Doomed to failure? UKIP and the organisational challenges facing right-wing populist anti-political establishment parties

Using the UK Independence Party, we examine the effects of sudden electoral success on an Anti-Political Establishment (APE) party. The pressures of aspiring to government necessitate organisational structures resembling those of mainstream parties, while this aspiration challenges APE parties because they differ not just in terms of their policy profiles, but also in their more ‘unorthodox’ organisational make-up, inextricably linked to their electoral appeal. Robert Kilroy-Silk wanted to emphasise office-seeking goals while most members wanted the party to remain true to its APE status and not sacrifice its populist nature. This inevitably resulted in internal party conflict

Technology replaces culture in microcredit markets: the case of Italian MAGs

We collect data from three Italian microcredit institutions which operate in urban areas by granting individual loans to two categories of wealthless borrowers: single entrepreneurs and organizations (cooperatives and associations).Evidence shows that organizations repay with higher probability and are charged a lower average interest rate than individuals. We use these findings to construct a lending scheme which consists of granting loans provided that borrowers form production teams (i.e. organizations). We consider a microcredit market with adverse selection à la De Meza- Webb and we verify that repayment rate increases, while interest rate falls with respect to individual lending if the above scheme, which we refer to as production team lending, is implemented. Our instrument, like joint liability implemented in rural economies, extracts information from borrowers through a peer selection mechanism but, differently from joint liability, fits to urban contexts where borrowers are less likely to know each other and social sanctions are weak.Microcredit, Urban areas, Production Team Lending, Adverse Selection

Lessons from dynamic cadaver and invasive bone pin studies: do we know how the foot really moves during gait?

Background: This paper provides a summary of a Keynote lecture delivered at the 2009 Australasian Podiatry Conference. The aim of the paper is to review recent research that has adopted dynamic cadaver and invasive kinematics research approaches to better understand foot and ankle kinematics during gait. It is not intended to systematically cover all literature related to foot and ankle kinematics (such as research using surface mounted markers). Since the paper is based on a keynote presentation its focuses on the authors own experiences and work in the main, drawing on the work of others where appropriate Methods: Two approaches to the problem of accessing and measuring the kinematics of individual anatomical structures in the foot have been taken, (i) static and dynamic cadaver models, and (ii) invasive in-vivo research. Cadaver models offer the advantage that there is complete access to all the tissues of the foot, but the cadaver must be manipulated and loaded in a manner which replicates how the foot would have performed when in-vivo. The key value of invasive in-vivo foot kinematics research is the validity of the description of foot kinematics, but the key difficulty is how generalisable this data is to the wider population. Results: Through these techniques a great deal has been learnt. We better understand the valuable contribution mid and forefoot joints make to foot biomechanics, and how the ankle and subtalar joints can have almost comparable roles. Variation between people in foot kinematics is high and normal. This includes variation in how specific joints move and how combinations of joints move. The foot continues to demonstrate its flexibility in enabling us to get from A to B via a large number of different kinematic solutions. Conclusion: Rather than continue to apply a poorly founded model of foot type whose basis is to make all feet meet criteria for the mechanical 'ideal' or 'normal' foot, we should embrace variation between feet and identify it as an opportunity to develop patient-specific clinical models of foot function

Efficiency in Marriage

Economists usually assume that bargaining in marriage leads to efficient outcomes. The most convincing rationale for this assumption is the belief that efficient allocations are likely to emerge from repeated interactions in stationary environments, and that marriage provides such an environment. This paper argues that when a current decision affects future bargaining power, inefficient outcomes are plausible. If the spouses could make binding commitments -- in effect, commitments to refrain from exploiting the future bargaining advantage -- then the inefficiency would disappear. But spouses seldom can make binding commitments regarding allocation within marriage. To investigate the efficiency of bargaining within marriage when choices affect future bargaining power, we consider the location decisions of two-earner couples. These location decisions are transparent and analytically tractable examples of choices likely to affect future bargaining power, but the logic of our analysis applies to many other decisions. For example, decisions about education, fertility, and labor force participation are also potential sources of inefficiency.

Location and welfare in cities: impacts of policy interventions on the urban poor

Informal settlements are an integral part of the urban landscape in developing countries. These settlements are widely distributed within cities, including central business centers and peripheral areas with environment hazards. In most cases, residents of these settlements do not have access to basic public services and amenities. In this paper, the authors examine the impact of interventions, such as upgrading basic services and resettlement policies, on the welfare of residents of these informal settlements, who are typically the urban poor. To examine these interventions, they estimate models of residential location choice and allow households to be sensitive to commuting costs to work, demand for public services, and preferences for community composition. The authors'empirical analysis is based on recently collected survey data from Pune, India, and shows that poor households prefer to live close to work and in communities that consist of people sharing common socio-demographic characteristics. From the perspective of households living in informal settlements, upgrading settlements in the original place is welfare enhancing. If a household must be relocated, it greatly prefers to be moved to a community that resembles its current community.Municipal Financial Management,Public Health Promotion,Decentralization,Housing&Human Habitats,Urban Services to the Poor,Municipal Financial Management,Housing&Human Habitats,VN-Acb Mis -- IFC-00535908,Urban Housing,City Development Strategies

