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Journal articles on the topic 'Political participation – Switzerland'
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1
Barber, Benjamin. "Participation and Swiss Democracy." Government and Opposition 23, no. 1 (1988): 31–50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0017257x00016997.
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AS THE GREAT HISTORIAN LOUIS HARTZ TAUGHT US IN HIS remarkable study The Liberal Tradition in America, anyone wishing to focus on the special character of a regime would do well to begin by taking the measure of what is absent rather than what is present. Like America, Switzerland has long been regarded as an exception to many of the conventional rules of historical and democratic development — Sonderfall Schweiz is how the Swiss portray and perhaps boast a little about their national exceptionalism. Switzerland possesses a unique form of democratic government the hallmarks of which are participatory democracy, neutrality and radical federalism (decentrahsm or localism, what the Swiss sometimes call Kantönligeist). These hallmarks give to it a character which stands in stark contrast to traditional Anglo-American democracy. The student of comparative politics will observe at once that a great many of Switzerland's leading political features seem to have no analogue in either the English common law or the American Constitution. Swiss democracy is English democracy minus most of English democracy's salient features: which is to say, it is scarcely English democracy at all.The powerful idea of natural rights as the armour of the individual against illegitimate authority (originally against the illegitimacy of absolute monarchy, later against the hyper-legitimacy of majoritarian tyranny) is largely missing, for example. Missing too is the tradition of an independent judiciary devoted to the protection of wholly private rights against an alien, power-mongering state. When Alexis de Tocqueville, whose liberal premises suited America so well, went looking in the Alps for something like the English liberties, he went astray. Not finding English liberties, he quite misunderstood Switzerland's regime.
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Prieto, Moisés. "Erasing the Fear from the Eyes: A Micro-Narrative on Emotions in Spanish Migration to Cold-War Switzerland." Emotions: History, Culture, Society 4, no. 2 (December 9, 2020): 252–78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2208522x-02010095.
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Abstract In the summer of 1964, Miguel Soto, a Spanish immigrant to Switzerland, was arrested and imprisoned during his summer vacation in Spain, due to his participation in an anti-Francoist demonstration in Switzerland. This incident is the starting point for an inquiry into the problems – denunciation, political surveillance, xenophobia and anti-communism – that politically committed foreigners were confronted with in their home country and in Switzerland, and into the strategies they used to overcome them. Soto’s experience, including an oral history interview with him and archival material, reveals the regime of fear under which such immigrants lived, and questions the quality of democracy in post-war Switzerland.
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Schlenker, Andrea. "Divided loyalty? Identification and political participation of dual citizens in Switzerland." European Political Science Review 8, no. 4 (June 25, 2015): 517–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1755773915000168.
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In spite of the recent increase in dual citizenship, there are widespread fears that this double status undermines loyalty towards the state, understood as identification with and political participation in the country of residence. We analyze whether there are systematic differences between dual citizens, mono citizens, and foreign residents in this respect, based on data from a 2013 survey of dual citizens in Switzerland with very different migration backgrounds. The results reveal that controlling for migration-related and socio-demographic factors, dual citizens are more loyal in many respects than foreign residents, but there are no significant differences between dual citizens and mono citizens in their level of identification with Switzerland and political participation there. They are even more likely than mono citizens to participate in serving its interests. In addition, there is no trade-off between these forms of loyalty to the country of residence and identification and political participation in the country of descent. On the contrary, they are positively related. Transnational loyalties seem to co-exist or even to be mutually reinforcing. Thus, dual citizenship does not seem to diminish loyalty to the country of residence and countries therefore do not stand to lose anything by allowing it.
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Büchi, Moritz, and Florian Vogler. "Testing a Digital Inequality Model for Online Political Participation." Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World 3 (January 1, 2017): 237802311773390. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2378023117733903.
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Increasing Internet use is changing the way individuals take part in society. However, a general mobilizing effect of the Internet on political participation has been difficult to demonstrate. This study takes a digital inequality perspective and analyzes the role of Internet expertise for the social structuration of online political participation. Analyses rely on two nationally representative surveys in Switzerland and use cluster analysis and structural equation modeling. A distinct group of political online participants emerged characterized by high education and income. Further, online political participation is predicted by political interest and Internet skills, which increasingly mediated the effects of social position. Digital information policies should therefore consider Internet skills and effective use, particularly in marginalized social groups, to avoid reinforcing traditional participatory inequalities in the digital society.
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Luechinger, Simon, Myra Rosinger, and Alois Stutzer. "The Impact of Postal Voting on Participation: Evidence for Switzerland." Swiss Political Science Review 13, no. 2 (June 2007): 167–202. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2007.tb00075.x.
