32 research outputs found
Comparative Mapping of Extreme Right Electoral Dynamics: An Overview of EREPS ("Extreme Right Electorates and Party Success")
No full textThis article is multi-authored. Country-specific data were provided by Kai Arzheimer (Mainz University), Gianfranco Baldini (Bologna University), Tor Bjrklund (Oslo University), Elisabeth Carter (Manchester University), Stephen Fisher (Nuffield College, Oxford) and Gilles Ivaldi (CIDSP-IEP, Grenoble). Logistical information about the network was provided by Jocelyn Evans (Salford University
Specialisation of political participation in Europe: a comparative analysis
No full textThis thesis answers the question how and why do individuals specialise in different types of political participation? By examining the degree to which individuals concentrate their political activities within one type of political participation, or spread them out across many. This thesis complements previous research on rates of political participation; and adapts and extends existing theories of political participation to explain differences in the degree of specialisation between different groups in society and between countries. Using data from the European Social Survey, covering as many as 21 European countries, and applying a range of different statistical methods, I distinguish four types of political participation: voting, conventional and unconventional political participation and consumer politics. I show that in countries with higher levels of socio-economic development, more democratic experience, and an increased presence of mobilising agents, the degree to which individuals concentrate their political activities within one type of political participation is higher, regardless of the accessibility and responsiveness of their political institutions. This is partly due to the fact that these countries have a higher educated population and that higher educated individuals specialise more. Specialisation also varies along the lines of other socio-demographic divisions, such as those based on gender. Moreover, I show that in contexts in which political issues are salient, such as during an election year, individuals are more likely to engage in non-electoral types of political participation if they also vote. This implies that specialisation is reduced during times of country-wide political mobilisation. The final finding of my thesis is that non-Western immigrants tend to concentrate their political activities less within one type of political participation than the majority population in Western Europe. Western immigrants specialise quite differently, suggesting differences in the way in which they are mobilised. As well as providing an important contribution to the study of political participation, these findings are relevant to discussions regarding citizen engagement and representation
Bringing the Party Back in: Mobilization and Persuasion in Constituency Election Campaigns
No full textIn this thesis, I report the results from the first randomized field experiments conducted in collaboration with party-affiliated candidates and campaigns in the United Kingdom. The papers presented as part of this thesis test both the limits and possibilities of campaign influence, in a partisan political environment. During election campaigns parties provide signals to voters, voluntarily or involuntarily imposing a structure, and thereby constraints, on individuals’ electoral decisions. By integrating insights about heuristic and social decision-making into the experimental campaign literature, I formulate testable hypotheses about the direct and indirect effects of party cues on campaign mobilization and persuasion.
The first paper, The Heuristic Function of Party Affiliation in Voter Mobilization Campaigns, addresses how the provision of party cues, used during campaign phone calls, affects turnout among party supporters, opponents and unattached voters. The second paper on Household Partisan Composition and Voter Mobilization, explores the spillover effects from the previous experiment, testing whether campaign-induced mobilization between household members is conditioned by the partisan composition of a household, and the partisan intensity of a campaign message. Paper three investigates if candidates who are Reaching Across The Partisan Divide can win over supporters of rival parties. In the fourth paper, I test if Impersonal, But Noticeable methods of voter contact, such as door hangers and text messages, affect the turnout decisions of partisans and unattached voters. The final paper, The National Effects of Subnational Representation, highlights the importance of local party organization for the outcomes of national elections. The results of this thesis show the electoral consequences of direct and indirect interactions between campaigns and voters of different partisanship, and point to strategies that allow constituency campaigns to successfully navigate challenging partisan environments.This thesis is not currently available on ORA
The Link Between Health Care Spending and Health Outcomes: Evidence from English Programme Budgeting Data
Full text linkThis report describes preliminary results from research funded by the Health Foundation under its Quest for Quality and Improved Performance (QQuIP) initiative.
Water Fluoridation: A Critical Review of the Physiological Effects of Ingested Fluoride as a Public Health Intervention
Full text linkFluorine is the world’s 13th most abundant element and constitutes 0.08% of the Earth crust. It has the highest electronegativity of all elements. Fluoride is widely distributed in the environment, occurring in the air, soils, rocks, and water. Although fluoride is used industrially in a fluorine compound, the manufacture of ceramics, pesticides, aerosol propellants, refrigerants, glassware, and Teflon cookware, it is a generally unwanted byproduct of aluminium, fertilizer, and iron ore manufacture.The medicinal use of fluorides for the prevention of dental caries began in January 1945 when community water supplies in Grand Rapids, United States, were fluoridated to a level of 1 ppm as a dental caries prevention measure. However, water fluoridation remains a controversial public health measure. This paper reviews the human health effects of fluoride. The authors conclude that available evidence suggests that fluoride has a potential to cause major adverse human health problems, while having only a modest dental caries prevention effect. As part of efforts to reduce hazardous fluoride ingestion, the practice of artificial water fluoridation should be reconsidered globally, while industrial safety measures need to be tightened in order to reduce unethical discharge of fluoride compounds into the environment. Public health approaches for global dental caries reduction that do not involve systemic ingestion of fluoride are urgently needed
Monetary Policy and Asset Price Volatility
Full text linkWe explore the implications of asset price volatility for the management of monetary policy. We show that it is desirable for central banks to focus on underlying inflationary pressures. Asset prices become relevant only to the extent they may signal potential inflationary or deflationary forces. Rules that directly target asset prices appear to have undesirable side effects. We base our conclusions on (i) simulation of different policy rules in a small scale macro model and (ii) a comparative analysis of recent U.S. and Japanese monetary policy.
