Economic Crisis and Electoral Participation in European Elections. An Assessment of the Relationship

This article focuses on the relationship between the economy and electoral participation. Specifically, it aims to address the following question: what is the effect of the current economic crisis on European electoral turnout? According to the literature, economic reasons play an important role in both electoral participation and people’s party choices. The effects of a severe economic downturn, as the one ex-perienced in Europe during the last decade, are however only partially known. Does the economic crisis mobilize or weaken electoral participation? Does it have any impact at all? In order to assess the role of the economy, this work will employ the last three waves of the European Election Studies datasets and combine them with national economic indicators. Findings from competing multilevel models confirm a limited effect of the economic crisis at the personal, national and attitudinal level, particularly for the 2014 elections of the European Parliament

Economic Crisis and Electoral Participation in European Elections. An Assessment of the Relationship

This article focuses on the relationship between the economy and electoral participation. Specifically, it aims to address the following question: what is the effect of the current economic crisis on European electoral turnout? According to the literature, economic reasons play an important role in both electoral participation and people’s party choices. The effects of a severe economic downturn, as the one ex-perienced in Europe during the last decade, are however only partially known. Does the economic crisis mobilize or weaken electoral participation? Does it have any impact at all? In order to assess the role of the economy, this work will employ the last three waves of the European Election Studies datasets and combine them with national economic indicators. Findings from competing multilevel models confirm a limited effect of the economic crisis at the personal, national and attitudinal level, particularly for the 2014 elections of the European Parliament

The Role of Public Opinion in EU Integration: Assessing the Relationship between Elites and the Public during the Refugee Crisis

AbstractWhile the EU was still recovering from the Great Recession, the refugee crisis polarized and mobilized national and European political spaces, inducing governments to revise their immigration policies. Scholars are presently engaged in academic debate over whether these revisions can be explained by reference to grand theories of European integration. In this context, we ask the following questions. If public opinion favoured 'constraining' EU integration, can public concern over the refugee crisis prompt political elites to stand against a regulative solution that would replace the Dublin System? How do these trends align with the grand theories of EU integration? By analysing longitudinal surveys of elites, general public and experts, we show that public rejection of immigrants relates to elites' opposition to a supranational prevalence of EU institutions for setting immigration quotas, thus inhibiting integration on extra‐EU migrants' resettlement

Discovering Europe? Identity of the Migrants in the EU

This paper focuses on migration in Europe and European identity. Above all, it aims to explore the capacity of European identity to offer an inclusive form of collective affiliation both for intra- and extra-European migrants. We argue that the probability for both, extra- and intra-EU migrants, to develop European identity is higher than the probability to develop country-of-residence identity since the later one is based on ascriptive criteria and therefore exclusive in its nature. Social scientists from different traditions started only recently to deal with those questions focusing, above all, on the effects of mobility within EU borders on identity and attitudes towards Europe (Favel, 2009; Recchi and Favel, 2009). Our research aims to contribute to this theoretical and empirical debate by analysing also extra-European migrants. The high magnitude of extra-EU immigration (more than 30 million, out of the total 47 million of migrants that reside in EU countries were born outside the EU according to Eurostat 2011) clearly shows the importance of the relationship between migrants and European identity. In our empirical analyses we will rely on 2009 Eurobarometer (EB) and 2009 European Election Survey (EES) dat

EU's global engagement : a database of CSDP military operations and civilian missions worldwide : codebook : version 2.0. 2003-2017

The EU’s Global Engagement database was developed by a research team composed of Danilo Di Mauro, Ulrich Krotz, and Katerina Wright within the Europe in the World programme at the Robert Schumann Centre of Advanced Studies (EUI). The primary purpose of the database is to fill the gap in existing empirical knowledge by providing the most comprehensive, complete and accurate database on the EU’s military operations and civilian missions worldwide. The version 2.0 of the database contains detailed information on all of the 35 military operations and civilian missions initiated from the first CSDP operation in January 2003 to December 2017. The codebook is structured in four parts. In Part I we explain the rationale of our project, the innovations introduced in version 2.0, the methodology of data collection, including the sources used and the possible applications. Part II describes each variable reporting definitions and descriptive statistics. Part III presents factsheets of each EU mission and operation by using some selected variables of the database. Finally, Part IV shows some descriptive analyses through 92 figures combining different variables and focusing on six topics: trends of the interventions, cooperation among member states, the Engagement Index, expenditures, overall personnel, EU member states personnel deployed. The files and the documentation of the EU’s Global Engagement database are open access and downloadable at http://globalgovernanceprogramme.eui.eu/eu-global-engagement-database/

EU's global engagement : a database of CSDP military operations and civilian missions worldwide. Codebook

