Of housing and politics : mapping political opportunities for mobilising in Bangalore, India

Quelles sont les conditions pour l'émergence d'une mobilisation sociale en faveur du logement convenable dans la métropole de Bangalore (Inde)? Cette question, qui est au coeur de cette thèse, est particulièrement pertinente dans le contexte d'une ville où 1,7 million de personnes, soit un cinquième de la population, vit dans des bidonvilles. L'absence d'un mouvement mettant en cause l'échec des politiques publiques du logement est intéressante dans la mesure où l'Inde a hérité un système de gouvernance colonial et d'une tradition de mouvements sociaux. Pour répondre à ce questionnement, un cadre théorique issu de la littérature sur les mouvements sociaux est développé. Il s'articule autour des liens entre les opportunités politiques au niveau macro et les répertoires d'action des organisations de mouvement social (OMS) au niveau méso, de la tension entre la formalité de la loi et des politiques publiques et l'informalité des circuits d'échange, de la corruption et du clientélisme, et enfin, se focalise sur les systèmes de discours de caste et de la citoyenneté et de leur concrétisation dans des systèmes d'organisations et de réseaux sociaux. Ce cadre théorique permet d'étudier empiriquement la question à travers quatre OMS dans la ville de Bangalore. Les résultats mettent en avant l'existence de mécanismes complexes. Les opportunités politiques formelles n'étant ouvertes que sur le plan rhétorique, elles ne peuvent être véritablement utilisées que par des moyens légaux ou contentieux, ce qui nécessite des compétences sociales dont la plupart des habitants des bidonvilles sont dépourvus. L'inadéquation entre les ressources à disposition pour les logements sociaux et les besoins très importants des pauvres, donne un poids politique considérable aux acteurs en charge de l'attribution de ces ressources rares. Cet état de fait a des répercussions sur la politique électorale. Les habitants des bidonvilles représentant un poids électoral important, ils sont mobilisés à travers de pratiques clientélistes. La corruption et le clientélisme se nourrissent mutuellement pour maintenir une certaine dépendance des habitants. Les OMS qui développent un répertoire discursif remettant en cause le système de caste et qui encouragent une conscience citoyenne, se sont avérées les plus durables pour résister à la cooptation des forces politiques. Cette recherche empirique met en lumière l'inadéquation entre les prescriptions formelles dans le domaine de la gouvernance des besoins humains, tels que le logement, et les pratiques réelles sur le terrain. Cette recherche appelle à réfléchir au-delà de la diffusion du discours sur la « bonne gouvernance » vers des formes de « gouvernance vernaculaire » qui prendrait au sérieux l'informalité en développant une compréhension des avantages à court terme pour les personnes marginalisées dans la ville et les effets à long terme sur la pratique démocratique. - What are the conditions for the emergence of a social movement on the issue of adequate housing in the metropolitan city of Bangalore (India)? This question is at the heart of this dissertation and is particularly pertinent against the background that an estimated 1.7 million or about 20% of the city's population lives in slums. The absence of a movement addressing the failure of public housing policy despite India having inherited colonial systems of governance and traditions of movement is noteworthy. Answers are sought within a theoretical framework stemming from social movement theories that incorporates three linkages articulating around: Macro-level political opportunities and meso-level action repertoires of social movement organisations (SMOs), tensions between the formality of law, policy and the informality of exchange circuits of corruption and clientelism and finally around systems of discourses of caste and citizenship and their instantiation in concrete systems of social organisations and networks. This thesis is empirically investigated through a qualitative case study research design involving four sampled social movement organisations. The results bring complex mechanisms to the fore. Formal political opportunities are only rhetorically open and have to be cracked through legal weaponry or contentious escalation, which requires considerable social skills that slum-dwellers often lack. The inadequacy between the few housing resources and the vast number of slum-dwellers transform housing benefits and urban service provisions into political currency. Such a state of affairs has serious repercussions on conditions for mobilisation. They become imbricated with electoral logic, in which slum-dwellers represent large vote-banks and where corruption and clientelism feed each other to maintain a certain dependency of the poor. SMOs deploying a discursive repertoire that questioned the caste system and encouraged a pursuit of citizenship proved to be the most sustainable to resist co-option from political forces. This empirical investigation brings to light the mismatch between the formal prescriptions in the domain of the governance of basic human needs such as housing and the real practices on the ground. This research calls to reflect beyond the inadequacy of the diffused « good governance » discourse towards forms of « vernacular governance » that take informality seriously in understanding the short-term benefits for the marginalised in the city and the long-term effects on democratic practice.

