The Consequences of Authoritarian Populism in Britain

Authoritarian Populist was a label often hung on the Thatcher governments of the 1980s. Although the UK political landscape has changed enormously since 1990, the popular sentiments that underpinned Margaret Thatcher?s repeated electoral successes remain remarkably strong among British voters today. The paper uses extensive survey evidence to characterise what Authoritarian Populism means for voters in Britain today. The analysis shows that there is a coherent set of beliefs, held by a surprisingly large proportion of the UK electorate, which can reasonably be described as Authoritarian Pop ulist. These beliefs focus on the strong role that Britain should play in the world, cynicism about the operation of EU institutions, a virulent opposition to human rights, negative views towards immigration, and preferences for lower taxes and a smaller state. The analysis also shows that (controlling for a wide range of other relevant factors) these views have important consequences for patterns of party support, for likely voting in the forthcoming referendum on the EU, for (dis)satisfaction with Briti sh democracy, and for attitudes towards courts

The structure of foreign policy attitudes in transatlantic perspective: comparing the United States, United Kingdom, France, and Germany

This is the final version of the article. Available from Wiley via the DOI in this record.While public opinion about foreign policy has been studied extensively in the United States, there is less systematic research of foreign policy opinions in other countries. Given that public opinion about international affairs affects who gets elected in democracies and then constrains the foreign policies available to leaders once elected, both comparative politics and international relations scholarship benefit from more systematic investigation of foreign policy attitudes outside the US. Using new data, we find a common set of core constructs structuring both American and European attitudes about foreign policy. Surveys conducted in four countries (the US, the UK, France, and Germany) provide an expanded set of foreign policy-related survey items that are analyzed using exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM). We specifically test for measurement equivalence and find a common four-factor structure that fits the data in all four countries. Consequently, we make valid, direct comparisons of the foreign policy preferences of four world powers. In the process, our four-factor model confirms and expands previous work on the structure of foreign policy attitudes. We also demonstrate the capability of ESEM in testing the dimensionality and cross-national equivalence of social science concepts.Data collection was funded by a grant from the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom (RES-061-25-0405). All data supporting this research are available from the UK Data Archive (Study Number 851142): https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-851142/

The role of architectural reconstruction in a post-war context: the case of Mosul

This work addresses the topic of architectural reconstruction in a post-war context, in this case in Mosul, Iraq. Heavily damaged during the war against ISIS, the city faces the immense task of cleaning, restructuring, and rebuilding. The damaged buildings are diverse, but the ancient monuments require specific care as they carry the memory and the heritage of a traumatized community. Both in the cases of partial or complete destruction, the architectural intervention needs to face both cultural and the preservation dimensions of reconstruction. This approach is based on interventions in strategic neuralgic points for the community life such as the market, a religious structure, and the baths. These symbolic spaces host the social, economic, and religious activities that gather the inhabitants. They are also the stages of the traditions and cultural life of Mosul. The reconstitution of the inhabitants' habits and sense of community is centred around these locations and planned to spread around the urban fabric following the redevelopment of the city. Our three different sites are the Souk, the Great Mosque and the Hammam. These projects address several challenges: the construction of a new building inspired by the existing urban fabric, the partial reconstruction of an ancient monument and the construction of a new building in dialogue with existing Ottoman ruins. The balance between tradition and modernization; memory and oblivion; reconstruction and restoration is the focus of the paper

The Individual-Level Dynamics of Bounded Partisanship

Over the past half century, scholars have utilized a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches to study the attachment or identification voters have with political parties. However, models of partisan (in)stability ignore its bounded character. Making use of Mixed Latent Markov Models, we measure the change and stability of individual-level West German partisan identification captured over a 24-year period via the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSEOP). Results suggest that distinctive subpopulations exist that follow different patterns of partisan stability. One party’s loss is not necessarily another party’s gain

Comparison between manual scaling and Autoscala automatic scaling applied to Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory ionograms

This paper presents a comparison between standard ionospheric parameters manually and automatically scaled from ionograms recorded at the high-latitude Sodankylä Geophysical Observatory (SGO, ionosonde SO166, 64.1° geomagnetic latitude), located in the vicinity of the auroral oval. The study is based on 2610 ionograms recorded during the period June–December 2013. The automatic scaling was made by means of the Autoscala software. A few typical examples are shown to outline the method, and statistics are presented regarding the differences between manually and automatically scaled values of F2, F1, E and sporadic E (Es) layer parameters. We draw the conclusions that: 1. The F2 parameters scaled by Autoscala, foF2 and M(3000)F2, are reliable. 2. F1 is identified by Autoscala in significantly fewer cases (about 50 %) than in the manual routine, but if identified the values of foF1 are reliable. 3. Autoscala frequently (30% of the cases) detects an E layer when the manual scaling process does not. When identified by both methods, the Autoscala E-layer parameters are close to those manually scaled, foE agreeing to within 0.4 MHz. 4. Es and parameters of Es identified by Autoscala are in many cases different from those of the manual scaling. Scaling of Es at auroral latitudes is often a difficult task

NATO and CSDP: party and public positioning in Germany and France

This is the final version. Available on open access from the NATO Defense College via the link in this recordVolkswagen Foundatio

Extreme value and cluster analysis of European daily temperature series

Time series of daily mean temperature obtained from the European Climate Assessment data set is analyzed with respect to their extremal properties. A time-series clustering approach which combines Bayesian methodology, extreme value theory and classification techniques is adopted for the analysis of the regional variability of temperature extremes. The daily mean temperature records are clustered on the basis of their corresponding predictive distributions for 25-, 50- and 100-year return values. The results of the cluster analysis showa clear distinction between the highest altitude stations, for which the return values are lowest, and the remaining stations. Furthermore, a clear distinction is also found between the northernmost stations in Scandinavia and the stations in central and southern Europe. This spatial structure of the return period distributions for 25-, 50- and 100-years seems to be consistent with projected changes in the variability of temperature extremes over Europe pointing to a different behavior in central Europe than in northern Europe and the Mediterranean area, possibly related to the effect of soil moisture and land-atmosphere coupling.‘Acções Integradas Luso-Espanholas’ under the grants E-83/09 and HP2008- 008

EUROnu-WP6 2010 Report

This is a summary of the work done by the Working Package 6 (Physics) of the EU project "EUROnu" during the second year of activity of the project.Comment: 82 pages, 51 eps figure