The Conditional Electoral Connection in the European Parliament

This paper introduces a model of the electoral connection in the European Parliament. Emphasizing the problem of common agency – wherein agents are beholden to multiple principals who cannot coordinate – it assumes that national parties, European party groups, and voters are “latent principals” that differentially constrain members of the European Parliament (MEPs). The model proposes that the degree to which each of these principals constrain MEPs depends upon signals that MEPs receive from the national political arena about their electoral vulnerability. Re-election seeking MEPs will in turn cultivate closer connections with the principal whose support is most important for reducing electoral vulnerability. Drawing on the second-order election model, signals about MEP vulnerability are measured as a national party‟s success in the most recent national election, given the party‟s average size, governing status, and time remaining until the European election. The model predicts three broad outcomes. First, MEPs from large or governing parties will generally be more vulnerable as their party label suffers in European elections. Expecting losses, they should cultivate closer connections to their constituents by emphasizing personal record rather than party affiliation. Second, MEPs from small or opposition parties will generally be less vulnerable as their party label is more successful in European elections. Expecting gains, these MEPs will seek to appeal to their party leaders in order to secure the safest (often only the top) place on the electoral list. Finally, the model predicts that systemic-level attributes such as voters‟ right to re-order the ballot should contribute to variation in the first two outcomes. The model‟s propositions are tested empirically with qualitative and quantitative evidence from 30 interviews with MEPs in 2008 and an original dataset of MEPs‟ non-roll-call position taking in plenary sessions during the 6th European Parliament term

The Behavioral Consequences of Political Tolerance

Effective and enduring democratic government requires broad public support for basic democratic orientations. Chief among these are political participation and political tolerance, which traditionally have been viewed as closely linked: virtually everyone agrees that democracy works best when people actively engage in political life and when they do not exclude others from doing the same. However, empirical evidence to date challenges the idea that political tolerance and civic engagement are positively, or even directly, related. What are the behavioral consequences of political tolerance? Using novel experiments that randomly assign subjects to tolerate the rights of groups they strongly dislike, this dissertation finds that political tolerance directly stimulates participation in specific modes of civic engagement. I argue that tolerance for political minorities is a highly unpopular position that orients citizens toward disagreement and dissent and reduces conflict aversion among the politically tolerant relative to the intolerant. Through this mechanism, upholding the rights of groups that society prefers to repress independently raises the likelihood of participation in social modes of action in which the risk of disagreement and conflict with other citizens is high (e.g. protests), but does little to facilitate individual modes of action in which disagreement and conflict are unlikely (e.g. voting). My evidence is based on two methodological innovations. First, I employ a “self-persuasion” experiment in which subjects develop original arguments to convince a discussion partner to either permit (tolerate) or ban (not tolerate) public demonstrations by the subject’s most disliked group. Second, I directly observe subjects’ post-test participation using overt measures of subjects’ political behavior rather than survey items to measure only their behavioral intentions. Tracing the effects of randomized tolerance on subjects’ overt political behavior reveals, in support of my hypotheses, that practicing tolerance directly stimulates collective-contentious activism (in this case, signing one’s name to a petition to challenge the status quo), but has no effect on individual action (i.e. making an anonymous donation). I further corroborate these findings by applying nonparametric matching techniques to cross-national survey data from the U.S. and Europe, and through cross-national survey experiments that test my model in the U.S. and Hungary

Indirect Effects of Eurosceptic Messages on Citizen Attitudes toward Domestic Politics

Does criticism of the European Union (EU) by elites cultivate support for democratic values among ordinary citizens? All Eurosceptic messages are critical of European integration; they do not all vilify similar aspects of the European Union. This article proposes a framing model of the effects of Euroscepticism on citizens' domestic political attitudes. EU critiques that are framed in terms of ‘democratic deficit’ lead citizens to consider which political values are desirable in democratic society and may promote support for liberal democratic norms among citizens exposed to these messages. Eurosceptic rhetoric is built into framing experiments that vary the content of EU-critical messages. Subjects in the United Kingdom and Bulgaria are randomly exposed to a ‘cultural threat’ or ‘democratic deficit’ criticism of the EU. Both Eurosceptic frames reduce support for integration, but subjects exposed to the ‘deficit frame’ more strongly embrace liberal democratic values. Under certain conditions, Euroscepticism may carry benefits for representative democracy

Design and Predictive Control of a Net Zero Energy Home

This paper analyzes two methods to reduce residential energy consumption for a Net Zero home in Austin, Texas. The first method seeks to develop a control algorithm that actively engages environmental conditioning. The home must preserve user-defined comfort while minimizing energy consumption. An optimization function governed by user input chooses the degree to which various comfort-defining systems are active, optimizing comfort while maintaining minimal energy usage. These systems include a geothermal heat pump and ceiling fans to effect convection, humidity, and dry bulb temperature. The second method reflects an analysis towards augmenting traditional home systems with modern and efficient counterparts. Electrochromic glass is used to attenuate heat transfer from outside the home envelope. A thermal chimney passively removes heat from the home while increasing convection. Replacing conventional incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent and LED illumination reduces lighting energy waste

Beyond the Stalemate of Economics versus Ethics: Corporate Social Responsibility and the Discourse of the Organizational Self

The purpose of this paper is to advance research on CSR beyond the stalemate of economic versus ethical models by providing an alternative perspective integrating existing views and allowing for more shared dialog and research in the field. It is suggested that we move beyond making a normative case for ethical models and practices of CSR by moving beyond the question of how to manage organizational self-interest toward the question of how accurate current conceptions of the organizational self seem to be. Specifically, it is proposed that CSR is not a question of how self-interested the corporation should be, but how this self is defined. Economic and ethical models of CSR are not models of opposition but exist on a continuum between egoic and post-egoic, illusory and authentic conceptions of the organizational self. This means that moving from one to the other is not a question of adopting different paradigms but rather of moving from illusion and dysfunction to authenticity and functionality, from pathology to health. Copyright Springer 2006corporate social responsibility, economic and ethical models, economic, egoic and post-egoic approaches, narratives, organizational self, psychoanalysis,