The Impact of Public Branding: An Experimental Study on the Effects of Branding Policy on Citizen Trust

Branding has become common in the public sector as brands are increasingly used to influence citizens’ associations with public organizations and public services. Using experimental research replicated in three European countries, this article investigates the effect of using the European Union (EU) brand on trust in policies. Experiments were conducted among economics students in Belgium, Poland, and The Netherlands to test the hypothesis that adding EU brand elements to policies positively affects trust in those policies. The results show a consistent positive and significant effect of applying the EU brand to trust in the policies in all countries and for both policies included in the experiment—even in The Netherlands, a country characterized by a negative overall EU sentiment. These findings provide some of the first empirical evidence of the effectiveness of branding for public policy.     

Consideration and Choice: Analyzing Party Choice in the Swedish European Election 2014

For a long time the question of to what extent party choice in the European Parliament (EP) elections is primarily dependent on voters’ orientations towards the European Union (EU) or just a mere reflection of orientations towards issues and actors in national politics has been debated. By combining insights from individual‐level models of party choice in second‐order elections with theories of sequential decision making this article investigates if, how and at what stages in the decision process attitudes to European integration matters for party choice. In line with previous work on first and second decision rule criteria in EP elections, this article develops and tests hypotheses about how voters’ orientations work at different stages of the voter decision process. The findings, based on Swedish data from a probability‐based three‐wave Internet campaign panel, indicate that many voters are in fact considering more than one party to vote for in the beginning of the election campaign. As expected, left‐right orientations function as a main decision rule with respect to which parties voters even consider voting for, while proximity on the European integration dimension mainly matters as a second decision rule in the final stage of the decision process. Using a sequential model with consideration and choice stages, the article reveals a much larger complimentary effect of EU proximity on party choice than has generally been found in previous research. This serves as a distinct contribution to the emerging research field of individual party choice in second‐order elections.     

Opposition Policy Influence through Agenda‐setting: The Environment in Denmark, 1993–2009

This article addresses the opportunities that the opposition has to influence policy – a topic that has been neglected in existing party policy research. The idea that is developed is applied to a remarkable environmental policy development during the Danish right‐wing government in the 2000s. Contrary to its position when it took office in 2001, the right‐wing government turned green and adopted a series of green policy initiatives. It is argued in this article that vehement and persistent criticism from the left‐wing opposition provides an explanation for this turn. Taking media coverage, public opinion, carbon dioxide emissions and the government's approval ratings into account, the empirical estimation based on unique quarterly data shows that opposition criticism had a systematic impact on the government's pro‐environmental policy development. The implications for party policy research are important. If the aim is to understand how parties matter to policy, the opposition should be taken more seriously.     

When trust matters—a multilevel analysis of the effect of generalized trust on political participation in 25 European democracies

Generalized social trust has been argued to have positive effects for both individuals and society, but despite solid theoretical arguments in favour of different contextual effects, the empirical evidence remains scant. We here examine whether and how the effect of generalized trust on the propensity to become politically active is moderated by the level of generalized trust in society. We inspect two different causal mechanisms: The rainmaker effect, which entails that the effect of generalized trust is weaker at the individual level when there is a high level of generalized trust in society; and the sunmaker effect, which entails that the effect of generalized trust is strengthened by a high level of generalized trust in society. We examine the links for three forms of political participation: voting, institutionalized participation, and non-institutionalized participation. The data come from the fourth round of the European Social Survey from 2008 [European Social Survey. (2008 European Social Survey. (2008). Data file edition 4.0. Norwegian Social Science Data Services, Norway – Data Archive and distributor of ESS data. [Google Scholar]). Data file edition 4.0. Norwegian Social Science Data Services, Norway—Data Archive and distributor of ESS data], and we include 47,489 respondents in 25 democratic countries. The results from a series of multilevel logistic regressions suggest that the effect of generalized trust varies depending on the level of generalized trust in the surrounding community but the causal mechanisms differ for different kinds of political participation.     

