How Party Linkages Shape Austerity Politics: Clientelism and Fiscal Adjustment in Greece and Portugal during the Eurozone Crisis

Drawing on an analysis of austerity reforms in Greece and Portugal during the sovereign debt crisis from 2009 onwards, we show how the nature of the linkages between parties and citizens shapes party strategies of fiscal retrenchment. We argue that parties which rely to a greater extent on the selective distribution of state resources to mobilize electoral support (clientelistic linkages) are more reluctant to agree to fiscal retrenchment because their own electoral survival depends on their ability to control state budgets to reward clients. In Greece, where parties relied extensively on these clientelistic linkages, austerity reforms have been characterized by recurring conflicts and disagreements between the main parties, as well as a fundamental transformation of the party system. By contrast, in Portugal, where parties relied less on clientelistic strategies, austerity reforms have been more consensual because fiscal retrenchment challenged to a lesser extent the electoral base of the mainstream parties.

Europeanization or Party Politics? Explaining Government Choice for Corporatist Concertation

This article assesses whether changes in government choice for policy concertation with trade unions and employers are better explained by international or domestic factors. We compare patterns of corporatist governance in a strongly Europeanized policy domain (labor migration policy) and in a weakly Europeanized policy domain (welfare state reforms) over the last 20 years in Austria and Switzerland. We show that there is no systematic difference in patterns of concertation between the two policy sectors and that factors linked to party politics play a bigger role in the choice of governments for concertation. If the base of party support for policies is divided, governments are more prone to resort to corporatist concertation as a way to build compromises for potentially controversial or unpopular policies. By contrast, ideologically cohesive majority coalitions are less prone to resort to concertation because they do not need to build compromises outside their base of party support.

Searches for TeX and B + → J/ψ p TeX π + decays

The results of searches for B0(s)→J/ψ pp¯ and B + → J/ψ p p¯ π+ decays are reported. The analysis is based on a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 of pp collisions, collected with the LHCb detector. An excess with 2.8 σ significance is seen for the decay B0s→J/ψ pp¯ and an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at the 90 % confidence level: B(B0s→J/ψ pp¯) < 4.8 × 10−6, which is the first such limit. No significant signals are seen for B 0 → J/ψ p p¯ and B + → J/ψ p p¯ π + decays, for which the corresponding limits are set: B(B0→J/ψ pp¯) < 5.2 × 10−7, which significantly improves the existing limit; and B(B+→J/ψ pp¯π+) < 5.0 × 10−7, which is the first limit on this branching fraction.

