Poland Divided: Spatial Differences in the June 2003 EU Accession Referendum. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series, Vol. 4 No. 1, January 2004

(From the introduction). Thus, our purpose here is to describe and analyze geographical patterns within Poland of approval, disapproval, and abstention from this crucial vote on joining the EU, and to link those outcomes to the social and economic situation obtaining in the regions. From these associations we can shed additional light on how Poland divided on this pivotal issue and posit some challenges for both Polish and EU policy makers in the years ahead. To guide us we refer to several studies of the emergence of electoral politics in former- Soviet states (notably Russia and Ukraine) and in Central and Eastern Europe that have pointed to the salience of geographical differences in voting outcomes and voter turnout in the postcommunist period. (7) Complementing research based on individual level, or survey, data, these geographic studies using aggregate data relate variations in the social, economic, and demographic traits of regions to party, candidate, and issue preferences across these same units. For example, it has been almost universally the case in the post-communist countries that rural, older, agricultural populations have voted mainly for parties of the left and against reform, while urban, better-educated, white collar areas have, for the most part, favored parties and candidates that have advocated reform and privatization. These outcomes match very closely the kinds of divisions within societies that we find in surveys. Clearly, however, we must recognize the limitations of aggregate data analysis, especially the need to avoid imputing individual action from collective figures. Surveys, of course, have advantages over one-time aggregate data, including their ability to probe attitudes and to conduct sampling over time. However, polling results have their own limitations especially that they tend to be a–spatial (and therefore cannot usually be used to illuminate important regional issues), and that respondents are not always truthful, particularly on sensitive subjects. But taken together, survey and aggregate data provide us with a higher degree of confidence in the analysis of the correlates of voting behavior. Following the methodology used in these other geographic studies of post-communist states, here we will test several propositions relating to the affinity for EU membership within different segments of Poland’s electorate. We will do this by cross-tabulating results of the June accession referendum with key social and economic variables among the 373 powiaty of Poland. According to the administrative reform of 1999, Poland is divided into 16 provinces (województwa, or voivodships), which are in turn divided into sub-regions (podregiony) and further into the powiaty. (8) The powiat scale of analysis is ideal for our purposes; powiaty are “county” level units or individual cities “with powiat status” (what we will call here “urban powiaty”) that provide an excellent degree of spatial resolution and, most importantly, for which the Polish government provides superb, detailed socioeconomic data and electoral results. (9) Powiaty typically range from 50,000 to 150,000 inhabitants and between 500-2,000 km2. Urban powiaty range from relatively small to medium-sized urban centers with populations around 100,000 people to the largest cities such as Poznań (572,000), Wrocław (624,000), Kraków (741,000) and Łódz (786,526). The Warsaw conurbation comprises the powiat of Warsaw (1.610 million). (10) As will be seen, there is a remarkable diversity within Poland—not unexpectedly in such a large and heterogeneous country—with regard both to social and economic conditions and to the demonstrated preferences of voters, with the two being related

Inter- and Intragranular Effects in Superconducting Compacted Platinum Powders

Compacted platinum powders exhibit a sharp onset of diamagnetic screening at $T \simeq 1.9$ mK in zero magnetic field in all samples investigated. This sharp onset is interpreted in terms of the intragranular transition into the superconducting state. At lower temperatures, the magnetic ac susceptibility strongly depends on the ac field amplitude and reflects the small intergranular critical current density $j_{c}$. This critical current density shows a strong dependence on the packing fraction f of the granular samples. Surprisingly, $j_{c}$ increases significantly with decreasing f ($j_{c}(B=0, T=0) \simeq 0.07$ A/cm$^{2}$ for f = 0.67 and $j_{c}(B=0, T=0) \simeq 0.8$ A/cm$^{2}$ for f = 0.50). The temperature dependence of $j_{c}$ shows strong positive curvature over a wide temperature range for both samples. The phase diagrams of inter- and intragranular superconductivity for different samples indicate that the granular structure might play the key role for an understanding of the origin of superconductivity in the platinum compacts.Comment: 11 pages including 9 figures. To appear in Phys. Rev. B in Nov. 0

