scholarly journals Satisfaction with Democracy in Perspective: Anchoring Today By Looking Back and Forward

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-26
Author(s):  
Pepijn van Houwelingen ◽  
Paul Dekker
Keyword(s):  
Political Trust ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
List Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Expert Opinions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Almost All

Abstract The question of how satisfied people are with the workings of their national democracy has oft en been criticized but is still the international standard measurement of satisfaction with democracy (SWD). In this paper we explore the benefits of adding questions about remembered and expected satisfaction ‘ten years ago’ and ‘ten years from now’, as were asked in the ISSP citizenship surveys of 2004 and 2014. Based on the data from seventeen European countries, we find that national samples: ■ do not show universal ‘nostalgia’, ■ produce good guesses of past satisfaction but show no futurist insights, ■ give retrospective judgments that do not correlate well with changes in expert opinions, ■ give retrospective judgments that do not correlate well with changes in the share of the populist vote. At the individual level we find: ■ that in almost all countries expected satisfaction with democracy ten years from now is a better predictor of political trust and feelings of political efficacy than satisfaction with democracy today, ■ that in almost all countries expected satisfaction with democracy ten years from now is a better predictor of the preference for populist voting (in one national case study), we note that Poland is the only country in our sample where citizens were, in 2014, retrospectively more positive about the development of their democracy, probably due to the severe economic conditions Poland faced in 2004. Overall, we do not find evidence for the relevance of retrospective judgements, but some evidence for the relevance of prospective judgements. We recommend further research into individual changes in present satisfaction and perceptions of these changes to better understand the frames of reference of ‘satisfaction with democracy today’.

scholarly journals The Use of Genotoxicity Endpoints as Biomarkers of Low Dose Radiation Exposure in Interventional Cardiology

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Habibi ◽  
Panagiotis K. Karyofyllis ◽  
Aggeliki Nikolakopoulou ◽  
Panagiotis Papagiannis ◽  
Pantelis Karaiskos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Estimation ◽  
Biological Effects ◽  
Interventional Cardiology ◽  
Mean Values ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Cardiac Procedures ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Radiation Induced ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Almost All

The effect of the reportedly low ionizing radiation doses, such as those very often delivered to patients in interventional cardiology, remains ambiguous. As interventional cardiac procedures may have a significant impact on total collective effective dose, there are radiation protection concerns for patients and physicians regarding potential late health effects. Given that very low doses (<100 mSv) are expected to be delivered during these procedures, the purpose of this study was to assess the potency and suitability of current genotoxicity biomarkers to detect and quantitate biological effects essential for risk estimation in interventional cardiology. Specifically, the biomarkers γ-H2AX foci, dicentric chromosomes, and micronuclei, which underpin radiation-induced DNA damage, were studied in blood lymphocytes of 25 adult patients before and after interventional cardiac procedures. Even though the mean values of all patients as a group for all three endpoints tested show increased yields relative to baseline following medical exposure, our results demonstrate that only the γ-H2AX biomarker enables detection of statistically significant differences at the individual level (p < 0.001) for almost all patients (91%). Furthermore, 24 h after exposure, residual γ-H2AX foci were still detectable in irradiated lymphocytes. Their decline was found to vary significantly among the individuals and the repair kinetics of γ-H2AX foci was found to range from 25 to 95.6% of their maximum values obtained.

scholarly journals Understanding permaculturist motivations among residents of the “PermaKulturRaum” in Goettingen, Germany: a qualitative analysis

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heinrich Petri ◽  
Heiko Faust
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Childhood Experiences ◽  
Behavioral Determinants ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Micro Scale ◽  
The Core ◽  
Behavioral Studies ◽  
The Individual

AbstractBy using an inductive qualitative approach, investigating the micro scale, that is, the individual level, we conducted a case study on the PermaKulturRaum in Goettingen, Germany—an experimental space for students to explore alternative lifedesigns. On the supposition that only a radical transition can achieve sustainability on a global scale, we identified permaculture as an appropriate method to achieve this. However, permaculture is not widely spread and largely ignored by scientific research. We started a first attempt to understand the underlying motivations of permaculturists. Using behavioral studies as our theoretical framework, we found out that behavioral determinants, like biospheric values, green-identity, and the intention to act green were extraordinarily high and that the core of their pro-environmental behavior is most likely their strong intrinsic motivation. Regarding the PermaKulturRaum, we could formulate following theses: (1) a comprehensive implementation of permacultural aspects requires an urge for an alternative lifedesign, (2) a radical lifedesign attracts primarily like-minded people, which creates isolated spaces, (3) early childhood experiences or single key moments are important to trigger a pro-environmental interest.

