Politicians in the Media: Determinants of Legislators' Presence and Prominence in Swiss Newspapers

In times of increasing "mediatization" of politics, when voters and their elected representatives primarily communicate through the media, the question of who gets into the news and why becomes of the utmost importance. This article examines the determinants of Swiss legislators' presence and prominence in the print media by focusing on three competing approaches drawn from communication studies. The first approach regards the media as a "mirror" of political reality and argues that the media focus on the most active deputies in parliament. Second, news values theory predicts that "authoritative" politicians in leadership positions get the most media coverage. Third, theories of "news bias" hold that the media privilege legislators who are in line with their own editorial interests. Overall, the statistical analyses show an important leadership effect and provide strong support for the second explanation. While deputies in official functions get the most extensive news coverage, media access can also be won by parliamentary activity. The least support is shown for the news bias theory, although some newspapers try to localize parliamentary news coverage by focusing on deputies from their own media market.

From the vendor in the hemp shop to the dealer in the alleyway? A comparison of the sources of supply of cannabis in a time of 'de-normalising' cannabis use.

Objectives: After several years of increasing 'normalisation' of cannabis use in Switzerland at the beginning of the new millennium, a reversed tendency, marked among others by a more stringent law-enforcement, set in. The presentation examines the question of where adolescents and young adults obtained cannabis, within the context of this societal change. In addition, it compares the sources of supply for cannabis with those found in studies of other European countries. Methods: Analyses are based on data from the Swiss Cannabis Monitoring Study. As part of this longitudinal, representative population survey, more than 5000 adolescents and young adults were interviewed by telephone on the topic of cannabis. Within the total sample, 593 (2004) or 554 (2007) respectively, current cannabis users replied to the questions on sources of supply. Changes in law-enforcement and societal climate concerning cannabis are assessed based on relevant literature, media reports and parliamentary discussions. Results: Whereas 22% of cannabis users stated in 2004 that they bought their cannabis from vendors in hemp shops, this proportion drastically decreased to 6% three years later. At the same time, cannabis was obtained increasingly from friends, while the proportion of users who purchased cannabis from dealers in the alleyway, more than doubled from 6% (2004) to 13% (2007). It was male cannabis users, and in particular, young adult and frequent users, who have moved into the alleyways. Generally, users who buy cannabis in the alleyway show more cannabis-related problems than those who mainly name other sources of supply, even when adjusted for sex, age and frequency of cannabis use. Discussion: Possible consequences of these changes in cannabis supply, like the risk of merging a previously cannabis-only market with other 'harder' drugs markets, are discussed.

The Relationship between Media and Political Agendas : Variations across Decision-Making Phases

Previous studies have demonstrated that the extent to which media coverage influences the issue priorities of policy makers is contingent on the type of issue, media, and political agenda. This article contends that the relationship between media and political agendas varies across the phases of the decision-making process. Based on a comprehensive dataset on issue attention in media coverage and various policy-making channels covering the years 1996-2003, the article analyses the level of media coverage and, more importantly, the distribution and correspondence of issue attention between media and political agendas across the four successive phases of the decision-making process (initiation, preparatory, parliamentary, and referendum phases) in Switzerland. Despite inversely distributed levels of attention for successive decision-making phases, both media and political agendas are concentrated on fewer issues in the initiation and referendum phases, and they are more strongly correlated in the most decisive stages of the process, that is, the preparatory and referendum phases.

Networks of Coordination : Swiss Business Associations as an Intermediary between Business, Politics and Administration during the 20th Century

Until the 1990's, Switzerland could be classified as either a corporatist, cooperative or coordinated market economy where non-market mechanisms of coordination among economic and political actors were very important. In this respect, Business Interest Associations (BIAs) played a key role. The aim of this paper is to look at the historical evolution of the five main peak Swiss BIAs through network analysis for five assorted dates during the 20th century (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980 and 2000) while relying on a database that includes more than 12,000 people. First, we examine the logic of membership in these associations, which allows us to analyze their position and function within the network of the Swiss economic elite. Until the 1980's, BIAs took part in the emergence and consolidation of a closely meshed national network, which declined during the two last decades of the 20th century. Second, we investigate the logic of influence of these associations by looking at the links they maintained with the political and administrative worlds through their links to the political parties and Parliament, and to the administration via the extra-parliamentary commissions (corporatist bodies). In both cases, the recent dynamic of globalization called into question the traditional role of BIAs.

