Socialt kapital och karteller

This study discusses social capital and related concepts that can be useful when analysing cartels. Different types of definitions of social capital are discussed. It is concluded that organisations can generate social capital which results in increased ability to cooperate in efficient ways. Organised social capital can lead to confidence, facilitating cooperation when trust is not enough. The empirical case discussed in the paper is cartel formation in Swedish brewing industry. This study confirms many results indicated in different case studies: the importance of organisation, leadership, control apparatus, industry specific circumstances, and that cartel success often is preceded by failures. The brewing case is used in the theoretical discussion of social capital. The societal context of this study is the stricter cartel policy since the 1990s. A hypothetical construction of four phases for 1870-2009 is made, based on institutional environment and possibilities for cartels to cooperate efficiently.Social capital; Cartels; Swedish brewing industry; Cartel policy; Institutional environment

COVID-19 and Political Trust in local governments: evidence from Nepal

[EN] The COVID-19 pandemic has reinvigorated debates about the drivers of political trust. Research so far has mainly focused on national-level institutions, during the early stages of the pandemic and using data from established democracies. However, how does this relationship look like if we pay attention to subnational institutions in non-consolidated democracies, and further away from the initial COVID-19 outbreak? To contribute to this line of research, this article focuses on the local level and explores the association between individuals’ satisfaction with COVID-19 performance and political trust in Nepal. For that, it uses novel data collected via telephone interviews (N = 1400) conducted between 25 April and 24 May 2021, during the second wave of COVID-19. Our main results reveal that satisfaction with local institutions’ COVID-related performance is significantly and robustly associated with levels of political trust at the local level. The association holds even when geographical and time specifications are added, trust towards national institutions or expectations about local governments are included in the analysis and the dependent variable is disaggregated to discard measurement biases. The study thereby provides important insights into the role performance plays for institutional trust beyond the national level and in an unconsolidated democracy

What makes democratic institutions resilient to crises? Applying a novel analytical framework to the case of Finland

To curb the COVID-19 pandemic, governments took exceptional measures impacting citizens’ daily lives, the economy, and democratic institutions. The literature has already discussed the various measures and their short-term consequences for institutions and decision-making, highlighting the risk of democratic backsliding. However, little is known about how and why consolidated democracies survived the pandemic without substantial damage to their democratic institutions and practices. Drawing on the flourishing literature on democratic resilience, we contribute to theory-building through a novel analytical framework consisting of three interrelated and complementary dimensions that make a country resilient to crisis: institutions, instruments, and actors. The accumulation of unperfect layers offers adequate protection against backsliding. Examining the case of Finland, this article shows how institutional design, legal rules, and political culture combined to confer a high level of protection against the weakening of democracy.publishedVersio

Trust in government, trust in others during and compliance with social distancing: findings from the CLS COVID-19 web survey across four National Longitudinal Studies

This paper focuses on the changes in self-reported trust in government, others and compliance with social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic for a subgroup of 9137 individuals who provided evaluations on three consecutive waves of a web survey (May 2020, September 2020 and February 2021). Sample members belong to four national longitudinal studies, covering ‘baby boomers’ (sixty-something’s), ‘Generation X’ (fifty-something’s), ‘Millennials’ (thirty-somethings) and ‘Generation Z’ (twenty-somethings). During the early days of the first lockdown (May 2020) members of the two older generations reported the highest levels of trust in government in contrast to their younger counterparts. This disparity between the generations held over time and whilst the tendency amongst all age groups was towards lower levels of trust a notable minority of respondents hardly changed their evaluations at all and, some cases reported higher levels of trust. At the outset of the pandemic older women tended to be more trusting of and in the younger age groups non-White (BAME) respondents reported lower levels of trust in contrast to White respondents. Longitudinal analysis consists of is a series of conditional regression models which include the influence of socio-demographic characteristics, living arrangements, work status, social contact and expressions of loneliness across each generation. Notably, women remain more trusting of government than men in the oldest cohort and having a degree is associated with a negative influence on trust for the oldest and youngest. Loneliness diminishes trust in government for the youngest cohorts whereas vaccine reluctance only appears to matter for the oldest. For ‘trust in others’, there is little to differentiate between cohort members apart from the negative association of loneliness amongst the young. Findings for compliance with social distancing suggest that women are consistently compliant even, when reporting vaccine reluctance. The final wave included two measures to assess ‘government performance’; how the government handled the pandemic and whether or not the government was doing all it can to reduce the spread of COVID-19. In the case of the former those with a degree are consistently skeptical. Additionally, in the youngest cohort, women are typically negative in their assessment together with those who experience loneliness. For the latter measure, women together with BAME respondents are consistently positive in their evaluation whereas, vaccine reluctance tended to be associated with negative assessments

