Cultural, cognitive and personality traits in risk-taking behaviour: evidence from Poland and the United States of America

The study analyses the susceptibility to risk-taking behaviour in relation to cultural, cognitive and personality traits. For the requirements of the research, undergraduate students with the same major but from two different cultural regions (Poland and the USA) were examined. In order to better understand them, the ten-item personality inventory (TIPI) method–a 10-item measure of the Big-Five personality dimensions–was used. A domain-specific risk-taking (DOSPERT) scale was used to assess risk-taking, while cognitive aspects of behaviour were measured by a cognitive reflection test. It is important to point out that Polish stu- dents reported significantly greater proneness to risk-taking than their American counterparts. It was revealed that participants scoring highly in the cognitive reflection test were characterised with lower risk-taking propensity. Consistent with past research, high scores in extraversion and low scores in conscientiousness predicted overall risk-taking behaviour. As follows from the study, men reported significantly greater willingness to take risks than wome

Explaining differentiation in European Union treaties

Since the early 1990s, European integration has become increasingly differentiated. Analysing the conditions under which member states make use of the opportunity to opt out of, or exclude other countries from, European integration, we argue that different explanations apply to treaty and accession negotiations, respectively. Threatening to block deeper integration, member states with strong national identities secure differentiations in treaty reform. In enlargement, in turn, old member states fear economic disadvantages and low administrative capacity and therefore impose differentiation on poor newcomers. Opt-outs from treaty revisions are limited to the area of core state powers, whereas they also occur in the market in the context of enlargement

The Evolution of Legislative Power-Sharing in the EU Multilevel System

While governance in multilevel systems involves many processes, legislation at the upper jurisdictional level is at its core. The lower levels of jurisdiction are represented at the upper level through a second legislative chamber. The exact competences of the second versus the first chamber are indicative of the degree of integration of a multilevel system. This chapter explores the evolution of the relationship of the two chambers in the European Union: the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament. The authors develop an empirical approach to evaluate the gradual change of their relative legislative influence. The Consultation, Cooperation and Codecision II procedures are analysed for the period from 1976–2009, covering the most important changes. Parliament has clearly gained influence on legislation through Cooperation and, most prominently, Codecision II. Whereas a unanimous Council could mostly have its will in Consultation, Parliament and Council are on equal footing in Codecision II.publishe