European Elections as Counterfactual National Elections

European Parliament elections affect a supra-national, European body. Nevertheless their outcomes are often interpreted as if they were national elections, with repercussion in the national political arena. Such a counterfactual representation, in which European parliamentary elections are presented as national parliamentary elections, forms the central perspective of this chapter. We model the influences of variations in turnout and variations in determinants of party choice for European Parliament and National Parliament elections, to determine what party characteristics influence the relative success or failure of political parties at European elections. The outcomes show that European electoral success is not only determined by party characteristics alone, but is also dependent upon the cycle of elections in the different countries

Electoral participation in the Netherlands: Individual and contextual influences

AbstractResearch into electoral participation has produced two traditions, one focusing mainly on individual level explanations while the second concentrates primarily on aggregate level explanations. By bringing these two research approaches together, we are not only able to explain individual electoral participation more thoroughly, but we also gain additional insight into the influence of aggregate level characteristics on individual behavior. We combine eight National Election Studies held in the Netherlands between 1971 and 1994 enabling us to study variation on the individual and the contextual (aggregate) level, including interactions between these two levels. Findings show that the addition of contextual characteristics form a significant improvement to an individual level model predicting electoral participation. Findings also confirm our expectation that the influence of individual characteristics such as education or political interest is dependent upon contextual characteristics describing for instance the salience of the election

When long-distance relationships don't work out: Representational distance and satisfaction with democracy in Europe

We assess the impact of party representation on satisfaction with democracy. Our proposition is that such representation is not only about having a chosen party in government; citizens also derive satisfaction from having their views represented by a political party. We test this through an individual-level measure of policy (in)congruence: the ideological distance between a voter and his or her closest party. Via multi-level modelling of European Election Study data from 1989 to 2009, we find that perceived policy distance matters: the further away that voters see themselves from their nearest party – on either a left-right or a European unification policy dimension – the less satisfied they are with democracy. Notably, this effect is not moderated by party incumbency or size. Voters derive satisfaction from feeling represented by a nearby party even if it is small and out of office. Our results caution against a purely outcomes-driven understanding of democratic satisfaction

Pressed into Party Support? : Media Influence on Partisan Attitudes during the 2005 UK General Election Campaign

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A stalled revolution? Gender role attitudes in Australia, 1986–2005

This paper examines trends over time in attitudes to gender equality in Australia. We use data from repeated cross-sectional surveys in Australia to investigate trends in beliefs about men's and women's work and family roles between 1986 and 2005. We find that men are consistently more conservative than women, that younger cohorts tend to be less conservative than older cohorts, but those born between 1960 and 1980 are more egalitarian on some issues than those born after 1980. There is also evidence that the overall trend toward more egalitarian gender attitudes is most marked in Australia up until the mid-1990s with the trend flattening and in some cases, even reversing after this period. The paper concludes that there is currently a period of relative stability in gender attitudes in Australia, but with some tendency toward more conservative views. © 2010 The Author(s)

