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In this paper we study both long term and short term individual effects of political participation at the local level. Participatory theorists argue that political participation could lead to individual emancipation in terms of a rise of political knowledge and, in the long term, political trust. Indeed, in the short term the increased political knowledge associated with participation might enable citizens to better define their self-interest, which may be inconsistent with actual policies pursued by the local authorities and thus might be conductive to distrust. In the empirical part we will test these assertions using two-wave panel data for a random sample of 457 individuals in the district of Deurne (Antwerp -- Belgium). Our results suggest that in the short term participation leads to more local political knowledge and distrust in the local administration. However, we do not find a significant increase in political trust in the long term. Adapted from the source document.

NEXT TO THE PARTY ELITE OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY, THERE ARE SEVERAL POLICY ELITES IN THE USSR. THEY CONSIST OF OFFICIALS IN EVERY FIELD OF POLICY & HAVE THEIR BASIS OF POWER IN THE RESOURCES THAT ARE ALLOCATED IN THE GOVERNMENT BUDGET. MOST RESOURCES FLOW TO THE ECONOMY, THE SCIENTIFIC & CULTURAL SECTOR, THE MILITARY, & THE ADMINISTRATIVE APPARATUS. ELITES IN THESE SECTORS CAN BE MOST INFLUENTIAL IN THE POLICY-MAKING PROCESS. THE PARTY ELITE MAKES ALL LONG-TERM POLICY DECISIONS, IT CAN REGULATE THE RECRUITMENT OF NEW MEMBERS INTO THESE POLICY ELITES & IT CAN CALL THE ELITES TO ACCOUNT BY PERMITTING PUBLIC DISCUSSION OF POLICY DECISIONS. POLICY ELITES HAVE MORE INFLUENCE IN POLICY-MAKING WHEN THEY HAVE MORE REPRESENTATIVES IN THE POLITBURO & THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE. THEIR REPRESENTATION HAS GROWN SINCE 1953--IRREGULARLY--BUT THE PARTY ELITE STILL HAS THE MAJORITY IN THESE PARTY ORGANS. POLICY ELITES HAVE INFLUENCE AS THERE IS A CONSTANT FLOW OF THEIR MEMBERS INTO THE PARTY ELITE. THIS MAKES THE PARTY ELITE LESS COHERENT & CAUSES MORE INTERNAL DISPUTES. YET THE POLICY ELITES ARE NOT CONTENT WITH POSSIBILITIES TO INFLUENCE POLICY MAKING; THEY ARE IN OPPOSITION TO THE PARTY ELITE THAT DOES NOT WANT TO GIVE THEM MORE INFLUENCE, ESPECIALLY IN LONG-TERM POLICY DECISIONS. HA.

The success of Eurosceptic parties had been predicted at the European elections of May 2014. The morning after the ballot battle made it all the headlines and since then the political cards in the European arena and a number of Member States are mixed thoroughly. But the last word on this electoral success has not yet been written, on the contrary. Many questions remain unanswered. Such as: Is the result an accident the track (for the traditional parties), or part of a more stable, long-term evolution? To what extent does Euroscepticism from country to country? And what is the effect of this victory to the position of eurosceptics in the European Parliament. Adapted from the source document.

Supporting people with disabilities is a cornerstone of the Dutch welfare state. It has become part of our cultural ideal that government people who can not (more) provide (WRR, 2006, p. 115). Care for themselves Especially after World War II, the government has expanded its involvement with the landmark introduction of the Exceptional Medical Expenses Act (EMEA) in 1968. The EMEA is a national insurance scheme, every resident of the Netherlands secures long-term care and assistance at home or in an institution. Were increasingly welfare-related forms of support in the care of the government in the sixties of the twentieth century, moreover, brought and created a versatile professional sector, with specializations as neighborhood and community work, and social work with elderly people (Duyvendak, 2002). Adapted from the source document.

While Christian Democratic parties in several Western European countries are often said to be in crisis, the European People's Party holds the largest parliamentary group in the European Parliament since 1999. This paradox relies on the specificity of the different 'national' electoral logics, on the one hand, & the realization of a long-term 'European' majority strategy, on the other. The alliance with Conservatives & Conservative parties has to overcome an absolute electoral decline in 'old' EU countries & a relative decline through the accession of 'new' member states without Christian Democratic parties. The EPP majority strategy is realized through various ways: the key position of the transnational party & party group, the role of political leadership, the way of decision making, the cooperation with side organizations, the problem solving of ideological conflicts, etc. Our analysis proves how the majority strategy of the European Christian Democrats realizes its ultimate 'survival strategy' despite (or thanks to) several national party crises. 2 Tables. Adapted from the source document.