Disentangling Differences in Homicide Incarceration Rates by Immigration Status: A Comparison in Texas

2020 ◽  
pp. 001112872094096
Author(s):  
Erin A. Orrick ◽  
Alexander H. Updegrove ◽  
Alex R. Piquero ◽  
Tomislav Kovandzic
Keyword(s):  
Undocumented Immigrants ◽  
Immigrant Status ◽  
Immigration Status ◽  
Incarceration Rate ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Crime And Punishment ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Immigration And Crime

Research addressing the purported relationship between immigration and crime remains popular, but some gaps remain under-explored. One important gap involves disentangling differences in crime and punishment by immigrant status, as measured across different definitions of immigration status and in relation to U.S. natives, at the individual level. Using data from Texas, results show that native-born U.S. citizens are incarcerated for homicide at higher rates than almost all immigrant groups. While the incarceration rate for undocumented immigrants was 24% greater than the rate for all foreign-citizens, this rate was significantly less than that for U.S. citizens. Among the immigrant status classifications available in this study, all were associated with lower incarceration rates for homicide than that of U.S. citizens.

scholarly journals Report-back for geo-referenced environmental data: A case study on personal monitoring of temperature in outdoor workers

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Thompson ◽  
Maggie Sugg ◽  
Jennifer Runkle
Keyword(s):  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Heat Exposure ◽  
Personal Exposure ◽  
Environmental Data ◽  
Eastern United States ◽  
Time Activity ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Behavioural Modification ◽  
The Individual

Few studies have evaluated the benefits of reporting back participatory environmental monitoring results, particularly regarding participant motivation toward behavioural modification concerning workplace heat exposure. This study evaluated the individual data report-back for geo-located environmental temperature and time activity patterns in grounds maintenance crews in three geographic regions across the South-eastern United States. Surveys collected information on worker interpretation of their results and intended action(s) to reduce heat exposure. Worker response was highly positive, especially among more experienced workers who expressed a greater willingness to modify personal behaviour to reduce heat stress. Individual-level report-back of environmental data is a powerful tool for individuals to understand and act on their personal exposure to heat.

Political Segregation of the Metropolis: Spatial Sorting by Partisan Voting in Metropolitan Minneapolis–St Paul

2013 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle E. Walker
Keyword(s):  
Metropolitan Area ◽  
Spatial Clustering ◽  
Central City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Twin Cities ◽  
Spatial Analyses ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Spatial Sorting ◽  
The Individual

Recent electoral research has claimed that individuals in the United States are self–segregating along political lines. In this paper, I use the Twin Cities, Minnesota, metropolitan area as a case study to test for the presence of political segregation through statistical and spatial analyses of electoral data from 1992 to 2012. I find that while segregation by partisan voting at the individual level is comparatively low, it has increased during the study period, and there exists substantial spatial clustering in voting patterns at aggregate levels. These distinct electoral divides between central city and exurb suggest spatial sorting of the electorate in the metropolitan area.

scholarly journals LOCAL ECONOMIC VOTING AND RESIDENCE-BASED REGIONALISM IN SOUTH KOREA: EVIDENCE FROM THE 2007 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Woo Chang Kang
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Presidential Election ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Economic Voting ◽  
Economic Conditions ◽  
Economic Changes ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Regional Parties ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The Individual

AbstractRegional bloc voting in South Korea has been ascribed to voters’ psychological attachments to birthplace. This article seeks to expand the existing discussion of regionalism by showing that economic conditions in voters’ places of residence affect vote choices at the individual level and produce clustering of votes at the aggregate level in South Korea. While the idea of residence-based regionalism has previously been suggested, empirical scrutiny of the idea has been limited. Exploiting a Bayesian multilevel strategy, this article provides evidence that short-term economic changes at the province level affected voters’ choices in the 2007 presidential election in South Korea, independent of the long-term political affiliation between regional parties and their constituents. The positive association between local economic conditions and vote choices remains significant, controlling for perceptions of national economic conditions and other individual level covariates such as age and political attitudes.

