Electoral Competition and the Constituent-Representative Relationship

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 337-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Audrey André ◽  
Sam Depauw
Keyword(s):  
Political Representation ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Local Orientation ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
District Magnitude ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Cross National

AbstractElectoral institutions shape the incentive that elected representatives have to cultivate a personal vote, a geographically concentrated personal vote in particular. But are electoral institutions able to make representatives do what they would not do otherwise and to make them not do what they otherwise would have done? Using data from the cross-national partirep MP survey, it is demonstrated that electoral institutions shape elected representatives’ local orientation. That local orientation decreases as district magnitude grows – regardless of what representatives think about political representation. But representatives’ conceptions of representation do shape their uptake in the legislative arena from their contacts with individual constituents. The effect of the electoral incentive grows stronger as elected representatives think of representation as a bottom-up rather than a top-down process.

scholarly journals It Depends…Different Direct Democratic Instruments and Equality in Europe from 1990 to 2015

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 365-379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Geißel ◽  
Anna Krämling ◽  
Lars Paulus
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Direct Democracy ◽  
Current Debate ◽  
Major Research ◽  
Political Equality ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Research Gaps ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Actual Output ◽  
Cross National

Despite the popularity of direct democracy in recent decades, research on the actual output effects of popular decision-making is rare. This is especially true with regard to equality, where there are at least three major research gaps: 1) a lack of cross-national analyses; 2) insufficient investigation of the differential effects of different direct democratic instruments on equality; and 3) a failure to distinguish between different aspects of equality, i.e., socioeconomic, legal and political equality. This article takes a first step to tackle these shortcomings by looking at all national referenda in European democracies between 1990 and 2015, differentiating between mandatory, bottom-up and top-down referenda. We find that a large majority of successful direct democratic bills—regardless of which instrument is employed—are not related to equality issues. Of the remaining ones, there are generally more successful pro-equality bills than contra-equality ones, but the differences are rather marginal. Mandatory referenda tend to produce pro-equality outputs, but no clear patterns emerge for bottom-up and top-down referenda. Our results offer interesting, preliminary insights to the current debate on direct democracy, pointing to the conclusion that popular decision-making via any type of direct democratic instrument is neither curse nor blessing with regard to equality. Instead, it is necessary to look at other factors such as context conditions or possible indirect effects in order to get a clearer picture of the impacts of direct democracy on equality.

Analytics that Inform the University: Using Data You Already Have

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Dziuban ◽  
Patsy Moskal ◽  
Thomas B. Cavanagh ◽  
Andre Watts
Keyword(s):  
Student Success ◽  
Distributed Learning ◽  
University Of Central Florida ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Central Florida ◽  
Powerful Means ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The University ◽  
Inform Decision Making

The authors describe the University of Central Florida’s top-down / bottom-up action analytics approach to using data to inform decision-making at the University of Central Florida. The top-down approach utilizes information about programs, modalities, and college implementation of Web initiatives. The bottom-up approach continuously monitors outcomes attributable to distributed learning, including student ratings and student success. Combined, this top-down/bottom up approach becomes a powerful means for using large extant university datasets to provide significant insights that can be instrumental in strategic planning.

Extracting the Structure of Design Information From Collaborative Tagging

2011 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jitesh H. Panchal ◽  
Matthias Messer
Keyword(s):  
Collaborative Design ◽  
Collaborative Tagging ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Design Information ◽  
Complementary Nature ◽  
Collective Innovation ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Innovation Platform ◽  
Computational Reasoning

Information representation in engineering design is currently dominated by top–down approaches such as taxonomies and ontologies. While top–down approaches provide support for computational reasoning, they are primarily limited due to their static nature, limited scope, and developer-centric focus. Bottom–up approaches, such as folksonomies, are emerging as means to address the limitations of top–down approaches. Folksonomies refer to collaborative classification by users who freely assign tags to design information. They are dynamic in nature, broad in scope, and are user focused. However, they are limited due to the presence of ambiguities and redundancies in the tags used by different people. Considering their complementary nature, the ideal approach is to use both top–down and bottom–up approaches in a synergistic manner. To facilitate this synergy, the goal in this paper is to present techniques for using dynamic folksonomies to extract global characteristics of the structure of design information, and to create hierarchies of tags that can guide the development of structured taxonomies and ontologies. The approach presented in this paper involves using (a) tools such as degree distribution and K-neighborhood connectivity analysis to extract the global characteristics of folksonomies and (b) set-based technique and hierarchical clustering to develop a hierarchy of tags. The approach is illustrated using data from a collective innovation platform that supports collaborative tagging for design information. It is shown that despite the flat nature of the folksonomies insights about the hierarchy in information can be gained. The effects of various parameters on the tag hierarchy are discussed. The approach has potential to be used synergistically with top–down approaches such as ontologies to support the next generation collaborative design platforms.

