L'estraperlo a Artesa de Segre: la lluita per la supervivència: el pa de cada dia

Treball de recerca realitzat per una alumna d’ensenyament secundari i guardonat amb un Premi CIRIT per fomentar l'esperit científic del Jovent l’any 2008. L’estraperlo es pot definir com el comerç il•legal que es va dur a terme durant la postguerra espanyola i que consistia a comprar o intercanviar productes a baix preu a un lloc i vendre’ls o aconseguir-ne d’altres en un indret on es cotitzaven millor. Aquests productes eren articles intervinguts per l’estat o subjectes a racionament (1936-1952) i va passar a ser el mitjà de subsistència per a la majoria de persones que el van practicar. S’ha desenvolupat una aproximació a l’estraperlo a Artesa de Segre des de tres perspectives. La recollida de bibliografía ha permès situar-la dins l’ampli món de la postguerra espanyola. En el treball de camp, els testimonis ofereixen diferents punts de vista sobre les vivències de l’estraperlo i posteriorment s’analitzen els principals aspectes convergents i divergents a través d’un estudi comparatiu. Tota aquesta informació s’ha organitzat i presentat també en format audiovisual: el testimoni de l’estraperlista és narrat amb la seva pròpia veu. Les conclusions que s’en deriven són: l’estraperlo sorgí com a solució a la manca d’aliments i no és assimilable a el contraban; les circumstàncies precàries, les mancances de la postguerra i la disciplina arbitrària imposada pel mateix govern obligaren a la seva pràctica.

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The use of the Internet now has a specific purpose: to find information. Unfortunately, the amount of data available on the Internet is growing exponentially, creating what can be considered a nearly infinite and ever-evolving network with no discernable structure. This rapid growth has raised the question of how to find the most relevant information. Many different techniques have been introduced to address the information overload, including search engines, Semantic Web, and recommender systems, among others. Recommender systems are computer-based techniques that are used to reduce information overload and recommend products likely to interest a user when given some information about the user's profile. This technique is mainly used in e-Commerce to suggest items that fit a customer's purchasing tendencies. The use of recommender systems for e-Government is a research topic that is intended to improve the interaction among public administrations, citizens, and the private sector through reducing information overload on e-Government services. More specifically, e-Democracy aims to increase citizens' participation in democratic processes through the use of information and communication technologies. In this chapter, an architecture of a recommender system that uses fuzzy clustering methods for e-Elections is introduced. In addition, a comparison with the smartvote system, a Web-based Voting Assistance Application (VAA) used to aid voters in finding the party or candidate that is most in line with their preferences, is presented.

Economic Principles and Determination of Infrastructure Third Party Tariffs in the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS)

NORTH SEA STUDY OCCASIONAL PAPER No. 116

Stability and change in party preferences.

This article analyses stability and volatility of party preferences using data from the Swiss Household-Panel (SHP), which, for the first time, allow studying transitions and stability of voters over several years in Switzerland. Analyses cover the years 1999- 2007 and systematically distinguish changes between party blocks and changes within party blocks. The first part looks at different patterns of change, which show relatively high volatility. The second part tests several theories on causes of such changes applying a multinomial random-effects model. Results show that party preferences stabilise with their duration and with age and that the electoral cycle, political sophistication, socio-structural predispositions, the household-context as well as party size and the number of parties each explain part of electoral volatility. Different results for withinand between party-block changes underlie the importance of that differentiation.

Party competition in regional elections: a framework for analysis

Whilst scholars have long recognised that processes of decentralisation create new regional arenas where distinct patterns of party competition are likely to emerge, there has been little systematic analysis of the dynamics of such competition. This working paper thus proposes a framework for analysing party competition between regional branches of state-wide parties, and autonomist parties, in regional arenas. Firstly, the different strategies political parties may adopt in response to their perceptions of voter preferences and to the strategies pursued by their competitors are identified. Secondly, different factors that impact on parties' strategic choices, and which may constrain a party's ability to select electorally optimal strategies in a given political context, are proposed.

A Model of Party Discipline in a Congress

This paper studies party discipline in a congress within a political agency framework with retrospective voting. Party discipline serves as an incentive device to induce office- motivated congress members to perform in line with the party leadership's objective of controlling both the executive and the legislative branches of government. I show fiÂ…rst that the same party is more likely to control both branches of government (i.e., uniÂ…ed government) the stronger the party discipline in the congress is. Second, the leader of the governing party imposes more party discipline under uniÂ…ed government than does the opposition leader under divided government. Moreover, the incumbents' aggregate performance increases with party discipline, so a representative voter becomes better off. JEL classiÂ…cation: D72. Keywords: Party discipline; Political agency; Retrospective voting; Office-motivated politicians.