Proportionality and Party Success in Europe

This thesis consists of four articles and an introductory section. The main research questions in all the articles are about proportionality and party success in Europe, at European, national or district levels. Proportionality in this thesis denotes the proximity of seat shares parties receive compared to their respective vote shares, after the electoral system’s allocation process. This proportionality can be measured through numerous indices that illustrate either the overall proportionality of an electoral system or a particular election. The correspondence of a single party’s seat shares to its vote shares can also be measured. The overall proportionality is essential in three of the articles (1, 2 and 4), where the system’s performance is studied by means of plots. In article 3, minority party success is measured by advantage-ratios that reveal single party’s winnings or losses in the votes to seat allocation process. The first article asks how proportional are the European parliamentary (EP) electoral systems, how do they compare with results gained from earlier studies and how do the EP electoral systems treat different sized parties. The reasons for different outcomes are looked for in explanations given by traditional electoral studies i.e. electoral system variables. The countries studied (EU15) apply electoral systems that vary in many important aspects, even though a certain amount of uniformity has been aspired to for decades. Since the electoral systems of the EP elections closely resemble the national elections, the same kinds of profiles emerge as in the national elections. The electoral systems indeed treat the parties differentially and six different profile types can be found. The counting method seems to somewhat determine the profile group, but the strongest variables determining the shape of a countries’ profile appears to be the average district magnitude and number of seats allocated to each country. The second article also focuses on overall proportionality performance of an electoral system, but here the focus is on the impact of electoral system changes. I have developed a new method of visualizing some previously used indices and some new indices for this purpose. The aim is to draw a comparable picture of these electoral systems’ changes and their effects. The cases, which illustrate this method, are four elections systems, where a change has occurred in one of the system variables, while the rest remained unchanged. The studied cases include the French, Greek and British European parliamentary systems and the Swedish national parliamentary system. The changed variables are electoral type (plurality changed to PR in the UK), magnitude (France splitting the nationwide district into eight smaller districts), legal threshold (Greece introducing a three percent threshold) and counting method (d’Hondt was changed to modified Sainte-Laguë in Sweden). The radar plots from elections after and before the changes are drawn for all country cases. When quantifying the change, the change in the plots area that is created has also been calculated. Using these radar plots we can observe that the change in electoral system type, magnitude, and also to some extent legal threshold had an effect on overall proportionality and accessibility for small parties, while the change between the two highest averages counting method had none. The third article studies the success minority parties have had in nine electoral systems in European heterogeneous countries. This article aims to add more motivation as to why we should care how different sized parties are treated by the electoral systems. Since many of the parties that aspire to represent minorities in European countries are small, the possibilities for small parties are highlighted. The theory of consociational (or power-sharing) democracy suggests that, in heterogeneous societies, a proportional electoral system will provide the fairest treatment of minority parties. The OSCE Lund Recommendations propose a number of electoral system features, which would improve minority representation. In this article some party variables, namely the unity of the minority parties and the geographical concentration of the minorities were included among possible explanations. The conclusions are that the central points affecting minority success were indeed these non-electoral system variables rather than the electoral system itself. Moreover, the size of the party was a major factor governing success in all the systems investigated; large parties benefited in all the studied electoral systems. In the fourth article the proportionality profiles are again applied, but this time to district level results in Finnish parliamentary elections. The level of proportionality distortion is also studied by way of indices. The average magnitudes during the studied periodrange from 7.5 to 26.2 in the Finnish electoral districts and this opens up unequal opportunities for parties in different districts and affects the shape of the profiles. The intra-country case allows the focus to be placed on the effect of district magnitude, since all other electoral systems are kept constant in an intra-country study. The time span in the study is from 1962 to 2007, i.e. the time that the districts have largely been the same geographically. The plots and indices tell the same story, district magnitude and electoral alliances matter. The district magnitude is connected to the overall proportionality of the electoral districts according to both indices, and the profiles are, as expected, also closer to perfect proportionality in large districts. Alliances have helped some small parties to gain a much higher seat share than their respective vote share and these successes affect some of the profiles. The profiles also show a consistent pattern of benefits for the small parties who ally with the larger parties.

The republican case for workplace democracy

The republican case for workplace democracy (WD) is presented and defended from two alternative means of ensuring freedom from arbitrary interference in the firmnamely, (a) the right to freely exit the firm and (b) workplace regulation. This paper shows, respectively, that costless exit is neither possible nor desirable in either perfect or imperfect labor markets, and that managerial discretion is both desirable and inevitable due to the incompleteness of employment contracts and labor legislation. The paper then shows that WD is necessary, from a republican standpoint, if workers" interests are to be adequately tracked in the exercise of managerial authority. Three important objections are finally addressed (i) that WD is redundant, (ii) that it is unnecessary provided that litigation and unionism can produce similar outcomes, and (iii) that it falls short of ensuring republican freedom compared to self-employment.

Development of a social service in a multi-party network

Tämän pro gradu-tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli tutkia monen toimijan sosiaalipalvelukehittäjäverkoston toimivuutta ja sen toimivuuteen vaikuttavia tekijöitä. Aihetta lähestyttiin erilaisten teoreettisten kokonaisuuksien kautta, joiden avulla saatiin luotua tutkimukselle pohja. Viitekehys tutkimukselle luotiin yhdistäen erilaisia teoreettisia aihealueita verkostoista, verkostojen johtamisesta ja palveluista. Tutkimuksessa korostuu motivaation, yhteisen, tarpeeseen perustuvan tavoitteen, sitoutumisen ja orkestroinnin merkitys verkostotoiminnassa hyvän lopputuloksen aikaansaamiseksi. Tutkimuksen empiirisessä osuudessa tehty kvalitatiivinen case-tutkimus keskittyy tiettyyn verkostoon, joka on Socomin koordinoimana kehittänyt Kaakkois-Suomen alueelle uudenlaista sosiaalipalvelua liittyen henkilökohtaiseen apuun. Verkosto on monen toimijan verkosto, jonka jäsenet edustavat erilaisia tahoja ja organisaatioita. Tutkimuksen perusteella verkosto on toiminut hyvin ja tehokkaasti ja saanut luotua toimivan sosiaalipalvelun. Verkosto tukee kirjallisuuskatsauksessa löydettyjen tekijöiden, kuten verkosto-orkestroinnin, sitoutumisen ja yhteisen päämäärän, vaikutusta verkoston toimintaan ja lopputulokseen.

