The citizen lobby: from capacity to influence

The Internet holds endless opportunities for exchange and dialogue and the promise of developing a better democratic model. Day-to-day politics are largely driven by economic lobbies in the interest of what Habermas calls their "generalised particularism," the threat to take jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. Citizens' influence over politicians is twofold: they are asked for their input in elections, referenda, online consultations and surveys, and citizens can initiate issues where they see political action needed. Yet these "participative forces," including NGOs, street rallies and charities, regularly fail to reach the ears of elected politicians as effectively as those of well-funded corporate lobbies. Also, this type of voluntary engagement often falls short of presenting the kind of reasoned challenges to the incumbents - by the electorate - that Habermas' communicative action aimed at. A more powerful model would therefore organise the efforts of the electorate in a way that both generates those reasoned arguments, which, as Habermas quite correctly pointed out differ from mere opinions, and delivers them to the elected politicians in a manner they can neither refuse nor ignore. This is what the Citizen Lobby intends to do

Citizen Lobby

The Internet holds endless opportunities for exchange and dialogue and the promise of developing a better democratic model. Day-to-day politics are largely driven by economic lobbies in the interest of what Habermas calls their „generalised particularism,“ the threat to take jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. Citizens’ influence over politicians is twofold: they are asked for their input in elections, referenda, online consultations and surveys, and citizens can initiate issues where they see political action needed. Yet these “participative forces,” including NGOs, street rallies and charities, regularly fail to reach the ears of elected politicians as effectively as those of well-funded corporate lobbies. Also, this type of voluntary engagement often falls short of presenting the kind of reasoned challenges to the incumbents—by the electorate—that Habermas’ communicative action aimed at. A more powerful model would therefore organise the efforts of the electorate in a way that both generates those reasoned arguments, which, as Habermas quite correctly pointed out differ from mere opinions, and delivers them to the elected politicians in a manner they can neither refuse nor ignore. This is what the Citizen Lobby intends to do

Citizen Lobby

The Internet holds endless opportunities for exchange and dialogue and the promise of developing a better democratic model. Day-to-day politics are largely driven by economic lobbies in the interest of what Habermas calls their „generalised particularism,“ the threat to take jobs and tax revenues elsewhere. Citizens’ influence over politicians is twofold: they are asked for their input in elections, referenda, online consultations and surveys, and citizens can initiate issues where they see political action needed. Yet these “participative forces,” including NGOs, street rallies and charities, regularly fail to reach the ears of elected politicians as effectively as those of well-funded corporate lobbies. Also, this type of voluntary engagement often falls short of presenting the kind of reasoned challenges to the incumbents—by the electorate—that Habermas’ communicative action aimed at. A more powerful model would therefore organise the efforts of the electorate in a way that both generates those reasoned arguments, which, as Habermas quite correctly pointed out differ from mere opinions, and delivers them to the elected politicians in a manner they can neither refuse nor ignore. This is what the Citizen Lobby intends to do

Local E-Government in Norway: Current Status and Emerging Issues

Recent studies indicate that e-government initiatives have not held their promise of improving government services. The majority of efforts to benchmark e-government have had central government as the unit of analysis. This study employs the MeGAP-3 (The Municipal E-Government Assessmen Project) assessment tool to assess the status of municipal e-government in the Agder region in southern Norway, an area with high Internet penetration and mature information and communication technology (ICT) use. MeGAP-3 proved effective in providing a relative positioning of these Norwegian municipalities, but we argue that country specific assessment indicators are needed to complement the tool and enable cross-country comparisons by relative scores. Surprisingly, the results show that the sophistication of local government web sites was fairly low. A series of qualitative interviews were conducted to explore the factors that shape the development of municipal egovernment. The evidence suggests that the dominant stakeholder in development is the bureaucratic administration rather than citizens or politicians. This group has a strong focus on internal efficiency and cost reduction. The majority of respondents report cost reduction as the major driver behind egovernment development. However we also identified a more citizen-centric approach that stresses the need for improving access and service quality for citizens. The study outlines a number of areas where further research will be needed to fully understand the development of e-government in Norway