European Parliament Election Study 2009, Voter Study

European Election Study 2009: Electoral behaviour. General political attitudes and behaviour. Political parties. Media usage. EU integration. Value orientations. 1. Voting: Party choice and turnout: participation in the European Parliament elections; party preference; if you had voted in the European Parliament elections, which party would you have voted for; party voted for at the (General Election); if there was a general election tomorrow, which party would be voted for; how probable voting for selected parties. 2. Party ID: Closeness to any particular party. 3. Engagement and mobilization: Watch a program about the election on television, read about the election in a newspaper, talk to friends or family about the election, attend a public meeting or rally about the election, look into a website concerned with the election; contacted by a candidate or party organisation during the election campaign; visit website; interest in campaign; interest in politics. 4. Media Usage: How many days following the news; days watching news programs; which channel; days per week; newspaper read and frequency of reading. 5. Institutions: European Parliament takes into consideration the concerns of European citizens; trust in the EU institutions; important which candidates win seats and become MEPs in the European Parliament elections; important which political party gained the most seats in the European Parliament elections; the national Parliament takes into consideration the concerns of citizens. 6. EU integration: Country’s membership of EU is a good or bad thing; respondent´s attitude to European unification; perception of party regarding EU unification; self-identification as nationality or European; attitudes towards enlargement of the European Union; confidence that EU decisions will be in the interest of country. 7. Value orientations: self placement and placement of parties on left-right continuum; immigrants should adapt to the customs of the hosting country; private enterprise the best to solve economic problems; same-sex marriages should be prohibited; major public services and industries ought to be in state ownership; free decision on abortion; politics abstain from intervening in economy; harsher sentences for people who break the law; redistribution of income and wealth towards ordinary people; schools must teach to obey authority; EU treaty changes decided by referendum; woman cut down her paid work for the sake of family; immigration should be decreased. 8. Domestic and European issues: Most important problems; issue competence of parties; level problem mainly dealt with; most appropriate level to deal with problem; economy of the country is better compared to 12 months ago; general economic situation in the country over the next 12 months; assessment of the developement of health care; interest rates and climate change in the country. 9. Representation: Satisfaction with the democracy in the country and in the EU; asessement of government’s records. 10. Identity: Both parents born in country; country mother born; country father born; country respondent born and national identification of the respondent. 11. Knowledge-test and experience: Switzerland is a member of EU; the number of 25 member states in the European Union; every country in EU elects the same number of representatives to the European Parliament; every six months, a different member state becomes president of the Council of the European Union; correct name of national Minister of Education; individuals must be 25 or older to stand as candidates in national parliament. 12. Attribution of responsibility and evaluation of performance: How responsible are national government or EU for economic conditions, for the standard of health care, for levels of immigration, for setting interest rates, dealing with climate change; national government policies or European Union policies have had a positive influence on economic conditions in the country, on the standard of health care, on levels of immigration, on interest rates, on climate change. 13. Demographics: Member of trade union; age at completion of full-time education; highest level of education (ISCED); gender; age; current marital status; current work situation; occupational sector; main occupation; current job; social class; degree of urbanisation; residence (number of years); religious denomination; attendance of religious services; religiousness; income (family’s status of living). Additionally coded: Respondent id; country; date and length of interview; interview language; household size, interview mode; interviewer id; gender; year of birth; nationality; native language. Weightingfactors: Sample weight per country; political weight; political weight actual EP voters only.European Election Study 2009. Wahlverhalten. Allgemeine politische Einstellungen und Verhalten. Politische Parteien. Mediennutzung. EU-Integration.Werteorientierung. Themen: Wahlverhalten: Beteiligung an der Europawahl; Parteipräferenz und Wahlverhalten; Parteipräferenz auf Landesebene (Sonntagsfrage Nationalparlament); Einstufung der Wahrscheinlichkeit für die Wahl einer jeden Partei. Mobilisierung: Website zur Europawahl besucht; Name der Website; von einem Kandidaten während des Wahlkampfs kontaktiert worden; Interesse am Wahlkampf; Politikinteresse. Mediennutzung: Anzahl der Tage, an denen die Nachrichtensendungen im Fernsehen verfolgt werden; präferierte Fernsehkanäle; gelesene Zeitungen und Häufigkeit pro Woche; Rezeptionshäufigkeit von Informationen über die Europawahl. Institutionen: Europäisches Parlament kümmert sich um die Angelegenheiten der europäischen Bürger; EU-Institutionenvertrauen; Wichtigkeit des Kandidaten, der einen Sitz gewinnt und MEP im Europäischen Parlament wird; Wichtigkeit der politische Partei, die die meisten Sitze in den Europäischen Parlamentswahlen gewinnt; Beurteilung des nationalen Parlaments bezüglich der Repräsentanz der Bürgerangelegenheiten. EU-Integration: Die Mitgliedschaft des Landes in der EU ist eine gute oder schlechte Sache; die Positionierung des Befragten sowie der Partei des eigenen Landes hinsichtlich der europäischen Einigung (Skalometer); Identifikation als Staatsangehöriger des eigenen Landes oder als Europäer; Einstellungen zu rErweiterung der Europäischen Union; Vertrauen, dass EU-Entscheidungen im Interesse des Landes sein werden. Wertorientierung: Selbsteinschätzung und Platzierung von Parteien auf einem Links-Rechts-Kontinuum; Immigranten sollten sich den Sitten des Gastlandes anpassen; Privatunternehmen als bestes Mittel zur Lösung der ökonomischen Probleme; gleichgeschlechtliche Ehen sollten verboten werden; Verstaatlichung der Großindustrie; Einstellung zum Schwangerschaftsabbruch; kein Eingreifen der Politik in die Wirtschaft; strengere Bestrafung für Gesetzesbrecher; Umverteilung von Einkommen; Schulen müssen Autorität und Gehorsam beibringen; EU-Vertragsänderungen durch Volksentscheid; Frauenerwerbstätigkeit; Einwanderung sollte vermindert werden. Inländische und europäische Angelegenheiten: wichtigste politische Streitfragen und Issue-Kompetenz der Parteien; Präferenz für nationale oder europäische Entscheidungsebene; bisherige Konjunkturentwicklung Konjunkturerwartung für das Land; Feststellung und Beurteilung der jüngsten Entwicklungen bei der Einwanderung, bei der Gesundheitsversorgung, bei der Zinsentwicklung und beim Klimawandel im Land. Vertretung: Demokratiezufriedenheit im Land und in der EU; Bewertung der Regierungsleistungen. Identität: Beide in Land geborenen Eltern; geborene Ländermutter; geborener Ländervater; geborener Länderbefragter und nationale Identifizierung des Befragten. Wissenstest und Erfahrung: Die Schweiz ist ein Mitglied der EU; Kenntnis der Anzahl von 25 Mitgliedsstaaten der Europäischen Union; jedes Land in der EU wählt dieselbe Anzahl von Vertretern ins Europäische Parlament; alle sechs Monate wird ein anderer Mitgliedsstaat Präsident des Rats der Europäischen Union; Kenntnis des Namens des nationalen Erziehungsministers; Personen müssen mindestens 25 Jahre alt sein, um für das nationale Parlament kandidieren zu können. Zuordnung von Zuständigkeiten auf nationaler oder auf EU-Ebene für die Bereiche Wirtschaft, Gesundheitswesen, Einwanderungspolitik, Festlegung von Zinssätzen und Klimawandel. Demographie: Gewerkschaftsmitgliedschaft; Alter bei Beendigung der Schulbildung; höchster Bildungsabschluss (ISCED); Geschlecht; Alter; gegenwärtiger Familienstand; gegenwärtige Arbeitssituation; Berufssektor; Hauptberuf; gegenwärtige Aufgabe; soziale Klasse; Urbanisierungsgrad; Wohndauer am Ort; Konfession; Kirchgangshäufigkeit; Selbsteinschätzung der Religiosität und des Niveaus des Lebensstandards (eigener Reichtum). Zusätzlich verkodet wurde: Land; Datum und Länge des Interviews; Interview-Sprache; Haushaltsgröße, Interviewmodus; Intervieweridentifikation; Geschlecht; Alter (Geburtsjahr); Staatsangehörigkeit; Muttersprache. Gewichtungsfaktoren: Gewicht pro Land; politisches Gewicht