Visualization Literacy and Decision-making in Healthcare

The ability of workers in the healthcare industry to analyze, interpret and communicate with health data is critical to decision-making and impacts both health and business outcomes. Optimal decision-making requires having real-time access to information that provides useful insights and that lends itself to collaborative decision-making. Data visualizations have the potential to facilitate decision-making in healthcare when presented as a dashboard. However, dashboards have shown varying results in both effectiveness and adoption. Data or graphical literacy challenges experienced by health team members could complicate strategic decision-making through an inability to correctly interpret or summarize the information presented in a dashboard. One assumption is that visualization literacy and its impact on how people process health data visualizations play a part in the effective interpretation of information to support decision-making. To determine the impact of visualization literacy on the process of decision-making in a healthcare setting, we first developed and deployed a dashboard designed to provide important information for decision-makers on a clinical trial management team. We engaged Project Managers and Medical Managers in the project as key decision-makers on the team. The dashboard was integrated into the normal workflow of a clinical trial management team and designated as the tool used in the workflow to report on the trial status within the organization. Next, we administered a series of assessments to the key decision-makers. The assessments were designed to evaluate numeracy, visualization literacy, and the impact of both on the decision-making ability of participants. Decision-making was assessed using a common workflow scenario supported by visualizations from the deployed dashboard. Additionally, we were interested in exploring indicators related to job satisfaction that was collected during the project period through a formal engagement survey. We performed a general linear model to assess the relationship between the assessments and decision-making. Results of our project show a significant and clear relationship between visualization literacy and decision-making ability and an insignificant relationship between numeracy and decision-making ability. Job satisfaction scores for the participant group obtained through the engagement survey suggest favorable results. However, areas of opportunity for improvement illuminated through the survey included better tools and additional resources to support the execution of tasks, a better workload balance, and improvements in collaboration across departments and functions. The results of this project contribute to the informatics discipline by demonstrating that information obtained from data visualizations produced through the aggregation of multiple sources of data can be effective decision-support tools if they are designed with user skills and abilities in mind. The results of the project suggest an opportunity to develop more useful and usable tools to improve job satisfaction as well as organizational business objectives related to workforce staffing, job competencies, and learning and development initiatives

High-Tech Dispute Resolution: Lessons from Psychology for a Post-Covid-19 Era

Covid-19 fostered a remote technology boom in the world of dispute resolution. Pre-pandemic, adoption of technical innovation in dispute resolution was slow moving. Some attorneys, courts, arbitrators, mediators and others did use technology, including telephone, e-mail, text, or videoconferences, or more ambitious online dispute resolution (ODR). But, to the chagrin of technology advocates, many conducted most dispute resolution largely in-person. The pandemic effectively put the emerging technological efforts on steroids. Even the most technologically challenged quickly began to replace in-person dispute resolution with videoconferencing, texting, and other technology. Courts throughout the world canceled all or most in-person trials, hearings, conferences, and appeals and began to experiment with using technologically-assisted alternatives. The U.S. Supreme Court held oral arguments using telephone conference calls. Attorneys, mediators, and arbitrators relied far more heavily on phone, e-mail, text, and video. Some courts expanded programs to help disputants obtain information and even resolve their disputes online. “Thanks” to the pandemic, the traditionally slow-moving and technology-resistant legal community suddenly embraced many kinds of technology with both arms and more. This move to technology-mediated dispute resolution was met with greater enthusiasm than many might have anticipated, leading to predictions that we may never return to the world of extensive reliance on in-person dispute resolution. As the pandemic endured, lawyers, neutrals, and court administrators found that practices adopted out of desperation could be worth preserving post-pandemic. Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Bridget Mary McCormack, in describing “temporary” pandemic adjustments, noted: “I don’t think that things will ever return to the way they were, and I think that is a good thing.” Even many who were previously hesitant about or relatively unaware of the possible uses of technology saw the potential for clear benefits. Some judges, mediators, arbitrators, and court administrators observed that the online versions of litigation, mediation, and arbitration could be as good or even better than the in-person versions. Some began to consider new ways to combine processes or to use them differently. Tech advocates saw this as one silver lining of the pandemic, noting that Covid-19 achieved a result that twenty years of tech advocacy could not. As in-person interactions once again become possible, disputants, lawyers, courts, and neutrals will need to decide whether and under what circumstances to conduct interviews, depositions, court proceedings, negotiations, mediations, or arbitrations in-person, by phone, using videoconferencing, or in writing of some form. While many hail the potential benefits of using technology, others fear the loss of the human side of dispute resolution, expressing significant skepticism that technology can adequately replace the close contact, credibility assessment, rapport, and interpersonal connection they believe are critically important aspects of dispute resolution. Some tout the possibilities for using technology to facilitate access to justice, but others worry about the ways that technology might impede such access. Psychological science provides a useful lens through which to consider these essential issues. Using different means of communication can influence how participants experience the interaction and these experiential differences have important implications for dispute resolution. These implications offer valuable lessons for legal actors choosing which modes of communication to use and determining how to communicate well within a particular medium. While it is natural to seek simple answers, the psychological research we explore is nuanced, revealing that no single mode of communication is “best” in all circumstances. In lieu of a simple solution we provide a multi-dimensional analysis that will help guide decision makers in making these critical determinations. Understanding the science will help participants maximize the benefits and minimize the drawbacks of different communication media, enabling them to make informed choices among media, design the chosen media to fit their goals, and adjust their advocacy, judging, negotiation, and other activities to the chosen medium. In Section II, we draw on psychology to analyze four key characteristics of communication media: (1) the channels that they provide for communication, (2) the degree to which they facilitate synchronous or asynchronous communication; (3) the extent to which they provide transparency or privacy; and (4) their formality, familiarity, and accessibility. In Section III, we explore how these characteristics affect participants in dispute resolution. We focus on the impacts of alternative modes of communication in ten areas that are particularly relevant to dispute resolution: (1) focus and fatigue; (2) rapport; (3) emotion; (4) the exchange of information; (5) participant behavior; (6) credibility determinations; (7) persuasion; (8) judgment and decision making; (9) procedural justice; and (10) public views of justice. In Section IV, we explore how decision makers might incorporate the insights of psychology into their technological choices. We identify three important variables for decision makers to consider: the goals the decision maker has for the process; the characteristics of the disputants; and the nature of the dispute or task. We explain why these variables are critically important and provide examples of how decision makers can draw on psychology to best fulfill their goals in designing and using technology for dispute resolution. In Section V, we briefly conclude and point to several areas in which additional research would be particularly useful

