Political Efficacy und Wahlbeteiligung in Ost- und Westdeutschland

Es wird die Frage untersucht, ob in Ostdeutschland die Beteiligung an den Bundestagswahlen unter anderem deswegen geringer ist als in Westdeutschland, weil ostdeutsche Wähler weniger davon überzeugt sind, mittels der Beteiligung an politischen Wahlen persönlich die Politik beeinflussen zu können. Die empirischen Analysen erfolgen mit Querschnittdaten des ALLBUS 1998. Sie zeigen, dass sich die Einflusserwartungen in Ost und Westdeutschland nur zufällig voneinander unterscheiden. Daher können die Einflusserwartungen nicht das entscheidende Kriterium für die unterschiedlichen Wahlbeteiligungen sein. Von Bedeutung für die Stärke der Einflusserwartungen sind persönliche Überzeugungen über eigene politische Kompetenzen und Reaktivität des politischen Systems, deren Einflüsse bei den Ostdeutschen grösser sind als bei den Westdeutschen.

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.’

Landwirtschaft

Das Parlament begann im Herbst mit den Beratungen über die Agrarpolitik 2014-2017. – Das Referendum gegen das revidierte Tierseuchengesetz scheiterte an der Urne. – Die Turbulenzen um den kürzlich liberalisierten Milchmarkt beschäftigten die Branchenvertreter und das Parlament. – Sowohl das revidierte Tierschutzgesetz als auch das Bundesgesetz über den Verkehr mit Tieren und Pflanzen geschützter Arten wurden vom Parlament angenommen. – Eine Volksinitiative zum Schutz von Grossraubtieren wie Luchs, Bär und Wolf wurde bei der Staatskanzlei eingereicht.

Verbände und übrige Interessenorganisationen

Economiesuisse, der Schweizerische Gewerbeverband, der Schweizerische Bauernverband, die Gewerkschaft Unia und die Dachorganisation Schweizer Ärztinnen und Ärzte FMH wählten neue Personen in ihre Präsidien. – Der Detailhandel und das Gastgewerbe suchten nach Möglichkeiten, um sich mit der Frankenstärke zu arrangieren. – Drei marktführende Unternehmen traten aus dem Telekommunikationsverband Asut aus. – Die Dachgewerkschaft Travail Suisse verlor durch den Austritt von Angestellte Schweiz 22 000 Mitglieder. – Die Volksinitiative „Ja zur Aufhebung der Wehrpflicht“ der GSoA kam zustande.

Open Finance Apps: Chancen und Voraussetzungen bei der Visualisierung von Finanzdaten

Die Open Government Bewegung soll der Verwaltungsführung mehr Transparenz und Verständnis entgegenbringen. Durch Open Finance Apps werden Finanzangaben und dazugehörige Informationen verständlich zugänglich gemacht und Grössenverhältnisse veranschaulicht.

A study of the impact of cigarette advertising on adolescent susceptibility to smoking among 5th-, 8th-, and 12th-grade students in Hempstead and Hitchcock Independent School Districts

This study assessed the impact of cigarette advertising on adolescent susceptibility to smoking in the Hempstead and Hitchcock Independent School Districts. A convenience sample of 217 youths, 10-19 years of age was recruited in the study. Students completed both a paper-and-pencil and a computer-aided questionnaire in April 1996. Adolescents were defined as susceptible to smoking if they could not definitely rule out the possibility of future smoking. For the analysis, an index was devised: a 5-point index of an individual's receptivity to cigarette advertising. The index is determined by the number of positive responses to five survey items (recognizing cigarette brand logos, recognizing cigarette advertisement's pictures, recognizing cigarette brand slogans, evaluating adolescent attitudes toward cigarette advertising, and the degree to which adolescents were exposed to cigarette advertisements). Using logistic regression, we assessed the independent importance of the index in predicting susceptibility to smoking and ever smoking after adjusting for sociodemographic variables, perceived school performance and family composition. Of students surveyed, 54.4% of students appeared to have started the smoking uptake process as measured by susceptibility to smoking. Camel was recognized by the majority of students (88%), followed by Marlboro (41.5%) and Newport (40.1%). The pattern for recognition of the cigarette advertisements was the same as the pattern of market for cigarette. Advertisement featuring the cartoon character Joe Camel was significantly more appealing to adolescents than were advertisements with human models, with animal models, and with text only (p $<$ 0.001). Text only advertisement was significantly less appealing than other types of advertisements. The cigarette advertisement with White models (Marlboro) had significantly higher appeal to White students than to African-American students (p $<$ 0.001). The cigarette advertisement featuring African-American models (Virginia Slims) was significantly more appealing to African-American students than other ethnic groups (p $<$ 0.001). Receptivity to cigarette advertising was to be an important concurrent predictor of past smoking experience and intention to smoke in the future. Adolescents who scored in the fourth quartile of the Index of Receptivity to Cigarette Advertising were 7.54 (95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.92-29.56) times as likely to be susceptible to smoking, and were 4.56 (95% CI = 1.55-13.38) times as likely to have tried smoking, as those who scored in the first quartile of the Index. The findings confirmed the hypothesis that cigarette advertising may be a strong current influence in encouraging adolescents to initiate the smoking uptake process than sociodemographic variables, perceived school performance and family composition. ^

A social network-based approach to assess de facto independence of regulatory agencies

This article uses a policy network perspective to assess the independence of regulatory agencies (RAs) in liberalized public utility sectors. We focus on the de facto independence of RAs from elected politicians, regulatees and other co-regulators. We go further than previous studies, which only undertook a general analysis of the de jure independence of RAs from political authorities. Specifically, we apply a social network analysis (SNA), which concentrates on the attributes and relational profiles of all actors involved in new regulatory arrangements. The concept of de facto independence is applied to the Swiss telecommunications sector in order to provide initial empirical insights. Results clearly show that SNA indicators are an appropriate tool to identify the de facto independence of RAs and can improve knowledge about the issues arising from the emergence of the ‘regulatory State’.

Climate change in Switzerland: a review of physical, institutional, and political aspects

Climate change is clearly discernible in observed climate records in Switzerland. It impacts on natural systems, ecosystems, and economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and energy, and it affects Swiss livelihood in various ways. The observed and projected changes call for a response from the political system, which in Switzerland is characterized by federalism and direct democratic instruments. Swiss climate science embraces natural and social sciences and builds on institutionalized links between researchers, public, and private stakeholders. In this article, we review the physical, institutional, and political aspects of climate change in Switzerland. We show how the current state of Swiss climate science and policy developed over the past 20 years in the context of international developments and national responses. Specific to Switzerland is its topographic setting with mountain regions and lowlands on both sides of the Alpine ridge, which makes climate change clearly apparent and for some aspects (tourist sector, hydropower, and extreme events) highly relevant and better perceivable (e.g., retreating glaciers). Not surprisingly the Alpine region is of central interest in Swiss climate change studies.

Innovation, Coordination, and Positioning: Locational Policies of Secondary Capital City Regions

Capital cities that are not the economic centers of their nations - so-called secondary capital cities - tend to be overlooked in the field of political science. Consequentially, there is a lack of research and resulting theory describing their political economy and their formulated policies. This paper analyzes how secondary capital cities try to develop and position themselves through the formulation of locational policies. By linking three different theoretical strands - the Regional Innovation System approach, the concept of locational policies, and the regime perspective - this paper proposes a framework to study the the economic and political dynamics in secondary capital cites.