How the next Spanish government might be formed after Spain’s election

Opinion polling suggests that it is unlikely any one party will gain a majority of seats in Spain’s general election on 20 December. Bonnie N. Field assesses the potential scenarios that could emerge in the aftermath of the vote. She writes that if a party system comprised of three or four significant statewide parties results from the elections, as polls indicate, it would transform Spain’s traditional dynamics of governance

Will the new Rajoy minority government in Spain work?

After almost a year of political deadlock, Mariano Rajoy has formed a new minority government in Spain, but how effective will this new government prove to be? Bonnie N. Field states that although previous minority governments have faced better governing conditions than the current one, the Rajoy government still has institutional advantages and some bargaining chips that it can use to its advantage

Finding a way out of the Catalan labyrinth

Almost four months after regional elections, Catalonia still has no government, and there is no end in sight in the stand-off over Catalan independence. Astrid Barrio and Bonnie N. Field write that there remain major international and judicial impediments to forming a new government, as well as notable splits in opinion within the pro-independence movement on the best strategy to pursue. And with political actors reaching an impasse, street protests and direct action initiatives have started to fill the vacuum

Without a drastic change in approach, further conflict appears inevitable in Catalonia

Following the Catalan independence referendum on 1 October, there are now concerns over what might happen next. Bonnie N. Field and Astrid Barrio write that a potential declaration of independence by the Catalan government could further escalate tensions and prompt an even more severe clash with the Spanish authorities. Yet without a change of leadership in either Madrid or Catalonia, calls for dialogue to find a consensual resolution to the crisis are likely to fall on deaf ears

Self-Determination and Student Involvement in Standards-Based Reform

Promoting self-determination has become best practice in the education of students with disabilities. We synthesize the decade\u27s work in this area as a foundation for considering issues pertaining to promoting self-determination in light of the current educational context. We particularly examine the role of promoting self-determination in light of federal standards-based reform initiatives. We conclude that school reform efforts provide an opportunity to infuse instruction in self-determination into the education programs of all students, including students with disabilities. Many state and local standards include a focus on component elements of self-determined behavior and promoting self-determination enables students to perform more effectively within other content domains. The importance of personnel preparation to enable teachers to promote self-determination is discussed

Descongelando la democracia: el descenso de la colaboración interpartidista en España

¿Debilitan necesariamente las transiciones pactadas el nivel de competición o competitividad (sustantivay conductivamente) entre los partidos políticos en la subsiguiente democracia? Este artículo demuestra—a través de un análisis de los votos de los diputados en el Congreso de los Diputados español entre1977 y 2004— que la transición pactada en España redujo inicialmente el grado de competitividadentre los partidos políticos, como indican las hipótesis sobre la democratización. Sin embargo, tambiénmuestra que la colaboración declinó precipitadamente a partir de los cinco años desde la transición y,excepto por un único incremento, declinó progresivamente durante los 27 años de democracia. Los datostambién demuestran que las políticas sustantivas recibieron significativamente menos apoyo interpartidistaque la legislación sobre las “reglas del juego” después de 1993. Estos resultados proporcionan losfundamentos para el argumento de que las transiciones pactadas no necesariamente impiden una políticamás competitiva y democráticamente representativa como se temía inicialmente

Is Spain’s popular party caught between a silent revolution and a silent counter-revolution?

Beginning in 2015, Spain’s Popular Party has experienced a dramatic fall in support. As part of a series on Europe’s mainstream right, Sonia Alonso Sáenz de Oger and Bonnie N. Field examine the roots of the party’s decline

VOX Spain: The Organisational Challenges of a New Radical Right Party

This article examines the organisation of VOX, a new radical right party in Spain. It shows that the party has taken early and uneven steps to build a mass organisation and initially opted for open membership recruitment with participatory organisational elements. Also, the party's rapid growth and quick entrance into political institutions at different state levels led the party leadership to establish more centralised control and limit members' prerogatives, though recruitment continued. Centralisation in part responds to organisational needs given the party’s quickly acquired political relevance, but also to the desire of the central party leadership to forestall the articulation of territorial interests, or prevent them from escaping their control. Today, VOX exhibits elements of mass party organisation and highly centralised decision-making in the hands of national party leaders

An evolutionarily-unique heterodimeric voltage-gated cation channel found in aphids

We describe the identification in aphids of a unique heterodimeric voltage-gated sodium channel which has an atypical ion selectivity filter and, unusually for insect channels, is highly insensitive to tetrodotoxin. We demonstrate that this channel has most likely arisen by adaptation (gene fission or duplication) of an invertebrate ancestral mono(hetero)meric channel. This is the only identifiable voltage-gated sodium channel homologue in the aphid genome(s), and the channel’s novel selectivity filter motif (DENS instead of the usual DEKA found in other eukaryotes) may result in a loss of sodium selectivity, as indicated experimentally in mutagenised Drosophila channels