Affordability of complementary health insurance in France : a social experiment.

In order to improve financial access to complementary health insurance (CHI) in France, a CHI voucher program, called Aide Complémentaire Santé (ACS) was introduced in 2005. Four years later, the program covered only 18% of the eligible population. Two main hypotheses are put forward to account for this low take-up rate. The first one is related to the lack of information on the program itself and on its application process. While the second one considers that the amount of the financial support is too small to encourage people to purchase a CHI plan. We conduct a controlled experiment with the National Health Insurance Fund in order to assess these assumptions. A sample of eligible insurees living in an urban area in northern France were randomly split into three groups: a control group who received the standard level of financial aid, a group benefiting from a 75% voucher increase, and a third group benefiting from the same 75% voucher increase plus an invitation to an information meeting on ACS. After six months of follow-up, we observed how many application forms were sent back and how many of them entitled to ACS. Five main conclusions can be drawn from that analysis. (1) The voucher increase has a slight but statistically significant effect on ACS take-up. (2) It also allows better targeting of people actually eligible and thus reduces the number of ACS refusals due to resources above the upper limit. (3) However the invitation to the meeting seems unexpectedly to cancel the positive effect of the voucher increase when both treatments are applied jointly. (4) On the contrary, after controlling for potential selection bias, we observed that attending the briefing has a significant impact on ACS take-up. (5) This study confirms that ACS is complex and reaches poorly its target population. Only 17% of the insurees applied for ACS and only 9% of insures who were invited to the information briefing actually attended it. Moreover, previous CHI holders responded similarly to CHI non holders to treatments, which suggests that the central issue of ACS low take-up rate is not the CHI cost itself but most certainly the access to information, the burden and the complexity of the application process.France; Subsidized Health insurance; low-income population; uninsured; randomized experiment;

The Fourth Amendment Protection Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures and the French Experience

Under the American approach to criminal justice, freedom of the individual is of the utmost importance. The American criminal justice system reflects a distrust of abuse of power and an emphasis on protection of personal freedom. However, the French take a contrary approach; under French law, freedom is achieved through the State. This paper examines the protection of individuals’ rights in American and French criminal procedure. Focus will be given to tracking the police investigatory powers in each country through searches and seizures, and the impact that those powers have on individuals’ rights. This paper will assert that the police investigatory function threatens individuals’ rights in both the United States and French

What political discussion means and how do the French and (French speaking) Belgians deal with it

The propensity of citizens to engage in political discussion is classically considered to be a basic component of democratic political systems (Lane, 1961; Almond & Verba, 1963). However, the renewal of academic interest in political discussion over the last two decades has been stimulated by research focused both on political participation and deliberative democracy. In the current debate over the consequences of everyday political discussion on citizens and democracy, the most common way to conduct research is to base it on declarations and find out patterns of causality between, on the one hand, how much citizens say they talk politics and with whom, and on the other hand, respondents’ characteristics (Mutz, 2004; Searing et alii, 2008; Huckfeldt and Mendez, 2008). Other researchers try to find out more precisely what these discussions are really made up of, what they are like, how citizens manage to discuss politics with others. There are different methods to approach this question: asking people to tell us about it (Conover, Searing and Crewe, 2002), observing people discussing politics (Gamson, 1992, Cramer Walsh, 2004), or both (Eliasoph, 1998). Our contribution belongs to the second category: we conducted focus groups in order to observe how “ordinary” citizens discuss politics. The design of this project differs from others notably because we set up the discussion in such a way that participants knew they were expected to discuss politics, but we then let them free to do it in their own way (or not). We will present and explain the research design in the first section of the paper. Our analysis of how participants did talk politics emphasises two processes: a process that which recalls deliberation, as debated in the framework of deliberative democracy, because it is a cooperative process of opinion building; another process that we call “conflictualisation” (section 2). We will explain how these two processes involve “raw material” of different natures, respectively opinions and cleavages (section 3). What chiefly characterises political discussion among ordinary citizens is the combination of these two processes, which can take different shapes (section 4). In the last and fifth section of this article, we will suggest some hypotheses regarding the influence of different social backgrounds and national contexts on the interweaving of cooperation and conflictualisation in citizens’ political talk.1. Introduction: Political Discussion in Modern Democracies from a Comparative Perspective Michael R. Wolf and Ken’ichi Ikeda Part 1: Deliberation and Discussion as the Object of Analysis 2. Dissecting Deliberative Democracy: A Review of Theoretical Concepts and Empirical Findings André Bächtiger and Seraina Pedrini 3. The Equality Paradox of Deliberative Democracy: Evidence from a National Deliberative Poll Kasper Møller Hansen 4. What Political Discussion Means and How Do the French and (French-Speaking) Belgians Deal with It? Sophie Duchesne and Florence Haegel 5. Participatory Budgeting, Discussion Networks and Political Information in Two Brazilian Cities Lucio R. Renno and Barry Ames 6. Local Partisan Context and Political Discussion Network Construction: Minority Party Loyalty Under Challenge Michael R. Wolf 7. Voters' Political Conversations During the 2005 German Parliamentary Election Campaign Thorsten Faas and Rüdiger Schmitt-Beck Part 2: The Consequences of Discussion and Deliberation 8. The Consequences of Discussion and Deliberation within Networks: An Introduction Ken’ichi Ikeda and Robert Huckfeldt 9. The Impact of Everyday Political Talk on Involvement, Knowledge and Informed Voting Gabor Toka 10. Patterns of Support for the Welfare State: The Role of Media and Interpersonal Communication in Direct Democratic Votes in Switzerland (1996-2004) Lionel Marquis 11. Social Networks, Voting and Campaign Participation in Japan: The Interpersonal Political Environment and the Autonomous Dimension of Social Networks Ken'ichi Ikeda 12. The Role of Political Discussion in Developing Democracies: Evidence from Hungary Oana Lup 13. Getting a Single Message? The Impact of Homogeneous Political Communication Contexts in Spain in a Comparative Perspective Laura Morales 14. Conclusion: Assessing the Role of Political Discussion in Democratic Politics in Comparative Perspective Ken’ichi Ikeda and Laura Morale

