The Acceptance of Party Unity in Parliamentary Democracies

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Willumsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Ideal Policy ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Policy Incentives

The central argument of this book is that voting unity in European legislatures is not primarily the result of the ‘disciplining’ power of the leadership of parliamentary parties, but rather the result of a combination of ideological homogeneity through self-selection into political parties and the calculations of individual legislators about their own long-term benefits. Despite the central role of policy preferences in the subsequent behaviour of legislators, preferences at the level of the individual legislator have been almost entirely neglected in the study of parliaments and legislative behaviour. The book measures these using an until now under-utilized resource: parliamentary surveys. Building on these, the book develops measures of policy incentives of legislators to dissent from their parliamentary parties, and show that preference similarity amongst legislators explains a very substantial proportion of party unity, yet alone cannot explain all of it. Analysing the attitudes of legislators to the demands of party unity, and what drives these attitudes, the book argues that what explains the observed unity (beyond what preference similarity would explain) is the conscious acceptance by MPs that the long-term benefits of belonging to a united party (such as increased influence on legislation, lower transaction costs, and better chances of gaining office) outweigh the short-terms benefits of always voting for their ideal policy outcome. The book buttresses this argument through the analysis of both open-ended survey questions as well as survey questions on the costs and benefits of belonging to a political party in a legislature.

Cognition in construction grammar: Connecting individual and community grammars

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-337
Author(s):  
Lynn Anthonissen
Keyword(s):  
Language Change ◽  
Linguistic Knowledge ◽  
Small Individual ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Term Change ◽  
Language User ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Linguistic Behavior

AbstractThis paper examines, on the basis of a longitudinal corpus of 50 early modern authors, how change at the aggregate level of the community interacts with variation and change at the micro-level of the individual language user. In doing so, this study aims to address the methodological gap between collective change and entrenchment, that is, the gap between language as a social phenomenon and the cognitive processes responsible for the continuous reorganization of linguistic knowledge in individual speakers. Taking up the case of the prepositional passive, this study documents a strong community-wide increase in use that is accompanied by increasing schematicity. A comparison of the 50 authors reveals that regularities arising at the macro-level conceal highly complex and variable individual behavior, aspects of which may be explained by studying the larger (social) context in which these individuals operate (e. g., age cohorts, community of practice, biographical insights). Further analysis, focusing on how authors use the prepositional passive in unique and similar ways, elucidates the role of small individual biases in long-term change. Overall, it is demonstrated that language change is an emergent phenomenon that results from the complex interaction between individual speakers, who themselves may change their linguistic behavior to varying degrees.

scholarly journals Associations Between Peer Use, Costs and Benefits, Self-Efficacy, and Adolescent E-cigarette Use

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristine Durkin ◽  
Desireé N Williford ◽  
Nicholas A Turiano ◽  
Melissa D Blank ◽  
Paul T Enlow ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cigarette Smoking ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Adolescent Medicine ◽  
Public High Schools ◽  
Cigarette Use ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Tailored Interventions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Peer Use

Abstract Objective Prior research identified peer use as a salient risk factor of adolescent electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use, but has not expanded on the mechanisms of this association. Methods Participants were 562 adolescents recruited from rural and suburban public high schools and an adolescent medicine clinic in the mid-Atlantic United States. Participants completed a packet of questionnaires that assessed demographics, substance use, expectations about the consequences of e-cigarette use, and perceptions of their own self-efficacy to resist using e-cigarettes. We estimated a series of mediation models using the MODEL INDIRECT command in MPLUS statistical software. In all models, significance of indirect effects from peer e-cigarette use to self-reported e-cigarette use were tested via two variables: (a) expected costs, (b) benefits of e-cigarette use, and (c) the perceived self-efficacy of the individual to refrain from e-cigarette use. Results Adolescents with more peers using e-cigarettes were more likely to have ever used an e-cigarette and perceived greater benefits and fewer costs, which was associated with a reduced self-efficacy to refrain from e-cigarette smoking (Model 1). Those with more peers using e-cigarettes were more likely to be currently using e-cigarettes themselves because they perceived greater benefits and fewer costs, which was associated with a reduced self-efficacy to refrain from e-cigarette smoking (Model 2). Conclusion Peer use, self-efficacy to resist use, and expectations of cost and benefits of e-cigarette use should be considered as possible targets when devising tailored interventions and policies to prevent or reduce negative health consequences of long-term e-cigarette use.

