Intimate partner homicide,immigration and citizenship: evidence from Norway 1990–2012

Intimate partner homicides (IPH) are fatal violent attacks perpetrated by intimate partners. Immigrants are overrepresented in the IPH statistics as both perpetrators and victims. If explanatory factors for this are not studied, immigrants may be stigmatized. The present study investigates whether IPHs committed by immigrant perpetrators have characteristics that differentiate them from IPHs committed by the native majority of IPH perpetrators. All IPHs in Norway from 1990 to 2012 (N = 177) were included. Quantitative data were extracted through structured investigation of court documents. Information concerning risk factors (previous intimate partner violence and sociodemographic, contextual and clinical factors) was drawn from three validated risk assessment instruments. Univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted. When adjusted for other group differences, very few differences remained in the multivariate models. IPHs perpetrated by immigrants differed from cases with native perpetrators on modus operandi and ascribed motives and resulted in longer sentences than IPHs with native perpetrators. This study indicates considerable similarities in IPHs perpetrated by immigrants and natives. Findings indicating that IPHs by immigrants were perceived differently in the justice system need further investigation.     

Risk for Revictimization of Intimate Partner Violence by Multiple Partners: a Systematic Review

Are victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) by multiple partners (MP) different from victims of IPV by one partner? Are there different victim-related risk factors for IPV by MP? This systematic literature review identified seven empirical studies that related to these issues. The review findings indicated that (1) empirical research on IPV by MP appears to be scarce, with only limited recent development; (2) there were significant differences between women who had been subjected to IPV in a single relationship and women with IPV by MP; (3) IPV by MP was significantly associated with childhood domestic trauma, drug abuse, IPV characteristics, and attachment style; (4) regarding PTSD and personality disorders, the results were mixed and inconclusive; and (5) depression did not appear as a salient risk factor for IPV by MP. Interpretations must be made cautiously because of the wide diversity in measurement approaches. It is important that service personnel and researchers attend with increased awareness to women with IPV by MP.     

Regional Innovation Systems: The Integration of Local ‘Sticky’ and Global ‘Ubiquitous’ Knowledge

The paper examines how firms in three regional clusters in Norway dominated by shipbuilding, mechanical engineering and electronics industry, respectively exploit both place-specific local resources as well as external, world-class knowledge to strengthen their competitiveness. From these case-studies we make four points: (1) Ideal-typical regional innovation systems, i.e., regional clusters surrounded by supporting local organisations, is rather uncommon in Norway. (2) External contacts, outside of the local industrial milieu, are crucial in innovation processes also in many SMEs. (3) Innovation processes may nevertheless be regarded as regional phenomena in regional clusters, as regional resources and collaborative networks often have decisive significance for firms' innovation activity. (4) Regional resources include in particular place-specific, contextual knowledge of both tacit and codified nature, that, in combination, is rather geographically immobile.     

Unemployment and Party Choice in Norway

By the late 1980s, the absolute number of jobless in Norway had reached the same level as that during the Great Depression of the 1930s. Unemployment in the 1930s is known to have had an impact on party choice. Among those hit by unemployment in the 1980s, however, we no longer find a strong correlation between unemployment and party choice. This situation constitutes the point of departure for this article. The relationship between joblessness and party choice is investigated on the basis of four hypotheses: (i) The incumbency thesis , which suggests that the incumbent party receives support in accordance with fluctuations in economic conditions - i. e. it is punished in bad times and rewarded in prosperous times, (ii) The policy thesis , which predicts that voters concerned about unemployment prefer the Labour Party, (iii) The social composition thesis , which argues that the fluctuations between unemployment and party choice are simply due to changes in the social composition of the unemployed, (iv) The generation thesis , which underscores that the impact of unemployment on party choice varies according to historical generation. Confronted with empirical evidence, the social composition thesis is rejected. Likewise, support for the policy thesis has gradually vanished. Some empirical support is given to the incumbency thesis . In the end, however, the generation thesis appears to be the most relevant.     

Organisierte Interessen in der Landespolitik. Die Entstehung des INGE-Gesetzes in Hessen

In this case study we want to reduce the gap in research on the influence of organized interests at the federal state level. We analyse the “Gesetz zur Stärkung von innerstädtischen Geschäftsquartieren” (INGE) by applying social network analysis and statistical models. First, we show that the set of actors changes compared to the federal level. Second, we find that striving for influence pays off for non-state actors because influential actors find themselves close to the law. Third, we explain the degree of the actors’ influence. An OLS-regression shows that formal resources like governmental power as well as informal resources such as expertise and support increase influence. The use of informal resources is reflected in interactions in communication networks and specific network positions. Furthermore, we discuss this specific process of interaction between state and societal actors from the point of view of democratic theory.     

Manipulation and strategic voting in the Norwegian parliament

The Norwegian parliament uses a sequential voting procedure. After some general remarks on how the legislature can avoid strategic voting by choosing an appropriate voting order, and an exposition of the rules whereby the agenda is determined in this particular parliament, voting order manipulation is examined. A manipulative actor tries to bring about voting sequences in accordance with his interests, but contrary to the putative will of other actors. An example illustrates how manipulation may take place in practice, but it is stressed that the realm of manipulation easily escapes empirical analysis. To grasp the different types of manipulation in legislative voting, models are needed that are rich in institutional detail.     

Governance in Crisis and withering of the welfare state: the legacy of the policy sciences

The introductory essay to this special issue on Governance in Crisis has three objectives. Firstly, it tries to show that current dilemmas of governance in advanced industrial Western nations can be analysed within the common framework of the thesis of the withering of the modern welfare state. Secondly, it argues that the policy sciences have a legacy of problem-oriented and value-conscious scholarship, bestowed by Lasswell and others, which can and should be taken up in the analysis of the comprehensive problems of governance confronting advanced industrial nations. Thirdly, it considers the requirement that the policy sciences go significantly beyond a managerial perspective and take up the timely but challenging task of linking up problem-orientation to contextuality. Contributions to this issue are seen to constitute a promising step in this direction.     

Children in Out-of-Home Care and Adult Labor-Market Attachment: A Swedish National Register Study

Using longitudinal national register data, we investigated labor-market attachment during the years 1993–1995 in Sweden for persons aged 25–35 years who had been in out-of-home care before the age of 18 in Sweden during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. We consider whether an immigrant background has an additional influence on labor-market attachment. Compared to majority population peers, young persons who had been in foster care had shorter educations. Fewer had a strong labor-market attachment and more were dependent on social assistance. Results from multinomial regression models indicated that having been in foster care during childhood reduced the probability of high attachment to the labor-market and increased the probability of social assistance dependency, even after making adjustments for education, marital status, parenthood, domicile, and birth country. Few signs of additive effects from being both an immigrant and a former foster child are found.     

Christianity and political thought: Augusto Del Noce and the ideology of Christian Democracy in post-war Italy

This article engages with the thought of Augusto Del Noce (1910–1989), the most important Italian Catholic philosopher and political thinker of the 20th century. The focus is on how Del Noce came to elaborate a Catholic ‘modernity,’ bridging a positive encounter between Catholicism, democracy and freedom. This philosophical project had a considerable impact on modern Italian culture and politics. At the theoretical level, the argument is embedded within the larger aim of recognizing attempts within Catholic philosophy to articulate an Italian political trajectory that does not simply accept the tale of a singular path to modernity based on the Enlightenment model but instead tries to articulate an alternative vision of the modern, grounded within a transcendental perspective.