the most substantive effects, followed by duration of legislative term, strength of bicameralism, regional authority, gender quotas, level of legislative income and district magnitude.     

Unheard Voices: Why Former Child Welfare Workers Left Their Positions

This mixed methods study used a snowball sample (n = 54) to capture retrospective insight from former public child welfare workers about job satisfaction and reasons they left their positions. Responses to open-ended questions suggested a theme of lack of organizational support as the primary reason they left. Former workers also reported that they wanted a voice and someone to hear their concerns, greater recognition, and opportunity to practice self-care. Quantitatively, workers in their positions 8 years or longer were the most satisfied on a 19-item global scale examining job satisfaction. Respondents were unhappy with their workloads and emotional impact of their positions.     

National parliamentary control and voting in the Council of the European Union

This article explores the different ways governments express dissent in the Council of the European Union (EU) through ‘No’ votes, abstentions and recorded negative statements. A game-theoretical model is presented that studies voting behaviour and analyses how the national parliaments’ levels of control over their governments’ EU policies affect it. It is concluded that governments that are strongly controlled by their parliaments are not more likely to express dissent. However, when they do express dissent, they vote ‘No’ more often. Parliamentary control depends on the presence of formal oversight institutions as well as the motivation of parliamentarians to hold their governments accountable. Empirical support is found in an analysis of votes on 1,387 legislative proposals that represent more than a decade of Council decision making in the period 2004–2014. This article contributes to the discussion on the involvement of national parliaments in EU affairs, and clearly distinguishes the different forms of dissent in Council decision making.     

企业知识型员工离职与管理初探

知识型员工离职既有个人的因素，如较为自我的个性特征、强烈的成就动机、较少的社会阅历等，又有企业的因素，如企业性质与规模、工作压力与内容、员：亡培训与工作氛围等。通过关心和授权知识型员工并培养知识型员工的责任意识等措施，加强对知识型员工的人文管理，减少知识型员工的离职率。另一方面，通过建立人才信息库、人才梯队建设、离职面谈、合同约束等措施，减少知识型员工离职给企业带来的消极影响。     

英国宪政的精髓:议会主权与司法独立相结合的宪政体制

英国作为创建近代宪政制度的开路先锋,既没有成熟的宪政模式可资借鉴,也缺乏系统的宪政理论以供指导。然而,英国宪政却在实践中运行顺畅、效果良好,并在总体上表现出平稳性与实用性的特征。造成这一现象的根本原因在于,议会主权与司法独立相结合的宪政体制。前者关乎国家的内政、外交及其国家治理,通过不同权力之间的配置制约王权;后者关乎社会秩序与正义,通过特殊的"技艺理性",以看似顽固不变的改良方式维持着对于任何专断权力的制约。     

Institutional Foundations of Legislative Turnover: A Comparative Analysis of the Swiss Cantons

Abstract: The rate of turnover within parliaments remains an understudied area of research. The present paper contributes to filling this gap by presenting the first comparable macro‐level data on legislative turnover in the 26 Swiss cantonal legislatures. In examining the strikingly different levels of turnover in sub‐national Swiss parliaments between 1993 and 2011, the focus is on politico‐institutional features. Multilevel models reveal that two hitherto neglected institutional variables are correlated with legislative turnover. In addition to the reduction of parliamentary size, we find the strength of a cantonal parliament to affect turnover rates on the Swiss sub‐national level. Moreover, we show that proportional representation significantly promotes parliamentary elite circulation. Among the non‐institutional covariates, we find that electoral volatility is also relevant in explaining legislative turnover rates.     

Institutional Determinants of Legislative Turnover in the German State Parliaments: 1947–2012

More than 60 years of turnover data were collected to draw a unique picture of membership circulation in the German state parliaments between 1947 and 2012. The empirical study draws on new institutionalist theories in search of variables that might complement electoral volatility in explaining turnover patterns in sub-central Germany. Five institutional variables are tested using hierarchical models. From the substantial set of 196 elections, several robust conclusions can be drawn. The level of legislative turnover is affected by the length of the electoral term, professionalisation and institutionalisation of a legislature, and by changes in parliamentary size. By contrast, the small range of electoral system variation does not add anything to the explanation of variation in aggregate turnover rates at the German sub-central level.     

集体离职研究综述与展望

近年来，许多研究者开始关注集体离职研究，出现了大量探讨其群体过程机制的实证研究并建 立了相关理论模型，这对于揭示集体离职的规律以及防范集体离职具有重要意义。本研究通过文献综述，把以 往集体离职过程研究的路径归纳为影响因素与影响过程路径、群体互动过程路径、决策机制路径，并对相关研 究进行了评述。未来研究应继续深入考察集体离职的过程机制，尤其是连带性离职中的过程机制以及引导和干 预集体离职意向的对策研究。     

When Do Men Represent Women’s Interests in Parliament? How the Presence of Women in Parliament Affects the Legislative Behavior of Male Politicians

This paper analyzes the conditions affecting male Members of Parliaments’ (MPs) proclivity for representing women’s interests. It particularly explores whether the presence of female MPs has an effect on men’s parliamentary behavior. Three contrasting effects are discussed in the literature: (1) A spillover effect which postulates that men will become more likely to act on behalf of women if the number of female MPs increases, (2) a group‐threat effect which creates a hostile backlash among male MPs, or (3) a specialization effect which makes male MPs less likely to represent women because this is typically seen as a function that should be fulfilled by female MPs. Empirically, this paper analyzes the representation of women’s issues in parliamentary questions tabled in the German Bundestag (1998‐2013) by using automated content analysis. The results support the specialization hypothesis and show that male MPs reduce their intensity of women’s representation if the proportion of female MPs is high.