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Gerber, Marlène, Hans-Peter Schaub, and Sean Mueller. "O sister, where art thou? Theory and evidence on female participation at citizen assemblies." European Journal of Politics and Gender 2, no. 2 (June 1, 2019): 173–95. http://dx.doi.org/10.1332/251510819x15471289106095.
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This article investigates gender differences in participation at the citizen assembly of Glarus, Switzerland. We use original survey data collected among 800 citizens. We find significant gender gaps both for attending and holding a speech at the assembly. Lower female attendance is particularly pronounced among older cohorts and can largely be explained by gender differences in political interest, knowledge and efficacy. In contrast, the gender gap in speaking is substantial regardless of age and cannot be reduced to factors that typically shape participation. Hence, gender differences are disappearing in voting but persist in more public, interactive forms of political engagement.
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Stoecklin, Daniel, Ayuko Berchtold-Sedooka, and Jean-Michel Bonvin. "Children’s Participatory Capability in Organized Leisure: The Mediation of Transactional Horizons." Societies 13, no. 2 (January 31, 2023): 33. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/soc13020033.
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This research conducted in Switzerland addresses the participatory capability of children regarding their organized leisure activities. Observations were made in 2016 in three French-speaking counties in Switzerland within 11 leisure facilities differentiated by their structural organization. Individual interviews were conducted with 34 children aged 13 to 16 as well as 11 managers of the leisure centers and three county-level child and youth policy-makers (Fribourg, Valais, Vaud). The findings are that children’s participatory capability in organized leisure facilities depends on a combination of factors that are both societal (economical, political, organizational) and personal. Three forms of participatory capability emerge around the opportunities for effective participation that are provided by the children’s social environment, corresponding to (1) the adaptive participation, (2) the innovative participation and (3) the cooperative participation. However, there is no strict correspondence between the types of organization of leisure structures and forms of participatory capability. This is due to the mediation of “transactional horizons”, acting as symbolic landscapes that are channeling social interactions and the negotiation of forms of participation. This confirms the relevance of an interpretive approach to children’s rights in order to better understand how they actually translate into practice.
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Ernst Stahli, M., J. M. Le Goff, R. Levy, and E. Widmer. "Wishes or Constraints? Mothers' Labour Force Participation and its Motivation in Switzerland." European Sociological Review 25, no. 3 (October 3, 2008): 333–48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcn052.
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Kern, Anna. "The Effect of Direct Democratic Participation on Citizens’ Political Attitudes in Switzerland: The Difference between Availability and Use." Politics and Governance 5, no. 2 (March 27, 2017): 16–26. http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/pag.v5i2.820.
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According to advocates of direct democracy, it is important to involve citizens more directly in political decision-making processes in order to create a democratic linkage between citizens and the political system. Indeed, some studies have demonstrated that citizens who live in direct democracies have higher levels of trust in political institutions and a higher sense of political efficacy. However, not all empirical evidence confirms this relationship. In a recent article on Switzerland, it was shown that, while the availability of direct democratic rights enhances trust in political institutions, using those rights actually initiates distrust. In this paper I expand the analysis of Bauer and Fatke (2014) and test whether the different effects of availability of direct democratic rights and the frequency of their use also hold for broader measures of trust in political institutions and political efficacy. I find that, even though an increased use of direct democratic measures is associated with lower levels of confidence in authorities on the cantonal level, this relationship is no longer apparent when applying a more comprehensive measurement of trust in political institutions.
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Haefeli, Ueli, Fritz Kobi, and Ulrich Seewer. "History and Transport Policy." Transfers 4, no. 1 (March 1, 2014): 45–62. http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/trans.2014.040105.
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Based on analysis of two case studies in the Canton of Bern, this article examines the question of knowledge transfer from history to transport policy and planning in the recent past in Switzerland. It shows that for several reasons, direct knowledge transfer did not occur. In particular, historians have seldom become actively involved in transport planning and policy discourses, probably partly because the academic system offers no incentive to do so. However, historical knowledge has certainly influenced decision-making processes indirectly, via personal reflection of the actors in the world of practice or through Switzerland's strongly developed modes of political participation. Because the potential for knowledge transfer to contribute to better policy solutions has not been fully utilized, we recommend strengthening the role of existing interfaces between science and policy.
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Dürr, Christoph. "Waldpolitisch relevante Gremien in Europa | Important forest policy organisations in Europe." Schweizerische Zeitschrift fur Forstwesen 162, no. 4 (April 1, 2011): 128–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.3188/szf.2011.0128.
