1,720,969 research outputs found
‘Happily ever after’? Comparing local elections and voting in 40 European countries
No full textLocal elections and voting across 40 countries are compared under the headings of local electoral systems, local electoral participation, local party politicization, and local political representation. The different takes on the localness of local elections are combined in an explorative typology, including combinations of vertical dissimilarity (how different elections are at the national and local levels) and horizontal variations (how different local elections are across municipalities within the same country). Avenues for further research are pointed out – not least future research in which the large number of electoral cases existing at the local level can be exploited
From perennial bridesmaids to fully fledged spouses : advancing the comparative study of local elections and voting
No full textExisting approaches to the study of local elections and voting often result in a characterization of these as of a lower rank, and the literature has long been dominated by empirical single-country studies that are often limited to a sole electoral term. We argue that local elections and voting as political phenomena should be situated within the broader context of multilevel democracy and that a more comparative approach should be applied. A theoretical framework including vertical integration and horizontal variation is introduced. Also, five sections are included in which local elections are described: a brief overview of the local government system, local elections and their place in the multilevel system, features of the local electoral system, local electoral outcomes, and conclusion and discussion. Finally, the empirical study of local elections in 40 European countries is introduced
Non-partisan Mayors and Their Impact on Local Politics
No full textArtykuł opisuje fenomen bezpartyjności władz lokalnych dużych miast w Polsce, jest sprawozdaniem z badań empirycznych przeprowadzonych we Wrocławiu, w Gdyni i Katowicach. Opisano w nim typowe uzasadnienia bezpartyjności, zidentyfikowano różnice między radnymi partyjnymi a bezpartyjnymi w badanych miastach oraz scharakteryzowano organizacje quasi-partyjne stanowiące polityczne zaplecze bezpartyjnych prezydentów. Badania pokazały, że charakterystyczna dla tych organizacji jest kategoria lokalnych działaczy koncentrujących swoją działalność na szczeblu lokalnym, a także że bezpartyjność może być w polityce lokalnej drogą do instytucjonalizacji szczególnego sposobu rozumienia i uprawiania polityki. Artykuł dowodzi, że problem partyjności i bezpartyjności w polityce lokalnej powinien być rozpatrywany jako część szerszego zagadnienia przenikania się sfer polityki i administracji na poziomie lokalnym.The aim of the article is to describe the phenomenon of non-partisanship of local governments in large Polish cities. It is a report from a research conducted in Wroclaw, Gdynia and Katowice. The article contains a description of typical justifications of non-partisanship, an identification of differences between partisan and non-partisan city councillors and a description of quasi-partisan organizations functioning as political support for non-partisan mayors. The results of the research confirm the existence of a specific category of local activists consistently rejecting party politics and very often having no political ambitions concerning higher levels of government; this category is typical for quasi-partisan organizations. The research demonstrates that non-partisanship can be a means of institutionalization of a particular manner of understanding and making politics. One of the final conclusions is that the problems of partisanship and non-partisanship at the local level are derivatives of a vague relationship between public administration and politics at the local level
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
Belgium : between national barometer and local atmosphere
No full textEvery six years, local citizens elect the councils of the 581 municipalities of Belgium. The 13,450 seats are filled at large by a (semi-)open proportional list system. With compulsory voting, turnout is high and slightly exceeds that for national elections. Local elections and voting are relatively competitive. They take place in a fully regionalized party system. Within the confines of this split, local chapters of national political parties clearly outnumber nonnational lists. There are substantial differences in the presence and success of party families (between localities and vis-à-vis the national level). While displaying national barometric tendencies, local elections and voting demonstrate their own patterns and dynamics in an atmosphere of place-bound storylines and actors. Meanwhile, reform (plans) again appears to homogenize the institutional climate
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