Compulsory psychiatric care in Sweden: development 1979-2002 and area variation

As in many other countries, the Swedish legislation on compulsory psychiatric care has been revised several times during the last four decades. Great regional differences within the country in the use of compulsory psychiatric care have been reported. The aims of this study were to describe the development of compulsory psychiatric care in Sweden 1979-2002, and to analyse differences between two groups of counties, one group with high and one with low civil commitment rates, in terms of psychiatric care structure, resources and processes. Data on civil commitments and forensic psychiatric care in Sweden 1979-2002 were collected from public statistics. At least one responsible person in leading position (administrative manager or chief psychiatrist) in each of the included counties was interviewed. The total number of involuntarily hospitalised patients decreased about 80% between censuses in 1979 and 2002, but the rates of forensic patients were unchanged. No clear-cut differences were found in the analyses of structure, resources and processes of psychiatric services between counties with high and counties with low levels of compulsory care. The equality before the law may be questioned. The importance of leadership is emphasised for future analyses.     

The Generational Effect in Turnout in the Swedish General Elections, 1960–2010

Recent analyses have reported a generational pattern in electoral participation both in national and the European Parliament elections which suggests that a lower voting propensity among the younger cohorts remains relatively stable over time. Based on the Swedish national election studies 1960–2010, this article examines the magnitude of generational differences in a high‐turnout context. It contributes to earlier studies by using multilevel modeling to estimate the impacts of life cycle, generation and period on turnout and by aiming to account for the generational effect with institutional‐ and individual‐level factors. The results show a fairly modest generational effect. When controlling for the proportion of party members in the electorate and the effective number of parties, the differences between generations in their propensities to vote are substantially reduced.     

Social and emotional adjustment of adolescents extremely talented in verbal or mathematical reasoning

Perceptions of self-esteem, locus of control, popularity, depression (or unhappiness), and discipline problems as indices of social and emotional adjustment were investigated in highly verbally or mathematically talented adolescents. Compared to a group of students who are much less gifted, the highly gifted students perceive themselves as less popular, but no differences were found in self-esteem, depression, or the incidence of discipline problems. The gifted students reported greater internal locus of control. Comparisons between the highly mathematically talented students and the highly verbally talented students suggested that the students in the latter group perceive themselves as less popular. Within both the gifted and comparison groups, there were also slight indications that higher verbal ability may be related to some social and emotional problems.     

觊觎、憎恶和望尘莫及?——1984至2009年俄罗斯平面媒体文本中的美国霸权形象和俄罗斯自我形象

本文选取了1984年、1994年、2004年和2009年中的共计20周的时间段来研究俄罗斯两家主要日报《消息报》和《共青团真理报》中美国形象的演变。对于俄罗斯来说,这一时间跨度是巨大的:从20世纪80年代表面的稳定霸权到90年代苏联解体后的混乱,再到21世纪初期初步回归大国地位。本文在讲述美国形象演变的同时也描绘了俄罗斯自我形象的发展历程。在20世纪80年代,呈现的美国形象是摩尼教的,而在90年代,阐述的美国形象是最为友善的。2004年和2009年的案例反映了一个自信的俄罗斯重返世界舞台的事实。美国再次屡受指责,但仍然和以前一样是俄罗斯衡量自身的标准。     

Dynamics of Indonesian democratisation

Financial sector liberalisation has led to market failure on a massive scale. In industrial countries market failure led to the Great Financial Crisis that erupted in 2007 and continues into its fifth year. In developing countries liberalised financial markets have failed to provide access to financial services for the vast majority of households and firms. Small and medium-sized enterprises (smes), which are critical for employment, income creation and economic development, are particularly excluded by liberalised private financial markets. Market failure necessitates government intervention. To enhance smes' financial access requires an activist role by governments—not only by ensuring an enabling policy framework and financial infrastructure for smes, but also by supporting direct provision of financial services through national development banks and directed credit programmes. More broadly the crisis also provides an opening for a neo-structuralist development paradigm to replace the failed Washington Consensus. In this context activist financial sector policies should be integrated with industrial sector strategies.     

Party Size and Portfolio Payoffs: The Proportional Allocation of Ministerial Posts in Coalition Governments

Over 30 years ago, Eric Browne and Mark Franklin demonstrated that parties in a coalition tend to receive portfolio payoffs in almost perfect proportionality to their seat share. Even though this result has been confirmed in several studies, few researchers have asked what the underlying mechanism is that explains why parties receive a proportional payoff. The aim of this paper is to investigate the causal mechanism linking party size and portfolio payoffs. To fulfil this aim, a small-n analysis is performed. By analysing the predictions from a statistical analysis of all post-war coalition governments in 14 Western European countries, two predicted cases are selected, the coalitions that formed after the 1976 Swedish election and the 1994 German election. In these case studies two hypotheses are evaluated: that the proportional distribution of ministerial posts is the result of a social norm, and that parties obtain payoffs according to their bargaining strength. The results give no support to the social norm hypothesis. Instead, it is suggested that proportionality serves as a bargaining convention for the actors involved, thus rendering proportional payoffs more likely.     

Explaining European Union Adjustments in Sweden's Central Administration

Existing theories on why administrative reorganizations take place point in opposite directions. This article assesses which logic of action provides the most accurate characterization of reform activities in Sweden's central administration since accession to the European Union (EU) in 1995. In order to explain reorganization activities, two explanatory models are specified: a Rational Actor Model (RAM) and a Normative Organization Model (NOM). The results reveal that the Social Democratic government has been committed to realizing a comprehensive reorganization of the Government Offices. More powers have been concentrated in the Prime Minister's Office, while, for instance, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has lost many of its previous functions. This review of the machinery of government has been predominantly a rational activity with the explicit purpose of strengthening coordination of EU policy between ministries. Nonetheless, the reform activities involve normative considerations and demonstrate that the theoretical cleavage that has nurtured the debate between rational choice theorists and its opponents has been exaggerated.     

Testing the Relationship Between Education and Political Participation Using the 1970 British Cohort Study

According to conventional wisdom in political behavior research, education has a direct causal effect on political participation. However, a number of recent studies have questioned this established view by arguing that education is not a direct cause of political participation but only a proxy for other factors that are not directly related to the educational experience. This paper engages in a current debate regarding the application of matching techniques to assess whether there is a direct causal effect of education on political participation. It uses data from a British cohort study that follows everyone born during 1 week in the UK in 1970. The data includes a rich set of variables measuring factors through childhood and adolescence such as cognitive ability and family socioeconomic status. This data provides the opportunity to match on a number of important variables that are not included in the US datasets used by previous studies in the field. Results show that after matching there are no significant effects of education on political participation.     

Does Type of Education Affect Political Participation? Results from a Panel Survey of Swedish Adolescents

In several countries it is apparent that individuals with academic gymnasium (upper‐secondary) education show significantly higher levels of political participation than individuals with vocational education. However, previous research on this issue draws exclusively on one‐shot cross‐sectional data. This article utilizes a Swedish panel survey to gauge whether there is a direct causal link between type of education and political participation. Results demonstrate that differences in political participation are already present when students enter different types of education. The analyses show no significant effects of education; instead results support the education‐as‐a‐proxy view: pre‐adult factors predict political participation as well as educational choice.