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International forest policy is mainly shaped by the participation of countries at global level, which is why forest-related organisations in Europe and their political processes have received little attention up to now. Meanwhile, however, global forest policy is being increasingly influenced by regional processes. Efforts are underway in the context of various European processes to put sustainable forest management on a firmer footing and make it better known outside the sector. Hence the safeguarding of national interests in the European context is becoming more important for Switzerland. This contribution presents the main forest policy organisations in Europe from Switzerland's perspective, i.e. Forest Europe, the FAO European Forestry Commission, the UNECE Timber Committee, the European Union and the European Forest Institute, so as to provide a better understanding of where European forest policy originates.
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Schulz, Tobias, and Stefanie Bailer. "The impact of organisational attributes on political participation: results of a multi-level survey from Switzerland." Swiss Political Science Review 18, no. 1 (February 1, 2012): 1–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1662-6370.2012.02052.x.
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Traber, Denise. "Does Participation in Policymaking Enhance Satisfaction with the Policy Outcome? Evidence from Switzerland." Swiss Political Science Review 19, no. 1 (March 2013): 60–83. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/spsr.12021.
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Eschet-Schwarz, André. "La démocratic semi-directe en Suisse: entre la théorie et la réalité: 1879–1987." Canadian Journal of Political Science 22, no. 4 (December 1989): 739–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0008423900020230.
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AbstractThe semi-direct democracy in Switzerland during the period 1879-1987 is a favourable ground for checking some assumptions related to the theory of participatory democracy such as those involving the inherent characteristics of the popular majority. This article presents a comparative description of the specific features of the referenda votes and general elections in representative democracies. Some aspects of the political behaviour in the Swiss cantons and at the federal level are analyzed as are the fluctuations in referenda participation in relation to institutional factors, competition intensity and the number of signatures collected. Different aspects of amicable agreement democracy, the functioning of interest groups and their relationship to the level of participation are subjects of comprehensive discussion.
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Vogler, Daniel, Morley Weston, Quirin Ryffel, Adrian Rauchfleisch, Pascal Jürgens, Mark Eisenegger, Lisa Schwaiger, and Urs Christen. "Mobile News Consumption and Its Relation to Young Adults’ Knowledge About and Participation in Referendums." Media and Communication 11, no. 1 (January 31, 2023): 6–18. http://dx.doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i1.6029.
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The news media are among the most important sources of information about political events, such as referendums. For young adults, the smartphone has become the main device for accessing news. However, we know little about the factors influencing mobile news consumption and how this consumption is related to political knowledge and political participation. This study investigates the antecedents of young individuals’ smartphone news consumption and how it is correlated with their knowledge about and participation in two referendums in Switzerland. We record the mobile internet usage of 309 young adults and link their digital trace data to survey data. We show that trust in news media and the use of broadcast media are positively correlated with the duration of mobile news consumption. The use of social media leads to more news source diversity. However, we find that the duration of mobile news consumption and news source diversity are not correlated with political knowledge about or participation in the referendum. As interest in politics is also positively correlated with the diversity of news sources used by individual participants, our study supports the idea that attentive audiences use a broader range of news sources to inform themselves about referendums.
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Matthes, Jörg. "Social Media and the Political Engagement of Young Adults: Between Mobilization and Distraction." Online Media and Global Communication 1, no. 1 (February 8, 2022): 6–22. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/omgc-2022-0006.
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Abstract Purpose Scholars have expressed great hopes that social media use can foster the democratic engagement of young adults. However, this research has largely ignored non-political, entertainment-oriented uses of social media. In this essay, I theorize that social media use can significantly dampen political engagement because, by and large, young adults use social media primarily for non-political purposes, which distracts rather than mobilizes. Design/methodology/approach I illustrate this argument using aggregate level data from the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, and Japan by comparing relative voter turnout and social media use data of young adults. Findings Data suggest a so called Social Media Political Participation paradox in those countries: The gap in voter turnout between young adults and older generations has not significantly decreased, despite a skyrocketing rise of social media use on the side of young adults, and the overwhelming research evidence that social media use fosters offline political participation. Implications When trying to understand the implications of social media for democracy across the globe, entertainment-oriented content needs to be brought back in. Originality/value This essay challenges the dominant research paradigm on social media use and political participation. It urges future research to theoretically develop, describe, and empirically test a comprehensive model of how social media use has the potential to mobilize and to distract.
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Stadelmann-Steffen, Isabelle, and Clau Dermont. "Acceptance through inclusion? Political and economic participation and the acceptance of local renewable energy projects in Switzerland." Energy Research & Social Science 71 (January 2021): 101818. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2020.101818.
