Are Roadside Crosses in Poland a Religious or Cultural Expression?

The paper contributes to the discourse on roadside memorialisation in the countries of Christian heritage in Europe, Australia, and North America. The aim of the paper is to assess the social perception of the motivation of people constructing roadside crosses at the places of fatal car accidents along public roads in Poland. Is it religious, cultural or both religious and cultural? The uniqueness of this survey lies in its representativeness of the population of one country and the religiosity variable incorporated into a public opinion poll. The study proves that there exists a relationship between one’s declaration of faith and the perception of memorial crosses. Believers more often than atheists opt for both a religious and a cultural meaning of roadside crosses. Atheists and agnostics more often than believers associate roadside crosses only with a cultural meaning—the custom of marking places of death with crosses.

NUTRITION STATUS OF STUDENT GIRLS

The article states that the nutritional status of 128 studentsUzbek State University of Physical Culture and Sportswas assessed by public opinion poll

Pride and Protest: Emotional response in the aftermath of the Chilean social outburst

In recent months, Chile, like many other countries around the world, has undergone a wave of widespread street protests calling for structural changes and challenging the “Chilean miracle.” This study uses an interrupted public opinion poll to assess the effect on the moral sentiments of the general population of the first weeks of the Chilean social crisis that began in October 2019. Our findings suggest that emotions toward the country, official symbols, and economic development were negatively affected by the crisis. Protests signaled that not everything in the country was as thought, generating a moral shock that affected shared emotions about the country. However, at the same time, the specific reciprocal moral sentiments between fellow citizens were positively affected. Hence, the social crisis emerges as an opportunity to strengthen collective ties either by sharing sentiments toward who is responsible for the movement or between Chileans. In the aftermath of October 18, the effect on emotions could explain the massive scale and durability of the social movement.

Representation of Lithuanian Citizens in the European Parliament: Between European and National Interests

The article analyzes the problem of conflict of European and national interests in the activities of a Member of the European Parliament (MEP). The study seeks answers to the following questions: what factors impact the decision and voting of EP members, elected in Lithuania, in the plenary sessions in the cases of collision of interests, and to what extent the interests of the electorate, national parties, or European political groups are important to MEPs elected in Lithuania. To achieve the goal, first, a review of the scientific literature on the representation of interests in the European Parliament, the issues of conflict of interests is carried out. Next, the theoretical model of the “two-level game,” which is applied in the analysis of an MEP’s activities, is discussed. In the second part of the article, a Lithuanian case study is carried out, analyzing the data of semistructured interviews with MEPs, results of public opinion poll of the Lithuanian population, and other quantitative data. The results show that MEPs elected in Lithuania, like the MEPs elected in other countries, face the problem of a conflict of interests. The inquiry also revealed that an MEP’s decision on how to vote in an EP plenary session depends not only on whether they are a member of the opposition or the ruling party, but also on their personal preferences.

Political “Postwriting” on Facebook: Public Perceptions About Parliamentarians’ (Un)Real SNS Involvement

Theoretical research on political communication between MPs and the public has focused on the role, activities, and perceptions of the MPs themselves without noting the existence of an intermediate layer: parliamentary assistants (PAs). This study attempts to investigate how the public perceives, practically and ethically, the (non)involvement of MPs, that is, reliance on PAs for SNSs (social network sites) communication with the public and to fill out the theoretical void in the discourse process. Questionnaires were sent to all 120 members of the 20th Israeli Knesset (MKs), with 44 responding. We examined the extent of their involvement and the MKs’ use patterns of Facebook, creating a model of four MK involvement levels. The idea was to check the extent of PAs’ authoring posts on behalf of MKs, what we call “Postwriting” (= post ghostwriting) in the MK’s name (or giving the impression that the MKs had themselves posted). Then we conducted a public opinion poll ( N = 505) in order to discern what the public thought about the nature of its relationship with MKs on Facebook, compared to the findings that emerged from the model of the MKs’ involvement in actual practice. The two parts of the study also enabled us to investigate the ethical perceptions and implications arising from the study.

Who Endorses Amnesty? An Original Survey from Morocco's Casablanca Region Assessing Citizen Support for Regularizing Clandestine Migrants

To deal with the growing migrant crisis in North Africa, several states have considered granting amnesty to foreign displaced persons (both economic migrants and potential refugees) who have entered their territories clandestinely. Morocco has taken the lead in this policy approach, launching two successful amnesty campaigns in 2014 and 2017 that regularized the status of approximately 40,000 displaced persons in total. While policymakers in many North African states increasingly see this policy as a viable solution, it is less understood how ordinary citizens view such regularization policies. Hence, this article inquires: under what conditions do ordinary native citizens support regularizing clandestine migrants and refugees? Further, what factors correlate with either higher or lower levels of public support for (or opposition to) regularization campaigns? Drawing on an original representative public opinion poll from Morocco's Casablanca-Settat region completed in 2017, this article finds that more than 59 percent of native citizens of Morocco support these regularization campaigns. Particularly, Moroccans who were wealthier, female, and ethnic minorities (black Moroccans) endorsed regularization more strongly. By contrast, Moroccans opposed regularization when they had concerns about whether displaced persons hurt the economy, undermine cultural traditions, and reduce stability.