Poor versus rich countries: a gap in public attitudes towards fiscal solidarity in the EU

Abstract

Existing research has primarily focused on the role of utility and identity in shaping individuals’ European Union (EU) preferences. This article argues that macroeconomic context is a crucial predictor of attitudes towards transnational financial assistance, which has been omitted from previous analyses. Using data from the 2014 European Election Studies (EES) Voter Study for 28 EU member states, this article demonstrates that citizens living in poorer EU countries are less willing to support fiscal solidarity than their counterparts in more affluent countries. Country affluence serves as a heuristic, moderating the relationship between individual-level utility and identity considerations and willingness to show solidarity to member states with economic difficulties. When a country does not fare well economically, citizens’ views on providing help to others remain negative, irrespective of individual-level utilitarian and identity considerations. Our findings have implications for understanding the decision-making calculus underlying preference formation.     

Political Control and Military Autonomy: Reexamining the Chinese People’s Liberation Army

The first part of this article discusses the most common theoretical and analytical approaches to the study of political control over the armed forces in China. It argues that the focus on professionalism and professionalization at the level of the military institution that is common in previous studies has certain limitations when analyzing Chinese civil–military relations. Against this background, the second part of the article suggests an alternative approach that places the Chinese officer corps and its professional autonomy at the center of analysis. Its benefit is demonstrated in a case study of quality control at China’s top three military education institutes. The study shows that autonomy and direct political control varies, which indicate a need for more nuanced discussions about military professionalization in China.     

Absent yet popular? Explaining news visibility of Members of the European Parliament

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent their citizens in European Union policy making, having the power to approve, amend or reject the near majority of legislation. The media inform EU citizens about their representatives and are able to hold them publicly accountable. However, we know little about whether, and to what extent, MEPs are visible in the news. This study investigates the visibility of MEPs in national broadsheets in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. It seeks to explain individual‐level variation by employing an original dataset of news visibility of 302 MEPs over a period of 25 months (September 2009–September 2011) and tests the applicability of the news values and mirror theories in the context of supranational politics. The results show that political office, length of tenure and domestic party leadership have a positive effect. Legislative activities have a mixed effect on MEP news visibility. Attendance negatively affects news visibility, while non‐attached MEPs receive more news coverage. In short, despite the core supranational nature of EP legislative politics, MEP news visibility primarily depends on journalists’ domestic considerations. This informs both our understanding of MEP parliamentary behaviour and journalism studies in the context of the EU.     

Violence at Work—The Emergence of a Social Problem

This article analyses trends in violence at work on the basis of victim surveys, work-environment surveys, and press material. It proceeds from the two most common explanations of why violence at work appears to have increased over recent decades. These emphasize shifts in working conditions that have increased employees' victimization risk, and a broadened view of what is regarded as work-related violence. The empirical analyses provide support for both these explanations, and the various dimensions examined—increased reporting propensities, expanded definitions, a reduced tolerance of violence, and altered working conditions—are linked to one another.     

Marongiu and the Parliament of Sardinia1

I Parlamenti di Sardegna nella storia e nel diritto pubblico comparato (Sardinian Parliaments in History and in Comparative Public Law) was the first important scientific work written by Antonio Marongiu (1902–89) and was published in 1931 in the series of the studies of the Institute of Public Law and Social Legislation of the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ (Istituto di Diritto Pubblico e Legislazione Sociale della Facoltà di Scienze Politiche dell'Università ‘La Sapienza’ di Roma). The facsimile reprint of the text was promoted in 2009 by Marongiu's family as a tribute to the memory of its great ancestor on the twentieth anniversary of his death. Maria Sofia Corciulo's article reproduces the preface to this reprint and is prefaced by a short note about Marongiu and his work.     

USING RETAIL DATA FOR UPSTREAM MERGER ANALYSIS

The typical situation that antitrust authorities face is toanalyze a proposed manufacturer merger using scanner data atretail level. I start with a benchmark model of manufacturers'and retailers' sequential pricing behavior. Then I perform counterfactualexperiments to explore the relationship between downstream retailerpricing models and the resulting estimates of upstream mergers,in the absence of wholesale prices. Looking at scanner datafor the ground coffee category sold at several retail chainsin Germany, I find that not considering retail pricing explicitlywhen analyzing the potential consequences of an upstream mergerresults in simulated changes in welfare that are significantlydifferent given the underlying model of retail pricing behavior.These findings are relevant for competition policy, and authoritiesshould consider incorporating the role of retailers in upstreammerger analyses, especially in the presence of increasinglyconsolidated retail food markets.     

Reproductive health,birth control,and fertility change in Sweden,circa 1900–1940

This article deals with two aspects of reproductive health during the latter part of the Swedish fertility decline: failing health as a motive for birth control, and failing health as a possible consequence of illegal abortions. The main argument is that reproductive health was an important factor in most reproductive decisions during this period, a circumstance largely ignored by researchers of the fertility decline. Questions that are addressed include: How can aspects of reproductive health be viewed as explanatory factors of the fertility decline? How did men react to women's need to stop bearing children for health reasons? How did couples seeking abortion, sometimes for health reasons, perceive the risks associated with abortion? A source material mainly consisting of letters, written in the 1930s and sent to the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education, has been used to discern how aspects of health, contraception and abortion were experienced by ordinary men and women. The analysis shows that reproductive health became a motive for birth control, at this point in history, for at least two reasons. Firstly, the experience of childbirth had changed through institutionalization and secularization and, secondly, respectable masculinity was increasingly constructed to include sexual respect towards women. Still, when couples decided to abort, aspects of health were largely ignored. Often abortion was sought because the health risks associated with childbirth were perceived as larger than those associated with abortion. The connection between reproductive health and birth control was, therefore, of a rather complex kind.     

End-of-life decisions in dutch neonatology

This contribution describes the regulation of end-of-life decisions in neonatology in the Netherlands. An account is given of the process of formulating rules, which includes a report by the Dutch Association for Paediatrics, two Court rulings, a report by a Consultation Group appointed by the Ministry of Health and a professional Protocol regulating deliberate ending of life in neonatology that was subsequently adopted as the regulation of this type of decision-making at the national level. The paper presents Dutch and comparative data on the attitude of the medical profession towards end-of-life decisions in neonatology and the frequency of such decisions in medical practice.     

Addressing the accountability challenges of international policing in peace support operations

There is increasing concern over the behaviour and accountability of international personnel, including CIVPOL contingents, deployed in peace-keeping and peace-building missions throughout the world. From the point of view of local populations the ??internationals?? are typically perceived to be ??above the law??. This is directly related to the fact that under status of forces or mission agreements (SOFAs or SOMAs) they are exempt from local host state jurisdiction. There are also significant practical problems in gathering and presenting evidence for disciplinary or criminal proceedings in their home states. This paper will analyse these problems in detail, based on a study of some recent European Union and international missions and suggest how a more co-operative home and host state approach to monitoring, investigation and adjudication of alleged misconduct might achieve more effective accountability and thus contribute to the overall success of CIVPOL missions.     

La Chambre introuvable et les principes du régime parlementaire

Summary

Discussions of British policy towards Poland and the Polish question in the years before the first Partition have recently been provided by Michael Roberts and by Hamish Scott. They have given both a narrative and an analysis of British diplomacy and foreign policy in the decade after the end of the Seven Years’ War. It is the purpose of this paper to suggest the resonance which British policy (and the lack of it) and opinion on Poland had for contemporary understanding of the British political system and political culture itself.1 The implications for Britain of the first Partition of Poland were ominous and unsettling for the British polity, and would challenge both diplomatic practice and political prejudices and commonplaces.