The myth of the secular–Islamist divide in Muslim politics: Evidence from Tunisia

2017 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon Gorman
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Mixed Method ◽  
Minority Rights ◽  
Popular Sovereignty ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Mixed Method Design ◽  
Muslim Politics ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Depth Interviews

Many scholars argue that politics in majority-Muslim societies are marked by deep polarization: dominated by struggles between secularists and Islamists who hold fundamentally divergent ideological positions. Yet, this finding is likely a result of scholarly focus on Islamist organizations and political parties rather than their constituencies. Using Tunisia as a case study, this article investigates attitudinal polarization between secularists and Islamists at the individual level using a mixed-method design combining statistical analyses of survey data with content analyses of in-depth interviews. Statistical results indicate that Islamists are no different from non-Islamists in attitudes about excommunication ( takfir), popular sovereignty, women’s rights, or minority rights, though they are more skeptical of democracy and express less religious tolerance. Interview results show that many political procedures advocated by Islamists resemble the secular procedures they seek to replace and, though secularists tend to have negative views of Islamists, many express support for Islamist ideological positions. Taken together, these findings provide little evidence of attitudinal polarization along the so-called secular–Islamist divide.

scholarly journals Academic Libraries as user-centered organizations. Case study: Quality of services provided by LBUS Library

2021 ◽  
Vol 342 ◽  
pp. 09002
Author(s):  
Elena Mărginean ◽  
Claudiu Vasile Kifor
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Services ◽  
Library Services ◽  
Services Research ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Digital Services ◽  
To Come ◽  
Almost All

Ever-growing digital services determine libraries to update almost all of their activities. Traditional library services must be transformed into electronic libraries, and library specialists must always be prepared for advanced digital services to come. Thus, libraries in the digital era must offer digital deposit services, digitisation services, research data management, metadata creation, digital cataloguing and conserving, and counselling in what regards digital copyrights, informational alphabetising. In this article, the emphasis falls on the necessity of developing and transforming libraries, bringing awareness to their role and their importance for society and at an individual level.

scholarly journals Who wants technocrats? A comparative study of citizen attitudes in nine young and consolidated democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihail Chiru ◽  
Zsolt Enyedi
Keyword(s):  
Strong Support ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Quality Of Democracy ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Satisfaction With Democracy ◽  
Civic Activism ◽  
Citizen Attitudes ◽  
Corruption Perception ◽  
Comparative Survey

Technocratic cabinets and expert, non-political ministers appointed in otherwise partisan cabinets have become a common reality in recent decades in young and older democracies, but we know little about how citizens see this change and what values, perceptions and experiences drive their attitudes towards technocratic government. The article explores the latter topic by drawing on recent comparative survey data from 9 countries, both young and consolidated democracies from Europe and Latin America. Two individual-level characteristics trigger particularly strong support for the replacement of politicians with experts: low political efficacy and authoritarian values. They are complemented by a third, somewhat weaker factor: corruption perception. At macro level, technocracy appeals to citizens of countries where the quality of democracy is deficient and where technocratic cabinets are part of historical legacy. Surprisingly, civic activism, and partially satisfaction with democracy, enhance technocratic orientation, indicating such attitudes are not expressions of alienation or depoliticization.

scholarly journals Spectral partitioning identifies individual heterogeneity in the functional network topography of ventral and anterior medial prefrontal cortex

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Toro-Serey ◽  
Sean M. Tobyne ◽  
Joseph T. McGuire
Keyword(s):  
Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Medial Prefrontal Cortex ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Fmri Data ◽  
Default Network ◽  
List Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Human Connectome Project ◽  
Spectral Partitioning ◽  
The Individual

AbstractRegions of human medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) are part of the default network (DN), and additionally are implicated in diverse cognitive functions ranging from autobiographical memory to subjective valuation. Our ability to interpret the apparent co-localization of task-related effects with DN-regions is constrained by a limited understanding of the individual-level heterogeneity in mPFC/PCC functional organization. Here we used cortical surface-based meta-analysis to identify a parcel in human PCC that was more strongly associated with the DN than with valuation effects. We then used resting-state fMRI data and a data-driven network analysis algorithm, spectral partitioning, to partition mPFC and PCC into “DN” and “non-DN” subdivisions in individual participants (n = 100 from the Human Connectome Project). The spectral partitioning algorithm identified individual-level cortical subdivisions that varied markedly across individuals, especially in mPFC, and were reliable across test/retest datasets. Our results point toward new strategies for assessing whether distinct cognitive functions engage common or distinct mPFC subregions at the individual level.HighlightsThe topography of Default Network cortical regions varies across individuals.A community detection algorithm, spectral partitioning, was applied to rs-fMRI data.The algorithm identified individualized Default Network regions in mPFC and PCC.Default Network topography varied across individuals in mPFC, moreso than in PCC.Overlap of task effects with DN regions should be assessed at the individual level.

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