Negative Issue Ownership

Existing research considers issue ownership to be a positive attribute of political parties, which are seen as ‘owning’ those policy areas where they are particularly competent and engaged. However, for some citizens a party may also be a negative issue owner if it has a particularly bad reputation for its handling of an issue. This article describes and explains aggregate and individual-level patterns of negative issue ownership using a survey-based measure of handling perceptions from the 2013 Austrian National Election Study (n = 3,266). Naming a particular party as a negative issue owner is affected by partisanship, but also by policy preferences and government performance evaluations. The effects of issue importance vary across issues. These findings lay the groundwork for more research on negative attributions of issue ownership and their empirical consequences on vote choice.     

What Actually Matters? Understanding Attitudes toward Immigration in Switzerland

On 9 February 2014, the Swiss people accepted the popular initiative “against mass immigration” launched by the national‐conservative Swiss People's Party (SVP). This voting outcome has triggered wide‐ranging debates about both the policy on immigrants as well as the future of Switzerland within the European context. Against this background, we evaluate attitudes toward immigration in Switzerland. Using hitherto unexplored survey data of MOSAiCH, our empirical analyses show that already in the year 2013, before the debate about the initiative on mass immigration was in full swing, roughly 53 percent of the 1011 interviewed Swiss citizens stated that immigration should be reduced. Moreover, our estimations indicate that the threats and fears induced by immigration and the will to maintain sovereignty and autonomy are particularly relevant for attitudes toward immigration. By contrast, education and national or personal economic conditions are only weakly related to the immigration issue.     

How has Radical Right Support Transformed Established Political Conflicts? The Case of Austria

In many European party systems, the radical right has challenged established patterns of political competition. This article studies the consequences of this by using the case of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) and data from Austria’s first national election study (AUTNES). It is found that the FPÖ has weakened Austria’s previously highly stable system of socio-structural and ideological divisions as expressed by the two mainstream parties, the People’s Party and the Social Democrats. In socio-structural terms, the FPÖ has undermined the Social Democrats’ support base. In ideological terms, FPÖ voters have distinct views on newer issues such as immigration, European integration and dissatisfaction with the political system, but its supporters’ views on Austria’s traditional conflicts surrounding the economy and social and religious values cannot explain the party’s success. These findings further our understanding of the transformation of political conflicts not just in Austria, but in Western Europe in general.     

African agency and global orders: the demanding case of nuclear arms control

Abstract

How much agency do African states have to shape global orders? This study puts the global nuclear order under scrutiny to answer this question. It amounts to a demanding case. Arms control is something that global great powers take very seriously, and there is no weapons category that they take more seriously than nuclear weapons. My findings provide a nuanced picture. Although often outflanked and frustrated by nuclear weapon states, the nuclear order would look different without African actors exerting their agency. They successfully shaped background and foreground institutions constituting the global nuclear order by building advocacies for new institutions upon already existing ones, reaching out to state and non-state actors outside of Africa, and channelling communication through African states with authority in global fora. This study makes three contributions: First, it underlines the key finding of recent literature on African agency that African actors are more to be reckoned with than often assumed. Second, it provides novel evidence about the diplomatic mechanisms through which they come to make a difference. Third, it adds to our grasp of the constitution of global orders as well as the processes through which they come to be made, re-made and unmade more generally.     

Across the Sloping Meadow Floor: An Empirical Analysis of Preremoval Detention of Noncitizens

In many countries, the law permits state authorities to detain noncitizens before deportation. Typically judicial decisions about preremoval detention must be made within a short period of time during which deportable noncitizens are held in police premises, and depending on the country detention may last just one month (e.g., France) or up to 18 months (the Netherlands). While previous research has explored various dimensions of noncitizen detention including the legal procedure, health consequences, the condition of detention centers, and the lives of deportable noncitizens, the empirical assessment of the determinants of decisions on preremoval detention are largely unexplored. Using data from court proceedings of police petitions of detention in Spain and a quantitative strategy, in this article we undertake an empirical analysis of noncitizen detention combining personal background of deportable noncitizens, legal factors of the case, and the behavior of different actors involved in the procedure. To do it, we fit models that take into account variation occurred at judicial district levels. Results indicate, on the one hand, that relevant actors involved in the procedure use different informational cues to decide on cases. On the other hand, the role of prosecutors and attorneys during hearings proves also relevant to predict detention.     

