The Beauty and the Beast. A Tale of Democratic Crises and Globalization

There are two competing hypotheses concerning the connection between democracy and globalization. The critics hold globalization responsible for an ongoing crisis of democracy. The enthusiasts highlight the positive contributions of financial openness and international political cooperation on the development of democracy. In this contribution the author investigates the interrelation between globalization and the quality of established democracies. He introduces the Democracy Barometer, a new instrument that measures the quality of democracy in 30 established democratic regimes between 1995 and 2005 and that explicitly does not measure sustainable government because it aims at serving as dependent as well as independent variable to explain different economic, societal and natural environment, i.e. sustainable development. Based on this instrument, the author first shows that one cannot speak of an ongoing crisis of (established) democracies. Second, he also conducts several multilevel analyses to model the different developments of the quality of democracy in the different countries. The author then shows that economy, i.e. economic globalization indeed has a positive impact on the quality of democracy. However, this impact is stronger in stable, i.e. older than in younger established democracies. Further investigations show that a high quality of democracy also goes hand in hand with societal and environmental performance.

How Welfare States Shape the Democratic Public: Policy Feedback, Participation, Voting and Attitudes

This crucial volume significantly advances the study of policy feedbacks. With contributions from many subfields and methodological approaches, it offers both sophisticated theorizing and new empirical examples that show how policies make politics in a variety of ways. Innovative research designs provide more convincing inference than ever. And the normative questions engaged about welfare performance, evaluation, participation, and accountability could not be more important or timely in this era of austerity and discord over the future of welfare states.’

A Global Trend towards Democratic Convergence? A Lijphartian Analysis of Advanced Democracies.

The article offers a systematic analysis of the comparative trajectory of international democratic change. In particular, it focuses on the resulting convergence or divergence of political systems, borrowing from the literatures on institutional change and policy convergence. To this end, political-institutional data in line with Arend Lijphart’s (1999, 2012) empirical theory of democracy for 24 developed democracies between 1945 and 2010 are analyzed. Heteroscedastic multilevel models allow for directly modeling the development of the variance of types of democracy over time, revealing information about convergence, and adding substantial explanations. The findings indicate that there has been a trend away from extreme types of democracy in single cases, but no unconditional trend of convergence can be observed. However, there are conditional processes of convergence. In particular, economic globalization and the domestic veto structure interactively influence democratic convergence.

Managing Knowledge Transfer in Software-Maintenance Outsourcing Transitions: A System-Dynamics Perspective

The existing literature suggests that transitions in software-maintenance offshore outsourcing projects are prone to knowledge transfer blockades, i.e. situations in which the activities that would yield effective knowledge transfer do not occur, and that client management involvement is central to overcome them. However, the theoretical understanding of the knowledge transfer blockade is limited, and the reactive management behavior reported in case studies suggests that practitioners may frequently be astonished by the dynamics that may give rise to the blockade. Drawing on recent research from offshore sourcing and reference theories, this study proposes a system dynamics framework that may explain why knowledge transfer blockades emerge and how and why client management can overcome the blockade. The results suggest that blockades may emerge from a vicious circle of weak learning due to cognitive overload of vendor staff and resulting negative ability attributions that result in reduced helping behavior and thus aggravate cognitive load. Client management may avoid these vicious circles by selecting vendor staff with strong prior related experience. Longer phases of coexistence of vendor staff and subject matter experts and high formal and clan controls may also mitigate vicious circles.

Phase Transitions of YbBr2

The crystalline phases of YbBr2 were investigated by powder neutron diffraction between 1.5 K and the melting point at 955 K (682 °C). The low temperature SrI2 phase is observed up to 550 K, the α-PbO2 phase between 260 K and 750 K, the CaCl2 phase between 690 K and 790 K, and the rutile phase from 790 K to the melting point. All observed phase transitions are first order, except for the second order CaCl2 to rutile transition. The transition temperatures and enthalpies were determined by differential scanning calorimetry.

