scholarly journals Ballot position effects in open-list PR systems: the moderating impact of postal voting

Acta Politica ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Jankowski ◽  
Torren Frank
Keyword(s):  
Political Interest ◽  
Federal State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voting Systems ◽  
Position Effects ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Information Shortcuts ◽  
Available Information ◽  
German Federal State

AbstractVarious studies demonstrate that candidates at the top of the party list have a strong advantage in preferential voting systems, particularly under open-list PR. Such ballot position effects can be explained by voters’ tendency to rely on easily available information shortcuts when selecting a candidate. In this paper, we argue that the strength of ballot position effects depends on the context of how voters cast their vote. Specifically, we argue that postal voters are less likely to rely on the ballot position cue compared to voters who vote on election day for two reasons. First, postal voters might be more politically interested. Second, postal voters have more time to assess additional information about the candidates. The hypothesis is tested by analyzing newly collected data from two open-list PR elections in the German federal state of Hamburg. The results confirm the theoretical expectations: Ballot position effects are substantively weaker among postal voters. Additional analyses suggest that differences in the political interest between postal voters and election day voters are unlikely to fully explain these results. These findings advance our understanding of ballot position effects and voters’ use of information shortcuts more generally.

scholarly journals Community Detection Problem Based on Polarization Measures: An Application to Twitter: The COVID-19 Case in Spain

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 443
Author(s):  
Inmaculada Gutiérrez ◽  
Juan Antonio Guevara ◽  
Daniel Gómez ◽  
Javier Castro ◽  
Rosa Espínola
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Community Detection ◽  
Efficient Algorithm ◽  
Fuzzy Measure ◽  
The Political ◽  
Detection Problem ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Political Position ◽  
Networks Analysis ◽  
Polarization Capacity

In this paper, we address one of the most important topics in the field of Social Networks Analysis: the community detection problem with additional information. That additional information is modeled by a fuzzy measure that represents the risk of polarization. Particularly, we are interested in dealing with the problem of taking into account the polarization of nodes in the community detection problem. Adding this type of information to the community detection problem makes it more realistic, as a community is more likely to be defined if the corresponding elements are willing to maintain a peaceful dialogue. The polarization capacity is modeled by a fuzzy measure based on the JDJpol measure of polarization related to two poles. We also present an efficient algorithm for finding groups whose elements are no polarized. Hereafter, we work in a real case. It is a network obtained from Twitter, concerning the political position against the Spanish government taken by several influential users. We analyze how the partitions obtained change when some additional information related to how polarized that society is, is added to the problem.

“Pure Milk Is Better Than Purified Milk”

2007 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 411-433 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Czaplicki
Keyword(s):  
Interest Groups ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Organizational Practices ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Organizational Processes ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Pure Milk ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Better Than

This article explains how pasteurization—with few outspoken political supporters during this period—first became a primary milk purification strategy in Chicago and why eight years passed between pasteurization’s initial introduction into law and the city’s adoption of full mandatory pasteurization. It expands the current focus on the political agreement to pasteurize to include the organizational processes involved in incorporating pasteurization into both policy and practice. It shows that the decision to pasteurize did not occur at a clearly defined point but instead evolved over time as a consequence of the interplay of political interest groups, state-municipal legal relations, and the merging of different organizational practices. Such an approach considerably complicates and expands existing accounts of how political interests and agreements shaped pasteurization and milk purification policies and practice.

If in Doubt, Leave it Out? EU Precaution in WTO Regulatory Space

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Flett
Keyword(s):  
European Union ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Level ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The European Union ◽  
International Organisations ◽  
Balanced Approach ◽  
Available Information

This article reviews the way in which the concept of precaution, as commonly referenced in EU law, is received in the WTO. It argues that precaution is not a principle, but one facet of a principle of making rational judgments based on available information, the other facet of which is “that risk is worth taking”. Systematically pursuing high cost measures in response to low risks is not a balanced approach, and has probably contributed to the scepticism with which the concept is viewed in the WTO. However, this article goes on to argue that, without needing to be a principle, precaution is the determining legal feature in the SPS Agreement, because, unlike in the European Union, there is no legislative harmonisation of SPS measures at international level, WTO Members being free to set their own appropriate level of protection. In fact, the concept of precaution is relevant in the context of many other WTO provisions and is in some respects quite close to the concept of subsidiarity. Notwithstanding this, the first WTO SPS cases, driven by regulatory exporters and an interventionist WTO, have excessively emphasised scientific issues, masking policy judgments that the WTO has neither the legal nor the political authority to sustain. The article concludes that the proper way forward necessitates closer political, legal and administrative links between the WTO and other relevant international organisations, and a move away from consensus in the latter.

