How to get the snowball rolling and extend the franchise: voting on the Great Reform Act of 1832

This paper suggests a new approach to analyzing the causes of franchise extension. Based on a new dataset, it provides a detailed econometric study of the Great Reform Act of 1832 in the United Kingdom. The analysis yields four main results. First, modernization theory receives limited support. Second, the reform enjoyed some measure of popular support. Third, the threat of revolution had an asymmetric impact on the voting behavior of the pro-reform Whigs and the anti-reform Tories. While the threat might have convinced reluctant reformers among the Whig politicians—and among their patrons—to support the bill, it seems to have hardened the resistance to reform among the Tories. Fourth, ideology played a critical role. Nevertheless, it also appears that self-interest and political expedience explained the votes of many Members of Parliament.     

Understanding the Relationship Between Racial Prejudice and Support for the Death Penalty: The Racist Punitive Bias Hypothesis

Many studies have shown that there are significant racial disparities in the application of death penalties. In this paper, three studies (N = 484, 94% female), conducted in France, test and explore why racial prejudice and support for the death penalty (SDP) are strongly and positively related. First, prejudice against Arabs remains a significant predictor of SDP, even when ethnocentrism/authoritarianism (Study 1) and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA; Study 2) are statistically controlled. Second, the attribution of criminal traits to Arabs (Study 1) or criminality-based prejudice (Studies 2 and 3) significantly mediates the relationship between racial prejudice and SDP. Finally, a path analysis illustrates that two relatively independent processes could explain the relationship between prejudice towards Arabs and SDP: criminality-based prejudice leading to specific SDP for Arabs and Social Dominance Orientation (Study 3). Together, these results provide support for the racist punitive bias hypothesis. When racist people think about questions of crime and punishment, they frame the issue in racial terms, leading them to support a punitive law which in their minds will mainly punish minority racial groups.     

Subjective Proximity to Crime or Social Representations? Explaining Sentencing Attitudes in Switzerland

Lay sentencing attitudes are considered in the light of two theoretical perspectives. The first perspective views sentencing attitudes as parts of broader sets of social representations anchored in one’s position in the social structure. The second perspective explains sentencing attitudes by their subjective experiences of crime. This paper tests both theories by performing a series of multiple regressions on two dimensions of sentencing: punishment goals and severity of punishment. Empirical data comes from a quantitative survey conducted in Switzerland. Findings reveal that indicators of subjective proximity to crime largely account for sentencing attitudes. Nevertheless, social representations of crime measured by causes of crime also have a significant impact on sentencing attitudes. Implications of these findings for sentencing in Western democracies are discussed.     

Congo Co: aid and security

Northern donors manage the Democratic Republic of Congo as though it were a company. Through aid, these donors identify and respond to key weaknesses in Congo's ability to operate economically within the global market. As it is a country that poses high threats (from infectious diseases, economic misconduct and a volatile political situation) and high opportunities (in terms of political influence over, and sale of, vast resources) decisions on aid are taken in accordance with Northern concerns, which dominate the definition of global security. In this way, economic decisions are incorporated into the pursuit of global security. Most aid goes to the health sector and is characterised by surveillance, not prevention or treatment, and a set of governance interventions that grant strategic influence in shaping the political economy of the country. These responses have functions in terms of global security; they also grant some returns to Congo, but neglect much and aggravate some forms of insecurity at a domestic level.     

Repraesentatio identitatis : l’idée de représentation politique en débat dans la République de Genève lors de la crise de 1707

In the Republic of Geneva, the Small Council and the Great Council considered themselves to be representative of the people, although they were not elected by citizens, but were mutually co-opted instead. There were still elections by the General Council, the assembly of all burgesses and citizens, but they were only meant to promote the members of these co-opted councils to particular magistracies. During the political crisis of 1707, government thinkers tried to justify in theory this conception of representation, which is similar to what the German legal philosopher Hasso Hofmann called repraesentatio identitatis. For them, the Small and the Great Councils were inherently representative of the people owing to their large numbers and their concern for the public interest. The main thinkers of the ‘popular party' not only rejected this argument, but also advocated an alternative political model, with a redistribution of powers between the Councils and the restoration in practice of the sovereignty of the General Council, which it should directly exert. On either side, no project of representative government – in the sense that the Small and the Great Councils would be elected by the people – was ever put forward in these debates.