Parteimitglieder nach dem "Ende der Mitgliederpartei": ein Überblick über Forschungsergebnisse für Westeuropa seit 1990

'Trotz der Diskussion um ein vermeintliches 'Ende der Mitgliederpartei' wird die politikwissenschaftliche Forschung zur Mitgliedschaft in politischen Parteien weiter vorangetrieben. Der Artikel zeichnet die Entwicklung der Mitgliedschaftszahlen in den westeuropäischen Parteiensystemen nach, stellt die Modelle und Typologien der organisationstheoretischen Debatte vor und gibt einen Überblick über die empirischen Forschungsergebnisse der mitgliedschaftsbezogenen Partizipations- und Parteienforschung. Anhand der Befunde wird gezeigt, dass sich zwar die Formen und Motive der Partizipation in Parteien ändern und dadurch auch der Stellenwert der Mitglieder für Charakter und Organisation der Parteien modifiziert wird, von einem 'Ende der Mitgliederpartei' in Westeuropa aber keine Rede sein kann.' (Autorenreferat)'Despite the discussion on the supposed end of political parties as membership-based organizations, research on party membership continues to progress. The article traces the development of membership figures in Western European party systems, presents theoretical models and typologies of the party-organizational debate, and gives a review of empirical research findings on party membership in the fields of participation research and party research. Drawing upon these findings it is shown that forms and motivations of participation in political parties are changing, thus affecting the importance of members for the character and organizational structure of parties. Nevertheless political parties keep their nature as membership- based organizations.' (author's abstract

Why do only some people who support parties actually join them? Evidence from Britain

What makes people join a political party is one of the most commonly studied questions in research on party members. Nearly all this research, however, is based on talking to people who have actually joined parties. This article simultaneously analyses surveys of members of political parties in Britain and surveys of non-member supporters of those same parties. This uniquely enables us to model the decision to join parties. The results suggest that most of the elements that constitute the influential ‘General Incentives Model’ are significant. But it also reveals that, while party supporters imagine that selective benefits, social norms and opposing rival parties’ policies are key factors in members’ decisions to join a party, those who actually do so are more likely to say they are motivated by attachments to their party’s values, policies and leaders, as well as by an altruistic desire to support democracy more generally

Low-level APC mutational mosaicism is the underlying cause in a substantial fraction of unexplained colorectal adenomatous polyposis cases

Background In 30-50% of patients with colorectal adenomatous polyposis, no germline mutation in the known genes APC, causing familial adenomatous polyposis, MUTYH, causing MUTYH-associated polyposis, or POLE or POLD1, causing polymerase-proofreading-associated polyposis can be identified, although a hereditary aetiology is likely. This study aimed to explore the impact of APC mutational mosaicism in unexplained polyposis. Methods To comprehensively screen for somatic low-level APC mosaicism, high-coverage next-generation sequencing of the APC gene was performed using DNA from leucocytes and a total of 53 colorectal tumours from 20 unrelated patients with unexplained sporadic adenomatous polyposis. APC mosaicism was assumed if the same loss-of-function APC mutation was present in 2 anatomically separated colorectal adenomas/carcinomas per patient. All mutations were validated using diverse methods. Results In 25% (5/20) of patients, somatic mosaicism of a pathogenic APC mutation was identified as underlying cause of the disease. In 2/5 cases, the mosaic level in leucocyte DNA was slightly below the sensitivity threshold of Sanger sequencing;while in 3/5 cases, the allelic fraction was either very low (0.1-1%) or no mutations were detectable. The majority of mosaic mutations were located outside the somatic mutation cluster region of the gene. Conclusions The present data indicate a high prevalence of pathogenic mosaic APC mutations below the detection thresholds of routine diagnostics in adenomatous polyposis, even if high-coverage sequencing of leucocyte DNA alone is taken into account. This has important implications for both routine work-up and strategies to identify new causative genes in this patient group

Magnetic Fluffy Dark Matter

We explore extensions of inelastic Dark Matter and Magnetic inelastic Dark Matter where the WIMP can scatter to a tower of heavier states. We assume a WIMP mass $m_\chi \sim \mathcal{O}(1-100)$ GeV and a constant splitting between successive states $\delta \sim\mathcal{O}(1 - 100)$ keV. For the spin-independent scattering scenario we find that the direct experiments CDMS and XENON strongly constrain most of the DAMA/LIBRA preferred parameter space, while for WIMPs that interact with nuclei via their magnetic moment a region of parameter space corresponding to $m_{\chi}\sim 11$ GeV and $\delta < 15$ keV is allowed by all the present direct detection constraints.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, added comments about magnetic moment form factor to Sec 3.1.2 and results to Sec 3.2.2, final version to be published in JHE

Political Opportunity Structures and the Success of the German Left Party in 2005

The “Linkspartei”, an electoral alliance of the former communist PDS and the social democratic splinter WASG, scored 8.7% of the vote and managed to gain parliamentary representation at the German Federal Election of 2005. As this is the most significant electoral appearance of a party of the non-social democratic left in Germany since Weimar times, our article addresses the question of the underlying social and political conditions. To analyse the success of the Linkspartei the authors combine elements of social-structural research of voting behaviour, political opportunity theory, and the concept of framing. It is argued that there is a strong demand for social justice in the German electorate, which had no determined parliamentary representation in the last legislative periods due to the social democrats' strategic shift to the “Neue Mitte”, therefore opening a political opportunity structure for the electoral alliance of WASG and PDS. The Linkspartei on their side succeeded in addressing this electoral group by adopting a master frame of social justice

Konfliktfelder und Konfliktlinien in der Ärzteschaft

Gerlinger T. Konfliktfelder und Konfliktlinien in der Ärzteschaft. In: Spier T, Strünck C, eds. Ärzteverbände und ihre Mitglieder: Interessenlagen, Motive, Konflikte. Wiesbaden: Springer VS; 2017