'Will the Netherlands be defended?' The debate about NATO's main lines of defence at the beginning of the 1950sAt the beginning of the 1950s, the Netherlands would not have been able to defend itself in the event of a Soviet attack. Despite the fact that NATO, under the leadership of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Eisenhower, and later General Ridgway, was in the process of rapidly building up its defences, it was still incapable of conducting a forward defence. The pivotal political and military issue in the short term centred on one question: Which areas in Western Europe could and should be kept and which not? Answers to this question exposed conflicting national interests and points of view, particularly those of the Dutch and the French. As it was taking a considerably long time to build up the Netherlands' defences, the Dutch government had very few trump cards to add weight to its demands. Indeed, in the summer of 1952, when Parliament asked to be given a precise account of how the Dutch defences were progressing, the government was practically boxed into a corner.

In national elections the results tend to become more 'nationalized': a homogeneous party offer all over the territory, less variation in the results per constituency & more homogeneous electoral swings. This article investigates whether this nationalization can also be witnessed at local elections. It focuses on two indicators: the party offer & the voting behavior. The party offer is the presence of the national parties on the local ballot paper, while the voting behavior looks at patterns of homogeneity across the municipalities. The answer to the question of nationalization is mixed. The Flemish & Walloon local elections display the same long-term trend as the national elections, but they keep their own local character. The heterogeneity of the local party offer clearly demonstrates the local specificity of the local elections, & consequently the voting behavior also differs from the voting behavior at national elections. We also find that the local elections in Wallonia are less nationalized than in Flanders. Although the local character of the local elections remains important, the newer parties -- Ecolo & Groen! -- show until 2000 a clear trend towards nationalization. Especially the extreme right Vlaams Belang shows positive scores on all indicators of nationalization since its first local appearance in 1982. Tables, Figures. Adapted from the source document.

The trend that saw care, welfare and educational institutions being expected to collaborate at a local level began in the 1980s. This is now standard practice, with, for example, the implementation of the WMO (Social Support Act) or the Brede School (a network of provisions for children, parents and district with the school at its core), but Zuidersma noticed that this was still very much in its infancy fifteen years ago. She conducted research into local collaboration between care and educational institutions with a focus on Nursing and Care programmes. 'What was already conceived in 1980 was only introduced from 1997 onwards. In my research I discovered that there was great call for collaboration but that very little was known about how this should take shape and which attitudes should be fostered to achieve a concrete result.' Success factors Questionnaires and observations of dozens of collaborating organizations helped Zuidersma come up with a number of critical success factors. First, the institutions involved need to be aware that their partnership is not an organization in itself but a network with a specific goal. This actually requires the different layers at the partner organizations to interact: for example, the manager of a care institution speaking directly with a teacher at a school. Together with this multilayered aspect, Zuidersma introduces the term of reciprocity, in which not the status of the organization is the main focus but, for example, the interest of students or patients. Over the course of time the organizations should sense where this joint interest lies and none of them should dictate the agenda. They must be able to grow together. This is crucial to the success of a project. 'I noticed that the parties involved generally collaborate well, but that if things are proceeding less smoothly the organizations stake out their positions, making effective consultation more difficult.' Two other factors that Zuidersma distinguishes are that the collaboration has a long-term perspective and that those working in such a partnership are accessible, both physically and digitally. Measuring instrument On the basis of her research Zuidersma can provide a method which organizations working in different social fields can use to structure their partnership. This includes a measuring instrument that makes it clear whether objectives are being achieved and an observation method that determines whether difficult discussions involving divergent interests are actually effective. It is also a good test for checking whether collaboration is worthwhile at all, says Zuidersma. 'I hope that my thesis will communicate the message that one can look at these conditions and say with certainty: we will not opt for collaboration at present. Organizations must look very critically at whether they have a joint objective; otherwise they should not even begin. You should never collaborate for the sake of collaborating.'

If we want to share data, the long-term storage of those data in a trustworthy digital archive is an essential condition. Trust is the basis of storing and sharing data. That trust must be present in the various stakeholders involved. Certification of digital archives can make an important contribution to the confidence of these stakeholders in the digital archives. Ten years ago DANS was assigned the task of developing a Seal of Approval for digital data to ensure that archived data can still be found, understood and used in the future. In 2009 this Data Seal of Approval (DSA) was transferred to an international body, the DSA Board, which has managed and further developed the guidelines and the peer review process ever since. The objectives of the DSA are to safeguard data, ensure high quality and guide reliable management of data for the future without requiring implementation of new standards, regulations or heavy investments. The DSA contains 16 guidelines for applying and verifying quality aspects concerning the creation, storage, use and reuse of digital data. Based on feedback from data archives that applied for a DSA and different case studies we have gained some insight into the benefits of DSA. Still, the impact of having the Seal is not easy to measure. Seal holders usually refer to qualitative benefits in the form of increased awareness of the value of their repositories to their communities, funders and publishers. Ten years down the line we can safely state that the Data Seal of Approval has proven its added value. If we try to look five years into the future, what can we expect? There are different developments: a growing interest in DSA among European research infrastructures, the collaboration between DSA and the ISCU World Data System under the umbrella of the RDA (Research Data Alliance) and the European Commission is showing a growing interest in certification services. The success of DSA also provides the challenge to further professionalize the DSA organization in the coming years, this to enable its community to continue to grow.