Political stability and fiscal policy: time series evidence for the Swiss federal level since 1849

This paper explores the role of political stability on fiscal policy in a time-series analysis over 158 years at the Swiss federal level. We argue that the fiscal commons problem of public finances is affected by the number of years a finance minister remains in office, because the incentives for an incumbent to maintain a good reputation with sound policy decisions are stronger. A finance minister who succeeds to stay a long time in office enjoys a politically powerful position towards the administration, parliament and interest groups. In contrast, frequent government turnover weakens the position of the finance minister.     

Partisan Influence on Immigration: The Case of Norway

Do governments decide the size of immigration? This article analyses partisan impact on refugee immigration to Norway. The first part maps party positions on refugee immigration and demonstrates that the views of Norwegian parties are far from consensual. The second part tests whether the number of refugees admitted has been affected by changes of government by way of a panel analysis covering the period 1985–2005 and 143 sending countries. Controlling for other determinants of immigration both in receiving and sending countries, the analysis suggests that that the number of refugees admitted to Norway has been significantly lower during Conservative rule. Among parties with government experience, the Conservative Party also has adopted the most restrictive stand in its manifestoes. No significant differences between Labour Party and centre governments were found, even though the centre parties express more liberal preferences.     

Crime and crime trends in different urban environments

This is a study of crime and crime trends in different urban environments in Stockholm. The study is in two major parts. First, on the basis of a study of the factorial social ecology of Stockholm in 1980, the city is grouped into major urban environments, and thereafter the criminality in these different urban environments is studied cross sectionally for 1982. Second, the trends in crime in the city of Stockholm and its different types of urban environments are studied over a 20-year period (1968–1987). The findings show significant differences between types of urban environments in rates of crimes, offenders and victims, crime structure, and crime and distance. Also, the trends in crime were significantly different between different types of urban environments.     

Civic Decline? Trends in Political Involvement and Participation in Norway, 1965–2001

Electoral turnout in Norway has been declining over a long period for local elections and, at the four most recent Storting elections, turnout has been at a lower level than in the preceding 25 years. This article investigates whether the fall in turnout generalises to other forms of political participation and political involvement. Data from the Norwegian Election Studies 1965–2001 and the Norwegian Values Studies 1982–1996 are analysed. In contrast to the decline of turnout, the authors find that the broader political activity of citizens has increased. The rise in political involvement and activism is quite widespread, covering dimensions like political interest, political discussion and political action. The increase includes forms of participation where political parties play a strong role and in direct action where parties are supposed to be less important. Education is strongly associated with most forms of civic participation and the rise in educational levels normally leads to an increase in participation rates. Data show that women are now as active as men in most dimensions of participation. In Norway, turnout at elections displays one pattern over time, while other indicators of political participation and involvement show different trajectories. There is no general civic decline. Using political involvement and participation as a criterion for judging the state of democracy, and taking into account the whole set of indicators studied in this article, one may reasonably conclude that Norwegian civic democracy is in better health than if one focused only on the fall in electoral turnout.     

Bite mark lesions in human skin

Bite marks in human skin may be found to have been so forcefully made that the skin surface has been disrupted; the marks have become skin lesions. In the following, a case is reported in which such lesions were found on the back of a victim of assault. The dental examiners found it necessary to arrange for a series of simulated bites to be made in order to obtain adequate material for comparison.     

Triage in the nation's medicine cabinet: the puzzling scarcity of vaccines and other drugs

For a variety of reasons, vaccines and other critical pharmaceutical products have become increasingly scarce in the last few years, and persistent shortages involving dozens of essential drugs may imperil the public health. Pressures emanating from regulatory agencies, the courts, and insurers have conspired to make some lines of the pharmaceutical business less than attractive. Although concerns about unpredictable tort liability received most of the blame in the past, two other factors may help to account for the latest round of drug shortages: stringent federal control of manufacturing facilities and aggressive cost-containment efforts that further erode profit margins. Whatever the cause, scarce supplies necessitate efforts at rationing that pose their own difficulties for health care providers. Policymakers could avoid putting physicians to such tough choices regarding patients by focusing on ways to ensure the production of adequate quantities of these highly cost-effective medical technologies. Some commentators have called for greater public sector involvement, but this Article concludes that, in addition to bolstering its emergency stockpiles, the federal government instead needs to take steps designed to encourage private manufacturers to continue supplying critical pharmaceuticals. To this end, the government should adopt more flexible regulations governing manufacturing facilities, provide companies with greater protection from the vagaries of tort liability, and avoid pursuing excessive cost-control strategies. Otherwise, patients may continue to lose access to important therapeutic products.     

Sequencing strategy of mitochondrial HV1 and HV2 DNA with length heteroplasmy

We describe a method to obtain reliable mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences downstream of the homopolymeric stretches with length heteroplasmy in the sequencing direction. The method is based on the use of junction primers that bind to a part of the homopolymeric stretch and the first 2-4 bases downstream of the homopolymeric region. This junction primer method gave clear and unambiguous results using samples from 21 individuals with length heteroplasmy in the hypervariable regions HV1, HV2 or both. The method is of special value for forensic casework, because sequencing of both strands of an mtDNA region is preferable in order to reduce ambiguities in sequence determination.