How Internal Political Efficacy Translates Political Knowledge Into Political Participation: Evidence From Germany

This study presents evidence for the mediation effect of political knowledge through political self-efficacy (i.e. internal political efficacy) in the prediction of political participation. It employs an action theoretic approach - by and large grounded on the Theory of Planned Behaviour - and uses data from the German Longitudinal Election Study to examine whether political knowledge has distinct direct effects on voting, conventional, and/or unconventional political participation. It argues that political knowledge raises internal political efficacy and thereby indirectly increases the chance that a citizen will participate in politics. The results of mediated multiple regression analyses yield evidence that political knowledge indeed translates into internal political efficacy, thus it affects political participation of various kinds indirectly. However, internal political efficacy and intentions to participate politically yield simultaneous direct effects only on conventional political participation. Sequentially mediated effects appear for voting and conventional political participation, with political knowledge being mediated by internal political efficacy and subsequently also by behavioural intentions. The mediation patterns for unconventional political participation are less clear though. The discussion accounts for restrictions of this study and points to questions for answer by future research

How Collective Identities Affect Political Interest and Political Efficacy among Migrants

Predicting cognitive politicization variables (i.e. political interest and internal political efficacy) often relies on the same models that predict political behavior. However, social psychology researchers have discovered further determinants, in particular with regard to minority groups: collective identities, which may be moderated or mediated by collective maltreatment and perceived collective efficacy. Therefore, this article considers these variables as predictors of cognitive politicization. Following this line of research, it may thus be assumed that both an ethno-cultural identification with the in-group as well as a national identification with the country of residence positively relate to cognitive politicization with respect to minority groups. A dual identification with both the in-group and the country of residence should be a positive predictor of these variables, whereas a separatist identification as member of the in-group but non-identification with the country of residence should be a negative predictor. These hypotheses are examined using an online panel sample of Turkish migrants in Germany. Although a separatist identification yields negative effects, the other hypotheses are not supported. Conversely, identification with Germany shows negative effects on both criteria. The findings are discussed with particular respect to the importance of sociopolitical integration of migrants

Press Reports about Causes of Juvenile Crime and Associated Claims in the German Press

This article examines the kinds of criminological knowledge and information that were considered in the press during the Hesse election campaign in 2007/2008, in which youth crime played a major role. The present study investigates the integration of information about the possible causes of youth crime into press articles, and examines to which extent information about these causes and motives for engaging in youth crime were considered by the press to be significant in the explanation of youth crime. The other aim of this study is to uncover which types of criminal policy and pedagogy had been reported about, and which of those measures had been regarded as meaningful. To this end, results of a content analysis of articles from two German daily newspapers—the Bild and the Süddeutsche Zeitung—are presented and compared. The differences between the two newspapers and their method of news construction are highlighted. The paper clarifies central concepts and discusses previous research in media crime and youth crime, as well as making methodological remarks. The results of the study indicate that only rarely was knowledge about the causes of juvenile crime published in the press; information about the individual itself was found to an even lesser extent. This was particularly true about the Bild. Claims for tougher methods of punishment dominated, whereas measures that aimed at crime prevention were seldom considered reasonable, and if so, were mainly included in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. These results in part reflect the importance of several news factors—notably consonance, personification, risk, and negativism—but also to a large extent reflect the political accentuation of the respective newspapers and their specific views of juvenile offenders

Collective Protest and Expressive Action Among University Students in Hong Kong: Associations Between Offline and Online Forms of Political Participation

Youth have often been described as politically apathetic or disengaged, particularly with respect to more conventional forms of participation. However, they tend to prefer non-institutionalized modes of political action and they may express themselves on the Internet. Young people have also been recognized as having a "latent preparedness" to get politically active when needed. This paper reports forms of offline and online participation adopted by young adults in Hong Kong who were surveyed shortly before the anti-extradition bill social movement of 2019 and 1 year later. The results tentatively suggest that young adults may not be very active in politics when they do not perceive the need to bring about change. However, they are involved in expressive activities and on the Internet more broadly, and ready to turn their latent participation into concrete political participation when they are dissatisfied with government actions and believe it is their responsibility to act against laws perceived to be unjust. Cross-sectional and cross-lagged panel analyses show that youth's participation in offline political activities is associated with their online participation. Positive effects of past experiences in each mode on participation in offline and online political activities show the mobilizing potential of social media and provide support for the reinforcement hypothesis, though previous participation in offline activities appears as a better predictor of political participation when compared with prior participation on the Internet

Active Citizenship in the Political Realm: The Case of Australian Secondary School Students

