Electoral and structural losers and support for a national referendum in the U.S.

The U.S. is one of only a few democracies in the world never to hold a national referendum. Recent national surveys reveal that a majority of respondents approve of a national referendum both cross-nationally and in America is relatively stable. Building on previous work (Bowler and Donovan, 2007), we find public opinion on a reform proposal is fluid and responsive to electoral politics, rather than stable as reported in earlier work. In this paper, we argue that contemporary support for a national referendum in the U.S. is contingent on whether a citizen is a short- or long-term “winner” or a “loser” when it comes to electoral politics. We expect that public support for a national referendum in the U.S., where legislation referred by Congress would be subject to a popular vote, may vary at the individual level because of short-term electoral fortunes as well as long-term structural conditions. Strategic voting as well as losing in candidate races and policy issues may be important, but so might be partisanship, with non-partisans the most likely to benefit from citizen law-making at the national level. Support for a national referendum might also be contingent upon state context, that is, upon use of direct democracy in the state where a person lives, as well as the population of a state. The results based on a natural experiment and 2008 panel survey data provide an important window into understanding public opinion on institutional change more broadly.     

Zwischen Biologisierung des Sozialen und neuer Biosozialität: Dynamiken der biopolitischen Grenzüberschreitung

The article deals with recent developments in the field of biopolitics, which may lead to a fundamental change in the relationship between medicine, society and the individual. While the social scientific debates evaluated these developments rather controversial, there seems to be a tacit consensus regarding the homogeneity of the biopolitical field: its dynamics is interpreted either in terms of a biologisation and naturalisation of social life or in terms of increasing individual self-determination and of the emerging new forms of biosociality. This opposition is, however, ignoring the fact that, within biopolitics, we are rather facing different and heterogeneous social and technological dynamics. To comprehend this complexity, we are discerning four biopolitical dynamics: the extension of medical diagnosis, the extension of therapies and medical technologies, the detemporalisation of illness and the direct enhancement of human nature. These dynamics are not only questioning well-established conceptions of human nature, but tend to affect or even undermine the distinctions between health/illness and therapy/enhancement. In our conclusion, we are addressing the question of possible social limits to these tendencies of biopolitical transgressing of boundaries.     

An Operational Code Analysis of China’s National Defense White Papers: 1998-2015

Journal of Chinese Political Science - Scholarly efforts to predict the future character of the U.S.-China relationship abound. Few however looks to leaders’ beliefs as valid explanatory...     

Distanziertes Mitleiden. Katastrophische Ereignisse,Massenmedien und kulturelle Transformation

Ausgehend von der Großkatastrophe am Staudamm von Vajont (Italien) in den 1960er Jahren diskutiert der Beitrag die moderne gesellschaftliche Risikoerfahrung. Risiko-katastrophische Ereignisse sind hybride Prozesse aus sozialen, technischen und ?natürlichen“ Bestandteilen, die zum Gegenstand symbolischer, diskursiver Konflikte werden. In der öffentlichen Risikokommunikation konkurrieren eine Kontroll- und eine Gefahrennarration um die legitime Interpretation solcher Katastrophen. Dabei begünstigen die Aufmerksamkeitsstrukturen der Massenmedien dramatisierende Darstellungen. Die gesellschaftliche Katastrophenerfahrung ist eine medienvermittelte Erfahrung aus der Distanz. Sie konstituiert temporäre, flüchtige Gefahrengemeinschaften. In diesem Prozess werden Risiko-Katastrophen zum Kristallisationspunkt sozialer Dramen, in deren Verlauf sich die entsprechenden, massenmedial organisierten Erfahrungskollektive über ihre Identität sowie die Grundlagen ihres Agierens in Raum und Zeit verständigen. Die Katastrophenberichterstattung oszilliert dabei zwischen zu viel und zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit; daraus entsteht ein ?risikogesellschaftliches Paradoxon“: Mit der Häufigkeit von Katastrophen sinkt ihr Skandalwert; Katastrophenerfahrung wird normalisiert. Je seltener sich Katastrophen ereignen, desto wahrscheinlicher wird ihre mediale Repräsentation und öffentliche Wirkung.     

Child deaths in Virginia, 1996: a review of investigations of sudden, unexpected, or unnatural deaths of children less than age 13

This study examines the consistency of investigative procedures used by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, law enforcement, and child protective services, when investigating the violent, sudden, unexpected, or unnatural deaths of children. The study also assessed the status of communication and cooperation among the investigating agencies, to determine whether improvements in the level of cooperation and communication among the systems recommended by prior legislative studies had been achieved. The subjects of this study were children from birth through age 12 who died a sudden, unexpected, or unnatural death in Virginia in 1996. The findings from this research provide both justification to celebrate the progress that has been made and the stimulus to improve the investigation into the sudden, unexpected, or unnatural deaths of children in Virginia. Data suggested that the level of cooperation and communication among child protective services workers, medical examiners, and law enforcement personnel in Virginia had increased between 1986 and 1996. The results demonstrated that some investigative procedures were consistent, especially within regional boundaries. However, the results also showed that inconsistencies exist in the way some deaths are investigated, and that room for improvement exists.