Candidate, Political

A political candidate is the person who strives to win political offices, essentially through electoral procedures. The word originates from the Latin candidatus, \u201cman in white,\u201d referring to the white robe (toga) that Romans standing for a public office used to wear, which symbolized the untarnished moral qualities that were considered to be the indispensable characteristics of a political man. David Easton\u2019s analytical framework (1965) offers the best way to approach the subject. The \u201ccandidate\u201d can be located in the fragile interconnection point that joins the flow of demands and support from the environment to the political system. Before their (first) candidacy, all candidates are part of the political community. Then, as candidates, they play the role of input carriers. They are messengers carrying demands, who strive for the support of the voters and of the political community at large. Finally, if elected, they form part of the authorities who convert demands into outputs, that is, who make legally binding decisions. The input\u2013output process involves some procedures and some \u201crules of the game\u201d that, according to Easton, are part of the regime and regulate the processes leading to a member of the political community being selected as a candidate and, if elected, becoming part of the authorities

Deliberative polls

Deliberative polls are an instrument whose aim is to provide a more accurate, scientific representation of public opinion based on information and careful consideration rather than on \u201ctop of the head\u201d opinions. By exposing random samples of population to balanced information and opposing arguments, people are encouraged to challenge their embedded opinions by discussing with heterogeneous interlocutors having divergent points of view. The resulting change in opinion represents the conclusions the public would reach, if the people had the opportunity to become more informed and involved by the issues

Vent’anni di elezione diretta del sindaco a Bologna

The article retraces the last 20 years of direct mayoral election in Bologna. It shows how the changes in institutional and electoral settings influenced both the party system and voters' electoral responses. By analysing the electoral history of the city, we also show that personalization raised, electoral competition became more (bi)polarized, electoral turnout gradually decreased, voting results became less and less predictable attenuating Bologna past exceptionalism. This article fills a gap in a literature that has not yet offered a longitudinal study of electoral changes in Bologna since the 1990s. More precisely, the article gives an analysis of both the political supply and the electoral flows to understand how party system has changed and if and how voters have become more mobile

The 2018 Italian General Elections: Focus on immigration

The previous report (ISMU Foundation, 2018) analysed the relationship between immigration and politics in light of the results of the political elections that took place in 2017 in a number of European states (France, Germany, Holland and the United King-dom). Similarly, this chapter will present some results from the analysis of the electoral programmes of the main competing parties in the Italian elections of 4 March 2018. We will focus particularly on two issues: attitudes towards migration and the European Un-ion. After presenting the electoral results, we shall analyse the same issues within the so-called \u201cgovernment contract\u201d drafted and signed by the two political forces, the MS5 (the Five Star Movement) and the Lega (the League) that, at the beginning of the legisla-ture, formed a new and unprecedented majority

Italian politics in an era of recession : the end of bipolarism?

Italian politics have undergone momentous change in the 2007–2017 decade under the impact of the eurozone crisis, whose peak in 2011–2013 could be equated to the earlier watershed years of 1992–1994. The lasting impact of the upheaval in Italian politics in the early 1990s could still be felt in the decade of economic recession, but there were also new challenges prompted by a crisis that had its roots in international financial contagion and which unravelled under the shadow of both recession and austerity. The changes were of an economic, social, cultural, institutional, policy-oriented and political nature. If one central quintessentially political theme stands out by the end of this decade it is the apparent exhaustion of the quest for bipolarisation that was initiated in the early 1990s

Turnout and voting behaviour in constitutional referendums: a regional analysis of the Italian case

This paper investigates regional disparities of both turnout and voting behaviour in constitutional referendums. The analysis is undertaken at the NUTS-3 level and it considers the three constitutional referendums held in Italy in the period 2001–2016. It finds that turnout was lower in provinces with higher unemployment rates and where citizens had a stronger affiliation to opposition parties. These factors, along with level of government popularity, were important drivers of referendum results, especially in 2006 and 2016 when the referendums were rejected. In addition, while the three referendums implied different effects for rich and poor regions, mainly due to decentralization of powers, the local voting patterns did not reflect this. Overall, these findings suggest that the merit of the constitutional reforms played little part in explaining the outcome of the referendums