Platelet-Rich-Plasma injection seems to be effective in treatment of plantar fasciitis: a case series.

Plantar fasciitis is the most common cause of heel pain. Diverse non-operative treatment options are available. The purpose of this study was to determine if a single platelet-rich-plasma injection at the origin of the plantar fascia in patients with plantar fasciitis gives a functional improvement. Patients with plantar fasciitis and failed conservative treatment were included in this retrospective study. Included patients were sent four questionnaires after platelet-rich-plasma injection. Primary outcome is functional improvement, determined by foot function index in which lower scores correlates with a better foot function. A total of 61 feet in 58 patients were included. The median foot function index before treatment was 69.4 and after treatment 31.8, which is a significant decrease. In 80.3% of the patients the foot function index decreased. Therefore platelet-rich-plasma injection seems to be effective in treatment of patients with plantar fasciitis when conservative treatment failed.

Individual and Contextual Variation in EU issue Voting: the Role of Political Information

Publication based on research carried out in the framework of the European Union Democracy Observatory (EUDO) of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute.The journal issue has been produced in the framework of the PIREDEU Project, one of the projects carried out by the EUDO Public Opinion Observatory.Increasing politicization in EU member states about European issues can be expected to strengthen the impact of attitudes towards Europe on vote choice in European Parliament (EP) elections. At the same time this impact is likely to vary between voters and contexts as a function of political information. This study explores the role of political information in explaining individual and contextual heterogeneity in the degree of EU issue voting. Using a two-step hierarchical estimation procedure to explore both individual and contextual variation, we show that while EU issue voting in the 2009 EP elections is only slightly more pronounced among the politically sophisticated, it is clearly more extensive in contexts that provide higher levels of political information on European matters.1. Introduction 2. Explaning EP vote choice: the second-order model & the EU issue voting model 3. Individual and contextual heterogeneity in EU issue voting 4. Data, methods and operationalizations 5. Empirical results 6. Conclusion Acknowledgements App