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.     

Poisoning with sodium hypochlorite solution. Report of a fatal case, supplemented with an experimental and clinico-epidemiological study.

A case of fatal poisoning in a 1-year-old girl after ingestion of a household cleanser containing 4.5% sodium hypochlorite (Klorin) in an alkaline solution (pH 12.0) is reported. The forensic medical and toxicological investigations were supplemented by animal studies. These studies indicate that 5, 10, and 15 ml of Klorin/kg body wt given to rats is highly toxic, and that local tissue damage and secondary systemic involvement develops with a severity corresponding to the amount administered. The rats, all of which died, showed various degrees of degeneration and necrosis of the esophagoventricular mucosus membranes, changes analogous to those found at the autopsy of the child. A follow-up investigation of similar cases reported to the Swedish Poison Information Centre, during a limited time, was made to complete the picture.     

Whole body postmortem angiography with a high viscosity contrast agent solution using poly ethylene glycol as contrast agent dissolver

Postmortem minimal invasive angiography has already been implemented to support virtual autopsy examinations. An experimental approach in a porcine model to overcome an initially described artificial tissue edema artifact by using a poly ethylene glycol (PEG) containing contrast agent solution showed promising results. The present publication describes the first application of PEG in a whole corpse angiographic CT examination. A minimal invasive postmortem CT angiography was performed in a human corpse utilizing the high viscosity contrast agent solution containing 65% of PEG. Injection was carried out via the femoral artery into the aortic root in simulated cardiac output conditions. Subsequent CT scanning delivered the 3D volume data of the whole corpse. Visualization of the human arterial anatomy was excellent and the contrast agent distribution was generally limited to the arterial system as intended. As exceptions an enhancement of the brain, the left ventricular myocardium and the renal cortex became obvious. This most likely represented the stage of centralization of the blood circulation at the time of death with dilatation of the precapillary arterioles within these tissues. Especially for the brain this resulted in a distinctively improved visualization of the intracerebral structures by CT. However, the general tissue edema artifact of postmortem minimal invasive angiography examinations could be distinctively reduced.     

Palestine at the end of the state-building process: Technical achievements,political failures

More than two decades of Palestinian state-building have produced neither peace nor a state. In fact, the Palestinians are seemingly further away from statehood today than at any point since the state-building process began in the mid-90s, despite the fact that the West Bank’s institutions now perform, according to the UN, the EU, the World Bank and IMF, above the threshold for what is expected of a state. In this situation – with the Palestinians technically ready for statehood and large parts of Europe and the U.S. not politically ready to recognize Palestine – it is unclear what strategic objectives the internationally supported state-building process now can achieve in the Palestinian territories, except for upholding the status quo.     

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。     

Personality traits and party identification over time

Why do some people stably identify with a party while others do not? This study tests whether and how the direction, stability and strength of party identification are associated with big five personality traits, using panel data from a representative sample of German citizens. First, the study confirms that personality traits are related to identification with different political parties. Second, it moves beyond previous research by showing that personality traits are related to the strength and variation in party identification over time. The implications of the study for the classical perspectives on party identification, as well as the personality and politics literature, are discussed.     

Security, Equality, and the Clash of Ideas: Sweden's Evolving Anti-Trafficking Policy

Seeking to explain the emergence of anti-trafficking initiatives, scholars have explored two sets of ideas??national security and gender equality??thought to shape policy. In this study, we examine whether such ideational influence accounts for Sweden's evolving anti-trafficking policy over the past decade. As powerful domestic ideas about gender inequality informed the adoption of an abolitionist prostitution policy in the 1990s, one would expect similar ideas to influence domestic responses to the related issue of cross-border trafficking. However, our case study shows that the policy area of trafficking has largely followed a different ideational path. Gendered ideas, periodically nested in a human rights discourse, have been salient in the public debate on trafficking in human beings, especially during the campaign to boycott the 2006 FIFA World Cup. However, they have exerted substantially less influence on Swedish legislative initiatives to combat trafficking, with security concerns still holding sway.