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Eibach, Joachim, and Maurice Cottier. "Popular protest in Switzerland during the 1830s: Opposing models of political participation and citation of traditional ritual." European Review of History: Revue europeenne d'histoire 20, no. 6 (December 2013): 1011–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13507486.2013.852519.
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Hainmueller, Jens, Dominik Hangartner, and Giuseppe Pietrantuono. "Naturalization fosters the long-term political integration of immigrants." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 41 (September 28, 2015): 12651–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1418794112.
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Does naturalization cause better political integration of immigrants into the host society? Despite heated debates about citizenship policy, there exists almost no evidence that isolates the independent effect of naturalization from the nonrandom selection into naturalization. We provide new evidence from a natural experiment in Switzerland, where some municipalities used referendums as the mechanism to decide naturalization requests. Balance checks suggest that for close naturalization referendums, which are decided by just a few votes, the naturalization decision is as good as random, so that narrowly rejected and narrowly approved immigrant applicants are similar on all confounding characteristics. This allows us to remove selection effects and obtain unbiased estimates of the long-term impacts of citizenship. Our study shows that for the immigrants who faced close referendums, naturalization considerably improved their political integration, including increases in formal political participation, political knowledge, and political efficacy.
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Echsel, Angelika, Lee Price, Staffan Josephsson, and Christina Schulze. "“Together on the Way”: Occupational Therapy in Mainstream Education—A Narrative Study of Emerging Practice in Switzerland." Occupational Therapy International 2019 (April 30, 2019): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2019/7464607.
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In Switzerland, recent changes in legislation have reformed special needs education; more children with special needs are now integrated into mainstream schools. Health professionals such as occupational therapists are not embedded in the Swiss education system, but pediatric occupational therapists are starting to work at schools, with the aim of enabling children’s full participation as school students. This is bringing a change to the practice of pediatric occupational therapists. Cultural, political, and social factors differ in many ways from those of other countries where most of the current research on pediatric occupational therapists in mainstream education has been conducted. The need for school-based research that is situated within the political, structural, and cultural context of a country has been stressed in different studies. This qualitative study employed narrative analysis to explore the practice experiences and clinical reasoning of Swiss pediatric occupational therapists when working with children with special needs in the school context. Three main themes were identified in the narratives: “bringing in an occupational therapy perspective,” “focusing on school-related occupations,” and “collaborating with different inclusion players.” These represent three different aspects of the therapists’ emerging practice. The participants highlight different approaches for children with special needs to enable their participation in everyday life at school through learning, playing, and being with their peers. The findings are discussed in relation to current international research and with respect to European countries with a similar political and structural context, thus complementing approaches to school-based occupational therapy.
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Giugni, Marco, Noémi Michel, and Matteo Gianni. "Associational Involvement, Social Capital and the Political Participation of Ethno-Religious Minorities: The Case of Muslims in Switzerland." Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 40, no. 10 (December 18, 2013): 1593–613. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2013.864948.
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Helfenberger, Marianne. "The educationalization of school architecture in Switzerland between 1840 and 1950." Historia y Memoria de la Educación, no. 14 (May 26, 2021): 547. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/hme.14.2021.27308.
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This paper analyses and contrasts the evolution of school architecture competitions, selected submitted projects and built schoolhouses, programmatic and professional literature, school building exhibitions and public reactions to them aiming at answering the following research question: How did architecture competitions, educational reforms and programmatic or professional literature contribute to the educationalization of the school building between 1835 and 1950 in Switzerland? The question will be approached from a perspective of educationalization, knowledge transfer and circulation between professional and political knowledge or discourses on education and practices of architecture competitions by contextualizing school building reform discourses within general school and education reform processes. The evolution of school building architecture competitions in Switzerland and the participation of a variety of actors demonstrate how the school building became a co-educator, how historical building designs are constantly naturalised to fit reform programs, and the relevance of calls for tender as source for the history of education.
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Compston, Hugh. "Union participation in economic policy‐making in Austria, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Belgium and Ireland, 1970–1992." West European Politics 17, no. 1 (January 1994): 123–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01402389408425004.
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Kübler, Daniel, Émilienne Kobelt, and Stephanie Andrey. "Vers une bureaucratie représentative. La promotion de la représentation et de la diversité linguistiques dans l'administration fédérale en Suisse et au Canada." Canadian Journal of Political Science 44, no. 4 (December 2011): 903–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0008423911000801.
