Suchergebnisse

This article examines the extent to which electoral selection based on candidate quality alone can account for the pattern of re-election rates in the US Senate. In the absence of officeholder benefits, electoral selection is simulated using observed dropout rates from 1946 to 2010. This provides a benchmark for the re-election rate that would be generated by incumbent quality advantage alone. The simulation delivers a re-election rate that is almost identical to the observed rate prior to 1980, at around 78 per cent. In the later subsample, quality-based selection generates a re-election rate that is seven percentage points lower than observed. The divergence in the re-election rates in the later subsample is consistent with the findings of vote margin studies that indicate rising incumbency advantage due to officeholder benefits. In addition, it is found here that the quality-based selection first-term re-election rate is significantly lower than the observed first-term re-election rate. This result supports sophomore surge vote margin studies of officeholder benefits.

The Westminster Parliament has recently invested considerable resource in developing a series of 'Parliamentary Studies' modules throughout British universities. But what difference does the teaching of Parliament make to students' understanding of the institution? In this pilot study, the results of a series of questions about the institution (both factual and attitudinal) which are asked at the beginning of the module are compared with the results of the same questions asked towards the end of teaching. Increases in levels of both knowledge and support are discovered.

This article examines the subjective experience of cognitive and behavioural change following public deliberation in two different nations. It examines short- and long-term survey data from two highly structured deliberative forums – the 2009 Australian Citizens' Parliament and the 2010 Oregon Citizens' Initiative Review. Results showed increases in reported deliberative and internal efficacy, some measures of external efficacy, and communicative and community-based engagement, though participants rarely reported increases in institutionalised political participation. Participants in an online process in Australia reported limited increases in their internal and external efficacy and communicative engagement. These findings suggest that well-structured deliberative governance can transform the meaning and practice of citizenship.

Using a 'varieties of capitalism' approach, this article explains the ongoing contradictions of the Korean economy in terms of institutional incompatibilities between the liberalised financial system and the most important institutional legacy of the Korean developmental model: the chaebol system. Using its control over financial resources, the developmental state supported, monitored and disciplined the chaebol. Since the 1990s, financial liberalisation has been incompatible with the chaebol system. The liberalised financial system has tended to heighten risks or to dampen vitality within the system. Thus, despite attempts at reform, the failure to rectify these incompatibilities has led to an overall weakening of the Korean economy.

Parliamentary candidate selection reform was fundamental to the Conservative Party's organisational renewal, but local autonomy was always a potential obstacle. In the context of a falling membership, the leadership took action. Hence, this article addresses three questions. Firstly, it examines how power was utilised for the purpose of dismantling local autonomy in parliamentary candidate selection. Secondly, it discusses the implications of reform for party members. Thirdly, it assesses what the research findings mean for the notion of 'membership party' and the models that purport to explain party organisation. A qualitative research design was adopted that focused upon local activists and officials. The conclusion points towards a network approach to party organisation that projects local identity as the emerging organisational model. The research also provides an insight into how the Conservative Party leadership is managing its declining membership base.

This research looks at the determinants of the adoption of the school-rhythm reform by French municipalities. The possibility opened to mayors to adopt the reform sooner (2013) or later (2014) offers the opportunity to measure how much the interests of the children have weighted on the decision. As our results reveal strong partisan biases to be prevalent, and financial reasons to be influential, it can be affirmed that the children's interest has clearly not been the only consideration in mind.

It has been argued, based upon national polling and mid-term election results, that Britain's Liberal Democrats will lose a substantial number of seats at the next general election. However, such argument is in danger of underestimating the unique importance of strong local party organisation and incumbency to the Liberal Democrats as a platform for subsequent general electoral success. This article examines the changing income, expenditure and membership of the party's strongest local constituency associations since 2010, and concludes with a short assessment of the possible implications for the Liberal Democrats at the next election and beyond.

This article addresses Russia's role in the Asia-Pacific region and asks whether and how its conception of its role has changed. It is suggested that within Russia there is a re-evaluation of regionalism, underway in both academic and public spheres, which seeks to engage with 'Eurocentric' approaches to regionalism and, to some extent, challenge it – much of this remains at a discursive or rhetorical level. However, there is also evidence to show that Russia is attempting to diversify relations in the region away from China due to the overdependence of Russia's Far Eastern region on China in economic terms.