Les parlementaires suisses entre démocratisation et professionnalisation (1910-2010). Biographie collective des élus fédéraux et réformes du Parlement helvétique

Notre travail de thèse vise à analyser, d'une part, les principales réformes du Parlement fédéral adoptées au cours du 20e siècle et, d'autre part, l'évolution du profil sociographique pour six cohortes d'élus fédéraux (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000 et 2010), sous l'angle de sa démocratisation et de sa professionnalisation. La thèse comprend trois axes de recherche principaux. Premièrement, nous nous penchons sur les deux réformes institutionnelles censées favoriser la démocratisation du recrutement parlementaire, à savoir l'adoption de la proportionnelle pour l'élection du Conseil national en 1918 et l'introduction du suffrage féminin à l'échelon fédéral en 1971. Nous abordons également les réformes du Parlement visant, depuis les années 1970, à sa revalorisation et à sa professionnalisation. Le deuxième axe porte sur la réalisation d'un portrait collectif des élus fédéraux pour la période 1910-1980, dans le but de vérifier l'impact des réformes des règles électorales (proportionnelle et suffrage féminin) sur le profil des députés et sénateurs. Enfin, dans le troisième axe, nous abordons les transformations du profil socio-professionnel des parlementaires pendant la période plus récente (1980-2010), en lien avec la professionnalisation accrue de l'Assemblée fédérale et les changements des rapports de force partisans. Nos résultats permettent de mettre en évidence plusieurs éléments de continuité (prédominance de la catégories des indépendants, notamment des avocats, des chefs d'entreprise et des agriculteurs, et sous-représentation des salariés du secteur public ; fort ancrage local), ainsi que certains facteurs de rupture (présence accrue des femmes, moindre importance de la carrière militaire). D'autres changements dans le profil sont liés au processus récent de professionnalisation, contesté et inachevé, qui a favorisé néanmoins l'émergence de nouveaux profils sociologiques d'élus, en termes de formation, de profession (apparition du groupe des parlementaires professionnels) et de cumul des mandats économiques et politiques, avec cependant de fortes variations entre les partis et entre les deux Chambres. - Our PhD thesis aims at analysing, on the one hand, the main reforms of the Federal Parliament adopted during the 20th century and, on the other hand, the evolution of sociographical profile for six cohorts of Swiss MPs (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980, 2000 and 2010) in terms of their democratization and professionalization. Our research is composed of three main parts. Firstly, we analyse two institutional reforms which intended to promote the democratization of parliamentary recruitment, namely the adoption of proportional representation (PR) in 1918 for the election of the National Council and the introduction of women's suffrage at the federal level in 1971. We also deal with parliamentary reforms that, since the 1970s, have aimed at reasserting the political status of the Federal Assembly and at professionalizing its members. Secondly, we carry out a collective biography of Swiss MPs during the period 1910-1980, in order to verify the impact of electoral reforms (PR and women's suffrage) on the profiles of deputies and senators. Finally, we discuss the transformation of the MPs' socio-_professional profiles during the recent period (1980-2010) in connection with the increased professionalization of the Federal Assembly and the changes of the power relations within the Parliament. Our results allow us to highlight several elements of continuity (the predominance of self-employed persons, especially lawyers, business managers and farmers, and the underrepresentation of public employees; stronger background in local politics), as well as some factors of discontinuity (increased presence of women and lesser importance of the military career). Other changes of the parliamentarians' profile are related to the recent process of professionalization. Although contested and unfinished, it has promoted new sociological profiles in terms of educational background, profession (growth of the professional parliamentarians) and number of political and economic mandates held simultaneously, however with important variations between parties and between Lower and Upper House.

