Regional parliaments questioning EU affairs

ABSTRACT

Since the Treaty of Lisbon, the desire of parliaments to adapt to their new powers has led to a new wave of Europeanisation. However, the early warning system (EWS) and the political dialogue with the Commission constitute only a small part of parliamentary scrutiny for regional parliaments, which still largely rely on traditional tools such as mandates, debates and questions. Therefore, this paper studies a traditional mechanism of scrutiny, parliamentary questions, in order to understand how they can be used in an EU context. The study shows that Europeanisation is progressing slowly. Interestingly, the vast majority of MPs who ask EU-related questions are not members of the European Affairs Committee. In addition, questions focus primarily on the implementation stage rather than the policy-making stage. Finally, the content of parliamentary questions shows that regional parliaments have a distinctive territorial approach to EU affairs.     

The hidden electoral connection: analysing parliamentary questions in the Chilean Congress

Legislators in presidential countries use a variety of mechanisms to advance their electoral careers and connect with relevant constituents. The most frequently studied activities are bill initiation, co-sponsoring, and legislative speeches. In this paper, the authors examine legislators’ information requests (i.e. parliamentary questions) to the government, which have been studied in some parliamentary countries but remain largely unscrutinised in presidential countries. The authors focus on the case of Chile – where strong and cohesive national parties coexist with electoral incentives that emphasise the personal vote – to examine the links between party responsiveness and legislators’ efforts to connect with their electoral constituencies. Making use of a new database of parliamentary questions and a comprehensive sample of geographical references, the authors examine how legislators use this mechanism to forge connections with voters, and find that targeted activities tend to increase as a function of electoral insecurity and progressive ambition.     

Psychophysiological Responses of People with Psychopathic Tendencies to the Concealed Information Test

This study was designed to investigate differences in psychophysiological responses among individuals with psychopathic tendencies. A total 40 students were participated and were divided into two groups based on Levenson Self‐Report Psychopathy Scale (LSRP) scores: a high psychopathic tendency group selected from the top 5% of LSRP scores, and a low psychopathic tendency group selected from the bottom 5% of LSRP scores. All participants were instructed to perform a mock crime and complete the concealed information test (CIT). Results indicate that significant differences between crime‐relevant questions and irrelevant questions were observed for respiration line length and skin conductance response in both groups, but heart rate did not significantly differ between groups. There were no differences in psychophysiological responses between the groups. In conclusion, CIT was found to be an effective method for detecting crime‐relevant information in individuals with psychopathic tendencies.     

中国殡葬改革存在的问题与发展对策的研究

我国殡葬改革中存在着许多不容忽视的严重问题,给人民群众精神和物质上增加了压力,给社会增加了负担,造成了资源浪费,破坏了生态环境,影响了社会风气,腐蚀了人们的灵魂,阻碍了我国经济的发展和社会的文明与进步。针对存在的问题,本文提出积极有效的改革措施,倡导树葬、建立电子坟墓、网上扫墓等现代文明的殡葬礼俗。     

我国刑事侦查程序在结构上的有关问题

由于我国的刑事侦查程序在结构上暴露出侦查权与辩护权相比过于强大、犯罪嫌疑人的主体地位难以保障、监督机制薄弱无力、犯罪嫌疑人承受被迫自证有罪的义务等诸多弊端,因而引发了侦查权的滥用、侦查手段的不节制、法外侦查手段的使用等一系列问题。建议采取建立民警出庭作证制、建立讯问等重大行动时律师在场制、建立侦审分立制等对策。     

中国县域经济论纲

县域经济在我国国民经济中占有重要的基础地位,开展县域经济的研究具有非常重要的理论价值和实践意义。那么,对县域经济理论中的一些基本问题,如县域经济的概念、性质、类型、特征、结构、要素、运行、战略等等,应当如何表述,才既有理论价值,又有实践意义呢?本文对此作了纲要式的阐述。     

“问题”意识的凸显——全球化新发展对马克思主义哲学的挑战

知识经济的勃兴、网络交往的盛行、全球性问题的凸显、全球主义的流行赋予了全球化以新的内涵,给马克思主义哲学带来了新的挑战。以强烈的前沿“问题”意识和宏大的全球视野来审视这种挑战,可以使我们理解马克思主义哲学的世界属性,并从中探寻马克思主义哲学发展的生长点。     

Effect of two types of control questions and two question formats on the outcomes of polygraph examinations

Abstract: Two major variations of polygraph “Control Question” testing, the Zone Comparison (ZoC) and the Modified General Question Test (MGQT) were evaluated. Within each, the type of control question, Exclusive or “time bar” (e.g., “Before you were 21, did you ever...”) and Nonexclusive or “no time bar”(e.g., “Did you ever….?”) was manipulated in a mock theft scenario, with 80 male and 40 female subjects randomly assigned to be either innocent or guilty. Polygraphic data collected by experienced field examiners were numerically scored by an evaluator blind to all aspects of the study. Decision accuracy was not related to the type of procedure (ZoC/MGQT) used or the subject’s sex. Accuracy was significantly related to the type of control question [χ²(2) = 11.46, p = 0.003; τc = 0.29]. Nonexclusive control questions produced greater accuracy than Exclusive control questions on both innocent and guilty subjects. These results and subjects’ self‐reports support the general “theory” on which control question (CQ) testing is based. The need for better empirical support of accepted dogma and current field practices is strongly indicated by these findings.     

Parliamentary Questions as an Instrument for Geographic Representation: The Hard Case of Portugal

This article asks whether and why, in a system lacking electoral incentives to cultivate personal votes, MPs might choose to signal to geographic constituents. It explores this question by analysing the number of written parliamentary questions submitted to the Portuguese parliament on two issues – unemployment and crime – between 2009 and 2015, and asking if MPs are more inclined to table questions on specific issues when their districts suffer particularly from related problems. The article finds evidence that constituency‐level problem pressure does matter for the signalling activities of MPs, although policy specialization remains the main driver of their issue emphasis. This finding contributes new knowledge to the ongoing debate on the factors accounting for the representative relationship between MPs and constituents, by drawing attention to the importance of district‐level problem pressure as one of the drivers of issue sponsorship in parliament.     

Parliamentary questions as strategic party tools

This article shifts the analysis of parliamentary oversight tools to the level of the political party, asking how political parties make use of written parliamentary questions. It theorises that the use of parliamentary questions is related to the ideological and electoral competition between political parties, borrowing from theories on issue competition and negative campaigning. It provides an empirical test, using data on written questions from the lower house in the Netherlands (1994–2014). The analysis shows that parties tend to put questions to ministers whose portfolios are salient to them, in line with issue ownership theories. Moreover they ask questions of both ministers from parties that are ideologically distant and those with whom they have considerable electoral overlap in line with studies of negative campaigning.