The Evolution of Manpower Management : A Historial Overview

Ce travail a pour but de montrer l'évolution de la direction du personnel en prenant soin de souligner les facteurs qui affectent la nature et l'étendue de cette fonction.Cette évolution s'échelonne sur trois grandes périodes.1.—LA PÉRIODE «  EOTECHNIQUE »L'utilisation du bois, de la pierre, de l'eau, du vent et de l'animal comme matières premières et sources de pouvoir caractérise cette première phase de l'évolution. Le type d'organisation sociale qui prévalait à ce moment-là était l'artisanat. C'était une société bien établie, enracinée dans la tradition offrant peu d'avenues à la mobilité occupationnelle. En empruntant les types de caractères sociaux élaborés par Riesman, on peut considérer cette période comme étant « tradition-directed ».Le besoin de se préoccuper d'une façon consciente et rationnelle de la conduite des hommes ne se faisait pas sentir. L'assimilation des valeurs culturelles et l'apprentissage des rôles assuraient un minimum de discipline.2.—LA PÉRIODE « PALÉOTECHNIQUE  »Elle se situe entre les années 1750 et 1850. L'utilisation du fer et de la machine à vapeur permet alors un accroissement des possibilités de production et ouvrent la voie à la naissance des usines. Un début d'aliénation au travail et dans la vie hors-travail se manifeste au cours de cette seconde phase. Le caractère social qui prévaut alors est celui de l'intra-détermination. Aux yeux des dirigeants de l'entreprise, le travail apparaît comme un processus rationnel et technique. Le surplus de main-d'oeuvre causé par l'exode moral, les méthodes complexes d'administration, l'orientation autoritaire des dirigeants sont autant de facteurs qui pointaient le besoin d'une direction systématique du personnel.3.—LA PÉRIODE « NÉOTECHNIQUE »Cette dernière phase date depuis 1850 jusqu'à nos jours. L'utilisation de l'acier, l'aluminium, l'électricité et l'énergie nucléaire contribue d'une manière significative à la révolution technique. C'est l'avènement du gigantisme tant industriel que syndical ouvrant les avenues à l'urbanisation et la possibilité d'ascension sociale. Cette période est celle de l'extra-détermination, caractérisée par une tendance à chercher à travers autrui une identité personnelle et des modes de comportement qui ont reçu une approbation sociale.Un besoin d'une direction efficace du personnel devient alors urgent au sein des grandes bureaucraties. Ce besoin est satisfait dans la mesure où l'on retrouve au sein des organisations des dirigeants qui s'acquittent de la fonction « personnel » et des spécialistes qui mettent sur pied des services du personnel.The purpose of this paper is to show the evolution of manpower management by taking into accounts the socio-cultural context from which the need of conscious and rational personnel administration has originated

Gravity currents in rotating, wedge-shaped, adverse channels

Results are presented from a series of parametric experimental and analytical studies of the behaviour of dense gravity currents along rotating, up-sloping, wedge-shaped channels. High resolution density profile measurements at fixed cross-and along-channel locations reveal the outflowing bottom gravity currents to adjust to quasi-steady, geostrophically-balanced conditions along the channels, with the outflow layer thickness and cross-channel interface slope shown to scale with the inlet Burger number for all experimental conditions tested. A general analytical solution to the classic rotating hydraulics problem has been developed under the assumption of inviscid, zero-potential-vorticity conditions to model dense water flow through a triangular constriction and thus simulate the vee-channel configurations under consideration. Predictions from this zero-PV model are shown to provide good overall quantitative agreement with experimental measurements obtained both under hydraulically-controlled conditions at the channel exit and for subcritical conditions generated along the channel length. Quantitative discrepancies between measurements and analytical predictions are attributed primarily to assumptions and limitations associated with the zero-PV modelling approach adopted, as well as the to the rapid adjustment in outflow characteristics as the channel exit is approached, as characterised by the along-channel variation in densimetric Froude number for the outflows.</p

Phase-coherent lightwave communications with frequency combs

Fiber-optical networks are a crucial telecommunication infrastructure in society. Wavelength division multiplexing allows for transmitting parallel data streams over the fiber bandwidth, and coherent detection enables the use of sophisticated modulation formats and electronic compensation of signal impairments. In the future, optical frequency combs may replace multiple lasers used for the different wavelength channels. We demonstrate two novel signal processing schemes that take advantage of the broadband phase coherence of optical frequency combs. This approach allows for a more efficient estimation and compensation of optical phase noise in coherent communication systems, which can significantly simplify the signal processing or increase the transmission performance. With further advances in space division multiplexing and chip-scale frequency comb sources, these findings pave the way for compact energy-efficient optical transceivers.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

A theoretical investigation of the aerodynamics of slender wing-body combinations exhibiting leading-edge separation

Theoretical investigation of aerodynamics of slender wing-body combinations exhibiting leading edge separatio