From newspapers to social media? Changing dynamics in Swiss direct democratic campaigns

Switzerland is a laggard in terms of digital campaigning. Direct democratic votes, more particularly, are centered around issues and little personalized. Combined with the specificities of voters’ information behaviour in direct democratic campaigns, these features are likely to disincentivize political actors from extensively campaigning online. Instead, we expect political actors to continue relying on traditional media. These propositions are tested on a large data base of social media posts and newspaper advertisements published before direct democratic votes held in Switzerland from 1981 to 2020 and 2010 to 2020, respectively. Counterintuitively, this research note finds a strong discontinuity in campaign communication practices. Over the past decades, and between 2010 and 2020 in particular, newspaper ads have become less central to direct democratic campaign communication. At the same time, political actors are increasingly shifting their communication to the digital sphere.     

Institutional Change in Swiss Cantons: A Contribution to Describing and Explaining Institutional Reforms

Most accounts of Swiss federal institutions are unable to explain institutional change. In this contribution the authors trace change in Cantonal reforms and then use multivariate explanation models to account for institutional reforms such as New Public Management reforms. The multivariate analyses used rely on an “event count model” to explain the frequency of institutional reforms and a “binary response model” to explain why Cantons adopt New Public Management reforms. This research demonstrates that policy research as well as innovation and diffusion theories can contribute to explaining institutional reform.     

云南跨境民族问题与国家安全研究

(续上期 )云南跨境民族问题在全国具有典型性和代表性。本部分主要论述维护跨境民族地区国家安全和社会稳定的对策与措施。一是坚持马克思主义民族观 ,反对不正确的、歧视少数民族的民族观 ;二是依据民族平等和民族团结的原则制定合理的民族政策 ,逐步消除各民族发展的不平衡性 ,促进各民族的共同繁荣 ;三是依据国家法律、法规及有关政策的规定 ,打击违法犯罪 ,维护国家安全和社会稳定 ;四是评析对策与措施的实施效用     

试论当代中国社会阶层构成新变化的原因及其走向

自1978年以来,当代中国社会阶层构成发生了重大变化,市场化改革和知识经济化是其变化的深层原因。与西方发达国家相比较,当代中国急需构建橄榄型的社会结构形态,这是今后20年我国全面建设小康社会的目标之一。     

智力资源管理的若干基本问题

智力资源管理是介于知识管理和人力资源管理之间的管理活动,目的在于优化智力活动过程,实现智力资源合理配置,提高企事业单位的创新能力。智力资源管理研究涉及认知科学、复杂性科学、跨文化的思维方式比较研究等多个领域,需要采用某些不同于逻辑分析思维的研究方法,以期突破以往知识管理研究中的障碍。智力资源管理有助于实现智力活动即脑力劳动的“精益生产”,克服某些个人或组织的智力活动效能低下、智力资源浪费的弊端,带来明显的经济效益和社会效益。     

普京政权8年总评价:特征与得失

没有像戈尔巴乔夫和叶利钦那样,以一套抽象理论作为改革的蓝本,普京转而以具体的目标——在民主政治和自由经济的框架下建立一个强大的俄罗斯——作为施政蓝图。这是普京政权的显著特征,也是普京与前苏联、俄罗斯领导人的主要区别所在。为实现这一目标,普京在制定各项具体政策时,大致上遵守民主政治与自由市场的原则。总体而言,这些具体的政策有得也有失:其中促进国民团结与加强管理能力的政策,十分有效;促进经济发展和改善民生的政策,效率一般;至于遏止人口衰退和改善国民健康危机方面的政策,则效率不佳。就现时的发展水平而言,俄罗斯还未完全达到"跻身于世界强国之林"及"民主法治"的目标。     

我国失地农民社会保障的立法现状及完善

失地农民问题是当前城市化和工业化进程中备受关注的热点问题之一。目前我国在失地农民社会保障方面的法律制度还不健全,尚未建立起安全有效的法律体系。这不仅给失地农民的切身利益带来了威胁,还影响了社会的稳定与发展。因此,如何建立与完善失地农民社会保障立法体系,是当前面临的重要课题。     

Relationships between Social Information Processing and Aggression among Adolescent Girls with and without ADHD

This study investigated the relationship between social information processing (SIP) and both relational and overt, physical aggression in a longitudinally-followed sample of 228 adolescent girls (ages 11–18; 140 with ADHD and 88 comparison girls). During childhood, girls participated in naturalistic summer camps where peer rejection, overt physical aggression, and relational aggression were assessed via multiple informants and methods. Approximately 4.5 years later, these girls participated in follow-up assessments during which they completed a commonly-used vignette procedure to assess SIP; overt and relational aggression were again assessed through multiple informants. Correlations between (a) overt and relational aggression and (b) maladaptive SIP were modest in this female adolescent sample. However, relationships between aggression and SIP were stronger for the comparison girls than for the girls with ADHD. The relevance of SIP models for adolescent girls and clinical implications of findings are discussed.

Reciprocal relationships between symptoms of depression and parental support during the transition from adolescence to young adulthood

This study applies latent growth curve analysis to data from three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 10,828) and finds that symptoms of depression and social support interact with one another in a dynamic fashion across the transition from adolescence (mean age at Wave 1 = 15.28 years) to young adulthood (mean age at Wave 3 = 21.65 years). Parental support during adolescence is inversely associated with initial symptoms of depression for girls and boys, although adolescent girls with low levels of parental support begin the study period with significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology than their male counterparts. In addition, adolescents who begin the study period with higher levels of depressive symptomatology report less parental support during young adulthood. Finally, regardless of their initial level of depressive symptoms, girls and boys who experience increased symptoms of depression over time also report lower levels of parental support at the end of the study period.

Close But Not Close Enough

The authors comment on an earlier aritice in Society by Eugene Goodheart and offer a novel hypothesis about the origins of religion.