‘This time it’s different’ – the European lead candidate procedure of 2014 and its historical background

The 2014 elections for the European Parliament (EP) witnessed a novel procedure: the lead candidate (or Spitzenkandidaten) procedure, which was to (and did in fact) link the polling results to the nomination of the new European Commission President. This article investigates the procedure’s historical background from a long-term parliamentary perspective. It points out that there were three factors or developments that explain its introduction: the EP’s assertive political culture, increasing attention for the EP’s representative function and the support of prominent political actors who were able to make a difference.     

Transcultural body spaces: re-inventing and performing headwrap practice among young Congolese women in London

ABSTRACT

This article examines embodied representation of race, ethnicity, and gender, questioning ideas of cultural appropriation. Using the London-based Congolese transnational fashion brand Kiyana Wraps as a case study, the article addresses how young Congolese designers re-invent their cultural heritage to conceive the label stylisation and construct meanings of Blackness/Africanness. The article also explores the brand’s social spaces, where the headwrap ritual is used by different actors to perform hybrid identities. In addition, wearing the headwrap reveals symbolic metaphors of empowerment, through which intertwined ‘feminist’ and ‘feminine’ identities are evoked. The paper examines how Congolese women are creatively taking inspiration from the environment of London to produce innovative fashion trajectories as lived socio-cultural experiences. It argues how the headwrap ritual signifies an aesthetic and material process through which specific racial and ethnic boundaries are transcended, fabricating transcultural body spaces which encompass individuals with diverse cultural backgrounds.     

Do young female candidates face double barriers or an outgroup advantage? The case of the European Parliament

While intersectionality is a recurrent theme in the literature on women's political representation, few studies empirically disentangle who are the women who get elected to parliaments. An argument on biases in recruitment practices suggests that those who are members of more than one outgroup, such as young women, benefit from an ‘outgroup advantage’. In elections, a candidate with two outgroup features might attract more voter support than a candidate with just one outgroup feature. Hence, nominating a candidate that is both young and female could be a rational move by (male) elites in political parties that allows them to open fewer seats to newcomers. These expectations are tested on data for all members of the European Parliament since 1979. Not only is it found that women's presence increased steadily throughout the parliament's history, but also that women's representation is consistently highest among the group of young representatives, lower among middle-aged Members of the European Parliament and lowest among older representatives.     

英国有关海上保险法的最新修改议案及对中国的借鉴

为通过法律平衡被保险人和保险人之间的利益,反映现代保险实务的需要以及保证保险合同双方明确各自的权利和义务,英国法律委员会与苏格兰法律委员会自2006年起将保险合同法的审查和修改提上日程。法律委员会通过发布咨询文件的形式提出修改涉及英国《1906年海上保险法》多个重要条款的保险合同法的方案。整个法律修改项目预计于2012年完成,届时英国海上保险法会有很大程度的改变。通过介绍英国海上保险法的修改,为中国海商法相关问题的修改提供参考和借鉴。     

Whitewashing Hitler: ‘Revisionist’ history‐distorters at work

In April 1983 Canadians were shocked to learn of a politically active school teacher in Alberta who taught his students an antisemitic view of history. The teacher was dismissed but he had expressed antisemitic views in the classroom for years.     

Repression and reaction: militant democracy and the radical right in Germany and France

The June 2004 elections offered the British National Party unique opportunities for growth. There were three different elections being held at once: for seats on local councils, for the London mayor and the London Assembly, and for members of the European parliament (MEPs). Following boundary changes, the local council election was being conducted on a three-candidates-per-seat basis. The London and European elections were being run according to the rules of proportional representation. Both systems favour minor parties. The BNP went into the elections buoyed up by almost four years of considerable success. However, the party failed to achieve the gains anticipated. After several years that witnessed increasing votes, this was the first instance of the BNP vote stagnating. Renton explains the BNP's failure in terms of a series of factors: poor leadership, tactical errors, the hardening of Conservative anti-BNP voters, the press publicity garnered by the UK Independence Party, and the successful intervention of anti-BNP campaigners.     

The effect of generation and age on turnout to the European Parliament – How turnout will continue to decline in the future

Electoral turnout has been declining at national elections in almost all Western democracies. European Parliament (EP) elections have followed the same trend. We utilize a previously suggested method for separating the effect of generation, age and period and show that a major part of the decline can be attributed to the difference in turnout between pre- and post-baby-boomer generations though there are substantial differences across countries. Age has a curvilinear effect on turnout even when generation is taken into account, but the age composition has remained relatively stable over time. We utilize the estimated coefficients to predict future changes in turnout as a result of the expected shifts in the generational and age compositions over the next 30 years. The results point to a continued decline in turnout to EP elections – especially between the years of 2020 and 2040.     

Which democracy for the European Economic Community? Fernand Dehousse versus Charles de Gaulle*

This article analyses the political debate that developed within the European Economic Community (EEC) about the so-called Dehousse Convention (1960), the first concrete proposal to elect the European Parliament by universal suffrage. It argues that both supporters and opponents of the Dehousse Convention justified their stance through a blend of domestic experiences and European aspirations. More precisely, the article argues that the Dehousse Convention was deeply rooted in the model of parliamentary democracy which triumphed in Western Europe after the Second World War and that it aimed at favouring the federal evolution of the community; through the introduction of direct elections it would have been possible to strengthen the European Parliament which, eventually, would have turned the EEC into a federation. To fully understand Charles de Gaulle’s rejection of the Dehousse Convention, this article argues that his hostility to the supranational evolution of the community was strengthened by his long-standing criticism of the limits of parliamentary democracy. These two visions clashed and intertwined, shaping the political evolution of the EEC in the following decades.     

At least democracy was not the issue: Basque parliamentarians during the making of the First Spanish Republic, 1873–74

The history of the European states in the nineteenth century relates to how processes of ‘parliamentarization’ took place that were not always accompanied by processes of ‘democratization’. This leads us to the following question: Was democracy their goal? A good example can be found in the political development of Spain from the 1868 revolution to 1874, a period that has been called the ‘Democratic Sexennium’. This revolution led Spain into a process that involved an attempt at democratization which culminated in the proclamation of the First Republic. The First Spanish Republic was based on a democratic parliament and constitution. In this article a prosopographic study is conducted of a specific group of parliamentarians – those from the Basque Country – who took part in the debates during the First Republic. The results of this study serve as a typical example of the participation of parliamentarians in democratization processes in the nineteenth century and they show the relationship between discourse and parliamentary practice in that period. Prosopographic analysis and the use of thematic prosopography enable us to ascertain the profile of those democratically elected parliamentarians and the issues that most concerned them. Additionally, the debate that emerged on the limits of democracy in wartime is highlighted, owing to the fact that Spain was immersed in a civil war during this period and the Spanish Parliament had to take decisions and act in adverse circumstances.     

英国公务员培训与开发新趋势的启示和借鉴

英国公务员培训与开发在英国公共管理改革与发展中发挥着十分重要的作用。为适应新形势、新发展的需要,英国公务员培训与开发出现了新的趋势和特点。本文对英国公务员培训与开发的新趋势进行了分析和总结,在此基础上对我国公务员培训与开发工作提出相应的建议。