E-democracy: exploring the current stage of e-government

Governments around the world have been pressured to implement e-Government programs in order to improve the government-citizen dialogue. The authors of this article review prior literature on such efforts to find if they lead to increased democratic participation ("e-Democracy") for the affected citizens, with a focus on the key concepts of transparency, openness, and engagement. The authors find that such efforts are a starting point toward e-Democracy, but the journey is far from complete

Sudden Collapse of a Granular Cluster

Single clusters in a vibro-fluidized granular gas in N connected compartments become unstable at strong shaking. They are experimentally shown to collapse very abruptly. The observed cluster lifetime (as a function of the driving intensity) is analytically calculated within a flux model, making use of the self-similarity of the process. After collapse, the cluster diffuses out into the uniform distribution in a self-similar way, with an anomalous diffusion exponent 1/3.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Figure quality has been reduced in order to decrease file-siz

Effects of light and soil flooding on the growth and photosynthesis of ramin (Gonystylus bancanus) seedlings in Malaysia

We studied the ecophysiology of ramin (Gonystylus bancanus) seedlings in an experimental set up at the Forest Research Centre in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Ramin seedlings were grown on flooded and drained peat soil under 100, 76, 46 and 23% sunlight, thus simulating effects of different light conditions (canopy gap size) and drainage that occur in natural ramin populations. Seedling growth was highest in partial sunlight (76%) and reduced with reducing light levels. Aboveground productivity and fine root development were significantly higher in seedlings grown on flooded soil compared with those on drained soil. In contrast, investment in coarse root biomass was significantly higher in seedlings grown on drained soil. It appeared that the aboveground growth benefits in flooded conditions were the result of more advantageous conditions for allocation of carbon to leaves, thus enhancing overall relative growth rates through higher light interception rates despite lower photosynthetic capacity. The results of this experiment suggested that drainage of peat swamp forests would seriously hamper natural regeneration of ramin by limiting the growth of seedlings. It is also suggested that selective logging operations which produce medium-size canopy gaps improve ramin regeneration in hydrologically undisturbed mixed swamp forest

Appeals to the people:A content analysis of references to the people in traditional media, social media, and parliamentary materials

Political representation lies at the heart of representative democracy. In order to signal their connection to the people they are representing, politicians often refer to “the people.” In this study, we focus on how politicians refer to the people and how this varies across three main platforms of communication differing in access and formality: news media, social media, and the parliament. Through an in-depth content analysis of news articles, politicians’ social media posts and parliamentary speeches (N = 1668), we examine how Dutch politicians address the people in terms of “advocacy” for the people and in “opposition” to other actors; which politicians most commonly refer to the people; which communication platforms are predominantly used for this, and whether these references to the people vary across time. We find that references to the people did not differ between election and non-election years. Yet, parties and communication platform both play important roles: references to the people manifest themselves more frequently in social media and in communication from politicians from parties on the left as well as those scoring higher on the populism scale. We also find that there is little variation in advocative references to the people, while communication that includes oppositional references is more prominent among populist actors and those positioned on the political left