Introduction: Political representation in France and Germany

This book is about political representation in France and Germany. It explores and compares what French and German Members of Parliament (MPs) think about representation and their roles as representatives, how they organize their interactions with the electorate at the district level and how citizens perceive and assess the quality of the representation process in these two large West European democracies. These issues deserve scholarly interest for several reasons. The questions as to whether, to what degree and in what respect the elected MPs perceive themselves as representatives of the political community, and what a “good representative” should look like in the eyes of the citizens, are at the core of normative theories of representative democracy. However, as already shown in Hanna Pitkin’s (1967) pioneering work, representation is not an uncontested concept, and questions concerning the quality of representation have not only been addressed by many works on theories of democracy, but have also received attention in a plethora of empirical research

Citizens and Representatives in France and Germany

CITOYENS ET PARLEMENTAIRES EN ALLEMAGNE ET EN FRANC

Political representation in France and Germany: attitudes and activities of citizens and MPs

Notwithstanding its contemporary critics, political representation remains at the core of democratic politics. Based on a comparative research project that gathered data from observations, surveys, experiments and expert interviews, this book examines the process and the quality of political representation in France and Germany from a dual perspective. First, it analyzes MPs’ behavior during their district activities. Second, it investigates the perceptions and evaluations of the represented, the French and German citizens. In ten chapters different facets of MPs’ activities as well as citizens’ attitudes are comparatively investigated. The book is relevant for Politics scholars and practitioners at national parliaments to better understand representative democracies, and it may also contribute to improve representation itself

Citizens and Representatives in France and Germany

CITOYENS ET PARLEMENTAIRES EN ALLEMAGNE ET EN FRANC

Nordic Snow Radar Experiment

The objective of the Nordic Snow Radar Experiment (NoSREx) campaign was to provide a continuous time series of active and passive microwave observations of snow cover at a representative location of the Arctic boreal forest area, covering a whole winter season. The activity was a part of Phase A studies for the ESA Earth Explorer 7 candidate mission CoReH2O (Cold Regions Hydrology High-resolution Observatory). <br><br> The NoSREx campaign, conducted at the Finnish Meteorological Institute Arctic Research Centre (FMI-ARC) in Sodankylä, Finland, hosted a frequency scanning scatterometer operating at frequencies from X- to Ku-band. The radar observations were complemented by a microwave dual-polarization radiometer system operating from X- to W-bands. In situ measurements consisted of manual snow pit measurements at the main test site as well as extensive automated measurements on snow, ground and meteorological parameters. <br><br> This study provides a summary of the obtained data, detailing measurement protocols for each microwave instrument and in situ reference data. A first analysis of the microwave signatures against snow parameters is given, also comparing observed radar backscattering and microwave emission to predictions of an active/passive forward model. <br><br> All data, including the raw data observations, are available for research purposes through the European Space Agency and the Finnish Meteorological Institute. A consolidated dataset of observations, comprising the key microwave and in situ observations, is provided through the ESA campaign data portal to enable easy access to the data