Junior Scholars in Search of Equity for Women and Minorities

2005 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 151-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ramona R. Rush ◽  
Carol E. Oukrop ◽  
Katharine Sarikakis ◽  
Julie Andsager ◽  
Billy Wooten ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mass Communication ◽  
Mass Communications ◽  
Promotion And Tenure ◽  
Unequal Treatment ◽  
The Status ◽  
Academic Units ◽  
Short And Long Term ◽  
The Individual

This paper reflects upon the 2002 report on the status of women in journalism and mass communications education that updated and expanded the 1972 study by senior authors Rush and Oukrop. Survey data from the 1972 and the 2002 studies are compared in a highlights section. The focus of this monograph is on the demographic group of “junior scholars” from the 2002 database. It argues that the majority of junior scholars perceive discrimination in several aspects of academic life, including the processes of hiring, promotion, and tenure. The major area of discrimination reported is salary, although rewards other than financial are also subject to unequal treatment. Furthermore, junior scholars are still confronted with centuries-old prejudices that define the role of women as caretakers and impose that role upon them, with effects on women's professional development. The working conditions in the academy are finally reflected in the research outcomes and knowledge produced. The 2002 study report demonstrates that 30 years later women still perceive discrimination. Women and minorities have made great strides in the national organization, the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), but discrimination remains a significant issue in the individual academic units of universities. This monograph argues that the Ratio of Recurrent and Reinforced Residuum (R3) consistently fits data about women in journalism and mass communication both in the academy and in media professions around the world. This paper includes reflections and comments of younger scholars currently at different stages on the academic ladder and makes recommendations for short and long-term actions that new scholars, academic units, and communications organizations should take to help correct inequality.

Perceptions of Party Unity in the Visegrád Countries

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Willumsen
Keyword(s):  
Czech Republic ◽  
Nordic Countries ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Survey Questions ◽  
Collective Goods ◽  
Visegrád Countries

This chapter analyses the four Visegrád countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia) in the early 1990s, as a least-likely case of party influence on legislators. First measuring incentives to defect based on policy preferences, it is found that these are relatively low, but, as expected, substantially greater than in the Nordic case, and certainly greater than the observed unity. Analysing attitudes to unity, it is found that, as in the Nordic countries, unity is driven by legislators’ understanding that their long-term goals are best served by belonging to a united parliamentary party. Further analysing legislators’ answers to survey questions regarding the costs and benefits of belonging to a parliamentary party, it shows that legislators focus on the collective goods that being in a parliamentary party brings, and are much less interested in the more individualistic benefits, even in a setting very unfavourable to strong parties.

scholarly journals An extreme sea level indicator for the contiguous United States coastline

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Mamunur Rashid ◽  
Thomas Wahl ◽  
Don P. Chambers ◽  
Francisco M. Calafat ◽  
William V. Sweet
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Sea Level ◽  
Decadal Variability ◽  
Level Indicator ◽  
Relative Contribution ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Water Level Data ◽  
The Individual

AbstractWe develop an aggregated extreme sea level (ESL) indicator for the contiguous United States coastline, which is comprised of separate indicators for mean sea level (MSL) and storm surge climatology (SSC). We use water level data from tide gauges to estimate interannual to multi-decadal variability of MSL and SSC and identify coastline stretches where the observed changes are coherent. Both the MSL and SSC indicators show significant fluctuations. Indicators of the individual components are combined with multi-year tidal contributions into aggregated ESL indicators. The relative contribution of the different components varies considerably in time and space. Our results highlight the important role of interannual to multi-decadal variability in different sea level components in exacerbating, or reducing, the impacts of long-term MSL rise over time scales relevant for coastal planning and management. Regularly updating the proposed indicator will allow tracking changes in ESL posing a threat to many coastal communities, including the identification of periods where the likelihood of flooding is particularly large or small.

THE ECONOMICS OF MITIGATING CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT CAN WE KNOW?

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard A.Rosen ◽  
Edeltraud Guenther
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Costs And Benefits ◽  
Technical Problems ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Long Run ◽  
Climate Change Mitigation Policy ◽  
The Many

The long-term economics of mitigating climate change over the long run has played a high profile role in the most important analyses of climate change in the last decade, namely the Stern Report and the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment. However, the various kinds of uncertainties that affect these economic results raise serious questions about whether or not the net costs and benefits of mitigating climate change over periods as long as 50 to 100 years can be known to such a level of accuracy that they should be reported to policymakers and the public. This paper provides a detailed analysis of the derivation of these estimates of the long-term economic costs and benefits of mitigation. It particularly focuses on the role of technological change, especially for energy efficiency technologies, in making the net economic results of mitigating climate change unknowable over the long run. Because of these serious technical problems, policymakers should not base climate change mitigation policy on the estimated net economic impacts computed by integrated assessment models. Rather, mitigation policies must be forcefully implemented anyway given the actual physical climate change crisis, in spite of the many uncertainties involved in trying to predict the net economics of doing so.

Equine obesity and the role of the veterinary nurse

UK-Vet Equine ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (6) ◽  
pp. 265-268
Author(s):  
Clarissa Seeley ◽  
Stella Chapman
Keyword(s):  
Body Condition ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Condition Scoring ◽  
Client Education ◽  
Inherent Problem ◽  
Equine Obesity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Uk

Equine obesity is defined as a medical disease in which excess body fat has accumulated to such an extent that it has an adverse effect on the general health of the horse. Obesity is a cause for concern, with one-third of the equine population in the UK being regarded as obese, although owner recognition of obesity in horses is an inherent problem, with many underestimating the body condition or weight of their horse. This is further complicated by the fact that with larger framed horses, or horses that are already overweight, assessing body condition is more difficult. There are a number of ways to assess body condition and the most practical means of regular assessment is body condition scoring, although this is regarded as subjective. As with many diseases and disorders, the cause of obesity is multifactorial. However, the most common reason for a horse to become obese is overfeeding, coupled with a lack of exercise. Obesity can be addressed with client education and veterinary nurses can provide advice on weight management programmes. However, these need to be tailored to the individual horse and owners need to recognise that they are entering into a long-term commitment.

