How economic crises affect political representation: declining party‒voter congruence in times of constrained government

How do economic crises affect political representation in times of constrained government? Our paper shows that among voters salience of economic issues increases during economically harsh times. However, parties respond only to a limited degree to economic shocks, with the result that congruence between parties and voters decreases. We theorise the incentives and disincentives different political parties have in choosing a saliency strategy and we provide evidence on the extent to which congruence depends on the severity of economic shocks and the government/opposition status of the party. We draw on cross-national data to measure issue salience for parties (CMP) and voters (CSES). While our findings clearly indicate a decline of congruence in times of economic crisis, we also find that it remains best for government and office-seeking opposition parties. We substantiate this finding by unpacking the ways in which incumbent and office-seeking opposition parties address the economy in their manifestos.     

Perceived Dimensions of Parenting and Non-suicidal Self-injury in Young Adults

Family experiences are influential in the development of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). The current study aimed to identify specific dimensions underlying early parent–child relationships in association with NSSI. It was hypothesized that all relationship dimensions would be related with NSSI, with some dimensions being stronger predictors when accounting for shared variance. Gender differences were also assessed. Participants were grouped according to the endorsement of NSSI in the past 6 months, resulting in a Non-NSSI group (n = 1133) and a NSSI group (n = 105). Significant differences were found for the relationship dimensions between the two groups. When shared variance was accounted for, fear and alienation were the only dimensions predicting NSSI. Similar results were found for females (n = 887), while no analyses using males (n = 351) were significant. These results emphasize the need to acknowledge the role of parent–child relationships in prevention programs and intervention models for NSSI.     

Islands and Undesirables: Introduction to the Special Issue on Irregular Migration in Southern European Islands

This introduction presents the challenges to studying irregular migration in the southern European islands. After presenting the debates surrounding the category of irregular migration and recent developments in irregular migration to southern European islands, we argue that the situation of islands needs to be contextualized within the broader scheme of Euro-Mediterranean irregular migration. We then propose considering islands as remarkable “places of condensation” in the Euro-Mediterranean migratory setting. The article introduces two themes that will be developed throughout the special issue: (1) analyzing and challenging narratives of islandness and (2) policing and bordering the islands.     

Holding governments accountable? Individual heterogeneity in performance voting

This study suggests that performance voting is characterised by extensive individual heterogeneity. Most economic voting studies to date treat voters as rather homogeneous in their reactions to economic performance of incumbents. Yet, a large and well‐established line of research from the American context demonstrates the conditional impact of political sophistication and salience on voters' political attitudes and behaviour. Building on this work, this article explores individual‐level variation in performance voting due to political sophistication and salience. Utilising cross‐national data from the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES) including 25 democracies, performance voting is examined across an array of policy areas including the economy, social welfare, immigration and national security, and it is shown that political sophistication and salience are key moderators of performance voting. The findings suggest that holding governments to account for past performance is mainly the prerogative of the highly sophisticated and thus may be more laborious than previously assumed. At the same time, the results indicate that the sophistication gap in performance voting narrows when voters attach a higher degree of salience to a policy area. As long as voters care enough about government activities in a particular policy area, incumbents can expect credit or blame for policy outcomes. This should provide at least some impetus for responsive policy making.     

Putting endogenous development into practice

The gap between theories and the actual practice of development is often great, but the gap between concepts of endogenous approaches and the practice of endogenous development may be hardest to bridge, particularly when the funding agency is a global actor. Nathalie Tinguery, Country Program Coordinator for US African Development Foundation (USADF) in Burkina Faso, reflects on her experience of incorporating values and goals into her development practice of working with communities and for an international funder. She describes how she remains focused on endogenous development, what this means in her development practice, and what it is about USADF policies and practice that make this brand of endogenous development possible. Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the official positions of USADF.     

Advisory bodies and morality policies: does ethical expertise matter?

Policy Sciences - Governments and parliaments struggle to design biomedical policies: while research and practice make rapid progress, they often trigger value conflicts. One response involves...     

The Prevalence of Domestic Violence Among Pregnant Women Who Were Attended in Iran University of Medical Science Hospitals

The prevalence of domestic violence (DV) during pregnancy could be high and is associated with significant psychological and physical impairment for mother and the fetus. The major objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of DV in expectant mothers who have attended the Iran University of Medical Sciences’ Hospitals (IUMS). In this cross-sectional study, 1,800 subjects were interviewed using a modified questionnaire to determine the prevalence of DV. Consecutive sampling was performed in six major hospitals of IUMS according to the number of referred patients. The prevalence of DV was found to be 60.6% including three types of physical, psychological, and sexual violence with the prevalence of 14.6, 60.5 and 23.5%, respectively. Severe physical DV was 5.3%. Severe psychological and sexual DV were also found in about 24.6 and 3.4% of cases, respectively. DV had a high prevalence in this study. It is recommended that all accessible pregnant women be screened for DV. Study of the prevalence of DV within the community with a larger sample size, and using cluster-sampling methodology would be of immense value.     

Die Bedeutung des regionalen Kontexts für die programmatische Positionierung von Schweizer Kantonalparteien1

Zusammenfassung: In Mehrebenensystemen agierende Parteien sind mit sozialstrukturell sehr unterschiedlich zusammengesetzten Wählerschaften konfrontiert. Da für regionale Parteigliederungen – insbesondere in föderal organisierten Demokratien – der Wettbewerb um Wählerstimmen zuvorderst innerhalb der Grenzen der jeweiligen Region stattfindet, müssen sie den unterschiedlich zusammengesetzten Elektoraten differenzierte inhaltliche Angebote machen, die auf die spezifischen Präferenzen der Wählerschaft eingehen. Wir evaluieren diese Überlegungen am Beispiel der Schweiz als einem Mehrebenensystem, in dem sich die Wählerschaft von Kanton zu Kanton in ihrer sprachlichen, konfessionellen und sozioökonomischen Struktur deutlich unterscheidet. Dabei nehmen wir eine Analyse der programmatischen Dokumente der Schweizer Parteien auf kantonaler Ebene vor, um deren inhaltliche Präferenzen zu bestimmen. Die dabei herangezogenen Wahlprogramme von kantonalen Parteigliederungen sind eine bisher wenig beachtete Quelle zur Bestimmung von Parteipositionen, die jedoch gerade für die Arbeiten zur subnationalen Politik grosses Potential bietet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich sozialstrukturelle Eigenschaften der Wählerschaft eines Kantons in der Tat in den programmatischen Positionen der Kantonalparteien widerspiegeln. So sind Parteien in der französischsprachigen Schweiz wirtschaftspolitisch “linker”, wohingegen die Parteien in ländlichen Kantonen tendenziell konservativere Haltungen in Fragen der Gesellschaftspolitik einnehmen.