Voting Systems, Honest Preferences and Pareto Optimality

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (3) ◽  
pp. 934-946 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Zeckhauser
Keyword(s):  
Social Choice ◽  
Pareto Optimality ◽  
The Political ◽  
Voting Systems ◽  
Political Arena ◽  
Decentralized System ◽  
Economic Decisions

The market is a decentralized system that can bring about efficient economic decisions. This paper examines whether social choice mechanisms can duplicate this success in the political arena. The famed Arrow result tells us centralized systems cannot achieve efficient, nondictatorial outcomes unless they rely on cardinal preferences. With decentralization, efficiency comes to require something more: the truthful revelation of preferences. Schemes that elicit honest preferences are derived here. By their very structure they are shown to lead to inefficient outcomes. This negative result leads to the question whether the validity of the initial analogy continues. Market-based standards of performance may be innappropriate for investigations of political phenomena.

Heart Transplantation

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1987 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-596
Author(s):  
F. JAY FRICKER ◽  
LARRY M. GOLD
Keyword(s):  
Intensive Care Unit ◽  
Intensive Care ◽  
Heart Transplantation ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Inotropic Support ◽  
Orthotopic Heart Transplantation ◽  
The Political ◽  
Children's Hospital ◽  
Additional Information ◽  
Political Economic

In Reply.— The authors would like to thank Mr. Lantos for his comments. The political, economic, and ethical issues raised are important ones but obviously not the focus of our paper. We will, however, provide additional information in an attempt to answer some of Mr Lantos' questions. The question about what encouraged us to start is easy to answer. An 8-year-old child languishing in our intensive care unit on IV inotropic support with no hope of survival was the first orthotopic heart transplantation performed at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

Die Bedeutung der ethne in der Politik und den Politeiai des Aristoteles

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gertrud Dietze-Mager
Keyword(s):  
Federal State ◽  
The Political ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Political Reality ◽  
Shed Light

The Politeiai are one of Aristotle’s historical works. Several hundreds of fragments have come down to us. While Aristotle’s Nomima barbarika recorded the customs of the barbaric ethne, the Politeiai are generally considered to be a collection of polisconstitutions. A closer look reveals, however, that alongside a majority of Greek poleis Aristotle also included several ethne in his Politeiai, namely those in the North(west) of the Greek mainland and on the Peleponnesus. This article tries to shed light on Aristotle’s reasons for selecting these ethne. On the basis of key passages in the Politics, the author argues that their presence in the Politeiai indicates that Aristotle considered them as Hellenic, and, although inferior in status to the polis, capable of having a politeia. In Aristotle’s time, nearly all of the ethne known to have been included in the Politeiai had formed koina. While Aristotle did not explicitly discuss the federal state, he acknowledged its existence both in the Politics and the Politeiai, obviously inspired by the political reality of his time in which the koina played an increasingly prominent role, illustrated by their presence as members in Hellenic treaties alongside the poleis.

Did NHS productivity increase under the Coalition government?

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Bojke ◽  
Adriana Castelli ◽  
Katja Grašič ◽  
Daniel Howdon ◽  
Andrew Street
Keyword(s):  
Health System ◽  
Production Process ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Political Interest ◽  
The Political ◽  
Coalition Government ◽  
Or Efficiency ◽  
System Service ◽  
Point Of Use ◽  
Process Productivity

This chapter introduces the political focus on the productivity of the NHS. Productivity is a conceptually simple construct, relating the amount of output produced to the amount of inputs used in the production process. Productivity growth can also be calculated by comparing the change in outputs produced to the change in inputs utilised from one period to the next. Political interest is focused primarily on productivity growth. However, assessing productivity or efficiency is somewhat problematic in the context of a free-at-the-point-of-use health system service such as the NHS. The authors discuss some of the issues they face in attempting such an evaluation. With these issues in mind, the authors describe the growth in outputs, inputs and productivity between 2004/05 and 2013/14. The chapter concludes by discussing whether or not the key political measures highlighted in the first section appear to have had an influence on NHS productivity growth.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document