High-pressure phase transition and properties of spinel ZnMn2O4

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, magnetic measurements, and a single-crystal x-ray structure determination at normal pressure have shown that Jahn-Teller active manganese ions in ZnMn2O4 are present in one valence state (III) on the octahedral sites of the spinel structure. The high-pressure behavior of ZnMn2O4 was investigated up to 52 GPa using the energy-dispersive x-ray diffraction technique and synchrotron radiation. The structural first-order phase transition from the body-centered to primitive-tetragonal cell takes place at Pc=23GPa. The high-pressure phase is metastable down to normal pressure. The c/a ratio reduces from 1.62 to 1.10 above Pc and remains nearly pressure independent in the high-pressure phase. The transition is attributed to the changes in electron configuration of the Mn3+ ions. According to the crystal field theory, the eg electron of octahedrally coordinated Mn3+ is either in the d2z orbital or in the dx2−y2. In the first configuration the MnO6octahedron will be elongated and this is the case at normal pressure, while the second configuration gives the flattened octahedron. In the high-pressure phase some proportion of the eg electrons of the Mn3+ ions is moved to the dx2−y2 level, which is revealed as an abrupt fall of observed magnitude of the distortion of the bulk crystal above Pc

Life history and demographic determinants of effective/census size ratios as exemplified by brown trout (Salmo trutta)

A number of demographic factors, many of which related to human-driven encroachments, are predicted to decrease the effective population size (Ne) relative to the census population size (N), but these have been little investigated. Yet, it is necessary to know which factors most strongly impact Ne, and how to mitigate these effects through sound management actions. In this study, we use parentage analysis of a stream-living brown trout (Salmo trutta) population to quantify the effect of between-individual variance in reproductive success on the effective number of breeders (Nb) relative to the census number of breeders (Ni). Comprehensive estimates of the Nb/N ratio were reduced to 0.16–0.28, almost entirely due to larger than binomial variance in family size. We used computer simulations, based on empirical estimates of age-specific survival and fecundity rates, to assess the effect of repeat spawning (iteroparity) on Ne and found that the variance in lifetime reproductive success was substantially higher for repeat spawners. Random family-specific survival, on the other hand, acts to buffer these effects. We discuss the implications of these findings for the management of small populations, where maintaining high and stable levels of Ne is crucial to extenuate inbreeding and protect genetic variability.publishedVersio

Assessing safety climate in prehospital settings: Testing psychometric properties of a common structural model in a cross-sectional and prospective study

Background Little research exists on patient safety climate in the prehospital context. The purpose of this article is to test and validate a safety climate measurement model for the prehospital environment, and to explore and develop a theoretical model measuring associations between safety climate factors and the outcome variable transitions and handoffs. Methods A web-based survey design was utilized. An adjusted short version of the instrument Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) was developed into a hypothetical structural model. Three samples were obtained. Two from air ambulance workers in 2012 and 2016, with respectively 83 and 55% response rate, and the third from the ground ambulance workers in 2016, with 26% response rate. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was applied to test validity and psychometric properties. Internal consistency was estimated and descriptive data analysis was performed. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was applied to assess the theoretical model developed for the prehospital setting. Results A post-hoc modified instrument consisting of six dimensions and 17 items provided overall acceptable psychometric properties for all samples, i.e. acceptable Chronbach’s alphas (.68–.86) and construct validity (model fit values: SRMR; .026–.056, TLI; .95–.98, RMSEA; .031–.052, CFI; .96–.98). A common structural model could also be established. Conclusions The results provided a validated instrument, the Prehospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture short version (PreHSOPSC-S), for measuring patient safety climate in a prehospital context. We also demonstrated a positive relation between safety climate dimensions from leadership to unit level, from unit to individual level, and from individual level on the outcome dimension related to transitions and handoffs. Safe patient transitions and handoffs are considered an important outcome of prehospital deliveries; hence, new theory and a validated model will constitute an important contribution to the prehospital safety climate research.publishedVersio