Networks and partnerships in third party logistics service production

Third party logistics, and third party logistics providers and the services they offer have grown substantially in the last twenty years. Even though there has been extensive research on third party logistics providers, and regular industry reviews within the logistics industry, a closer research in the area of partner selection and network models in the third party logistics industry is missing. The perspective taken in this study was of expanding the network research into logistics service providers as the focal firm in the network. The purpose of the study is to analyze partnerships and networks in the third party logistics industry in order to define how networks are utilized in third party logistics markets, what have been the reasons for the partnerships, and whether there are benefits for the third party logistics provider that can be achieved through building networks and partnerships. The theoretical framework of this study was formed based on common theories in studying networks and partnerships in accordance with models of horizontal and vertical partnerships. The theories applied to the framework and context of this study included the strategic network view and the resource-based view. Applying these two network theories to the position and networks of third party logistics providers in an industrial supply chain, a theoretical model for analyzing the horizontal and vertical partnerships where the TPL provider is in focus was structured. The empirical analysis of TPL partnerships consisted of a qualitative document analysis of 33 partnership examples involving companies present in the Finnish TPL markets. For the research, existing documents providing secondary data on types of partnerships, reasons for the partnerships, and outcomes of the partnerships were searched from available online sources. Findings of the study revealed that third party logistics providers are evident in horizontal and vertical interactions varying in geographical coverage and the depth and nature of the relationship. Partnership decisions were found to be made on resource based reasons, as well as from strategic aspects. The discovered results of the partnerships in this study included cost reduction and effectiveness in the partnerships for improving existing services. In addition in partnerships created for innovative service extension, differentiation, and creation of additional value were discovered to have emerged as results of the cooperation. It can be concluded that benefits and competitive advantage can be created through building partnerships in order to expand service offering and seeking synergies.

Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment PLC:n tuloksen muodostumisen muutokset ja niiden yhteys yhtiön markkina-arvoon

Kandidaatintutkielmani aiheena on vuonna 1997 perustettu uhkapeliyhtiö Party Gaming PLC ja vuoden 2011 yritysfuusion jälkeen Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment PLC. Tutkielmani tavoitteena on tutkia yhtiön tuloksen muodostumista ajanjaksolla 2005-2012 ja verrata tuloksenteon muodostumista ja sen muutosta yhtiön markkina-arvon muutoksiin.

Cleavages in contemporary Finland : a study on party-voter ties

Cleavages have been central in understanding the relationship between political parties and voters but the credibility of cleavage approach has been increasingly debated. This is because of decreasing party loyalty, fewer ideological differences between the parties and general social structural change amongst other factors. By definition, cleavages arise when social structural groups recognize their clashing interests, which are reflected in common values and attitudes, and vote for parties that are dedicated to defend the interests of the groups concerned. This study assesses relevance of cleavage approach in the Finnish context. The research problem in this study is “what kind of a cleavage structure exists in Finland at the beginning of the 21st century? Finland represents a case that has traditionally been characterized by a strong and diverse cleavage structure, notable ideological fragmentation in the electorate and an ideologically diverse party system. Nevertheless, the picture of the party-voter ties in Finland still remains incomplete with regard to a thorough analysis of cleavages. In addition, despite the vast amount of literature on cleavages in political science, studies that thoroughly analyze national cleavage structures by assessing the relationship between social structural position, values and attitudes and party choice have been rare. The research questions are approached by deploying statistical analyses, and using Finnish National Election Studies from 2003, 2007 and 2011as data. In this study, seven different social structural cleavage bases are analyzed: native language, type of residential area, occupational class, education, denomination, gender and age cohorts. Four different value/attitudinal dimensions were identified in this study: economic right and authority, regional and socioeconomic equality, sociocultural and European Union dimensions. This study shows that despite the weak overall effect of social structural positions on values and attitudes, a few rather strong connections between them were identified. The overall impact of social structural position and values and attitudes on party choice varies significantly between parties. Cleavages still exist in Finland and the cleavage structure partly reflects the old basis in the Finnish party system. The cleavage that is based on the type of residential area and reflected in regional and socioeconomic equality dimensions concerns primarily the voters of the Centre Party and the Coalition Party. The linguistic cleavage concerns mostly the voters of the Swedish People’s Party. The classic class cleavage reflected in the regional and socioeconomic equality dimension concerns in turn first and foremost the blue-collar voters of the Left Alliance and the Social Democratic Party, the agricultural entrepreneur voters of the Centre Party and higher professional and manager voters of the Coalition Party. The conflict with the most potential as a cleavage is the one based on social status (occupational class and education) and it is reflected in sociocultural and EU dimensions. It sets the voters of the True Finns against the voters of the Green League and the Coalition Party. The study underlines the challenges the old parties have met after the volatile election in 2011, which shook the cleavage structure. It also describes the complexity involved in the Finnish conflict structure and the multidimensionality in the electoral competition between the parties.