Nanotechnology: balancing benefits and risks to public health and the environment : expert paper

Nanotechnology has been heralded as a "revolution" in science, for two reasons: first, because of its revolutionary view of the way in which chemicals and elements, such as gold and silver, behave, compared to traditional scientific understanding of their properties. Second, the impact of these new discoveries, as applied to commerce, can transform the daily life of consumer products ranging from sun tan lotions and cosmetics, food packaging and paints and coatings for cars, housing and fabrics, medicine and thousands of industrial processes.9 Beneficial consumer use of nanotechnologies, already in the stream of commerce, improves coatings on inks and paints in everything from food packaging to cars. Additionally, "Nanomedicine" offers the promise of diagnosis and treatment at the molecular level in order to detect and treat presymptomatic disease,10 or to rebuild neurons in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. There is a possibility that severe complications such as stroke or heart attack may be avoided by means of prophylactic treatment of people at risk, and bone regeneration may keep many people active who never expected rehabilitation. Miniaturisation of diagnostic equipment can also reduce the amount of sampling materials required for testing and medical surveillance. Miraculous developments, that sound like science fiction to those people who eagerly anticipate these medical products, combined with the emerging commercial impact of nanotechnology applications to consumer products will reshape civil society - permanently. Thus, everyone within the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe is an end-user of nanotechnology, even without realising that nanotechnology has touched daily life.

E-tools for civic education : experiences from the election campaign in Switzerland 2007

Political participation is often very low in Switzerland especially among students and young citizens. In the run-up to the Swiss parliamentary election in October 2007 several online tools and campaigns were developed with the aim to increase not only the level of information about the political programs of parties and candidates, but also the electoral participation of younger citizens. From a practical point of view this paper will describe the development, marketing efforts and the distribution as well as the use of two of these tools : the so-called "Parteienkompass" (party compass) and the "myVote"-tool - an online voting assistance tool based on an issue-matching system comparing policy preferences between voters and candidates on an individual level. We also havea look at similar tools stemming from Voting Advice Applications (VAA) in other countries in Western Europe. The paper closes with the results of an evaluation and an outlook to further developments and on-going projects in the near future in Switzerland.

Unequal Representation of Age Groups in Switzerland

The representation of age groups is becoming an increasingly discussed topic in Swiss politics. In this study, we explore inequalities in the descriptive and substantive representation of various age groups and find that despite important disparities in descriptive representation, the policy preferences of various age groups are relatively equally represented in the lower house of the Swiss parliament. Our analysis thus suggests that even if it is gaining visibility, the age cleavage is not central for parliamentary representation in Switzerland.

Appendix: expert paper

Nanotechnology has been heralded as a "revolution" in science, for two reasons: first, because of its revolutionary view of the way in which chemicals and elements, such as gold and silver, behave, compared to traditional scientific understanding of their properties. Second, the impact of these new discoveries, as applied to commerce, can transform the daily life of consumer products ranging from sun tan lotions and cosmetics, food packaging and paints and coatings for cars, housing and fabrics, medicine and thousands of industrial processes.9 Beneficial consumer use of nanotechnologies, already in the stream of commerce, improves coatings on inks and paints in everything from food packaging to cars. Additionally, "Nanomedicine" offers the promise of diagnosis and treatment at the molecular level in order to detect and treat presymptomatic disease,10 or to rebuild neurons in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. There is a possibility that severe complications such as stroke or heart attack may be avoided by means of prophylactic treatment of people at risk, and bone regeneration may keep many people active who never expected rehabilitation. Miniaturisation of diagnostic equipment can also reduce the amount of sampling materials required for testing and medical surveillance. Miraculous developments, that sound like science fiction to those people who eagerly anticipate these medical products, combined with the emerging commercial impact of nanotechnology applications to consumer products will reshape civil society - permanently. Thus, everyone within the jurisdiction of the Council of Europe is an end-user of nanotechnology, even without realising that nanotechnology has touched daily life.

The emergence of parental and paternity leaves in Switzerland : a challenge to gendered representations and practices of parenthood?

