Why do French MPs Focus More on Constituency Work than on Parliamentary Work?

The relationship between French members of the National Assembly and citizens is paradoxical. On the one hand, the French political culture, constitution and history favour a very abstract conception of representation: MPs are supposed to act as trustees and collectively to embody the French Nation. On the other hand, they are deeply involved in their constituencies and express a great level of satisfaction being there. In order to understand how French MPs reconcile the national and local dimensions of their mandate, the data gathered through face-to-face interviews with MPs are described. Then a scale analysis is provided in order to sum up the local–national orientations of the MPs. Using this scale, it is possible to test the impact of several variables on the territorial focus of MPs: electoral incentives, political ambition, ideological factors and working conditions at the local and the national level.     

From Theory to Practice: Citizens’ Attitudes about Representation in France

French institutions, political culture and history have favoured a very abstract conception of representation: MPs are expected to embody collectively the French Nation, but little is known about citizens’ concrete views on representation. In this paper, data gathered through a citizen mass survey are used. To overcome the usual abstract considerations on representation, respondents were asked their opinion on an MP who would endorse amendments proposed by an interest group. In the questionnaire, two features were changed randomly: the MP's political leaning and the type of interest group. It is shown by means of an original experiment that the ‘general’ conception representation has disappeared from citizens’ attitudes: despite the enduring legitimacy of the general will approach in the public sphere, French citizens appear to promote a conception of representation close to the Madisonian views on pluralism involving a strong attachment to the logic of territorial electoral linkage.     

Conclusion: Challenging the Conventional Wisdoms about Parliamentary Representation in France

The seven papers gathered in this issue contradict four conventional prejudices about the French Parliament and its members. They show that citizens and MPs are not necessarily attached to a ‘general’ conception of representation, in which MPs represent the French Nation as a whole, with no reference to a territory or to specific interest groups. Second, the papers demonstrate that MPs are not perceived as an aristocracy agreeing on values and interests beyond political cleavages. Third, they prove that the representation gap between citizens and MPs is usually exaggerated and that electors are quite aware of the difficulties of being a deputy. Finally, they also establish that the weakness of the French Parliament and its submission to the executive power are often exaggerated. French MPs are nevertheless strongly focused on their constituencies and not much involved in parliamentary work; further, they are certainly not that enthusiastic about an eventual empowerment of their assembly.     

Introduction: Parliamentary Representation in France

The constitution of the Fifth Republic, adopted in 1958, was deliberately designed to weaken parliament. This trend was reinforced by the constant empowerment of the president and the bipolarisation of political life. For this reason, but also due to some of its specificities, French political science did not pay much attention to parliament and its members. The aim of the seven papers gathered in this issue is to fix this deficiency. They cover the main aspects of parliamentary representation in France, deliver the fundamental information and tackle the central questions about it. The papers use a wide range of data, methods and theoretical approaches. They deal with MPs' conceptions and practices of their mandate, their opinions on the French regime, their activities in the constituency, values, contribution to law-making and the use of parliamentary questions, as well as their perception by the citizens.     

The Portuguese 2005 legislative election: Return to the left

According to the ‘decline of parliaments’ thesis that dominates the literature, the executive branch has increased its powers vis-à-vis the legislature. However, at the same time most studies indicate that the parliaments in the Nordic region are on average stronger than their counterparts in central and southern European countries. This article examines the validity of the ‘decline of parliaments’ thesis in the context of Finland, a country where recent constitutional reforms have strengthened parliamentarism by reducing the powers of the president and empowering the government and the parliament. Analysing the constitutional balance of power between state organs, the interaction between the government and the opposition, and the ability of the parliament to hold the cabinet accountable, this article argues that despite its stronger constitutional position, the Eduskunta faces considerable difficulties in controlling the government.     

Evaluation of the Photodegradation of Crystal Violet upon Light Exposure by Mass Spectrometric and Spectroscopic Methods

Abstract: Crystal violet is a very common dye in ballpoint ink. Recent research suggests that the degradation of triarylmethane dyes gives an indication of the age of a ballpoint pen entry on a document. The main problem for the quantitative evaluation of the degradation is that it is highly dependent on the exposure to light. Moreover additional factors, such as additives and substrate play an important role in this process. The aim of this work is to compare the degradation pathways of the pure dye in water and ethanol upon exposure to xenon light by UV/VIS spectrophotometry and laser desorption ionization. Significant differences have been observed in the products and the kinetics of the degradation. N-demethylation, an expected decomposition process, was found to take place only in aqueous solution and kinetics calculations showed that the degradation occurred 2.5 times faster in ethanol compared to water. The degradation of crystal violet in inks from four ballpoint pens on paper was also studied for entries made over 2–3 years. It was observed that degradation reactions were quenched by the presence of another dye due to competitive absorption. It was also observed that the thickness of a stroke (concentration of ink) influenced the degradation process. In the absence of light only one ballpoint pen showed slight degradation. A better understanding of the influence of the paper, ink composition, and storage conditions is necessary to interpret correctly the age of an ink based on the degradation of dyes.     

Allelic frequencies and statistical data obtained from 48 AIM INDEL loci in an admixed population from the Brazilian Amazon

Allelic frequencies of 48 informative insert-delete (INDEL) loci were obtained from a sample set of 130 unrelated individuals living in Macapá, a city located in the northern Amazon region, in Brazil. The values of heterozygosity (H), polymorphic information content (PIC), power of discrimination (PD), power of exclusion (PE), matching probability (MP) and typical paternity index (TPI) were calculated and showed the forensic efficiency of these genetic markers. Based on the allele frequency obtained for the population of Macapá, we estimated an interethnic admixture for the three parental groups (European, Native American and African) of, respectively, 50%, 21% and 29%. Comparing these allele frequencies with those of other Brazilian populations and the parental populations, statistically significant distances were found. The interpopulation genetic distance (F_ST coefficients) to the present database ranged from F_ST = 0.0431 (p < 0.00001) between Macapá and Belém to F_ST = 0.266 (p < 0.00001) between Macapá and the Native American group.     

The Impact of Deterrence Policies on Reckless Driving: The Case of Portugal

In this paper, we test the effect of three different criminal deterrence theory policy tools: criminal certainty, severity, and celerity of punishment. Whereas most criminal deterrence studies in this field focus on the former two components of deterrence theory, this study also examines the potential deterrent effect of the latter component. Using a time-series design with monthly data, we estimate the effects of an increase in the threat of punishment for traffic offenses resulting from a general increase in fines for traffic offenses, an increase in the probability of getting caught with a blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) level outside the legal limits, and the enactment of an “on-the-spot” fine payment policy in Portugal. We find strong evidence to support a severity effect. An increase in the statutory severity of sentence maxima for traffic violations leads to a decrease in accident and injury rates—approximately an average 0.5 percent reduction in monthly accident and injury rates. Changes in the BAC levels and the mandatory swift payment policy did not produce any convincing deterrence impact.