Campaign resources and electoral success: Evidence from the 2002 French parliamentary elections

We examine the factors that improve the candidates’ likelihood of winning an election by drawing on information from campaign resources used by candidates running in the 2002 French parliamentary election. The main effects that we wish to analyze are the candidates’ gender, political affiliation and possible incumbency. We find that the contributions the candidates received and their political affiliations determine their acceding to the second round of the elections. But surprisingly once they make it to the second round, the contributions cease to be relevant; only the candidates’ gender, incumbency and the actual spending rather than the contribution levels matter.     

Understanding the notion of risk in the General Data Protection Regulation

The goal of this contribution is to understand the notion of risk as it is enshrined in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), with a particular on Art. 35 providing for the obligation to carry out data protection impact assessments (DPIAs), the first risk management tool to be enshrined in EU data protection law, and which therefore contains a number of key elements in order to grasp the notion. The adoption of this risk-based approach has not come without a number of debates and controversies, notably on the scope and meaning of the risk-based approach. Yet, what has remained up to date out of the debate is the very notion of risk itself, which underpins the whole risk-based approach. The contribution uses the notions of risk and risk analysis as tools for describing and understanding risk in the GDPR. One of the main findings is that the GDPR risk is about “compliance risk” (i.e., the lower the compliance the higher the consequences upon the data subjects' rights). This stance is in direct contradiction with a number of positions arguing for a strict separation between compliance and risk issues. This contribution sees instead issues of compliance and risk to the data subjects rights and freedoms as deeply interconnected. The conclusion will use these discussions as a basis to address the long-standing debate on the differences between privacy impact assessments (PIAs) and DPIAs. They will also warn against the fact that ultimately the way risk is defined in the GDPR is somewhat irrelevant: what matters most is the methodology used and the type of risk at work therein.     

How to get the snowball rolling and extend the franchise: voting on the Great Reform Act of 1832

This paper suggests a new approach to analyzing the causes of franchise extension. Based on a new dataset, it provides a detailed econometric study of the Great Reform Act of 1832 in the United Kingdom. The analysis yields four main results. First, modernization theory receives limited support. Second, the reform enjoyed some measure of popular support. Third, the threat of revolution had an asymmetric impact on the voting behavior of the pro-reform Whigs and the anti-reform Tories. While the threat might have convinced reluctant reformers among the Whig politicians—and among their patrons—to support the bill, it seems to have hardened the resistance to reform among the Tories. Fourth, ideology played a critical role. Nevertheless, it also appears that self-interest and political expedience explained the votes of many Members of Parliament.     

Subjective Proximity to Crime or Social Representations? Explaining Sentencing Attitudes in Switzerland

Lay sentencing attitudes are considered in the light of two theoretical perspectives. The first perspective views sentencing attitudes as parts of broader sets of social representations anchored in one’s position in the social structure. The second perspective explains sentencing attitudes by their subjective experiences of crime. This paper tests both theories by performing a series of multiple regressions on two dimensions of sentencing: punishment goals and severity of punishment. Empirical data comes from a quantitative survey conducted in Switzerland. Findings reveal that indicators of subjective proximity to crime largely account for sentencing attitudes. Nevertheless, social representations of crime measured by causes of crime also have a significant impact on sentencing attitudes. Implications of these findings for sentencing in Western democracies are discussed.     

Repraesentatio identitatis : l’idée de représentation politique en débat dans la République de Genève lors de la crise de 1707

In the Republic of Geneva, the Small Council and the Great Council considered themselves to be representative of the people, although they were not elected by citizens, but were mutually co-opted instead. There were still elections by the General Council, the assembly of all burgesses and citizens, but they were only meant to promote the members of these co-opted councils to particular magistracies. During the political crisis of 1707, government thinkers tried to justify in theory this conception of representation, which is similar to what the German legal philosopher Hasso Hofmann called repraesentatio identitatis. For them, the Small and the Great Councils were inherently representative of the people owing to their large numbers and their concern for the public interest. The main thinkers of the ‘popular party' not only rejected this argument, but also advocated an alternative political model, with a redistribution of powers between the Councils and the restoration in practice of the sovereignty of the General Council, which it should directly exert. On either side, no project of representative government – in the sense that the Small and the Great Councils would be elected by the people – was ever put forward in these debates.     

The fundamental right of data protection in the European Union: in search of an uncharted right

The entry into force of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the ensuing introduction of the right to data protection as a new fundamental right in the legal order of the EU has raised some challenges. This article is an attempt to bring clarity on some of these questions. We will therefore try to address the issue of the place of the right to the protection of personal data within the global architecture of the Charter, but also the relationship between this new fundamental right and the already existing instruments. In doing so, we will analyse the most pertinent case law of the Court of Luxembourg, only to find out that it creates more confusion than clarity. The lesson we draw from this overview is that the reasoning of the Court is permeated by a ‘privacy thinking’, which consists not only in overly linking the rights to privacy and data protection, but also in applying the modus operandi of the former to the latter (which are different we contend). The same flawed reasoning seems to be at work in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Therefore, it is crucial that the different modi operandi be acknowledged, and that any upcoming data protection instrument is accurately framed in relation with Article 8 of the Charter.