Tulevaisuuden lähtökohdista kansanvallan kolmiliittoon. Kansallinen Edistyspuolue ja kansallisen eheytymisen politiikka 1919–1939.

Kansallista Edistyspuoluetta ja sen toimijoita maailmansotien välisen Suomen sisäpolitiikassa tarkasteleva väitöstutkimus paneutuu puolueen kansallista eheytymistä ajaneen poliittisen linjan taustoihin, muodostumiseen ja toteutumiseen maailmansotien välisenä aikana vuosina 1919-1939. Vahvasti aineistopohjainen ja lähdekriittinen poliittisen historian tutkimus keskittyy parlamentaarisiin toimijoihin, poliittiseen kenttään ja näiden tuottamiin aineistoihin, kuten edistyspuolueen ja sen toimijoiden arkistoihin, lehdistöön ja valtiopäiväpöytäkirjoihin. Tutkimus selvittää, millainen oli edistyspuolueen kansallisen eheytymisen linja, mihin sillä pyrittiin, miten sitä toteutettiin ja miten se toteutui. Kansainvälisen vertailun kautta tutkimuksessa luodaan myös kuva suomalaisesta liberalismista ja liberalistista. Joulukuussa 1918 perustettu Kansallinen Edistyspuolue oli liberaali puolue, jonka politiikassa korostui erityisesti liberalismin sosiaalinen tulkinta. Puolueen sisäpoliittiseksi linjaksi vastaitsenäistyneessä ja sisällissodan runtelemassa valtiossa muodostui kansallisen eheytymisen edistäminen. Ajatuksen taustalla olivat K. J. Ståhlbergin tulevaisuuden lähtökohtia hahmotelleet artikkelit, jotka julkaistiin Helsingin Sanomissa huhtikuussa 1918 sisällissodan vielä riehuessa. Ståhlbergin mukaan kansalliseen eheytymiseen ei tullut pyrkiä sodan vuoksi vaan siitä huolimatta. Nuorsuomalaiselta puolueelta perityt liberaalit periaatteet täydentyivätkin edistyspuoluelaisessa ajattelussa sisällissodan ja tasavallan puolesta käydyn valtiomuototaistelun avainkokemuksilla. Itsenäisen Suomen ensimmäisiä vuosia hallinneissa keskustahallituksissa kansallista eheytymistä edistettiin sosiaalipoliittisin uudistuksin mm. oppivelvollisuus- ja asutuslakien muodossa. Myös sisällissodan vankien armahdukset olivat osa tätä ohjelmaa. Tutkimus osoittaa, että edistyspuolueen kansallisen eheytymisen politiikan keskeisenä tavoitteena oli poliittisen sovittelun kautta integroida vasemmisto osaksi parlamentaaris-demokraattista järjestelmää. Eheytyspolitiikan todellinen käyttöarvo ja edistyspuolueen poliittiset toimintamahdollisuudet alkoivat kuitenkin heiketä vuoden 1922 eduskuntavaalien jälkeen.Tutkimuksesta käy ilmi, että toteutettu eheytyspolitiikka ja sen osittainen epäonnistuminen näkyivät sekä kommunistien jatkuvana kannatuksena että sisäpoliittisen ilmapiirin oikeistolaistumisena. Tämä kehitys nosti myös edistyspuolueessa esille voimat, jotka suosivat porvariyhteistyötä ohi keskustavasemmistolaisen eheytyspoliittisen linjan. Alkuvuosien jälkeen valtiomuototaistelun koossapitävä voima heikkeni edistyspuolueen sisällä ja 1920-luvun puolivälissä käydyt linjakiistat osoittivat, että osalle puolueen jäsenistä vuoden 1918 puoluevalinnassa keskeisemmässä roolissa oli ollut tasavaltalaisuus kuin vasemmiston