Recognition of emotional and non-emotional biological motion in individuals with autistic spectrum disorders

This study aimed to explore the perception of different components of biological movement in individuals with autism and Asperger syndrome. The ability to recognize a person’s actions, subjective states, emo-tions, and objects conveyed by moving point-light displays was assessed in 19 participants with autism and 19 comparable typical control participants. Results showed that the participants with autism were as able as controls to name point-light displays of non-human objects and human actions. In contrast, they were significantly poorer at labeling emotional displays, suggesting that they are specifically impaired in attending to emotional states. Most studies have highlighted an emotional deficit in facial expression perception; our results extend this hypothesized deficit to the perception and interpretation of whole-body biological movements

Party-group relations in new southern European democracies in the crisis era

UID/CPO/04627/2013 PTDC/IVC-CPO/1864/2014publishersversionpublishe

Duverger's Law and the Size Of the Indian Party Sytem

Duverger's law postulates that single-member plurality electoral systems lead to two-party systems. Existing scholarship regards India as an exception to this law at national level, but not at district level. This study tests the latter hypothesis through analysis of a comprehensive dataset covering Indian parliamentary elections in the period 1952—2004. The results show that a large number of Indian districts do not conform to the Duvergerian norm of two-party competition, and that there is no consistent movement towards the Duvergerian equilibrium. Furthermore, inter-region and inter-state variations in the size of district-level party systems make it difficult to generalize about the application of Duverger's law to the Indian case. The study concludes that a narrow focus on electoral rules is inadequate, and that a more comprehensive set of explanatory variables is needed to explain the size of the Indian party system even at the district level

Stimmensplitting und Koalitionswahl

Hat sich die Unabhängigkeitsstrategie der FDP bei der letzten Bundestagswahl ausgezahlt? Wäre die FDP erfolgreicher gewesen, wenn sie im Vorfeld klar signalisiert hätte, dass man eine Koalition mit der Union anstrebt? Wie war das bei den Grünen, die ja im Gegensatz zur FDP keine Zweifel aufkommen ließen? Natürlich können wir nicht wie in einer Simulation oder einem Experiment einfach den Wahlkampf wiederholen und noch einmal wählen lassen. Um eine befriedigende Antwort auf diese Frage zu finden, vergleichen wir den Kontext der Bundestagswahl 2002 mit den zurückliegenden Bundestagswahlen. Aus dem Längsschnittvergleich versuchen wir Rückschlüsse auf den substanziellen Einfluss von strategischem Stimmensplitting im Sinne einer Koalitionswahl auf das Wahlergebnis gerade der kleinen Parteien zu ziehen. Um unsere Forschungsfrage zu beantworten und substanzielle Schlüsse ziehen zu können, muss zuerst klar sein, in welcher Form und warum Stimmensplitting relevant sein kann, welche Rolle dabei Koalitionsabsprachen vor einer jeden Wahl spielen und, schließlich, welche alternativen Erklärungsmöglichkeiten die Literatur zum Thema Stimmensplitting und strategischem Wählen anzubieten hat. Nur wenn wir auch die Wirkung alternativer und zum Teil konkurrierender Hypothesen zulassen, können wir unserer Schlußfolgerungen sicher sein

Zippin’ up my boots, goin’ back to my roots: Radical left parties in Southern Europe

Radical left parties actively encourage the participation of their members in internal decision-making and insist on promoting organised links to trade unions and social movements. As a party family, they deviate from what is considered to be the trend in which Western political parties have turned their backs on their social roots. Drawing on the experience of South European radical left parties from the fall of the Berlin Wall until the recent financial crisis, we argue that ideology, electoral incentives, party competition and external events explain the radical left's pronounced emphasis on linkage, while organisational trajectory explains variation within the party family in terms of the linkage strategies pursued

Presidential Election Laws and Multipartism in Latin America

This article examines the interaction between the rules governing presidential elections and multipartism in Latin America. Data from 16 Latin American systems are examined through the use of a multivariate model to gain an understanding of the independent impact of presidential electoral formula (plurality vs. majority), the timing of presidential and legislative elections (concurrent vs. nonconcurrent) and legislative district magnitude on legislative multipartism, and by extension, on the number of relevant political parties operating in the nation. The findings demonstrate the strong and significant impact which formula and timing have on multipartism. They also point to the importance of examining the interaction between elections for different constituent institutions. Finally, they underscore the applicability of Duverger's law to presidential elections.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68710/2/10.1177_106591299404700103.pd