Asking territories: the constituency orientation of Italian and French members of the European Parliament

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Sozzi
Keyword(s):  
Electoral Systems ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
European Parliament ◽  
Legislative Behavior ◽  
Electoral Institutions ◽  
Electoral Connection ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior ◽  
Members Of European Parliament ◽  
Elected Representatives

In this article, we explore how electoral systems influence attitudes and behavior of elected representatives. Focusing on constituency representation, we consider how variation in electoral systems may shape forms of political representation. An analysis of written parliamentary questions (PQs) is an important instrument to look at the role of parliamentarians even where, as in the European Parliament, political parties enforce discipline in roll-call voting. This kind of investigation offers the opportunity to partially resolve empirical and theoretical problems related to other methods of research. Unlike voting and speeches, PQs face fewer constrains from party leaders. This article analyses the constituency focus of members of European Parliament from France and Italy. These countries differ with regard to two main dimensions of electoral systems: ballot structure and district magnitude. The study is conducted through a content analysis of 5343 written PQs during the sixth term (2004–09). The results suggest that, despite the lack of strong electoral connection, electoral institutions shape the legislative behavior of the Italian and French parliamentarians providing incentives to cultivate personal reputation and constituency-orientation.

scholarly journals Top-down, bottom-up or outside-in? An examination of triadic mechanisms on firm innovation in Chinese firms

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Zhou ◽  
Guangjian Liu ◽  
Xiaoxi Chang ◽  
Ying Hong
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Firm Innovation ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
High Involvement ◽  
Bureaucratic Structure ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Two Stages ◽  
Practical Implications

Abstract This paper examines the influence of the interaction of three sources of innovation, namely, top-down (bureaucratic structure), bottom-up (high-involvement HRM) and outside-in (outreaching network), on two stages of firm innovation, i.e. invention and commercialization. Using data from 620 large Chinese companies, we found that there was a synergy between the bureaucratic structure and a high-involvement HRM system in influencing firm innovation. Social networks were most effective in promoting firm innovation in the presence of a high-involvement HRM system. The bureaucratic structure inhibited social networks in contributing to firm innovation. Ideas for future research and practical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Mapping Inequalities in Local Political Representation: Evidence from Ohio School Boards

AERA Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 233285841881807 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brendan Bartanen ◽  
Jason A. Grissom ◽  
Ela Joshi ◽  
Marc Meredith
Keyword(s):  
School Board ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
School Enrollment ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
School Board Members ◽  
Census Block Group ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Board Representation ◽  
Elected Representatives ◽  
Block Groups

Elected representatives’ place of residence can reveal information about their socioeconomic status, their likely social networks, and potential biases in the constituencies they represent. Using data on home addresses we collected from local elections offices, we investigate the geographic distribution of school board candidates’, including winners’, places of residence across two election cycles for 610 school districts in Ohio. We employ geographic information systems (GIS) to identify census block group and school enrollment zones associated with each candidate’s residence. We document differences among block groups and schools with more and less school board representation, including a robust association between the relative affluence of a neighborhood and the likelihood of school board members residing in that area. We find that more citizens from affluent areas run for school board, and because a large proportion of school board elections feature minimal competition, these higher propensities to run explain disparities in representation.

scholarly journals Comparing bottom-up and top-down ratings for individual soccer players

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-42
Author(s):  
Lars Magnus Hvattum ◽  
Garry A. Gelade
Keyword(s):  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Top Down ◽  
Bottom Up ◽  
Team Selection ◽  
Selection Decisions ◽  
Individual Player ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Or Team ◽  
Main Ideas

Abstract Correctly assessing the contributions of an individual player in a team sport is challenging. However, an ability to better evaluate each player can translate into improved team performance, through better recruitment or team selection decisions. Two main ideas have emerged for using data to evaluate players: Top-down ratings observe the performance of the team as a whole and then distribute credit for this performance onto the players involved. Bottom-up ratings assign a value to each action performed, and then evaluate a player based on the sum of values for actions performed by that player. This paper compares a variant of plus-minus ratings, which is a top-down rating, and a bottom-up rating based on valuing actions by estimating probabilities. The reliability of ratings is measured by whether similar ratings are produced when using different data sets, while the validity of ratings is evaluated through the quality of match outcome forecasts generated when the ratings are used as predictor variables. The results indicate that the plus-minus ratings perform better than the bottom-up ratings with respect to the reliability and validity measures chosen and that plus-minus ratings have certain advantages that may be difficult to replicate in bottom-up ratings.

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