The discourse on political pluralism in early eighteenth-century England : a conceptual study with special reference to terminology of religious origin

Doctoral dissertation, University of Jyväskylä

Department of Ethics and Campaign Disclosure, FY 2007

These Facts sheets have been developed to provide a multitude of information about executive branch agencies/departments on a single sheet of paper. The Facts provides general information, contact information, workforce data, leave & benefits information, and affirmative action data. This is the most recent update of information for the fiscal year 2007.

Department of Ethics and Campaign Disclosure, FY 2008

These Facts sheets have been developed to provide a multitude of information about executive branch agencies/departments on a single sheet of paper. The Facts provides general information, contact information, workforce data, leave & benefits information, and affirmative action data. This is the most recent update of information for the fiscal year 2007.

Does Direct Democracy Matters for Political Parties : An Empirical Test in the Swiss Cantons

According to most political scientists and commentators, direct democracy seems to weaken political parties. Our empirical analysis in the 26 Swiss cantons shows that this thesis in its general form cannot be maintained. Political parties in cantons with extensive use of referendums and initiatives are not in all respects weaker than parties in cantons with little use of direct democratic means of participation. On the contrary, direct democracy goes together with more professional and formalized party organizations. Use of direct democracy is associated with more fragmented and volatile party systems, and with greater support for small parties, but causal interpretations of these relationships are difficult.

Staff extremity doses in interventional radiology. Results of the ORAMED measurement campaign

The introduction of interventional radiology (IR) procedures in the 20th century has demonstrated significant advantages over surgery procedures. As a result, their number is continuously rising in diagnostic, as well as, in therapy field and is connected with progress in highly sophisticated equipment used for these purposes. Nowadays, in the European countries more than 400 fluoroscopically guided IR procedures were identified with a 10-12% increase in the number of IR examinations every year (UNSCEAR, 2010). Depending on the complexity of the different types of the interventions large differences in the radiation doses of the staff are observed.The staff that carries out IR procedures is likely to receive relatively high radiation doses, because IR procedures require the operator to remain close to the patient and close to the primary radiation beam. In spite of the fact that the operator is shielded by protective apron, the hands, eyes and legs remain practically unshielded. For this reason, one of the aims of the ORAMED project was to provide a set of standardized data on extremity doses for the personnel that are involved in IR procedures and to optimize their protection by evaluating the various factors that affect the doses. In the framework of work package 1 of the ORAMED project the impact of protective equipment, tube configuration and access routes were analyzed for the selected IR procedures. The position of maximum dose measured is also investigated. The results of the extremity doses in IR workplaces are presented in this study together with the influence of the above mentioned parameters on the doses.

Report on the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board for the year ended June 30, 2009

Report on the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board for the year ended June 30, 2009

Mirror me : the effect of the voting advice application smartvote on voting preferences and behavior of Swiss voters

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have become a central component of election campaigns worldwide. Through matching political preferences of voters to parties and candidates, the web application grants voters a look into their political mirror and reveals the most suitable political choices to them in terms of policy congruence. Both the dense and concise information on the electoral offer and the comparative nature of the application make VAAs an unprecedented information source for electoral decision making. In times where electoral choices are found to be highly individualized and driven by political issue positions, an ever increasing number of voters turn to VAAs before casting their ballots. With VAAs in high demand, the question of their effects on voters has become a pressing research topic. In various countries, survey research has been used to proclaim an impact of VAAs on electoral behavior, yet practically all studies fail to provide the scientific evidence that would allow for making such claims. In this thesis, I set out to systematically establish the causal link between VAA use and electoral behavior, using various data sources and appropriate statistical techniques in doing so. The focus lies on the Swiss VAA smartvote, introduced in the forefront of the 2003 Swiss federal elections and meanwhile an integral part of the national election campaign, smartvote has produced over a million voting recommendations in the last Swiss federal elections to an active electorate of two million, potentially guiding a vast amount of voters in their choices on the ballot. In order to determine the effect of the VAA on electoral behavior, I analyze both voting preferences and choice among Swiss voters during two consecutive election periods. First, I introduce statistical techniques to adequately examine VAA effects in observational studies and use them to demonstrate that voters who used smartvote prior to the 2007 Swiss federal elections were significantly more likely to swing vote in the elections than non- users. Second, I analyze preference voting during the same election and show that the smartvote voting recommendation inclines politically knowledgeable voters to modify their ballots and cast candidate specific preference votes. Third, to further tackle the indication that smartvote use affects the preference structure of voters, I employ an experimental research design to demonstrate that voters who use the application tend to strengthen their vote propensities for their most preferred party and adapt their overall party preferences in a way that they consider more than one party as eligible vote options after engaging with the application. Finally, vote choice is examined for the 2011 Swiss federal election, showing once more that the VAA initiated a change of party choice among voters. In sum, this thesis presents empirical evidence for the transformative effect of the Swiss VAA smartvote on the electoral behavior.