Pandemic Politics in Eurasia:Roadmap for a New Research Subfield

The sudden onset of the coronavirus pandemic has challenged many scholars of the social sciences to proceed in the absence of a robust theoretical research foundation upon which to build. This article seeks to help scholars meet this challenge, particularly as it pertains to Eurasia, through bringing together a multinational group of scholars in order to develop the roadmap for a new pandemic politics research subfield. It begins with a discussion of how states are responding to COVID-19 before moving into an exploration of reciprocal interactions between the pandemic and society, political economy, regime type, center-periphery relations, and international security. Finally, it discusses the potential novel contributions of a theoretical foundation rooted in the Foucauldian concept of “biopolitics.” Ultimately, we hope to spark an ongoing conversation regarding how political science and the social sciences more broadly can be used to understand the impacts of the pandemic and inform policymaking amidst the current and potential future pandemics

Pandemic Politics in Eurasia:Roadmap for a New Research Subfield

© 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. The sudden onset of COVID-19 has challenged many social scientists to proceed without a robust theoretical and empirical foundation upon which to build. Addressing this challenge, particularly as it pertains to Eurasia, our multinational group of scholars draws on past and ongoing research to suggest a roadmap for a new pandemic politics research subfield. Key research questions include not only how states are responding to the new coronavirus, but also reciprocal interactions between the pandemic and society, political economy, regime type, center-periphery relations, and international security. The Foucauldian concept of “biopolitics” holds out particular promise as a theoretical framework

Photometric calibrations for 21st century science

The answers to fundamental science questions in astrophysics, ranging from the history of the expansion of the universe to the sizes of nearby stars, hinge on our ability to make precise measurements of diverse astronomical objects. As our knowledge of the underlying physics of objects improves along with advances in detectors and instrumentation, the limits on our capability to extract science from measurements is set, not by our lack of understanding of the nature of these objects, but rather by the most mundane of all issues: the precision with which we can calibrate observations in physical units. In principle, photometric calibration is a solved problem - laboratory reference standards such as blackbody furnaces achieve precisions well in excess of those needed for astrophysics. In practice, however, transferring the calibration from these laboratory standards to astronomical objects of interest is far from trivial - the transfer must reach outside the atmosphere, extend over 4{pi} steradians of sky, cover a wide range of wavelengths, and span an enormous dynamic range in intensity. Virtually all spectrophotometric observations today are calibrated against one or more stellar reference sources, such as Vega, which are themselves tied back to laboratory standards in a variety of ways. This system's accuracy is not uniform. Selected regions of the electromagnetic spectrum are calibrated extremely well, but discontinuities of a few percent still exist, e.g., between the optical and infrared. Independently, model stellar atmospheres are used to calibrate the spectra of selected white dwarf stars, e.g. the HST system, but the ultimate accuracy of this system should be verified against laboratory sources. Our traditional standard star systems, while sufficient until now, need to be improved and extended in order to serve future astrophysics experiments. This white paper calls for a program to improve upon and expand the current networks of spectrophotometrically calibrated stars to provide precise calibration with an accuracy of equal to and better than 1% in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared portions of the spectrum, with excellent sky coverage and large dynamic range

The extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica "heat" wave. Part I: observations and meteorological drivers

peer reviewe

The extraordinary March 2022 East Antarctica "heat" wave. Part II: impacts on the Antarctic ice sheet

peer reviewe

Military Exercises as Geopolitical Messaging in the NATO-Russia Dynamic: Reassurance, Deterrence, and (In)stability (November 2018)

Military exercises are often viewed as geopolitical tools used to boost stability and enhance deterrence. However, they can sometimes have the exact opposite effect: increasing instability and contributing to dangerous levels of escalation. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of NATO and Russia.LBJ School of Public Affair