Politische Institutionen und die Entwicklung generalisierten Vertrauens. Ein internationaler Vergleich

Trust functions as an instrument for establishing long-term and mutually beneficial cooperative relationships. In this paper we investigate the sources of generalized trust. The main focus of the research is the role of the political-institutional context in allowing trust-based relationships to form, controlling for the attributes and motives of individual agents. The central contention of the paper is that political institutions that support norms of fairness, universality, and the division of power contribute to the formation of inter-personal trust. Using data from the World Values Survey we run multi-level models to test for links between differences between the responses of individuals in various countries and the trust-supporting context, in terms of different institutional configurations. Alongside individual resources and attitudes, aspects of social integration and other sociodemographic characteristics, we test for significant effects of contextual factors — such as the influence of formal rule-of-law institutions, social inequality, and the division of power or pluralistic democratic procedures. The study comes to the conclusion that universalistic, impartial and power-sharing institutions increase the prospects for the development of generalized trust.     

Ist die „Dominanz von Akademikern in den Parteien“ ein Befund von eigenem Wert? Ein Plädoyer für den angemessenen Einsatz multivariater Analysen in der empirischen Parteimitgliederforschung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Online-Anhang zu „Jenseits von Distanz und Richtung. Die Verbundmessung von Politikpräferenzen im Vergleich mit dem Distanz- und dem Richtungsmodell des Wählens — Empirische Befunde eines Methodenexperiments“

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Jenseits von Distanz und Richtung. Die Verbundmessung von Politikpräferenzen im Vergleich mit dem Distanz- und dem Richtungsmodell des Wählens — Empirische Befunde eines Methodenexperiments

The analysis of issue voting is of central importance in empirical electoral research. In this context, policy positions of voters and parties are normally surveyed by means of bipolar policy scales developed within the spatial model of voting. Even if such policy scales are widespread, their use can be criticised for a series of theoretical and methodological reasons. Beyond this background, conjoint measurement of policy preferences is presented as an alternative mode of operationalization. Using data from a methodological experiment it is shown that (full profile) conjoint measurement is superior to the use of traditional policy scales in the proximity and the directional model of voting.     

Parental Sociopathy as a Predictor of Childhood Sexual Abuse

Research on childhood sexual abuse has often examined, in isolation of one another, such highly correlated risk factors as parental substance abuse, domestic violence, and pathological family functioning. Investigating comorbid antecedents separately does not allow accurate specification of the predictors of abuse. Moreover, sexual trauma research has tended to neglect parental sociopathy as a risk factor. Given the limitations of past research, the present study examined the relationships among parental sociopathy, parental substance use, marital violence, poor family functioning, and childhood sexual abuse. We administered a battery of questionnaires to a nonclinical sample of 130 college women and replicated previous findings by showing that parental substance use predicted sexual abuse when examined in isolation. However, when parental sociopathy and the other risk factors were included in a regression model, parental sociopathy was the only significant predictor. Mother's and father's sociopathy predicted sexual abuse independently and when combined.     

Strength and Commitment of the State: It Takes Two to Tango – A Case Study of Economic Reforms in Argentina in the 1990s

This paper addresses the question of why radical economicreforms became a reality in Argentina in the 1990s byconcentrating on the political andinstitutional dimensions of economic policy reform. Itpresents a framework for analyzing the determinants ofthe quality of economic institutions, notably thepolitical commitment of the state to provide propertyand contract rights, and its administrative capacity(``strength'') in implementing them. The framework isapplied to Argentina under the government of presidentCarlos Menem. The results of an empirical analysisclearly show an improvement in institutional quality,the state strength and commitment during Menem's firstterm. In turn, during his second term, the indicatorsshow ongoing signs of decline. Considering theprospects for Argentina in the near future,deficiencies of commitment with regard to democraticcontrol mechanisms represent a permanent threat tothe economic reforms realized so far.     

Stumbling block or stepping stone? The influence of direct democracy on individual participation in parliamentary elections

This paper evaluates whether direct democracy supplements or undermines traditional representative democracy. While a first approach assumes that a culture of active direct democracy stimulates citizens’ political interest and ultimately bolsters participation in parliamentary elections, a competing hypothesis proposes a negative relationship between the frequency of ballot measures and electoral participation due to voter fatigue and decreased significance of elections. Our multilevel analysis of the 26 Swiss cantons challenges recent studies conducted for the U.S. states: In the Swiss context, where direct democracy is more important in the political process than the less salient parliamentary elections, greater use of direct democratic procedures is associated with a lower individual probability to participate in elections. Furthermore, by distinguishing between short and long-term effects of direct democracy, we show that the relationship observed is of a long-term nature and can therefore be seen as a result of adaptive learning processes rather than of instantaneous voter fatigue.     

Post-Islamism and fields of contention after the Arab Spring: feminism,Salafism and the revolutionary youth

In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, conflicts in Egypt and Tunisia over the authority to rule and the role of religion in society raised questions about these societies’ capacity for reconciling differences. In retrospect, the conflicts also raise questions about the theoretical tools used to analyse regional developments. In particular, the ‘post-Islamism’ thesis has significantly changed the debates on ‘Islam and democracy’ by bringing to light the changing opportunity structures, and changed goals, of Islamist movements. However, this paper argues that the theory underestimates differences within post-Islamist societies. Drawing on field theory, the paper shows how the actual content of post-Islamism is contingent on political struggle. It focuses on three fields whose political roles have been underestimated or misrepresented by post-Islamist theorists: Islamic feminism, Salafist-jihadism and the revolutionary youth. Their respective forms of capital – sources of legitimacy and social recognition – give important clues for understanding the stakes of the conflicts after the Arab Spring.