The impact of constitutional structures and collective and competitive veto points on income inequality in industrialized democracies

Abstract This paper presents the first systematic, empirical examination of the impact of constitutional structures on income inequality among eighteen OECD countries. Our pooled time series/cross–sectional panel analysis (n = 18, t = 2) reveals that consensual political institutions are systematically related to lower income inequalities while the reverse is true for majoritarian political institutions. We also make a crucial distinction between 'collective' and 'competitive' veto points. Our multiple regression results provide strong evidence that collective veto points depress income inequalities while competitive veto points tend to widen the inequality of incomes. Thus, some institutional veto points have constraining effects on policy while others have 'enabling' effects.     

Schweizer Welten des Sozialkapitals. Empirische Untersuchungen zum sozialen Leben in Regionen und Kantonen

To what extent do the Swiss Regions and Cantons differ with regard to their stock of social capital? Based on the data of the Swiss Household Panel this article presents the first empirical investigation of the accumulation of social capital in Swiss sub‐national units in a comparative perspective. Empirical evidence implies that the cantons of the German speaking region show more social capital than the French and Italian speaking parts of the country measured by the engagement in voluntary associations, or the interaction with colleagues and the neighbourhood. However, the Latin cantons show a greater stock of social interaction among family and close friends. Furthermore, our findings provide evidence for the existence of five Swiss worlds of social capital varying among the various types of social interaction.     

News vs. Entertainment: How Increasing Media Choice Widens Gaps in Political Knowledge and Turnout

Despite dramatic increases in available political information through cable television and the Internet, political knowledge and turnout have not changed noticeably. To explain this seeming paradox, I argue that greater media choice makes it easier for people to find their preferred content. People who like news take advantage of abundant political information to become more knowledgeable and more likely to turn out. In contrast, people who prefer entertainment abandon the news and become less likely to learn about politics and go to the polls. To test this proposition, I develop a measure of people's media content preference and include it in a representative opinion survey of 2,358 U.S. residents. Results show that content preference indeed becomes a better predictor of political knowledge and turnout as media choice increases. Cable TV and the Internet increase gaps in knowledge and turnout between people who prefer news and people who prefer entertainment.     

Die Bildungsfinanzen der Schweizer Kantone. Der Einfluss sozioökonomischer Bedingungen,organisierter Interessen und politischer Institutionen auf die Bildungsausgaben im kantonalen Vergleich

This article seeks to explain cross‐cantonal variation in public education expenditure between 1985 and 1998. Four possible explanations are located: socio‐demographic and socio‐economic pressures, the impact of political institutions, the partisan theory, and the power resources of organized interests. Taking the research advantage of Swiss federalism our findings provide strong evidence that educational expenditure is systematically related to the socio‐demographic and socio‐economic pressures in a given canton. Furthermore, consensus democracy promotes educational finance, while the decentralization of the cantonal polity lessens the educational policy output. Finally, the instruments of direct democracy as well as partisan variables do not seem to account for differences regarding the budget expenditures on education in the Swiss cantons.     

Governance of professional sports leagues—Cooperatives versus contracts

Historically, European team sports leagues were run by their respective national and international associations and were legally independent from the professional clubs playing in these leagues. Recently, European leagues have adopted an organizational form similar to their North American counterparts who are organized since their beginning in a cooperative-like manner. Based on a comparative institutional analysis, we explain the advantages of the cooperative form of league organization over contractual governance. With our four-stage game-theoretic model, we show that contractual governance of sports leagues leads to larger investment distortions than cooperative league organization.     

The relationship between shift work, perceived stress, sleep and health in Swiss police officers

Purpose

This study examined how a specific shift system was associated with stress, sleep and health among police officers. Moreover, this study investigated whether gender moderated the association between shift work and stress, sleep and health. Additional analyses were performed to find out how stress and shift work interact in explaining sleep and health.

Methods

The findings are based on a cross-sectional survey. A written questionnaire was sent to all employees of a local police force. 460 police officers (M = 40.67 years, SD = 9.66; 25.2% females) volunteered to take part in the study. 251 subjects were shift workers (54.6%). Police officers filled in a series of validated instruments assessing stress (TICS), perceived health (SF-12, somatic complaints, health care use) and sleep (ISI, PSQI).

Results

Shift work was associated with increased social stress, work discontent and sleep complaints. In turn, shift workers reported decreased use of primary health care. Moreover, stress was associated with increased sleep complaints and lower scores in perceived health. The interplay between stress and shift work did not produce any significant effects.

Conclusions

Workforce health promotion should make attempts to reduce chronic stress, while occupational health physicians should emphasize the diagnosis of undetected sleep disorders.     

Correction to: Economic growth and political extremism

Public Choice - We provide the first parcel-level, time-series empirical analysis of municipal annexation behavior. We also exploit a unique natural experiment created by the incorporation and...     

Max Weber in the tropics: How global climate politics facilitates the bureaucratization of forestry in Indonesia

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) is one of the most advanced global climate governance arrangements and we show that it contributes to the buildup of autonomous capacities and reliable procedures in areas of rather limited statehood. These partially unintended effects can be conceptualized as an increasing rational–legal bureaucratization, which has been initiated through both external and domestic actors as we illuminate in the case of Indonesia's forestry sector in the period from 2007 until 2017. Our finding is that a bureaucratization of a new kind is increasingly strengthened in Indonesia's forest despite enduring patterns of neopatrimonialism, emerging signs of new public management approaches, and the strengthening of functional equivalents such as community-based forest management. We thus claim that Max Weber's perspective on the prospects and problems of rational–legal bureaucratization is still valuable, even when travelling to the tropics.