Version 1.0, 2003-2015The EU's Global Engagement database provides a comprehensive overview of EU military operations and civilian missions under the Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) from the first CSDP operation in January 2003 to December 2014. The primary purpose of the database is to fill the gap in existing empirical knowledge by providing the first centralised, comprehensive, and accurate database on the EU’s military operations and civilian missions worldwide. The database also provides some indicators of the level of the EU's engagement globally.-- PART I -- 1.1 Building a database on EU CSDP missions and operations: challenges and opportunities -- 1.2 The EU's Global Engagement Database version 2.0 -- 1.3 Overcoming the old and new challenges of data collection on CSDP missions and operations: the strategy of the EU’s Global Engagement Database -- 1.4 Sources -- 1.5 Using and sharing our data -- PART II Description of variables -- PART III Factsheets of operations and missions -- PART IV -- 4.1 Trends -- 4.2 Cooperation among Member States -- 4.3 Engagement Index -- 4.4 Expenditures -- 4.5 Personnel -- 4.6 EU Member States personnel deployed -- Reference

The European Union under Threat of a Trend toward National Sovereignty

The European Union represents the most advanced case of voluntary regional integration in the world. But today, after several decades of the pooling of sovereignty within the EU, Europe is experiencing a renaissance of national sovereignty supported by a nationalistic turn of public opinion and represented by parties on both ends of the political spectrum. The size of the national sovereignty trend among European citizens and discovery of its main drivers are the main problems that we address in the article. Through Eurobarometer data of the period before the referendum on Brexit, we show that seeing a better future outside the Union is related to shrinking support for globalization and liberal values among the population. Furthermore, popular disaffection toward EU membership did not develop in a vacuum but is fuelled by the contemporaneous occurrence of two shocks, the economic and the migration crises, a combination of circumstances that have aggravated the problem of the reduced legitimacy of the EU among citizens

Citizens, immigration and the EU as a shield:

In recent years, the number of immigrants reaching the EU has grown dramatically. The migration crisis and its political repercussions have been felt with different intensity across Europe. In this..

La “dimensione oscura”. Viaggio dentro Piansano (VT)

Il sottosuolo di Piansano è un incredibile intreccio di cavità, alcune recenti altre forse antiche di millenni, che interessano l’intero odierno edificato e si spingono anche oltre i limiti delle costruzioni. In tempi recenti, è stato avviato uno studio di dettaglio, strutturato in formato gis-oriented, finalizzato alla conoscenza di tutti gli ipogei (attualmente sono stati mappati oltre 200), sia in termini di estensione e dimensioni, che in relazione alla definizione di tutte le caratteristiche litologiche delle formazioni a spese delle quali sono state realizzate le cavità, senza peraltro trascurare gli aspetti relativi alle loro condizioni statiche ed agli interventi da mettere in atto per la loro messa in sicurezza. Tutto ciò è stato reso necessario per contrastare gli effetti sugli ipogei stessi dovuti al traffico veicolare, sempre più marcato, alla presenza di impianti tecnologici (fognature, linee idriche, ecc), ma anche a seguito di una maggiore sensibilità nei confronti di quelle problematiche che, nei casi più gravi, possono creare dissesti a danno delle abitazioni, delle strade, dei monumenti e delle strutture di superficie, con conseguente rischio per l’incolumità delle persone e costi aggiuntivi per la collettività.Underground Piansano is an amazing tangle of caves, either recent or, possibly, thousands of years old, extended within the present-day settlement and even beyond its limits. Recently, a detailed gis-oriented study has been carried out aiming at defining all the underground sites (up to now more than 200 of them have been mapped) in terms of their location and extension, as also related to the lithological characteristics of the hosting formations. Moreover, the aspects concerning their conditions of stability have been also addressed, as well as the related interventions to be put in place as safety measures. This is in order not only to prevent the effects on the underground sites of the increasing traffic and of the presence of technological systems (e.g., sewers, water lines, etc.), but also in light of a greater sensitivity to hazard issues. In fact, the most severe cases of underground instabilities may result into damages to homes, roads, monuments and other surface structures, with consequent risk to the safety of people and additional costs for the community

A case of adrenal tumour in a lion (Panthera leo): tomographic and ultrasonographic findings.

Adrenal gland tumors are common in humans and in several animal species. Studies concerning this neoplasia in human medicine indicate that clinical signs have a high variability. Adrenal adenomas can be occasionally observed in asymptomatic patients during tomographic studies while estrogen-secreting tumors, known as "feminizing adrenal tumors" (FATs), have been rarely reported. The aim of this study is to describe for the first time the Imaging findings of a captivity lion affected by a neoplastic secreting adrenal tumour. An 8 year-old male lion with progressive lack of secondary sex characteristics, disorexia and weight loss was referred to our Institution. The patient was chemically immobilized to undergo general clinical evaluation, hematologic, serum biochemical and hormonal profile, FIV and FeLV tests. Three months later a total body computed tomography and abdominal ultrasonography were performed. Liver and left adrenal lesions FNABs were performed. Imaging findings showed the presence of an extended expansive neoplastic lesion on the left adrenal gland (40x39x37 mm) with right adrenal gland atrophy. Generalized hepatopathy associated with a suspected intrahepatic cholestasis was confirmed by ultrasonography. Cytological evaluation ruled out the presence of neuroendocrine cells without malignancy evidences compatible with the adenomatous nature of the lesion, associated with moderate degenerative hepatopathy. Blood tests reported an estradiol concentration of 462 ng/dl. To our knowledge, this is the first description of adrenal mass in a lion associated with secondary feminization, inappetence and high values of hematic estradiol, referable to a feminizing adrenal tumor (FAT).