Bounded oligarchy: How and when factions constrain leaders in party position-taking

This work investigates the process of position-taking, focussing on the factional bargaining within the party. Exploiting two recently built datasets that estimated the policy positions of Italian parties and factions from 1946 to 2010, we investigate if and to what extent factions bind the party leader in choosing the platform. We find confirmation for the idea that party positions are linked to factional preferences. Overall, the party works as a ‘bounded oligarchy’. Furthermore, the electoral payoff of party unity increases the impact of factional constraints when general elections approach. In line with the cartel party theory, however, autonomous leaders who are directly elected by a wider selectorate can get rid of factional ties choosing more moderate and vote-maximizing platforms.     

Identification process in mass graves from the Spanish Civil War II

The identification process of a mass grave from the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) is presented. The presumed location of the grave, as well as the presumed number and identities of the persons buried in the grave were obtained exclusively from witnesses' and relatives' testimonies. In agreement with the testimonies, the grave was located at the indicated location and five skeletons were exhumed. Also in agreement with the testimonies, the osteological and DNA study led investigators to propose the identification of two kin groups, a father and his son and a pair of brothers. But the genetic study did not support the identification of a fifth man presumed to have been buried in the grave. The differences and similarities between this case and another case reported earlier are discussed.     

Obesity in Europe: the strategy of the European Union from a public health law perspective

In 2007 the European Commission published a White Paper on a "Strategy on nutrition, overweight and obesity", proposing measures to impede the current trend towards a steady gain in weight by Union citizens. In this article, these ideas are discussed critically in the light of the competences of the Union and from a public health law perspective, in order to scrutinise the effectiveness of the measures and to identify shortcomings in the White Paper. One focus of this article will be European food legislation, as food is one of the leading causes of people being overweight or obese.     

The permanence of temporary services: The reliance of Canadian federal departments on policy and management consultants

The use of external consultants in government management and policy realms has drawn increasing attention in many countries including Canada. Studies were undertaken internationally in the 1990s and 2000s as legislatures and their accounting arms became concerned with the hidden costs of “corporatization” of the public service and tried to expand benchmarking measures for government efficiency to include external consultants. Accounting for these increases in expenditures on consultancy, however, remains a challenge given the state of governmental financial and personnel reporting. The data on which existing reports have been drawn are very weak. This article examines results using a new dataset compiled from Proactive Disclosure reports in order to help clarify the situation of policy and management consulting in Canada at the departmental level.     

Population genetic analysis of 15 autosomal STRs loci in the central region of Argentina

Allele frequencies, together with some parameters of forensic interest, for 15 STRs included in the Powerplex-16 System (CSF1PO, D3S1358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D21S11, FGA, Penta D, Penta E, TH01, TPOX and VWA) were estimated from a sample set of 1368 unrelated individuals from three of the most densely populated provinces of Argentina. No deviations from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium were observed using the Bonferroni correction for the number of loci analyzed. Comparative analyses between our population data and that of other Argentinean databases previously published are presented and discussed. The most informative loci in our data set is the Penta E Loci with discrimination power larger than 0.98 and typical paternity index larger than 4.3. Our results demonstrate that these loci are robust since different laboratories and sample sets provided highly consistent results. This observation underscores the usefulness of these markers systems for human identification and parentage testing.