When who and how matter: explaining the success of referendums in Europe

This article aims to identify the institutional factors that make a referendum successful. This comparative analysis seeks to explain the success of top-down referendums organized in Europe between 2001 and 2013. It argues and tests for the main effect of three institutional factors (popularity of the initiator, size of parliamentary majority, and political cues during referendum campaigns) and controls for the type of referendum and voter turnout. The analysis uses data collected from referendums and electoral databases, public opinion surveys, and newspaper articles. Results show that referendums proposed by a large parliamentary majority or with clear messages from political parties during campaign are likely to be successful

Liechtenstein – Stärke durch Vielfalt

"The publications of the interdisciplinary and internationally networked Research Platform “World Order – Religion – Violence” seek to improve our understanding of the relationship between religion, politics and violence. It therefore deals especially with the return of religious themes and symbols into politics, with the analysis of the link between political theory and religion, and finally with the critical discussion of the secularization thesis. At the centre of the research are questions concerning the causes of violent conflict, the possibilities for a just world order and the conditions for peaceful coexistence on a local, regional, national and international/worldwide scale between communities in the face of divergent religious and ideological convictions. Its task is to initiate and coordinate thematically related research-efforts from various disciplinary backgrounds at the University of Innsbruck. It creates a network between departments, research-teams and single researchers working on topics of religion, politics and violence. The overall aim of the research platform World Order-Religion-Violence is to promote excellence in social and human science research on religion and politics at the University of Innsbruck and to guarantee the diffusion of this particular competence on a national and international level.

Parlamentarische Untersuchungskommissionen in Liechtenstein, Österreich und der Schweiz

Untersuchungsausschüsse werden oft als „schärfstes Schwert des Parlaments“ bezeichnet. Dieses Arbeitspapier führt die parlamentarischen Untersuchungskommissionen einer eingehenden Untersuchung zu. Es vergleicht ihre Ausgestaltung und Arbeitsweise in Liechtenstein, Österreich und der Schweiz. Überdies listet es alle parlamentarischen Untersuchungskommissionen (PUK) auf, welche das liechtensteinische Parlament, der Landtag, je errichtet hat. Sowohl in Liechtenstein als auch in mehreren Schweizer Kantonen wurde in mehreren Fällen mangels Ressourcen auf die Errichtung einer Untersuchungskommission verzichtet. Während das Recht, eine Untersuchungskommission zu errichten, in Liechtenstein als Minderheitenrecht ausgestaltet ist, wird in der Schweiz die Zustimmung durch die Parlamentsmehrheit verlangt. Demgegenüber teilt Liechtenstein mit der Schweiz die Praxis, dass die Kommissionen geschlossen tagen. Anders ist die Regelung in Österreich, zumindest auf Ebene Bund. Dort sind die Verhandlungen der Untersuchungsausschüsse medienöffentlich. The parliamentary right to investigate the government is often said to be „the sharpest weapon of parliamentarianism‟. This working paper deals with the parliamentary commissions of inquiry. It compares the legal positions in Liechtenstein, Austria and Switzerland. In addition, it lists all the commissions which the Liechtenstein parliament has ever instituted. It appears that in both Liechtenstein and several Swiss cantons, the parliament has foregone the institution of a commission of inquiry on numerous occasions due to lack of resources. Whilst the right to appoint a parliamentary commission of inquiry is a minority right in Liechtenstein, in Switzerland it requires the approval of a majority in parliament. But Liechtenstein does share with Switzerland the provision that the commission’s proceedings take place behind closed doors. In Austria, on the other hand, such proceedings are open to the media, least at the federal level

Novel process-insensitive latchable 2 x 2 optical cross connector for single-and multimode optical MEMS fiber switches

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