A universal two-way approach for estimating unknown frequencies for unknown number of sinusoids in a signal based on eigenspace analysis of Hankel matrix

YesWe develop a novel approach to estimate the n unknown constituent frequencies of a noiseless signal that comprises of unknown number, n, of sinusoids of unknown phases and unknown amplitudes. The new two way approach uses two constraints to accurately estimate the unknown frequencies of the sinusoidal components in a signal. The new approach serves as a verification test for the estimated unknown frequencies through the estimated count of the unknown number of frequencies. The Hankel matrix, of the time domain samples of the signal, is used as a basis for further analysis in the Pisarenko harmonic decomposition. The new constraints, the Existence Factor (EF) and the Component Factor (CF), have been introduced in the methodology based on the relationships between the components of the sinusoidal signal and the eigenspace of the Hankel matrix. The performance of the developed approach has been tested to correctly estimate any number of frequencies within a signal with or without a fixed unknown bias. The method has also been tested to accurately estimate the very closely spaced low frequencies.Innovate U

Long-term evaluation of coronary artery calcifications in kidney transplanted patients : a follow up of 5 years

Coronary artery calcifications(CACs), are related to the increased cardiovascular mortality during kidney transplantation(KTx). Using coronary-CT performed at 1 month(T0) and 5 years(T5) after KTx we evaluated: (1) the prevalence of CACs; (2) the clinical and biochemical factors related to CACs; 3) the factors implicated with CACs progression. We evaluated 67-pts selected from the 103-pts transplanted in our unit between 2007 and 2008. Clinical and biochemical parameters were recorded at the time of pre-KTx evaluation and for five years after KTx. Coronary-CT for the Agatson score (AS) evaluation was performed at T0 and at T5, and CACs progression was determined. At baseline AS was 45 [0-233]. At T5 AS was 119 [1-413]. At T0, 69% of patients had CACs. Age and dialytic vintage were the main independent variables related to CACs. At T5, CACs were present in 76% of patients. Age was the only independent factor in determining CACs. A progression of CACs was observed in 74% of patients. They were older, had higher CACs-T0 and higher SBP throughout the 5-years. The presence of CACs at T0 and age were the only independent factors in determining the CACs-progression. CACs-T0 had the best discriminative power for CACs progression. CACs prevalence is quite high in KTx patients; Age is strictly related to CACs; Age and the presence of CACs at baseline were the two major factors associated with the progression of CACs during the five years of follow up. CACs-T0 had the best discriminative power for progression of CACs

Organizing national responses for rare blood disorders: the Italian experience with sickle cell disease in childhood

Background Sickle cell disease (SCD) is the most frequent hemoglobinopathy worldwide but remains a rare blood disorder in most western countries. Recommendations for standard of care have been produced in the United States, the United Kingdom and France, where this disease is relatively frequent because of earlier immigration from Africa. These recommendations have changed the clinical course of SCD but can be difficult to apply in other contexts. The Italian Association of Pediatric Hematology Oncology (AIEOP) decided to develop a common national response to the rising number of SCD patients in Italy with the following objectives: 1) to create a national working group focused on pediatric SCD, and 2) to develop tailored guidelines for the management of SCD that could be accessed and practiced by those involved in the care of children with SCD in Italy. Methods Guidelines, adapted to the Italian social context and health system, were developed by 22 pediatric hematologists representing 54 AIEOP centers across Italy. The group met five times for a total of 128 hours in 22 months; documents and opinions were circulated via web. Results Recommendations regarding the prevention and treatment of the most relevant complications of SCD in childhood adapted to the Italian context and health system were produced. For each topic, a pathway of diagnosis and care is detailed, and a selection of health management issues crucial to Italy or different from other countries is described (i.e., use of alternatives for infection prophylaxis because of the lack of oral penicillin in Italy). Conclusions Creating a network of physicians involved in the day-to-day care of children with SCD is feasible in a country where it remains rare. Providing hematologists, primary and secondary care physicians, and caregivers across the country with web-based guidelines for the management of SCD tailored to the Italian context is the first step in building a sustainable response to a rare but emerging childhood blood disorder and in implementing the World Health Organization\u2019s suggestion \u201cto design (and) implement \u2026 comprehensive national integrated programs for the prevention and management of SCD"