1,721,027 research outputs found
Economic Voting
No full textEconomic voting is a phenomenon that political scientists and economists can hardly overlook. There is ample evidence for a strong link between economic conditions and government popularity. However, not everything is that simple and this edited collection focuses on 'the comparative puzzle' of economic voting.
Economic Voting emphasises the importance of comparative research design and argues that the psychology of the economic voter model needs to be developed further
New horizons in EU-Japan security cooperation?
No full textThe concluding chapter brings together the findings from the individual chapters. It will involve a systematic and comparative analysis of the twelve different security dimensions assessed according to the analytical criteria stipulated for the investigation: the nature of threat perceptions and responses by the EU and Japan, the levels of convergence or divergence reached between the EU and Japan in terms of threat perception and associated response; and the degree of bilateral and multilateral EU security cooperation achieved. The analysis will also pay specific attention to temporal patterns identifying three periods with distinct intentionality of EU-Japan security cooperation. In addition, it will explore the extent to which changes in the structure of the international system, or the role of “third actors” such as the United States, Russia or China, have affected the way the EU and Japan define their interests of appropriate actions. Analysis of this kind will help to establish the areas (traditional versus non-traditional security aspects) where any security cooperation between the EU and Japan is present (and to what degree). This will shed light on the question of whether EU-Japan relations will continue to be dominated by economic relations (trade, investment and finance) or whether these relations will become more balanced in the future, thereby demonstrating that the renewed Strategic Partnership Agreement of 2017 between the EU and Japan is based on more than mere rhetoric. The chapter will conclude with a discussion of current and potential future incentives (‘events-driven’ or ‘concept-driven’) of EU-Japan security cooperation and explore the future outlook for this relationship
London, you have a problem with women: trust towards the police in England
No full textFollowing a series of high-profile incidents of violence against women by serving London Metropolitan Police Officers, questions of standards and the public’s confidence in policing are in the spotlight. Over a fifteen-month period between July 2022 and September 2023 using monthly surveys of representative English samples, this study confirms that women, in general, are more trusting in the police than men. This, however, does not hold true in London. Out of nine regions in England, London is the only region where women’s overall trust in the police is lower than men. Lower levels of trust in the police among women in London hold when controls for age, income, political environment and crime levels are considered. In line with existing literature that considers women being more sensitive to cues about trustworthiness, the concerning incidents of sexual violence by police officers against women are likely to further erode trust in police in the capital, which already ranks last among England’s nine regions in citizen trust of the police
Security Cooperation in EU-China Relations: Towards Convergence?
Full text linkOver the past decade, the EU and China have expanded their relations beyond a focus on economic and trade issues into the sphere of security. This is particularly evident when security is seen to encompass a variety of policy domains—from traditional, military security to non-traditional human security. However, this development has not followed an even or linear path: the record of EU-China security cooperation has been varied across different policy domains, with distinct temporal trajectories. This article addresses the question of why security cooperation between the two sides has advanced in certain policy domains while having faltered in others. Based on an expert survey of European and Chinese scholars, we explore both interest-driven and experience-driven explanations. Our analysis identifies a number of key events in the development of EU-China relations that have been critical in terms of initiating and enhancing cooperation in specific domains. Overall, we find that past experience with actual cooperation, rather than declared intentions, best explains the pattern of cooperation over time
To share or not to share: Public attitudes towards disclosing personal and identifiable medical data and information
Full text linkBackground/Aims
Public perceptions of the acceptability of healthcare organisations, such as the NHS, sharing their data or information with other relevant entities may depend
on various factors. This study aimed to fill gaps in the literature relating to this topic by investigating public perceptions of health record sharing with different entities, and how the anonymity (or lack thereof) of records and the terminology used may affect these attitudes.
Methods
A survey was distributed to 2335 members of the public in England, sampled through YouGov’s online panel. Respondents were randomly sorted into four groups
and given a scenario about health record sharing. The scenarios differed between groups in terms of whether records were personal (non-anonymous) or anonymous, and whether the term ‘data’ or ‘information’ was used. Respondents were asked to rate the acceptability of sharing with different entities, including health and social care providers, insurance companies and local government. Differences between responses were
analysed, with significance set at P<0.01.
