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Do sub-national parties reproduce the programmatic orientation of the party as a whole? Or are they able to adjust their programmatic orientation to their sub-national electorate? I seek to answer these questions based on the policy positions of German sub-national parties and survey data on voters' positions. Referring to these very similar parties -- which all have to commit themselves to certain policy positions in the run-up to state elections -- allows for a controlled analysis of sub-national parties' autonomy. The analyses reveal that the regional context does play a role; voters' preferences and the unemployment rate appear to influence the dynamics of party positions. However, the results also show that regional branches of the same party change their positions in a similar way and also seek not to distance themselves too far from the national party line. This indicates that German sub-national parties appear first and foremost to be regional party branches of national parties. Adapted from the source document.

Like father, unlike sons: German parties at the state level (Lander parties) not only differ with regard to their roots, their membership structure and their electoral successes, they also exhibit remarkably varied policy preferences. Although several case studies of parties and party systems in the Lander offer important insights, we still lack systematic knowledge about the causes of this variation in policy. This article seeks to fill that void by examining the ways in which socio-economic variables influence a party's policy positions. Based on a comprehensive dataset representing the policy positions of 77 parties over several electoral terms, I test hypotheses related to the cleavage theory and to the concept of the politicised social structure. The policy positions are estimated using the wordscore method. The results show that the proportion of Catholics, rurality and economic situation affect the parties' policy positions. Adapted from the source document.

This article references Middle Eastern newspapers & magazines on the position of women. The Iranian newspaper Sharq criticizes the state laws on women & demands that these laws be reformed. However, there are disagreements how such reforms should be implemented. Some in the women's movement believe that laws can be changed without abolishing sharia which regards a man as the guardian of a woman. Others contend that with the current power structures, no laws can be modified under sharia. Al-Dustour, a Jordanian daily, regrets that female representatives of the Islamic party continue to block efforts to modernize laws on sex crimes or divorce laws. Egypt's Al-Ahram states that the backward laws against women contradict with the teachings of Islam. A. Kallioinen

In most modern parliamentary democracies, it is unlikely that single party governments will be formed, meaning that a voter's preferred party presumably has to share cabinet offices and negotiate policy compromises in a coalition government. This raises the question of how voters evaluate potential (coalition) governments, especially since recent studies have shown that coalition preferences influence voting behaviour. In this paper, we combine theories of voting behaviour, government formation and political learning to derive expectations regarding the factors that may impact voters' coalition preferences. We test our hypotheses by analysing survey data from the German federal and state levels. The results of a mixed logit regression analysis support our arguments: Voters' coalition preferences not only depend on the perceived policy distance between the positions of voters and the most distant party within combinations of parties, but also on predominant patterns of government formation. [Copyright Elsevier Ltd.]

In general, the development of the European Middle East policies is closely followed by the Arabian media. This is coupled with the hope that Europe will become a counter weight to the USA & could become a mediator in regional as well as international conflicts. Europe's image is that of demonstrations in its cities against American policies before the beginning of the Iraq war. Particularly the German & French stance was commented on kindly by the Arabian public. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractTheoretical and empirical models of legislative decision making in parliamentary democracies typically neglect the policy preferences of individual MPs and instead focus on political parties and possible institutional constraints. We argue that MPs actually make judgments and decisions on the basis of their preferences, which are shaped by their personal characteristics. However, given the strength of parties in most parliamentary systems, the impact of personal characteristics on legislative behavior is rarely visible. Therefore, we examine a moral issue. Looking at cosponsorship, parliamentary speeches, and votes in the German Bundestag, we analyze the legislative procedure on the regulation of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) in Germany in 2011. We show that the legislative behavior of MPs does not only reflect partisan conflict but is also influenced by the preferences of the constituents and MPs' own personal characteristics such as: religious denomination, gender, and parental status.

Legislative speeches are an important instrument for parties and members of parliament (MPs) to signal their positions and priorities. This raises the question of who speaks when. We evaluate whether a MP's presence on the floor depends on his or her gender. We hypothesize that female MPs give in general less speeches in parliament and that this pattern results from debates dealing with 'harder' policy issues. Our expectations are supported when analyzing a new data set containing information on the number and content of speeches given in the Swedish Riksdag between 2002 and 2010. Adapted from the source document.

Most theoretical and empirical accounts focus on the policy preferences of political actors and institutional constraints when explaining the patterns of legislative decision-making in parliamentary democracies. In doing so, incentives of MPs originating from their personal characteristics and experiences which motivate them to take a particular position are often ignored. The latter can, however, play an important role when it comes to parliamentary votes on issues related to ethical or religious aspects. In this paper, we argue that personal traits like the religious denomination play a decisive role for the behaviour of MPs in legislative decision-making processes on issues related to moral policy. We select the German Bundestag as an example for generally highly disciplined MPs and a high degree of parliamentary party unity. Our analyses of the parliamentary debate and votes on the regulation of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis show that the legislative behaviour of MPs is not only influenced by partisan issues and the preferences of the MPs respective constituency, but also by MPs' personal traits such as their religious denomination, gender and parental status. Adapted from the source document.