The thesis addresses the issue of parenthood and gender equality in Switzerland through the emergence of parental leave policies. This is an original and relevant research topic, as Switzerland is one of the few industrialized countries that have not yet implemented a parental or paternity leave. I first describe the emergence of parental leave policies in the last ten to fifteen years in the political, media, and labor-market spheres. Secondly, adopting a gender and discursive theoretical approach, I analyze whether and to what extent this emergence challenged gendered representations and practices of parenthood. The multilevel and mixed-methods research design implies analyzing various data sets such as parliamentary interventions (N=23J and newspaper articles (N=579) on parental leave policies. A case study of a public administration which implemented a one-month paid paternity leave draws on register data of leave recipients (N=95) and in-depth interviews with fathers and managers (n=30). Results show that parental leave policies, especially in recent years, have been increasingly problematized in the three social spheres considered, as a result of political and institutional events. While there is a struggle over the definition of the legitimate leave type to implement [parental or paternity leave) in the political sphere, paternity leave has precedence in the media and labor-market spheres. Overall, this emergence contributes to making fatherhood visible in the public sphere, challenging albeit in a limited way gendered representations and practices of parenthood. Along with representations of involved fatherhood and change in gender relations, different roles and responsibilities are attributed to mothers and fathers, the latter being often defined as secondary, temporary and optional parents. Finally, I identify a common trend, namely the increasing importance of the economic aspects of parental leave policies with the consequence of sidelining their gender-equality potential. The dissertation contributes to the literature which analyzes the interconnections between the macro-, the meso- and the micro-levels of society in the constitution of gender relations and parenthood. It also provides useful tools for the analysis of the politics of parental leave policies in Switzerland and their effects for gender equality. - Cette thèse traite de la parentalité et de l'égalité de genre en Suisse à travers l'émergence des congés parentaux. Ce sujet de recherche est original et pertinent puisque la Suisse est à ce jour un des seuls pays industrialisés à ne pas avoir adopté de droit au congé parental ou paternité. Cette recherche décrit l'émergence des congés parentaux au cours des 10 à 15 dernières années dans les sphères politique, médiatique et du marché de l'emploi en Suisse. En combinant perspective de genre et analyse de discours, elle examine dans quelle mesure cette émergence remet en question les représentations et pratiques genrées de parentalité. Des méthodes de recherche mixtes sont employées pour analyser des interventions parlementaires (N=23) et des articles de presse (N=579) sur les congés parentaux. L'étude de cas d une entreprise publique qui a adopté un congé paternité payé d'un mois s'appuie sur des données de registre (N=95) et des entretiens semi-structurés avec des pères et des cadres (n=30). Les résultats indiquent que dans les trois sphères considérées, les congés parentaux ont reçu une attention croissante au cours de ces dernières années, en lien avec des événements politiques et institutionnels. Alors que dans la sphère politique il n'y a pas de consensus quant au type de congé considéré comme légitime (congé parental ou paternité), dans les sphères médiatique et du marché de l'emploi le congé paternité semble l'emporter. Dans l'ensemble, l'émergence des congés parentaux contribue à rendre la paternité plus visible dans l'espace public, remettant en question-bien que d'une manière limitée-les représentations genrées de la parentalité. En effet, d'une part l'image de pères impliqués et de rapports de genre plus égalitaires au sein de la famille est diffusée. D'autre part, mères et pères continuent à être associés à des rôles différents, les pères étant définis comme des parents secondaires et temporaires. Finalement, l'analyse révèle une tendance générale, soit l'importance croissante accordée aux aspects économiques des congés parentaux, avec pour conséquence la mise à l'écart de leur potentiel pour l'égalité de genre. Cette thèse contribue à la recherche sur les liens entre les niveaux macro- meso- et microsociaux dans la constitution des rapports de genre et de la parentalité. Elle propose également des outils pour analyser les politiques de congés parentaux en Suisse et leurs implications pour l'égalité de genre.

