Why do pastoralists in Mali join jihadist groups? A political ecological explanation

Since 2015 jihadist groups have taken control of the Mopti region in central Mali. We ask how such a radical development has been possible in a country previously praised as a bulwark against radical Islam in Africa. While the dominant literature on the crisis in Mali has focused on how global political economic developments and international jihadist thinking and organisation relate to national dynamics, we take a materialist political ecology approach to explain the current situation. By focusing on the micro-politics of two land-use conflicts and how these conflicts are affected by the jihadist expansion, we seek to explain peasant (or pastoral) logics behind joining these armed groups. In particular, pastoralists seem to support the jihadist takeover, because of an anti-state, anti-elite and pro-pastoral jihadist discourse, because they have become increasingly fatigued by and disgruntled with a predatory and corrupt state, and because the development model imposed by the state and international donors has not responded to pastoral priorities. Rent-seeking by government officials has been especially intense in relation to conflicts over pastoral land, environmental management and the fight against desertification. This happened while the international community continued to praise Mali as a model of African democracy.     

Do Labour Parties Suffer from Declining Turnout? Evidence from Norwegian Local Elections

The argument that declining voter turnout harms social democratic parties has received little support in research on national elections, but partisan consequences of declining turnout in local elections has been less explored. Norwegian local elections – where both turnout and support for the Labour Party have declined since the early 1960s – are used as a test case. Analyses of aggregate data gave no systematic support for the hypothesis that Labour suffers from lower turnout. Declining turnout and declining Labour Party vote were not causally related, and the correlation between the two variables seemed to be the result of other long-term social changes. Analyses of survey data pointed to three flaws in the premises on which the hypothesis was based. First, the effect of declining turnout on the biased class composition of the abstainers was ambiguous. Second, the Norwegian Labour Party suffers less from differential turnout than before as a result of declining class voting. Third, the Labour Party may suffer from a demobilisation of the working class, but the party may also benefit from a demobilisation of the young.     

Explaining Media Attention for Norwegian MPs: A New Modelling Approach

This article provides a new perspective on why the quantity and tone of media coverage vary between groups of politicians. The analysis makes three key distinctions: first, between the volume of reporting and its tendency; second, between attention‐seeking politicians and blame‐avoiding politicians; and third, between attention due to characteristics of media outlets and those of politicians. These distinctions, along with a comprehensive dataset and a multilevel analysis approach, comprise the building blocks of an empirical analysis of press coverage devoted to Norwegian parliamentarians between 2001 and 2005. The results suggest that politicians who appear regularly in the newspapers, such as party leaders and long‐serving MPs, face a greater amount of negative media coverage than those who do not. Female MPs receive less, but more positive, coverage. Reporting by the tabloids is more negative than that of other newspapers, especially with regard to party leaders.     

Toxicological and pathological findings in a series of buprenorphine related deaths. Possible risk factors for fatal outcome

Buprenorphine is considered to have little respiratory side effects at therapeutic doses and the partial agonistic properties should produce a "ceiling effect" for respiratory depression at higher doses. Still, there are several reports on buprenorphine related deaths. Most deaths involve drug users and the co-administration of other CNS depressant drugs as well as reduced tolerance have been suggested to be risk factors. The primary aims were to investigate if lack of tolerance and/or co-ingestion of other psychotropic drugs are significant risk factors in buprenorphine fatalities. From July 2005 to September 2009, all autopsy cases where buprenorphine or norbuprenorphine had been detected in femoral blood and where analysis of buprenorphine had been performed in urine were selected. Results from the postmortem examination and toxicology were compiled. Postmortem toxicology was performed using the routine methodology at the laboratory. In total, 97 subjects were included in the study. These were divided into four groups; Intoxication with buprenorphine (N=41), Possible intoxication with buprenorphine (N=24), Control cases where buprenorphine was not the cause of death (N=14), and Unclear (N=18). The metabolite to parent compound ratios in both blood and urine in the Intoxication group were significantly different from those in the Control and Unclear groups. An extensive poly-drug use was seen in all groups with several additional opioids in the Possible group (54%) and in the Unclear group (78%) and hypnotics or sedatives in more than 75% of the Intoxication, Possible, and Unclear cases. Illicit drugs were present in all groups but not to a great extent with amphetamine and tetrahydrocannabinol as the main findings. Interestingly, 4 cases in the Intoxication group presented with no other significant drugs in blood other than buprenorphine. We conclude that a lethal concentration of buprenorphine in blood cannot be defined. Instead the analysis of blood as well as urine can be an important tool to show that the drug was taken shortly before death and to rule out a continuous use of buprenorphine supporting the notion that abstinence is an important risk factor. The presence of alprazolam in more than 40% of the Intoxications and the presence of hypnotics and sedatives in 75% of the Intoxications suggests that these drugs interact with buprenorphine producing toxic effects that buprenorphine alone would not have produced. Still, in 10% of the Intoxications no other drugs were found indicating that under certain circumstances buprenorphine alone may produce respiratory depression resulting in death.     

Voter Turnout in Norway: Time, Space, and Causality

This article focuses on diachronic and synchronic variation in Norwegian electoral turnout from 1945 to 1991. The model contains aggregate data divided into two-year intervals with regions as cross-sections. The impact of both socio-economic and political variables is tested. The two-dimensional view on turnout variation makes it possible to distinguish between short-term and long-term effects, as well as between national versus local factors. In contrast to related studies, this analysis actually tests for causality relationships between different political variables. The empirical results indicate that an increase in either national unemployment or regional income contributes to an increase in turnout rates. Electoral participation is also positively related to Labour support, industrial employment and strike activity.     

CHILDREN'S RIGHTS IN SCANDINAVIA IN A LEGAL AND HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

This article traces the history of the Scandinavian approach to children in and out of marriage. The author discusses statutory and case law in the three Scandinavian countries with an emphasis on Swedish law. Examined is the use of joint custody and the approach to families in conflict. The paramount standard is the best interest of the child.     

The impact of parties,economic growth,and public sector expansion: A comparison of long-term dynamics in the Scandinavian and Anglo-American democracies

Abstract. This paper discusses (1) the extent to which the partisan composition of government affects economic policies and macroeconomic outcomes, and (2) the interrelationship between public spending, taxation and economic growth. These two issues are connected. Since target variables and instruments affect each other reciprocally, the specification of the partisan model should encompass both a reaction function and an outcome function. A pooled vector autoregressive model suggests that during the last century left–wing governments in the United States, Britain and Canada have reinforced the growth of both public spending and GNP. Only public sector expansion is affected by partisanship in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In the Anglo–American countries changes in spending occur before changes in economic growth in terms of a lagged crowding out effect. Spending and revenues appear to affect each other reciprocally. By contrast, public sector expansion in Scandinavia stimulates growth, while taxation leads spending.