Cervical Arterial Injury After Strangulation—Different Types of Arterial Lesions

After strangulation, cervical arterial injuries (CAI) are uncommon. We report three unusual cases where strangulation induced immediate stroke. CAI were examined using brain CT scan and Doppler ultrasonography in the three cases and then by autopsy in one of the victims. One of the two victims who survived the attempted strangulation had a unilateral carotid dissection, whereas in the other victim, no arterial dissection or thrombosis was observed. As regards the deceased victim, the autopsy confirmed the bilateral dissection showed on CT scan and Doppler ultrasonic examination and revealed that both carotid arteries were dilated up to two times the normal diameter. Microscopic examination showed a major bilateral hemorrhagic dissection of the media with obliterating fibrous endarteritis lesions associated with inflammatory damage. CT scan with arteriography does not demonstrate all the different types of arterial injury, particularly atheromatous embolism, direct compression, or prolonged spasm. Thus, traditional autopsy remains an essential forensic tool after strangulation to show the type of CAI.     

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.     

Science Use in Regulatory Impact Analysis: The Effects of Political Attention and Controversy

Scholars, policy makers, and research sponsors have long sought to understand the conditions under which scientific research is used in the policy‐making process. Recent research has identified a resource that can be used to trace the use of science across time and many policy domains. U.S. federal agencies are mandated by executive order to justify all economically significant regulations by regulatory impact analyses (RIAs), in which they present evidence of the scientific underpinnings and consequences of the proposed rule. To gain new insight into when and how regulators invoke science in their policy justifications, we ask: does the political attention and controversy surrounding a regulation affect the extent to which science is utilized in RIAs? We examine scientific citation activity in all 101 economically significant RIAs from 2008 to 2012 and evaluate the effects of attention—from the public, policy elites, and the media—on the degree of science use in RIAs. Our main finding is that regulators draw more heavily on scientific research when justifying rules subject to a high degree of attention from outside actors. These findings suggest that scientific research plays an important role in the justification of regulations, especially those that are highly salient to the public and other policy actors.     

Between Renewal and Stability: Party System Change from a Multi-Level Perspective in Brazil (1998–2018)

The growth of the far right and election results in Brazil are often associated with national or large-scale events. The multi-level features of these developments, namely party competition at the sub-national level, are overlooked in the literature. This article argues that changes in the Brazilian national party system – those observed from Bolsonaro's election, mainly – are rooted in sub-national political dynamics. Through a comparative and longitudinal analysis of multi-level executive and legislative elections, we find that, although there are distinct patterns of competition between the national-sub-national and within-country levels, this difference is not evident in volatility.