Entretiens dans la cité. Ou comment la parole se politise

L'objectif de cet article est d'élaborer une grille de repérage du processus de politisation en référence non pas à la scène politique institutionnelle, mais à la montée en généralité et à la prise de position dans un clivage qui préside à l'expression d'une opinion politique. L'application de cette grille aux entretiens effectués dans une cité de banlieue permet de mettre en lumière la relative autonomie de la politisation par rapport à la connaissance spécialisée, les diverses ressources mobilisées à cet effet par les acteurs sociaux et la variété des combinaisons idéologiques

La politisation des discussions, au croisement des logiques de spécialisation et de conflictualisation

Ce texte rend compte d’une analyse menée sur un corpus expérimental d’entretiens collectifs sur la délinquance, à partir d’une double distinction : entre les logiques de spécialisation et de conflictualisation fondatrices des phénomènes de politisation, et, dans l’étude de la spécialisation, entre la connaissance de l’action publique et de la compétition politique. Il montre comment la conflictualisation procède d’une imbrication forte de l’individuel et du collectif et comment l’implication politique procède d’une certaine hiérarchisation des identifications ou appartenances. Ces groupes conduisent aussi à identifier un habitus compétitif que génère une compétence nourrie de références aux acteurs et aux codes de la compétition politique et qui ne vient pas consolider l’implication, contrairement à la compétence fondée sur l’expérience de l’action publique.This article gives an account of an experimental research conducted on focus groups on the subject of delinquency. The analysis is based on a double distinction : between the dynamics of specialization and conflictualisation constituent of politicisation processes ; and within the field of specialization, between the knowledge of policy and politics. As a result, the conflictualisation of discussions appears as the result of intermingling collective and individual postures. Similarly, political involvement is the product of a hierarchical organization of identifications. The focus groups also disclose a « competitive habitus » based on political competence referred to the actors and codes of politics, which does not support involvement ; while political competence based on the experience of policies does enhance conflictualisation and involvement

Avoiding or Accepting Conflict in Public Talk

This article gives an account of experimental research conducted in France with focus groups on delinquency. It is based on theoretical work which shows how the political is partly a mode of expression as well as a way of addressing conflict. An empirical analysis is presented of how people take or resist the risk of conflict in public discussion over social issues. The group discussions corroborate previous insights by attesting that conflict in public discussion is generally latent and often repressed. Specific analysis follows of those processes that contribute to the rare transformation from latent to overt conflict, highlighting the evidence that the public expression of conflict proceeds from participants' alliances and biographical narratives. Moreover, a certain hierarchy of social identification is seen among the participants. The influence of political competence on political implication is complex

