Models of Party Democracy : Patterns of Party Regulation in Post-War European Constitutions

This article investigates the ways in which political parties are codified in modern democratic constitutions, providing a unique cross-sectional and longitudinal overview of the patterns of party constitutionalization in post-war Europe. Although the constitutions of western liberal democracies traditionally have paid little attention to the role of parties, evidence suggests that in contemporary democracies, both old and new, they are increasingly accorded a formal constitutional status. Little is known, however, about the substantive content of their constitutional position or about the normative connotations of their constitutional codification. In this article, we demonstrate that there is a clear correlation between the nature and the intensity of party constitutionalization and the newness and historical experience of democracy and that, with time, the constitutional regulation of the extra-parliamentary organization and the parties’ rights and duties has gained in importance at the expense of their parliamentary and electoral roles. The analysis furthermore suggests that three distinct models of party constitutionalization can be identified – Defending Democracy, Parties in Public Office, and Parties as Public Utilities – each of which is related to a particular conception of party democracy

Comprendre les comportements face à un risque modéré d’inondation. Etude de cas dans le périurbain toulousain (Sud-Ouest de la France)

Les espaces urbanisés soumis à des risques modérés d’inondation pour les vies humaines sont souvent peu considérés dans les études sur la vulnérabilité aux risques naturels en dépit des enjeux qu’ils représentent en termes de gestion de crise. Comment les riverains y font-ils face au danger et quelles sont leurs « bonnes raisons » d’agir? A partir de l’étude socio-géographique de deux inondations récentes (2000 et 2003) dans la périphérie toulousaine (Sud-Ouest de la France), nous montrons que les caractéristiques de l’aléa dans les vallées étudiées influencent les représentations du risque et par conséquent les motivations à se protéger. Face au risque majeur, la vulnérabilité sociale se trouve ainsi augmentée. Pour améliorer la résilience des populations, il convient d’adapter la communication sur les risques: personnaliser l’information, améliorer la compréhension de l’événement vécu et mobiliser de nouvelles formes de médiation entre gestionnaires et riverains

ANYCaRE: a role-playing game to investigate crisis decision-making and communication challenges in weather-related hazards

This study proposes a role-playing experiment to explore the value of modern impact-based weather forecasts on the decision-making process to (i) issue warnings and manage the official emergency response under uncertainty and (ii) communicate and trigger protective action at different levels of the warning system across Europe. Here, flood or strong-wind game simulations seek to represent the players' realistic uncertainties and dilemmas embedded in the real-time forecasting-warning processes. The game was first tested in two scientific workshops in Finland and France, where European researchers, developers, forecasters and civil protection representatives played the simulations. Two other game sessions were organized afterwards (i) with undergraduate university students in France and (ii) with Finnish stakeholders involved in the management of hazardous weather emergencies. First results indicate that multi-model developments and crowdsourcing tools increase the level of confidence in the decision-making under pressure. We found that the role-playing approach facilitates interdisciplinary cooperation and argumentation on emergency response in a fun and interactive manner. The ANYCaRE experiment was proposed, therefore, as a valuable learning tool to enhance participants' understanding of the complexities and challenges met by various actors in weather-related emergency management.</p

A multi-component flood risk assessment in the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean)

Coastal regions are the areas most threatened by natural hazards, with floods being the most frequent and significant threat in terms of their induced impacts, and therefore, any management scheme requires their evaluation. In coastal areas, flooding is a hazard associated with various processes acting at different scales: coastal storms, flash floods, and sea level rise (SLR). In order to address the problem as a whole, this study presents a methodology to undertake a preliminary integrated risk assessment that determines the magnitude of the different flood processes (flash flood, marine storm, SLR) and their associated consequences, taking into account their temporal and spatial scales. The risk is quantified using specific indicators to assess the magnitude of the hazard (for each component) and the consequences in a common scale. This allows for a robust comparison of the spatial risk distribution along the coast in order to identify both the areas at greatest risk and the risk components that have the greatest impact. This methodology is applied on the Maresme coast (NW Mediterranean, Spain), which can be considered representative of developed areas of the Spanish Mediterranean coast. The results obtained characterise this coastline as an area of relatively low overall risk, although some hot spots have been identified with high-risk values, with flash flooding being the principal risk process

HYMEX: A 10-year multidisciplinary program on the mediterranean water cycle

HyMeX strives to improve our understanding of the Mediterranean water cycle, its variability from the weather-scale events to the seasonal and interannual scales, and its characteristics over one decade (2010–20), with a special focus on hydrometeorological extremes and the associated social and economic vulnerability of the Mediterranean territories

NMDAR inhibition-independent antidepressant actions of ketamine metabolites

Major depressive disorder afflicts ~16 percent of the world population at some point in their lives. Despite a number of available monoaminergic-based antidepressants, most patients require many weeks, if not months, to respond to these treatments, and many patients never attain sustained remission of their symptoms. The non-competitive glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist, (R,S)-ketamine (ketamine), exerts rapid and sustained antidepressant effects following a single dose in depressed patients. Here we show that the metabolism of ketamine to (2S,6S;2R,6R)-hydroxynorketamine (HNK) is essential for its antidepressant effects, and that the (2R,6R)-HNK enantiomer exerts behavioural, electroencephalographic, electrophysiological and cellular antidepressant actions in vivo. Notably, we demonstrate that these antidepressant actions are NMDAR inhibition-independent but they involve early and sustained α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid (AMPA) receptor activation. We also establish that (2R,6R)-HNK lacks ketamine-related side-effects. Our results indicate a novel mechanism underlying ketamine’s unique antidepressant properties, which involves the required activity of a distinct metabolite and is independent of NMDAR inhibition. These findings have relevance for the development of next generation, rapid-acting antidepressants

Is Scotland a Westminster-style Majoritarian Democracy or a Scandinavian-style Consensus Democracy? A Comparison of Scotland, the UK and Sweden

Peer reviewedPostprin

Trust in scientists and their role in society across 68 countries

Science is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in scientists can help decision makers act on the basis of the best available evidence, especially during crises. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public trust in scientists. We interrogated these concerns with a preregistered 68-country survey of 71,922 respondents and found that in most countries, most people trust scientists and agree that scientists should engage more in society and policymaking. We found variations between and within countries, which we explain with individual- and country-level variables, including political orientation. While there is no widespread lack of trust in scientists, we cannot discount the concern that lack of trust in scientists by even a small minority may affect considerations of scientific evidence in policymaking. These findings have implications for scientists and policymakers seeking to maintain and increase trust in scientists

Perceptions of science, science communication, and climate change attitudes in 68 countries – the TISP dataset

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as public health, new technologies or climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science-society nexus across different geographical and cultural contexts, we undertook a cross-sectional population survey resulting in a dataset of 71,922 participants in 68 countries. The data were collected between November 2022 and August 2023 as part of the global Many Labs study “Trust in Science and Science-Related Populism” (TISP). The questionnaire contained comprehensive measures for individuals’ trust in scientists, science-related populist attitudes, perceptions of the role of science in society, science media use and communication behaviour, attitudes to climate change and support for environmental policies, personality traits, political and religious views and demographic characteristics. Here, we describe the dataset, survey materials and psychometric properties of key variables. We encourage researchers to use this unique dataset for global comparative analyses on public perceptions of science and its role in society and policy-making