Uskonto, politiikka ja suomalaisten asenteet: raportti

Helsingin yliopistossa toteutettavassa ja Suomen Akatemian rahoittamassa "Politiikan uskonnollinen legitimaatio ja uskonnon poliittinen legitimaatio Suomessa" -hankkeessa (LEGITREL, 2020–2024) perehdytään uskonnon ja politiikan teemaan kolmella tasolla: eduskunnassa, poliittisten puolueiden omissa materiaaleissa ja väestön asenteissa. Hankkeen peruskysymyksenasettelu lähtee legitimaation käsitteestä: miten uskonto ymmärretään Suomessa politiikkaa oikeuttavana eli legitimoivana asiana, ja miten toisaalta politiikan kautta voidaan legitimoida uskonnollisten yhteisöjen yhteiskunnallista asemaa? Hankkeen tutkijoiden oppialoina on uskontotiede, uskontososiologia, yhteiskuntapolitiikka ja taloussosiologia. Hankkeen yhtenä osana toteutettiin syksyllä 2022 väestötason Yhteiskunnalliset asenteet ja uskonnolliset näkemykset -kysely (N=1563). Tässä raportissa käymme läpi kyselyn tuloksia kuvailevalla tasolla. Muodostamme ajankohtaisen katsauksen aineistoon, joka täydentää muita uskontoa ja/tai poliittisia asenteita mittaavia kyselyitä ja tarjoamme eväitä yhteiskunnalliseen keskusteluun uskonnon paikasta suomalaisessa politiikassa ja yhteiskunnassa. Kyselymme on tähän mennessä perusteellisin uskonnon ja politiikan risteyskohtiin Suomessa pureutuva väestötason selvitys.Politiikan uskonnollinen legitimaatio ja uskonnon poliittinen legitimaatio Suomessa -hanke (2020–2024). (Suomen Akatemia

Role of shared identity and agency trust in online voting among Finnish citizens

This study examined the impact of shared identity and agency trust, governmental vs. third party, on Finnish citizens' intention to vote online. Using the integrated model of shared identity and trust as a theoretical lens, a within-subject quasi-experiment was conducted to understand the impact of agency trust on intention to vote online. The model was tested using data from 248 Finnish citizens using PLS-SEM. We found that citizens’ perceptions of shared identity with online voting agencies significantly contribute to agency trust. This trust in agencies, then directly and indirectly through perceived usefulness, affects online voting intention. Perceived usefulness directly and perceived ease of use indirectly increase the intention to vote online. However, the perceived usefulness of online voting is contingent upon the voting administering agency being the government. This study contributes to the understanding of agency trust in online voting adoption in the Finnish context and highlights the role of shared identity in building citizen trust in online voting. It also emphasizes the effect of voting agency type on the perceived usefulness of online voting

Instituutioihin kohdistuvan luottamuksen ja koronapandemiaan liittyvien rajoitustoimenpiteiden dynamiikat Suomessa

Dynamics between trust in institutions and restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland Governance of the COVID-19 pandemic is based on the premise that as many citizens as possible follow guidelines and restrictions set by authorities. Successful implementation of these has depended on citizens’ trust. This study examines the dynamics between changes in citizens’ trust in institutions, changes in COVID-19 related restrictions, and changes in the number of COVID-19 cases in Finland between May 2020 and January 2022 using a visual timeline. Changes in citizens’ trust in institutions are evident between surveys, but no clear link between changes in trust and restrictions is evident. Measuring citizen trust during crises is important, as changes can provide governments with information on citizens’ views of the legitimacy and success of crisis leadership, governance, and ultimately, the political system