Who Represents the Constituency? Online Political Communication by Members of Parliament in the German Mixed-Member Electoral System

Members of parliament (MPs) are elected via two different tiers in mixed-member electoral systems—as winners of a seat in a constituency or as party candidates under proportional rules. While previous research has identified important consequences of this “mandate divide” in parliaments, questions remain how this institutional setup affects MPs' political behavior in other arenas. Analyzing more than one million social media posts, this article investigates regional representation in the online communication of German MPs. The results show that MPs elected under a direct mandate refer approximately twice as often to their constituencies by using regionalized wording and geographic references than MPs elected under the proportional tier. The substantive findings provide new evidence for the benefits of mixed-member electoral systems for political representation while the methodological approach demonstrates the added value of social media data for analyzing the political behavior of elites.     

Democracy,autocracy and the news: the impact of regime type on media freedom

Mass media is critical for the functioning of every contemporary political system. Thus, we can expect a variation in media freedom depending on the type of government since political regimes differ with regard to the political, legal and economic framework in which news coverage operates. This article investigates the effects of regime types, namely democracy and autocratic subtypes, on media freedom. It is argued that regime legitimation and governance are the driving forces behind diverging media policies in autocracies. From this theory, hypotheses regarding media freedom and regime type are derived and tested empirically, relying on statistical analyses that cover 149 countries over a period from 1993 to 2010. The empirical results demonstrate that democracies lead to significantly higher levels of media freedom than autocracies, with other things being equal. Within the autocratic spectrum, electoral autocracies, monarchies and military regimes have the freest media, whereas the most illiberal media can be found in communist ideocracies, where the ruling party holds a communication monopoly. Media freedom in personalist and non-ideological one-party regimes is on an intermediate level.     

Death due to a rare complication of colonoscopy and the potential medicolegal implications

A 64‐year‐old woman was found dead at home after undergoing a screening colonoscopy. At autopsy, 1.9 L of blood was discovered within her abdominal cavity. The only major abnormality was nontraumatic avulsion of the splenic capsule. This was the only identifiable abnormality capable of causing the severe hemoperitoneum and demise of the patient. Although rare, splenic capsule avulsion is a recognized complication of colonoscopy. Many have theorized that it results from excessive traction on the splenocolic ligament resulting in a tear of the splenic capsule. Most patients present within the first 24 hours after the procedure with nonspecific symptoms, and many patients may not seek medical attention. The paucity of the literature in the area of splenic capsular avulsion after colonoscopy reinforces the importance of reporting known cases, and by doing so raise awareness of this rare but devastating complication of an otherwise beneficial screening procedure.