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AbstractAfter the vote of 9 February 2014, many attributed the surprising result to voter ignorance. The basic claim was that the majority of those voting in favour of the initiative possessed only a weak understanding of what the likely outcome(s) would be if their choice prevailed. However, the analysis of the voters' knowledge level shows that they were comparably well aware of what the proposal at hand was about. Moreover, most voters voted their true preferences. They were also well aware about the possible economic ramifications acceptance could have for the relationship between Switzerland and the European Union and they were willing to take the risk. However, what should give the initiative's opponents a glimmer of hope is the fact that a majority believed that the principle of free movement would somehow be negotiable. Given the ongoing refusal of the EU to renegotiate that principle, these voters might have become less confident about its negotiability than they were before the vote.

Thomas Piketty?s international best selling Capital in the Twenty-First
Century lays out his theory of a long-run rise in income inequality under
capitalism. It is written as a manifesto urging reintegration of social
sciences. A number of reviewers judged it on ideological grounds, labeling it
either as a revolution in economic thinking, or dismissing it offhandedly.
Piketty?s theory of rising inequality is based on the two Fundamental Laws of
Capitalism, developed after the Solow growth model. However, this model is
inconsistent with Piketty?s own characterization of modern capitalism.
Moreover, his sole justification for the constant discrepancy between rate of
return and rate of income growth (r > g) is based on the high elasticity of
substitution between capital and labor. However, that is just one factor that
can have an influence on factor income shares. By failing to offer a
consistent theory of rising inequality, his piece can hardly be considered as
a useful founding stone for a new social science.

AbstractCorrect voting in elections has been extensively analysed in the recent past. However, thus far, correct voting in direct legislation has hardly been investigated. This is all the more surprising since direct legislation is a more demanding form of democracy and, thus, to vote one's true preferences in direct legislation represents a greater challenge than picking the "right" party or the "right" candidate at elections. Moreover, the few researches on the correctness of individual referendum votes used a measurement method that we think has some methodological shortfalls. Instead, we want to propose another better‐suited method of measuring correct voting in direct legislation settings. This method makes use of voters' stances on the issue at stake. Besides, we will scrutinize the share of correct voting as well as its determinants on the Swiss popular vote of November 2009, which included three rather different propositions. The study shows that a majority of Swiss voters are indeed able to vote their true preferences. The ability to vote correctly depends primarily on the individual voter's project‐specific knowledge, but also, under certain circumstances, on the use of heuristics.

Die politische Kognitionspsychologie hat nachweisen können, dass mentale Entscheidungshilfen auch bei Wahlen und Sachabstimmungen häufig angewendet werden. Während die individuellen Bestimmungsgründe der Heuristikverwendung gut erforscht sind, ist über die kontextuellen Bedingungen wenig bekannt. Welche Eigenschaften der Entscheidungssituation begünstigen die Verwendung von Heuristiken bzw. machen sie wenig wahrscheinlich? Der Beitrag geht dieser Frage am Beispiel von Schweizer Sachabstimmungen nach. Dabei wird die Heuristikverwendung zum ersten Mal auf der Basis der Stimmmotivangaben der Vox-Befragten erhoben. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die Komplexität der Vorlage die Angewiesenheit auf Heuristiken signifikant erhöht. Daneben üben auch noch die Konfliktintensität und das Vertrauen in den Bundesrat einen Einfluss auf das Ausmaß der Heuristikverwendung aus. Letzteres zeigt den nach wie vor starken Einfluss des Bundesrates auf die Meinungsbildung der Stimmbürgerschaft, aber gleichzeitig auch das Risiko für Behördenvorlagen, die in Zeiten sinkenden Regierungsvertrauens dem Volk vorgelegt werden. (ICB2)

Montenegro, a country that has been in transition for the last two decades, is trying intensively to restructure its socioeconomic system and reform the main social systems, such as the education system, health care, the judicial system, the social welfare system, etc. Numerous strategic documents have been adopted in the past decade emphasising the importance of making the country's abundant natural resources functional, and of making the utilisation of human resources in the country significantly more effective. In order to achieve improvements in one of the key areas of Montenegrin development, human resources, a reform of the entire education system was launched in the first years of 21st century. The processes of joining the European Union, whose fundamental principles are the free movement of people, goods, services and capital, have also significantly increased the need to raise the quality of the education of Montenegro's citizens and to improve the competitiveness of the Montenegrin workforce in the labour market. However, we believe that the results of PISA testing in 2006 and 2009 suggest that Montenegro is far from the proclaimed goals of reform in the field of education, and that for the coming years and decades considerable attention should be devoted to improvement of the education system. PISA tests should be understood in a much wider context, not only as a reflection of curricular reform and standards of verification and assessment of students' knowledge, but rather as a set of guidelines that indicate the direction in which to develop and improve the education system, so that society can really 'invest' in the education of young people. It is a very problematic fact that from the time of testing in 2009 until April 2011, nobody in Montenegro published any technical or scientific analysis of the success, or rather failure, of Montenegrin students in PISA testing. We believe that the use of this study should be significantly increased; not for comparing academic achievements with those of students from other countries, but primarily for improving educational policy and defining the strategic orientation of the development of the education system in Montenegro. Therefore, the absence of analysis implies an absence of certain professional activities focused on training teachers and improving the quality of students' knowledge. (DIPF/Orig.)

Cognitive psychology differentiates between the systematic & the heuristic type of information processing. Research on Swiss referendums has demonstrated that cognitively demanding heuristics are rarely used. Even party slogans are hardly ever considered in making voting decisions -- and only a fraction of the voting populace even knows them. However, that does not mean that Swiss voters systematically process political information. Empirical research shows that in spite of their lack of knowledge of party slogans party followers routinely vote in accordance with them. On the basis of an analysis of two similar referendums the article discusses explanations for this phenomenon. Systematic reception of arguments often depends on heuristics such as party support whereas systematic processing of content often takes place under the guidance of a preferred party. Adapted from the source document.

Adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance represents victory of a decade long initiative to fight the impunity for this hideous crime. The author presents the Convention and analyses some troubling issues which may undermine the overwhelming optimism about its adoption. First part of the article introduces the problem of enforced disappearance. Insight into the history of the legal regulation of the problem has been given in the second part. Third part presents key segments of the Convention, while final, fourth part, shed some light on the perspectives of the implementation of the Convention.