Results
The majority (84%) of respondents indicated that they found it either acceptable or very acceptable for the NHS to share personal data and information with hospitals and
GPs. Higher levels of acceptability were observed when the term ‘information’ rather than ‘data’ was used. However, over half of respondents found it either unacceptable or very unacceptable for the NHS to share such information with pharmaceutical companies for
research purposes or with councils, whether these data were personal or anonymised.
Conclusions
This study suggests that people are more willing to share personal data when they perceive there to be potential personal benefits. It also contradicts the commonly held assumption that people are more comfortable sharing records that have been anonymised. These findings could inform future public health initiatives
EU-China security cooperation in context
Full text linkThe paper has two main aims. First it seeks to explore whether security cooperation between the EU and China is taking place, and if so, whether it is evenly spread across a number of security dimensions. Second it intends to investigate the underlying motives or drivers that either facilitate or inhibit EU-China security cooperation. Further, it will explain why the EU rather than EU member states is chosen as the unit of analysis, explore the development of EU-China security relations, and illustrate how historical legacies, identity aspects and differences over key issues, such as sovereignty and territorial integrity, affect EU-China security relations. In addition, it will deal with the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the study on EU-China security relations, paying particular emphasis to the concepts of diffusion and convergence. Whether or not EU-China security cooperation converges in one of the ten chosen security dimensions will be assessed by the degree of policy conformity the EU and China are able (or unable) to obtain with regard to threat perceptions and policy response thereto. Attention will be devoted to diffusion factors which can affect changes in the perception of threats and response thereof. Among these factors are changes in (geo-political) structure, interests and norms. A further objective of the paper will be to explore whether policy convergence on threat perceptions and response thereto might be a precondition for joint action, or whether practical cooperation can take place without prior policy convergence between the EU and China. The paper will round off with a short section introducing the security dimensions that are being examined in the more detailed study on which this paper is based
Who gets in? a conjoint analysis of labour market demand and immigration preferences in England and Japan
No full textWe advance research on attitudes towards immigration using an experimental design that more clearly separates between skill level and labour market demand. In single profile conjoint design experiments fielded in England and Japan, we replicate the well-established finding that high-skill immigrants are generally preferred to low-skill immigrants. However, we also show a more nuanced result in that labour market demand – regardless of skill level – is also important. Indeed, in both England and Japan, the public is willing to accept low-skill workers in high-demand occupations at levels at least as much as for high-skill but low-demand occupations. Labour market demand is an important factor in understanding attitudes towards economic migration
The political economy of peacekeeping: unemployment, violence, and trust towards peacekeepers. Evidence from Somalia
Full text linkWhat explains the discrepancy in the support towards Peacekeepers? We take this debate beyond the violence and security question to examine the association between citizens' economic aspirations and support towards peacekeepers deployed in their communities. We theorize that economically disadvantaged locals drive individual support towards peacekeepers due to their higher expectations of benefiting economically in a peaceful and secure environment. We conduct a survey with more than 700 citizens across three cities in South Central Somalia to test this conjecture. Results from our mediation analyses show that the level of support for the peacekeepers is mainly among the poor, who expect to benefit economically as a result of improved security which they attribute to peacekeepers. These findings are consistent with qualitative accounts. Furthermore, key results hold when replacing threat perceptions from the survey with real-time ACLED violence data. Our findings have important policy implications. Individuals' support for peacekeepers tends to be higher when they have an economic incentive in the peace
Security Relations between the European Union and China: From Convergence to Cooperation?
No full textOver the past decade, the EU and China have expanded their relations from a dominant focus on economic and trade issues to the sphere of security. By taking a broadened definition of security, a multi-disciplinary approach, and a comparative perspective, which includes the pairing of scholars from Europe and Asia in the writing of individual chapters, the book provides an in-depth analysis of the extent to which the EU and China not only express similar threat concerns, or make declarations about joint responses, but also adopt concrete measures in the pursuance of security cooperation. In particular, the book seeks to explore a range of key themes in the field of EU-China security cooperation such as nuclear proliferation, international terrorist threats and cyber attacks. Besides providing an overview of the areas where security cooperation exists and where not, it also highlights the aspects of convergence and divergence and the reasons for their occurrence
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