India Inc. and globalization: The rise of neo-liberalism and a transnational managerial elite?

ABSTRACT

In our paper, we present an empirical study that tests claims regarding the purported impact of economic globalization on business elites, namely that elites become increasingly transnational in their careers and life style and neo-liberal in their action orientations. We draw upon the results of a study that (a) tapped life course data for 100 current top managers in India and (b) implemented a collective mindset analysis using in-depth interviews that were conducted in India with retired and serving senior business managers. Our findings indicate that endogenous institutions have an important and enduring role to play in the shaping of careers, as well as generating embedded cognitive frameworks. Drawing from this exploratory study, we propose a set of hypotheses and a research agenda to argue that socio-cultural mechanisms of selection and socialization must be taken into account in discussions regarding the emergence of a global corporate elite.     

Ethyl sulphate and ethyl glucuronide in vitreous humor as postmortem evidence marker for ethanol consumption prior to death

To clarify the circumstances of death, the degree of inebriation is of importance in many cases, but for several reasons the determination of the ethanol concentration in post-mortem samples can be challenging and the synopsis of ethanol and the direct consumption markers ethyl glucuronide (EtG) and ethyl sulphate (EtS) has proved to be useful. The use of a rather stable matrix like vitreous humor offers further advantages. The aim of this study was to determine the concentrations of ethanol and the biomarkers in the robust matrix of vitreous humor and to compare them with the respective levels in peripheral venous blood and urine. Samples of urine, blood from the femoral vein and vitreous humor were taken from 26 deceased with suspected ethanol consumption prior to death and analyzed for ethanol, EtS and EtG. In the urine samples creatinine was also determined. The personal data, the circumstances of death, the post-mortem interval and the information about ethanol consumption prior to death were recorded. EtG and EtS analysis in urine was performed by LC-ESI-MS/MS, creatinine concentration was determined using the Jaffé reaction and ethanol was detected by HS-GC-FID and by an ADH-based method. In general, the highest concentrations of the analytes were found in urine and showed statistical significance. The mean concentrations of EtG were 62.8mg/L (EtG100 206.5mg/L) in urine, 4.3mg/L in blood and 2.1mg/L in vitreous humor. EtS was found in the following mean concentrations: 54.6mg/L in urine (EtS100 123.1mg/L), 1.8mg/L in blood and 0.9mg/L in vitreous humor. Ethanol was detected in more vitreous humor samples (mean concentration 2.0g/kg) than in blood and urine (mean concentration 1.6g/kg and 2.1g/kg respectively). There was no correlation between the ethanol and the marker concentrations and no statistical conclusions could be drawn between the markers and matrices.     

Representative misconduct,voter perceptions and accountability: Evidence from the 2009 House of Commons expenses scandal

This paper examines electoral accountability after the 2009–10 UK expenses scandal. Existing research shows that Members of Parliament (MPs) implicated in the scandal fared only marginally worse in the election than non-implicated colleagues. This lack of electoral accountability for misconduct could have arisen either because voters did not know about their representative's wrongdoing or because they chose not to electorally sanction them. We combine panel survey data with new measures of MP implication in the expenses scandal to test where electoral accountability failed. We find that MP implication influenced voter perceptions of wrongdoing more than expected. In contrast, constituents were only marginally less likely to vote for MPs who were implicated in the scandal. Electoral accountability may therefore be constrained even when information about representative misconduct is easily available and clearly influences voter perceptions.