integrointi ja kansallinen eheytyminen. Edistyspuolueen johto ei kuitenkaan ollut valmis luopumaan eheytyspoliittisesta linjasta ja sen ympärille luodusta puolueidentiteetistä, joten porvariyhteistyötä kannattanut oikeisto-oppositio päätyi suurelta osin eroamaan puolueesta vuonna 1927. Tutkimus osoittaa, että parlamentarismin rapautuminen ja pienelle yleispuolueelle elintärkeiden yhteistyömahdollisuuksien heikkeneminen luokkapuolueiden puristuksessa johtivat edistyspuolueen kannatuksen alamäkeen sotien välisenä aikana. Se kutistui 26 kansanedustajan keskisuuresta puolueesta vain kuuden edustajan pienpuolueeksi. Puolueidentiteetin vahvuus ja keskeisten toimijoiden puolueen kokoa suurempi poliittinen painoarvo pitivät sen lakkauttamispohdinnoista huolimatta kuitenkin koossa ja kiinni politiikan ytimessä. Oikeistoradikalismin vuodet 1920–1930-lukujen taitteessa olivat edistyspuolueellesekä uhka että mahdollisuus. Tutkimuksessa käy ilmi, että vaikka kommunisminvastaisen kansanliikkeen vaatimukset olivat edistyspuoluelaisten mielestä oikeutettuja, oli kansanliikkeen niiden ajamiseksi omaksumia laittomia ja ulkoparlamentaarisia keinoja vaikea hyväksyä. Eheytyspolitiikan kannalta katsottuna melkotoivottamalta näyttänyt tilanne kääntyi kuitenkin lopulta voitoksi: äärivasemmisto eliminoitiin, äärioikeisto ajautui paitsioon ja tie maltillisen vasemmiston ja keskustan yhteistyölle aukesi jälleen. Tämä johti lopulta vuonna 1937 punamultahallitukseen ja kansanvallan kolmiliittoon Kansallisen Edistyspuolueen, SDP:n ja Maalaisliiton kesken. Kokemus siitä, että itsenäisyys oli alati uhattuna, toi suomalaiseen liberalismiin varsin nationalistisia piirteitä, joita eurooppalaisten veljespuolueiden ohjelmista ei löydy. Liberalismiin usein liitetty mielleyhtymä sen kosmopoliittisesta, kansallisvaltioita ylittävästä luonteesta jäi Suomessa sotien välisenä aikana nationalismin ja itäisen naapurin luoman uhan varjoon. Suomen sisäpoliittinen tilanne ja geopoliittinen asema loivat vaatimuksen vahvasta kansallisesta yhtenäisyydestä. Suomalainen liberalismi määrittyikin eurooppalaisia vastineitaan voimakkaammin nuorta valtiota hallinneen kansallisuusajattelun, itsesäilytysvaiston ja kansallisen eheyden vaatimusten kautta. Tutkimuksessa todetaan, että edistyspuolueen eheytyspoliittisen linjan muotoutumista ja toteutumista vuosien 1919‒1939 aikana voi pitää idealismin voittona realismista. Lukuun ottamatta reformipolitiikan vuosia edistyspuolueen pitäytyminen valitulla linjalla näyttäytyi poliittisten toimintamahdollisuuksien kannalta katsottuna ajoittain jopa epärealistiselta. Koko sotien välistä aikaa tarkastellessa voikin todeta, että se, minkä edistyspuolue poliittisten päämäärien saavuttamisen valossa voitti, sen se menetti kannatusluvuissa.

Grève des cheminots anglais, Mr Arthur Henderson [secrétaire du Labor party] quittant Caxton Hall : [photographie de presse] / [Agence Rol]

Référence bibliographique : Rol, 56234