From partisan to pluralist ideology: the changing practices of democracy through Spain’s 20th-century constitutional moments

This article explores the practices of democracy in Spain through the lens of its 20th-century constitutional moments, namely, those around the 1931 and the 1978 constitutions, with the aim of elucidating its changing ideological significance. Whereas in 1931, supporting democracy had a strongly partisan meaning, as every endorsement of the democratic ideal entailed a conflicting understanding of the Republic’s democratic character, in 1978 it gave rise to an integrative form of pluralism. Even if the former has left a deep imprint on Spanish politics, anticipating a kind of seemingly irreconcilable opposition between left and right, the latter has proved instrumental in the consolidation of the new democratic regime. After the institutional distortion of democracy during the four-decade dictatorship’s ‘organic democracy’, since 1977 the ideal of democracy was thoroughly recast into a pluralist ideology. Unlike views describing it as a consensual regime, the article argues that the politics of consensus tested since the 1977 constitutional debates paved the way for the accommodation of democratic pluralism; furthermore, the culture of pacts it contributed to set up has continued to inspire a new form of adversarial, parliamentary politics well beyond the transition years.     

Has the gender gap in voter turnout really disappeared?

According to conventional wisdom, the traditional gender gap in voting has disappeared or even reversed in most established democracies. Drawing on the existing literature on differences between the sexes in political engagement and on pioneering voter turnout theories, this article questions the conventional assumption and hypothesises that women still participate at a lower rate in less important elections. It systematically tests this hypothesis by exploring the impact of gender on voter turnout in different electoral arenas. The empirical analyses of two cross-national datasets (Making Electoral Democracy Work and the European Election Study) demonstrate that although there is generally no gender gap in first-order elections, women tend to vote less than men in second-order contests. This reflects lower levels of interest in politics among women and their lower levels of knowledge about politics when it comes to second-order elections.     

Emergency suicide care in France: the psychiatrist's liability as seen in case law

In France, in general emergency departments, psychiatric consultations are on the increase and suicidal behavior represents a frequent reason for consultation. Psychiatrists treat patients whose behavior may be impulsive and irrational, and whose critical judgment is impaired. In emergency units, the reception and initial assessment of the patient determines his or her future pathway through the healthcare system. By its very nature, emergency medicine deals with inherently unstable situations, which may lead to the risk of medical malpractice. The aim of this article is to provide a summary of the initial management of suicidal patients by general emergency units and to comment on the medical malpractice that may expose the practitioner to risk of liability. An analysis of case history has shown that in suicide cases, malpractice due to inadequate supervision is the most frequent ruling.     

Virtual anthropology and forensic identification: report of one case

A charred body was found after a fire in a house in a mountainous region of France. The body was severely burned and was not formally identified as the owner of the house. Autopsy was carried out to seek vital reactions and/or traumatic lesions and to identify the corpse. Before bone preparation and after autopsy, multislice computed tomography (MSCT) was performed in order to assess the potential of the technique for radiological anthropological bone identification. The challenge was to determine as accurately as possible the sex, age, ante-mortem stature and ethnic of the victim using both MSCT and conventional bone study. The results of the two techniques were compared. MSCT provided an answer to all the questions, whereas bone study did not. To the best of our knowledge, this case is the first to use MSCT for forensic anthropological study and illustrates the potential contribution of this technique in this field.     

Predictors of adult attitudes toward corporal punishment of children

This study identifies predictors of favorable attitudes toward spanking. Analyses were performed with survey data collected from a representative sample of 1,000 adults from Quebec, Canada. According to this survey, a majority of respondents endorsed spanking, despite their recognition of potential harm associated with corporal punishment (CP) of children. The prediction model of attitudes toward spanking included demographics, experiencing or witnessing various forms of family violence and abuse in childhood, and perceived frequency of physical injuries resulting from CP. Spanking was the most reported childhood experience (66.4%), and most violence and abuse predictors were significantly and positively correlated. Older respondents who were spanked in childhood and who believed that spanking never or seldom results in physical injuries were the most in favor of spanking. On the other hand, respondents who reported more severe physical violence or psychological abuse in childhood were less in favor of spanking. Findings are discussed in terms of prevention of CP and family coercion cycle.     

Haplotype frequencies of eight Y-chromosome short tandem repeats loci in four Amerindian populations (state of Hidalgo, Mexico)

Population: Amerindian populations: Huastecos (n=97), Otomies de la Sierra (n=41), Otomies del Valle (n=40), and Tepehuas (n=13).