Wage Equations, Wage Curves and All That
Full text linkThis paper is concerned with the relationship between wages and unemployment. Using UK regions and individuals as the basis for our analysis, the following questions are investigated. First, is the wage equation a relationship between unemployment and wages or wage changes? Second, can we identify the relationship completely by looking at regional wages and regional unemployment or do regional wages depend on aggregate unemployment as well? Third, are wages influenced only by the current state of the labour market or do contracts lead to wages depending on labour market conditions in the last boom or upon entry into the job? Finally is the wage-unemployment relationship influenced by inflation, competition or the housing market?Wages, unemployment
English Economic Growth, 1270-1700
Full text linkThis paper provides the first annual GDP series for Great Britain over the period 1700-1870. The series is constructed in real terms from the output side, using volume indicators and value added weights. Sectoral estimates are provided for agriculture, industry and services, and for a number of sub-sectors. Estimates of nominal GDP are also provided, based on a benchmark for 1841 and projected back to 1700 and forward to 1870 using the real output series and sectoral price indices. The new data are used to provide a consistent account of economic growth and the business cycle. The results are broadly consistent with the long run path of real output suggested by Crafts and Harley, although growth rates for sub-periods differ, largely as a result of changes in the growth of agriculture. Nominal GDP increased more rapidly than suggested by Lindert and Williamson during the eighteenth century, and more slowly than suggested by Deane and Cole during the first half of the nineteenth century, as a result of differences in the price indices. We also refine the business cycle chronologies of Ashton and Gayer, Rostow and Schwartz.
English Economic Growth: 1270 - 1870
Full text linkWe provide annual estimates of GDP for England between 1270 and 1700 and for Great Britain between 1700 and 1870, constructed from the output side. The GDP data are combined with population estimates to calculate GDP per capita. We find English per capita income growth of 0.20 per cent per annum between 1270 and 1700, although growth was episodic, with the strongest growth during the Black Death crisis of the fourteenth century and in the second half of the seventeenth century. For the period 1700-1870, we find British per capita income growth of 0.48 per cent, broadly in line with the widely accepted Crafts/Harley estimates. This modest trend growth in per capita income since 1270 suggests that, working back from the present, living standards in the late medieval period were well above “bare bones subsistence”. This can be reconciled with modest levels of kilocalorie consumption per head because of the very large share of pastoral production in agriculture.
Medical Ethics Education in Britain, 1963-1993
No full textAnnotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.First published by the Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL, 2007.©The Trustee of the Wellcome Trust, London, 2007.All volumes are freely available online at: www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.Annotated and edited transcript of a Witness Seminar held on 9 May 2006. Introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman.Changing attitudes toward human experimentation along with other controversial moral issues emerged after the Second World War and, in 1963, led to the London Medical Group, organized by Ted Shotter, with similar Medical Groups emerging elsewhere from 1967. These became forums for discussion and debate arising from dilemmas encountered in medical settings. Medical ethics did not become a recognized subject in the syllabus of Britain's medical schools until 1993. This Witness Seminar transcript records the development of international ethical codes, the response to them over the period 1963-93 by students and doctors and the extent of resistance encountered from Deans, hospital administrators and others; the Groups' influence on medical practice; the impact on both Medical Group organizers and participants in their subsequent careers; the local and regional variations and their significant lasting contributions. The meeting was chaired by Dr Stephen Lock and included former Medical Group members, scientists, physicians and policy makers, such as Professors Kenneth Boyd, Bill Fulford, Roger Higgs, Bryan Jennett,, Sir Ian Kennedy, David Morton, and Sir Malcolm Macnaughton. An introduction by Professor Sir Kenneth Calman and appendices of the Very Revd Edward Shotter's reflections on the influence of the Medical Groups as a report for the Institute of Medical Ethics complete the transcript. Reynolds L A, Tansey E M. (eds) (2007) Medical ethics education in Britain, 1963–93, Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine, vol. 31. London: The Wellcome Trust Centre for the History of Medicine at UCL