For democratic societies to sustain, the participation of young people in political realm is of high significance, yet research suggests that adolescents are rather passive citizens. This article examines the behaviors and behavior-related attitudes of young Australians over the past almost two decades. Given significant developments in Australian civics education with regard to policy, curriculum and implementation, this article adds to the understanding of the long-term developments and potential influences of civics and citizenship education in Australia. Various data sources suggest that civics and citizenship education may have made little difference in the long term with respect to active citizenship in political realms, though we also identify promising trends that may reflect general developments rather than outcomes of civics and citizenship education. We discuss our analysis with regard to the need of long-term commitment of politics and teachers as well as deficits and further influences in civics and citizenship education outcomes

An enhanced TCP congestion avoidance scheme and its performance evaluation in high speed satellite networks

High speed satellite communication networks are emerging as part of the future global wireless communication systems. However, existing transmission control protocols for satellite networks do not provide satisfactory performance over high speed satellite links due to their inefficient congestion avoidance algorithms. This paper identifies the reason for low throughput of a widely used protocol Space Communications Protocol Specification (SCPS) in such networks and proposes a new Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) congestion avoidance algorithm to overcome the drawback of the congestion avoidance algorithm used in the SCPS protocol. Numerical results through simulations demonstrate that the proposed new algorithm can achieve significant throughput improvement over links with variable error rates, compared with its legacy counterpart

A cross-national comparison of teachers' beliefs about the aims of civic education in 12 countries: A person-centered analysis

This article examines teachers' beliefs about the aims of citizenship education in 12 countries from Europe and Asia. A latent class analysis of the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study of 2009 identified three distinct profiles of teachers' beliefs about the goals of citizenship education. These profiles are associated with teachers' characteristics and with national indicators of democratic development. Profiles can be more useful than single beliefs in understanding how teaching contributes to students' civic development. Teachers across countries thought it far more important to foster students' participation in the school or local community than to foster future political participation

Zur Geschichte der Feststellung und Kennzeichnung von Eigentums- und Herrschaftsgrenzen in Sachsen

Die Arbeit will die historische Entwicklung von Grenzfeststellung und -kennzeichnung darstellen und deren Bedeutung f\u7für die Rechts- und Vermessungsgeschichte Sachsens würdigen. Die Arbeit gliedert sich in zwei Hauptteile. Der erste Teil liefert einen \u7fÜerblick über die Entwicklung und den Gebrauch verschiedener Grenzzeichen zur dauerhaften Festlegung und erkennbaren Bezeichnung von Grenzen. Im zweiten Teil folgt die jeweils chronologische Darstellung der unterschiedlichen Kategorien von Grenzen

Numerische Simulation strömungsmechanischer Vorgänge in SF 6 -Hochspannungsleistungsschaltern

In der vorliegenden Habilitationsschrift werden die strömungsmechanischen Vorgänge in der Unterbrechereinheit von SF6-Hochspannungsleistungsschaltern während eines Ausschaltvorganges betrachtet. Zunächst wird über eine Analyse des Ausschaltvorganges das physikalische Gesamtsystem zur Beschreibung des Ausschaltvorganges herausgearbeitet, welches auf der Zusammen- und Wechselwirkung verschiedener Teilsysteme (Antrieb und Schaltermechanik, Strömungsgeometrie, Gasströmung, Schaltlichtbogen, Wiederverfestigung und Externer Stromkreis) basiert. Aus der Kopplung der Teilmodelle für die separierten Teilsysteme resultiert ein modulares Simulationsmodell, welches eine numerische Simulation der strömungsmechanischen Vorgänge in SF6-Hochspannungsleistungsschaltern während des Ausschaltvorganges ermöglicht. Mit dem entwickelten Simulationsmodell werden Leer- und Kurzschlussabschaltungen simuliert. In diesem Zusammenhang wird u.a. die Rückwirkung des Schaltlichtbogens auf die Antriebs- und Ventiloperation, der Einfluss der Düsenablation auf die Druckverteilung in der Unterbrechereinheit und der Einfluss der Lichtbogenzeit auf die Wiederverfestigung untersucht. Die aufgezeigte Vorgehensweise ist universell und kann auf die verschiedensten mechanischen Schaltgeräte in der Nieder-, Mittel- und Hochspannung angewendet werden.Auch im Buchhandel erhältlich: Numerische Simulation strömungsmechanischer Vorgänge in SF6-Hochspannungsleistungsschaltern / Frank Reichert Ilmenau : Univ.-Verl. Ilmenau, 2014. - getr. Seitenzählung, insg. 277 S. ISBN 978-3-86360-116-4 Preis (Druckausgabe): 31,90 € Zugl.: Ilmenau, Techn. Univ., Habil.-Schr., 201