Oral Questions in the European Parliament: A Network Analysis

Internal working structures within parliaments are notoriously hard to capture. While analyses based on bill co-sponsorship work for the US Congress, this approach is not feasible in many parliamentary systems. Drawing on data from the European Parliament's legislative term of 2009-2014 this article shows that parliamentary questions can be another option. Members of the European Parliament may demand information from the Council or the Commission through oral questions. We take advantage of the fact that these questions are signed by their authors and construct a social network of members of the Parliament that support each other's oral questions. This allows investigating how members and their groups and committees cooperate to control both Council and Commission. Our approach helps to map out the internal structure of the party groups and explore which forces shape the global network. We find that cooperation is mostly driven by party group membership with ALDE, Green/EFA, and GUENGL turning out as the most cohesive groups while SD is internally rather loosely connected. The second strongest clustering characteristic is a legislators' native country

Patterns of Publishing in Political Science Journals: An Overview of Our Profession Using Bibliographic Data and a Co-Authorship Network

We construct a co-authorship network of the global political science community. Two scientists are connected, if they have co-authored a paper. We draw on over 67,000 papers published 1990-2013 in one of today's 96 core journals. The network comprises over 40,000 authors located worldwide. We find that the community forms a single, interconnected component plus a large number of unconnected authors. While some are highly productive in terms of publications, the majority published just a single paper, suggesting a large amount of turnover in the community. Using information on the papers (e.g. title, journal, abstract), we trace out how different sub-communities organize and interconnect, how journals reach into the community and how individual scientists cooperate. We also investigate how the network has evolved during the last two decades. Our analysis is supplemented with a bibliographic nalysis that traces out major changes in publication patterns

Hierarchical, Decentralized, or Something Else? Opposition Networks in the German Bundestag

Members of the German parliament may force government to publicly answer questions by issuing minor interpellations (kleine Anfragen). We use 3,608 interpellations from the session 2009-13 that have been signed by authoring and supporting members to construct the social network of support relations among members within the three opposition parties. We find that parties differ markedly in terms of internal structure. While social democrats organize hierarchically, Greens cooperate horizontally. The network for socialist Linke in contrast shows signs of homophily and social segregation. Our approach yields a novel perspective on intraparty politics in parliamentary systems which are notoriously difficult to analyze

Beauty Contest Revisited: The Effects of Perceived Attractiveness, Competence, and Likability on the Electoral Success of German MPs

We test the effects of physical appearance on electoral outcomes for the 2013 German national elections. We find that a candidate's perceived attractiveness and, to a lesser extent, competence vis‐á‐vis his or her closest contestant increases the chances of winning a direct mandate, while likability plays a minor role. Additionally, we find the appearance effects to be conditioned by gender, age, and incumbency status. Our study advances existing research in four ways. First, we capture relative differences in appearances, which resembles real‐world situations more closely than absolute measures. Second, we proceed beyond a one‐dimensional assessment of appearance by simultaneously analyzing attractiveness, competence, and likability, including interactions. Third, the central role of parties in the German mixed electoral system makes an especially tough test for appearance‐based effects. Fourth, we use rater response latency to weight our measurement with an assessment of ambivalence

Koautorenschaften in der deutschsprachigen Politikwissenschaft - Eine Netzwerkanalyse auf Basis von Fachzeitschriftenartikeln

Employing bibliometric approaches and network analysis this article seeks to explore the cooperation structures within German Political Science. We analyze a dataset consisting of 5279 articles that were published between 2000 and 2011 in 20 journals. We find an extreme unequal distribution of productivity as well as a trend towards more coauthorships - although single authors are still the norm. The network we constructed based on joint publications is in many aspects similar to those structures known from the natural sciences, but it is much smaller and more fragmented - we only find three larger components (49-112 authors). Finally we measure the importance of a single author within the network using a newly developed index that takes account of a persons' productivity as well as her position within the network. Adapted from the source document

Brille, Blazer oder Bart? Das Aussehen als Determinante des Wahlerfolgs von Bundestags-Direktkandidaten

We analyze effects of physical appearance on electoral results. Existing work has so far mostly focused on direct effects of perceived attraction and paid little attention to both competence and likability and to the potential conditioning of effects. Using an online survey, we capture which direct candidate in the German general election 2013 was regarded as more attractive, competent or likable compared to his closest rival and what drives the impression (e.g. glasses, beard). We find that perceived competence and attractiveness have substantial direct effects on election results. Likability has a separate effect only among female competitors, young candidates profit disproportionally from both attractiveness and competence while for non-incumbents perceived attractiveness plays a role

On the role of inductive loops at low frequencies in PEM electrolysis

Inductive loops at low frequencies have been observed in the electrochemical impedance spectra (EIS) of various electrochemical cells. Although different physicochemical models for this phenomenon have been suggested in many other applications, this topic has not been widely discussed in the field of proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis. In this article, low-frequency inductive loops in PEM electrolysis cells and their impact on cell performance are analyzed. We show that this phenomenon is reproducible and occurs with different cell materials and setups. Its impact increases with increasing current density and decreasing temperature. At extreme conditions (7 A∙cm$^{−2}$, 40 °C) we show that the negative polarization resistance of the inductive process can exceed the capacitive polarization processes by a factor of three, resulting in a direct current resistance less than the high frequency series resistance of the cell

Une analyse écologique orientée vers des processus d’un système riverain dynamique: la rivière Allier aval (France)

International audienceRiparian ecosystems are highly dynamic ecosystems subjected to hydrogeomorphological processes. Their geomorphological, sedimentological and hydrological heterogeneity makes them one of the richest ecosystems in terms of species diversity. In addition, riparian zones also provide numerous ecosystem functions and services to society. In the European context, the lower river Allier (France) is one of the last remaining rivers with laterally dynamic sections. Its historical evaluation has shown repeated river bed displacements during the last century. Spatio-temporal processes on a highly mobile river section of the lower river Allier have been studied analysing the mosaic of vegetation types and successional phases as well as physical habitat parameters. Understanding riparian ecosystem functioning and evolution in natural or nearly natural systems is essential for river restoration practices in highly degraded rivers. This understanding may lead to the establishment of better sustainable river rehabilitation targets that consider societal needs and natural processes.Les écosystèmes riverains sont des écosystèmes dynamiques soumis aux processus hydrogéomorphologiques avec une forte hétérogénéité géomorphologique, sédimentologique et hydrologique et de nombreux services écosystémiques rendus à la société. Ils font partie des écosystèmes les plus riches en termes de diversité des espèces. Dans le contexte européen, la rivière Allier aval est une des dernières rivières avec des sections à forte mobilité latérale. L'analyse historique a démontré cette forte mobilité latérale des chenaux durant le siècle dernier. Des processus spatio-temporels d'une section de rivière très mobile ont été étudiés à travers l'analyse de la mosaïque des types de végétation, les phases de succession, ainsi que les paramètres physiques des habitats. Comprendre le fonctionnement et l'évolution des écosystèmes riverains dans des systèmes naturels ou proche de l'état naturel est essentiel pour la restauration des cours d'eau très dégradées, afin de permettre la mise en place de stratégies de réhabilitions durables qui considèrent les besoins de la société et les processus naturels