Les neurosciences au Tribunal : de la responsabilité à la dangerosité, enjeux éthiques soulevés par la nouvelle loi française

AIM: In the past few years, spectacular progress in neuroscience has led to the emergence of a new interdisciplinary field, the so-called "neurolaw" whose goal is to explore the effects of neuroscientific discoveries on legal proceedings and legal rules and standards. In the United States, a number of neuroscientific researches are designed specifically to explore legally relevant topics and a case-law has already been developed. In Europe, neuroscientific evidence is increasingly being used in criminal courtrooms, as part of psychiatric testimony, nourishing the debate about the legal implications of brain research in psychiatric-legal settings. Though largely debated, up to now the use of neuroscience in legal contexts had not specifically been regulated by any legislation. In 2011, with the new bioethics law, France has become the first country to admit by law the use of brain imaging in judicial expertise. According to the new law, brain imaging techniques can be used only for medical purposes, or scientific research, or in the context of judicial expertise. This study aims to give an overview of the current state of the neurolaw in the US and Europe, and to investigate the ethical issues raised by this new law and its potential impact on the rights and civil liberties of the offenders. METHOD: An overview of the emergence and development of "neurolaw" in the United States and Europe is given. Then, the new French law is examined in the light of the relevant debates in the French parliament. Consequently, we outline the current tendencies in Neurolaw literature to focus on assessments of responsibility, rather than dangerousness. This tendency is analysed notably in relation to the legal context relevant to criminal policies in France, where recent changes in the legislation and practice of forensic psychiatry show that dangerousness assessments have become paramount in the process of judicial decision. Finally, the potential interpretations of neuroscientific data introduced into psychiatric testimonies by judges are explored. RESULTS: The examination of parliamentary debates showed that the new French law allowing neuroimaging techniques in judicial expertise was introduced in the aim to provide a legal framework that would protect the subject against potential misuses of neuroscience. The underlying fear above all, was that this technology be used as a lie detector, or as a means to predict the subject's behaviour. However, the possibility of such misuse remains open. Contrary to the legislator's wish, the defendant is not fully guaranteed against uses of neuroimaging techniques in criminal courts that would go against their interests and rights. In fact, the examination of the recently adopted legislation in France shows that assessments of dangerousness and of risk of recidivism have become central elements of the criminal policy, which makes it possible, if not likely that neuroimaging techniques be used for the evaluation of the dangerousness of the defendant. This could entail risks for the latter, as judges could perceive neuroscientific data as hard evidence, more scientific and reliable than the soft data of traditional psychiatry. If such neuroscientific data are interpreted as signs of potential dangerousness of a subject rather than as signs of criminal responsibility, defendants may become subjected to longer penalties or measures aiming to ensure public safety in the detriment of their freedom. CONCLUSION: In the current context of accentuated societal need for security, the judge and the expert-psychiatrist are increasingly asked to evaluate the dangerousness of a subject, regardless of their responsibility. Influenced by this policy model, the judge might tend to use neuroscientific data introduced by an expert as signs of dangerousness. Such uses, especially when they subjugate an individual's interest to those of society, might entail serious threats to an individual's freedom and civil liberties.

The empirical assessment of agency accountability: A regime approach and an application to the German Bundesnetzagentur

Regulation has in many cases been delegated to independent agencies, which has led to the question of how democratic accountability of these agencies is ensured. There are few empirical approaches to agency accountability. We offer such an approach, resting upon three propositions. First, we scrutinize agency accountability both de jure (accountability is ensured by formal rights of accountability 'fora' to receive information and impose consequences) and de facto (the capability of fora to use these rights depends on resources and decision costs that affect the credibility of their sanctioning capacity). Second, accountability must be evaluated separately at political, operational and managerial levels. And third, at each level accountability is enacted by a system of several (partially) interdependent fora, forming together an accountability regime. The proposed framework is applied to the case of the German Bundesnetzagentur's accountability regime, which shows its suitability for empirical purposes. Regulatory agencies are often considered as independent, yet accountable. This article provides a realistic framework for the study of accountability 'regimes' in which they are embedded. It emphasizes the need to identify the various actors (accountability fora) to which agencies are formally accountable (parliamentary committees, auditing bodies, courts, and so on) and to consider possible relationships between them. It argues that formal accountability 'on paper', as defined in official documents, does not fully account for de facto accountability, which depends on the resources possessed by the fora (mainly information-processing and decision-making capacities) and the credibility of their sanctioning capacities. The article applies this framework to the German Bundesnetzagentur.