The views of rich Europeans are more likely to be reflected by political parties than those of poorer citizens

How does income inequality affect political representation? Jan Rosset, Nathalie Giger and Julian Bernauer examine whether politicians represent the views of poorer and richer citizens equally. They find that in 43 out of the 49 elections included in their analysis, the preferences of low-income citizens are located further away from the policy positions of the closest political party than those with mid-range incomes. This suggests that income inequality may spill-over into political inequalities, although it is less clear whether this effect is likely to get better or worse as a result of the Eurozone crisis.

Gemeindereformen in der Schweiz : Gemeinsamkeiten und Auslöser

In den 1990er Jahren ist die Schweizer Gemeindelandschaft in Bewegung geraten. Seither werden zentrale Elemente der kommunalen politischen Systeme den veränderten Voraussetzungen angepasst. New Public Management, verstärkte interkommunale Zusammenarbeit und Gemeindefusionen erscheinen immer häufiger auf der politischen Agenda. Neben einem Überblick zur Verbreitung der verschiedenen Reformbestrebungen sucht dieser Aufsatz nach deren Strategien, Gemeinsamkeiten und Auslösern. Die meisten Reformprojekte können nur indirekt mit der Verschlechterung der wirtschaftlichen Lage in Zusammenhang gebrachg werden. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Neuordnung der Zuständigkeiten für die verschiedenen öffentlichen Aufgaben. Eine zentrale Rolle kommt dabei der politischen Steureung zu. Hier weist die Reformdiskussion allerdings Defizite auf.

Statistics in science and in society: From a state-of-the-art to a new research agenda

Statistics occupies a prominent role in science and citizens' daily life. This article provides a state-of-the-art of the problems associated with statistics in science and in society, structured along the three paradigms defined by Bauer, Allum and Miller (2007). It explores in more detail medicine and public understanding of science on the one hand, and risks and surveys on the other. Statistics has received a good deal of attention; however, very often handled in terms of deficit - either of scientists or of citizens. Many tools have been proposed to improve statistical literacy, the image of and trust in statistics, but with little understanding of their roots, with little coordination among stakeholders and with few assessments of impacts. These deficiencies represent as many new and promising directions in which the PUS research agenda could be expanded.

Kinship, ritual kinship and political milieus in an alpine Valley in 19th century

In my paper I will present some results about ritual kinship and political mobilization of popular groups in an alpine Valley: the Val de Bagnes, in the Swiss canton of Valais. There are two major reasons to choose the Val de Bagnes for our inquiry about social networks: the existence of sharp political and social conflicts during the 18th and the 19th century and the availability of almost systematic genealogical data between 1700 and 1900. The starting point of my research focuses on this question: what role did kinship and ritual kinship play in the political mobilization of popular groups and in the organization of competing factions? This question allows us to shed light on some other uses and meanings of ritual kinship in the local society. Was ritual kinship a significant instrument for economic cooperation? Or was it a channel for patronage or for privileged social contacts? The analysis highlights the importance of kinship and godparentage for the building of homogeneous social and political networks. If we consider transactions between individuals, the analysis of 19th century Val de Bagnes gives the impression of quite open networks. Men and women tried to diversify their relations in order to avoid strong dependency from powerful patrons. Nevertheless, when we consider the family networks, we can notice that most relations took place in a structured social space or a specific "milieu", were intense contacts enhanced trust, although political allegiances and social choices were not fully predictable on the basis of such preferential patterns. In a politically conflictual society, like 19th century Bagnes, ritual kinship interacted with kinship solidarities and ideological factors shaping dense social networks mostly based on a common political orientation. Such milieus sustained the building of political factions, which show surprising stability over time. In this sense, milieus are important factors to understand political and religious polarization in 19th century Switzerland.