The Political Communication of Independent Regulatory Agencies

Since independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) became key actors in European regulatory governance in the 1990s, a significant share of policy‐making has been carried out by organizations that are neither democratically elected nor directly accountable to elected politicians. In this context, public communication plays an important role. On the one hand, regulatory agencies might try to use communication to raise their accountability and thereby to mitigate their democratic deficit. On the other hand, communication may be used with the intent to steer the behavior of the regulated industry when more coercive regulatory means are unfeasible or undesirable. However, empirical research focusing directly on how regulators communicate is virtually non‐existent. To fill this gap, this paper examines the public communication of IRAs in four countries (the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, and Switzerland) and three sectors (financial services, telecommunications, and broadcasting). The empirical analysis, based on qualitative interviews and a quantitative content analysis, indicates that the organization of the communication function follows a national pattern approach while a policy sector approach is helpful for understanding the use of communication as a soft tool of regulation.     

Female criminals—It's not always the offender!

Numerous crimes (including murder), all having a common denominator, occurred in Germany and Austria between 1993 and 2009. All of these cases presented with identical female DNA traces being found at the crime scene. The crimes committed differed markedly, as did the suspects involved, which were of varied origin. Many of these cases could be solved. However, none of the suspects could identify an involved female. Fourteen of these cases (including one murder) occurred in Upper Austria.A special task force of the Austrian police, together with the Institute of Legal Medicine in Salzburg, began systematically searching for errors in the investigative process after the cases became more and more incoherent and nebulous. In the end, the DNA trace evidence was shown to be contaminated. A woman involved in the manufacture of the cotton swabs turned out to be the source of the female DNA profile.Following this, several products of other manufacturers were tested for contamination with DNA. It was noted that cotton swabs which had been sterilised with radiation were often contaminated. As a result, it is recommended that the manufacturing process, as well as the products themselves used in collection of DNA trace evidence, should be re-evaluated with the emphasis on preventing contamination.     

Gebhard Kirchgässner, 60 years on

This introductory essay summarizes the contents of the papers presented at a conference in honor of Gebhard Kirchgässner entitled “(Macro-)Economic Policy and Public Choice” which are published in this special issue. In addition to this brief overview on the contributions, this essay relates them to the scientific works of Gebhard Kirchgässner after locating the latter within the realm of Public Choice analysis.     

Emotions and sentiment: An exploration of artist websites

Artists of all genres express their emotions through their creations and market their works online. We argue that in marketing their work online, it is important to understand not only the emotional responses of the artistic works themselves but also that the sentiment evoked on their websites matters. Developing the correct website sentiment can have favorable consequences. It can increase the interest of potential consumers, assure that appropriate expectations are set for the actual consumption experience, and lead to increased sales and word of mouth marketing. Online sentiment that is ill-aligned to the emotions the actual offering evokes can have adverse consequences, including disappointment with the actual offering and buyer's remorse. To better understand the online sentiment of artists' websites, we begin by briefly revisiting the interplay between art, emotions, and the issue of online “sentiment.” Then, we describe a study of a sample of artists' websites that had the objective of gauging both the nature of and the extent of the emotions present in its text, as well as gaining an indication of the sentiment of the website. We describe the use of a relatively new content analysis tool to do this. Following this, we explore the data gathered, with the specific purpose of determining whether the emptions expressed on artists' websites can significantly predict sentiment, if so, which emotions tend to be the strongest predictors. We conclude by discussing some managerial implications of the results and by identifying avenues for future research.     

Using a Continuous Measure of Genderedness to Assess Sex Differences in the Attitudes of the Political Elite

Political Behavior - We investigated the attitudes of the 11,410 candidates in the Finnish 2017 municipal elections who had responded to a Voting Advice Application. Women candidates were, both in...     

’Even dogs are better off’: The ongoing battle between capital and labour in the cane‐fields of Gujarat

The effects on labour relations of transformation of the rural economy of South Gujarat are considered. Changes investigated in the late 1970s are further examined a decade later. The impact of increasing prosperity, and a major shift in the composition of the rural economy (with sugarcane particularly important), upon the region's landless proletariat is analysed. Attention is focused upon migrant cane cutters — largely from western Maharashtra, low caste and often of tribal origin ‐ and there is detailed treatment of their working and living conditions. Changes in the relationship between capital and labour are noted, but conditions of the workers are shown to be as abysmal now as they were previously. Capitalist development has not benefited the poor. Government intervention has been insufficient. These ‘labour nomads’ show considerable resilience and practice a ‘silent militancy’, but their capacity for collective action is undermined by their alien status.