Tracing the Evidence: The Use of Evaluation Results in Direct-Democratic Campaigns

Although research on direct-democratic campaigns in Switzerland has intensified in the last decade, detailed information on the use of evidence in campaigns is still lacking. Our research aims to contribute both to research on direct democracy and to research on evidence-based policy making, by analyzing how evaluation results are used in directdemocratic campaigns. In this conceptual paper, the formulation of our hypothesis is based on a model of evaluation influence that traces the different uses of evaluation results in the process of a direct-democratic campaign. We assume that the policy analytical capacity of individual members in parliament, government and administration in the (pre)-parliamentary process fosters the use of evidence in campaigns. In the course of the campaign, symbolic use of evaluation in the form of justification, persuasion or mobilization prevails. We assume that the media is an important player in making transparent how political actors use evidence to support their positions. Evidence itself often remains ambiguous and uncertain, and evaluations are influenced by the values of the evaluator. To be able to make the right decisions, therefore, citizens should learn about possible interpretations in argumentative processes. For us, the context of direct democracy in Switzerland provides the setting for such a discourse that, besides evidence, brings up different opinions, values and beliefs.

How Cantonal Education Systems in Switzerland Promote Gender-Typical School-to-Work Transitions

The paper asks how cantonal education systems in Switzerland promote gender-typed school-to-work transitions and gender segregation at work. Data from the Swiss TREE youth panel study is used to analyse the impact of cantonal provision of vocational education and training (VET) on gender-typical educational trajectories. The findings show that education systems with higher VET rates have higher allocations of men in gender-(male-) typical occupational careers. The paper concludes that the pronounced and persistent gender segregation on the Swiss labor market is partly due to a prominent VET system, which urges early gender-typed occupational career decisions.

Geographic variation in floral allometry suggests repeated transitions between selfing and outcrossing in a mixed mating plant

• Premise of the study: Isometric and allometric scaling of a conserved floral plan could provide a parsimonious mechanism for rapid and reversible transitions between breeding systems. This scaling may occur during transitions between predominant autogamy and xenogamy, contributing to the maintenance of a stable mixed mating system. • Methods: We compared nine disjunct populations of the polytypic, mixed mating species Oenothera flava (Onagraceae) to two parapatric relatives, the obligately xenogamous species O. acutissima and the mixed mating species O. triloba. We compared floral morphology of all taxa using principal component analysis (PCA) and developmental trajectories of floral organs using ANCOVA homogeneity of slopes. • Key results: The PCA revealed both isometric and allometric scaling of a conserved floral plan. Three principal components (PCs) explained 92.5% of the variation in the three species. PC1 predominantly loaded on measures of floral size and accounts for 36% of the variation. PC2 accounted for 35% of the variation, predominantly in traits that influence pollinator handling. PC3 accounted for 22% of the variation, primarily in anther–stigma distance (herkogamy). During O. flava subsp. taraxacoides development, style elongation was accelerated relative to anthers, resulting in positive herkogamy. During O. flava subsp. flava development, style elongation was decelerated, resulting in zero or negative herkogamy. Of the two populations with intermediate morphology, style elongation was accelerated in one population and decelerated in the other. • Conclusions: Isometric and allometric scaling of floral organs in North American Oenothera section Lavauxia drive variation in breeding system. Multiple developmental paths to intermediate phenotypes support the likelihood of multiple mating system transitions.

The use of evidence in public debates in the media: the case of Swiss direct-democratic campaigns in the health policy sector

This article analyses the reporting of evidence in Swiss direct-democratic campaigns in the health policy sector, assuming that an informed public helps democracy function successfully. A content analysis of the media’s news reporting shows that of 5030 media items retrieved, a reference to evidence is found in 6.8%. The voter receives evidence in the form of substantiating arguments, equally distributed among proponents and opponents. Experts have the highest chance of providing evidence, but appear most rarely. Integrating more evidence might provide voters with the diversity of arguments needed to make a truly informed decision.