Nurse-led clinics

2020 ◽  
pp. 629-638
Keyword(s):  
Continuity Of Care ◽  
Clinical Effectiveness ◽  
Nurse Specialist ◽  
Long Term Conditions ◽  
Key Points ◽  
The Individual

For patients with long-term conditions, the role of the nurse specialist is key to continuity of care. This chapter outlines issues that nurse specialists need to be aware of in demonstrating their value. Nurse-led care and the competencies required for nurse specialist roles are outlined and provide a framework for nurses new to the role to consider. Working as a nurse specialist often has a level of autonomy that ward nurses do not have and therefore it is vital that nurses working in these roles should be able to clearly articulate the components of their role, define the clinical effectiveness of the nurse-led clinic activities, and demonstrate the benefits to the individual, the organization they work for, and the wider society. This chapter succinctly outlines these key points.

scholarly journals An ideological analysis of sustainable careers: identifying the role of fantasy and a way forward

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Matthijs Bal ◽  
Lee Matthews ◽  
Edina Dóci ◽  
Lucy P. McCarthy
Keyword(s):  
Design Methodology ◽  
Current Paper ◽  
Future Research ◽  
General Interest ◽  
Theoretical Understanding ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Agency ◽  
The Individual

PurposeScholarly and general interest in sustainable careers is flourishing. Sustainable careers are focused on the long-term opportunities and experiences of workers across dynamic employment situations, and are characterized by flexibility, meaning and individual agency. The current paper analyzes and challenges the underlying ideological assumptions of how sustainable careers are conceptualized and advocates the inclusion of the ecological meaning of sustainability and the notion of dignity into the sustainable careers concept.Design/methodology/approachUsing Slavoj Žižek's (1989, 2001) conceptualization of ideology as fantasy-construction, the authors explore how the use of sustainable careers is influenced by fantasies about the contemporary workplace and the role of the individual in the workplace. This is a conceptual method.FindingsThe authors argue that the concept of sustainable careers is grounded in the neoliberal fantasy of the individual. The paper concludes by presenting an alternative concept of sustainable careers grounded in a dignity-perspective on sustainability, which offers an alternative theoretical understanding of sustainable careers in the contemporary workplace, sharpening its contours and usefulness in theorizing careers.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to systematically analyze the use and conceptualization of sustainable careers in the literate and to expose the ideological underpinnings of the concept. Propositions are developed to be explored by future research.

scholarly journals “Smashers” and “Rummies”: Voters and the Rise of Parties in Charlotte County, New Brunswick, 1846‑1857

2006 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-116
Author(s):  
Gail Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
New Brunswick ◽  
Party System ◽  
Good Deal ◽  
Common Identity ◽  
Election Results ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Participation

Abstract A case study of a single county helps to explain the rise of political parties in midnineteenth-century New Brunswick. While Charlotte County was not a microcosm of New Brunswick as a whole, fully 10 per cent of the province's population lived there at midcentury. More important, the voting patterns that emerged in Charlotte County did typify the province-wide election results. Three distinct components are necessary to the evolution of a political party: the “organization proper,” composed of party officials and active members; the “party in office,” composed of elected members (caucuses, floor leaders, and whips); and the “party-in-the-electorate,” composed of the individual voters who attached themselves unofficially to the party by regularly supporting it at the polls. The first two components have received a good deal of attention from political historians. The role of the voter, however, has been virtually ignored. This paper seeks to fill that gap in the literature by examining the voting patterns of individual electors during the crucial decade (1846-57) that saw the rise of New Brunswick's first party system. The survival of a run of poll books made possible analysis of patterns of individual participation and response over a series of five elections during the period. The electoral patterns which emerged in Charlotte County during the decade between 1846 and 1857 clearly illustrate the evolution of a party-within-the- electorate. At the beginning of the period, voter response was mainly candidate-oriented. By the end of the period, however, the majority of electors were voting for “slates” of candidates, or parties. The issue which precipitated the transition from a pattern of candidate-based voting to one of party-based voting was temperance. Yet the transition was gradual, extending over a period of three elections, and party-based voting emerged as an outgrowth and extension of candidate-based voting. Throughout the period, voters tended to favour candidates with whom they shared a common identity of interests-people who were, in fact, very like themselves. As politicians formed factions, and then parties, they too formed alliances with others like themselves. Thus, while voters continued to favour candidates with whom they shared a common identity of interests, by 1857 those candidates were running as members of slates representing parties. Voters chose the slate of candidates, or party, whose outlook seemed most in tune with their own. For voters, then, the emergence of party-in-the-electorate represented a conscious shift in orientation, but it required no significant ideological reorientation. For historians, the emergence of party-in-the-electorate, however gradual or imperceptible, is significant, for until parties develop solid support bases among groups of voters, their evolution is incomplete.

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