Politisation et conflictualisation : de la compétence à l’implication

Les commentateurs de la vie politique française soulignent de façon récurrente la dégradation apparente du rapport que les citoyens entretiennent avec la politique. La mauvaise qualité de cette relation transparaîtrait à la fois dans le retrait d’un nombre inquiétant de citoyens des modes institutionnellement réglés de la participation démocratique – montée des niveaux d’abstention électorale, reflux de l’appartenance aux organisations reconnues comme les acteurs de la scène politique, à savoir les partis et les syndicats – et dans les propos, fortement critiques, régulièrement tenus par ceux que l’on interroge sur la politique. Cependant, il est difficile de savoir dans quelle mesure la réponse des citoyens aux sollicitations du système politique rend effectivement compte d’une dégradation du rapport profond qu’ils entretiennent avec le politique. Alors même que de l’analyse que l’on fait de la manière dont se constitue le rapport des citoyens au politique dépend une partie du jugement que l’on porte sur le fonctionnement des sociétés démocratiques (...)

Poids du contexte sur la répartition noms/verbes dans le langage adressé à l’enfant en français et en turc

Les recherches translinguistiques sur le développement du lexique chez l’enfant dégagent des similitudes dans la trajectoire et la composition du vocabulaire durant la deuxième année de vie de l’enfant. Un des faits observés chez la plupart des enfants est une plus grande utilisation des noms (biais nominal) par rapport aux autres catégories lexicales. Ce phénomène de biais nominal a reçu des explications de nature conceptuelle, linguistique ou contextuelle. Mais, rares sont les travaux à avoir envisagé les explications de manière simultanée sur les mêmes sujets. Par ailleurs, ces études se sont concentrées presque exclusivement sur des langues indo-européennes ou asiatiques limitant par la même la généralisation des résultats. Nos travaux tendent à vérifier les explications linguistiques et contextuelles en examinant les caractéristiques du discours adressé à l’enfant dans deux situations de communication (lecture d’album et jeu avec maison de poupée) et deux langues (français et turc). Dans ce travail, nous cherchons à expliquer la répartition lexicale chez les enfants français et turcs au début du développement. Nous nous intéressons en particulier à la distribution et à la position des verbes et des noms dans l’input maternel. Ces caractéristiques changent-elles ou restent-elles les mêmes en fonction de la situation ? Ces caractéristiques sont-elles les mêmes ou sont-elles différentes d’une langue à l’autre

Sur l’interprétation des entretiens de recherche

Dans son article : "Sur l'utilisation de l'entretien non directif en sociologie", Guy Michelat a explicité et justifié le recours à cette technique d'enquête. Après avoir suivi ses enseignements, travaillé avec lui et utilisé dans nos propres recherches cette méthode d'investigation, nous avons voulu saisir l'occasion de cet ouvrage pour confronter nos expériences et nos manières de faire afin de revenir sur quelques unes des questions qu'appelle la mise en oeuvre de cette méthode ; ce faisant, nous tenterons d'approfondir les enjeux épistémologiques qu'elle soulève et la portée heuristique de son utilisation. [Premières lignes du chapitre

A two-step lyssavirus real-time polymerase chain reaction using degenerate primers with superior sensitivity to the fluorescent antigen test

A generic two-step lyssavirus real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR), based on a nested PCR strategy, was validated for the detection of different lyssavirus species. Primers with 17 to 30% of degenerate bases were used in both consecutive steps. The assay could accurately detect RABV, LBV, MOKV, DUVV, EBLV-1, EBLV-2, and ABLV. In silico sequence alignment showed a functional match with the remaining lyssavirus species. The diagnostic specificity was 100% and the sensitivity proved to be superior to that of the fluorescent antigen test. The limit of detection was <= 1 50% tissue culture infectious dose. The related vesicular stomatitis virus was not recognized, confirming the selectivity for lyssaviruses. The assay was applied to follow the evolution of rabies virus infection in the brain of mice from 0 to 10 days after intranasal inoculation. The obtained RNA curve corresponded well with the curves obtained by a one-step monospecific RABV-qRT-PCR, the fluorescent antigen test, and virus titration. Despite the presence of degenerate bases, the assay proved to be highly sensitive, specific, and reproducible