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Résumé. Sous l'angle du concept de bureaucratie représentative, le présent article compare la gestion des enjeux liés à la participation des différentes communautés linguistiques dans l'administration publique de deux États multilingues : le Canada et la Suisse. À la suite de la mobilisation politique autour du clivage linguistique, des stratégies de promotion du plurilinguisme ont été adoptées dans les deux pays. La stratégie canadienne mise sur l'égalité de traitement des fonctionnaires anglophones et francophones. La Suisse poursuit quant à elle l'objectif de la représentation des différentes communautés linguistiques dans la fonction publique. Ces différences de fond s'expliquent, entre autres, par la nature du régime linguistique en place et par le contexte de démocratie consociationnelle en Suisse. La participation proportionnelle des communautés linguistiques au sein de l'administration fédérale est globalement atteinte dans les deux pays. Cependant, au niveau du fonctionnement interne, une logique de rationalité linguistique exerce une pression sur les groupes minoritaires pour qu'ils adoptent la langue majoritaire.Abstract. Drawing on the concept of representative bureaucracy, this article examines how two multi-lingual states—Canada and Switzerland—deal with issues related to the participation of different linguistic communities in the federal public service. Following a political mobilisation of the linguistic cleavage, strategies to promote multilingualism in the public service have been adopted in both countries. The Canadian strategy focuses on equal treatment of Anglophones and Francophones in the public service. In Switzerland, adequate representation of the linguistic communities is the primary goal. These differences are explained by the characteristics of the linguistic regimes in each of the two countries, as well as by the peculiarities of consociational democracy in Switzerland. In both countries, the linguistic origins of public administration staff, overall, mirrors the proportions of the linguistic communities in the wider society. Within administrative units, however, linguistic diversity is hampered by the logics of language rationality, where minorities are under pressure to communicate in the language of the majority.
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Hoxha, Adriatik. "The Impact of Economic, Social, and Political Determining Factors of the Youth Migration in Kosovo." Migration Letters 19, no. 1 (January 17, 2022): 41–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.33182/ml.v19i1.1388.
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This paper empirically investigates the propensity of youth migration in Kosovo and the impact of the determining factors. Worryingly, 59% of respondents have expressed a propensity to migrate. Their most preferred destinations are Germany, Switzerland, and North America. The economic, cultural, and security concerns appear to have a statistically significant impact on the propensity to migrate. The respondents with a propensity to migrate tend to view migration mostly as an opportunity, while those without a propensity to migrate tend to perceive it as both risk and opportunity. The results suggest that employment in the services and craftsmanship sector is the most preferred. Regrettably, only 16% of respondents have participated in a relevant formal migration program. Finally, 43.8% of respondents will return home if they solve the problems or issues for which they would migrate. Significantly, there is a noticeable inter-generational increase in gender equality, measured by the increase of female respondents’ participation in higher education.
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Rovinskaya, T. "Political Ambitions of European “Pirates”." World Economy and International Relations, no. 7 (2015): 72–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.20542/0131-2227-2015-7-72-84.
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The paper thoroughly examines the ideological essence, political goals, structure, electoral achievements and international protest activities of the Pirate Movement, consisting of national Pirate Parties worldwide and the Pirate Parties International. The Pirate ideology arose in mid-2000s in response to information society biases, and is paying special attention to the freedom of non-commercial information exchange in the Internet, individual privacy, transparency of state politics and direct citizens' involvement with flexible Internet-tools (Liquid Democracy concept). This relatively new political force has made a vivid progress in electoral field within a short time (since 2006 till present). The representatives of the most successful Pirate Parties (in Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Switzerland, France, Spain, Croatia and Iceland) hold deputy's seats in municipal, regional, national and supranational state agencies, including the European Parliament. In many other countries of the world the "Pirates" are also registered officially and participate in elections; in some countries the Pirate Parties are active, though not yet registered. Except for electoral activity, the Pirate Parties organize joint protest campaigns against national laws/state programs and international agreements that violate the information freedom and civil rights (i.e. PRISM, ACTA). These campaigns also serve for unification and growth of the international Pirate Movement. The Pirate Parties have quickly transformed from populist groups into a political force aspiring to equitable participation in political process along with traditional political parties, challenging them in a certain way. The Pirate ideology will be in demand as long as it will give a resultative solution for specific problems of a post-industrial society in the context of democracy.
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Sánchez Ferriz, Remedio. "Un mecanismo de integración federal y ciudadana: las consultas «prenormativas» del ordenamiento constitucional suizo." Teoría y Realidad Constitucional, no. 36 (July 1, 2015): 353. http://dx.doi.org/10.5944/trc.36.2015.16067.
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En las recientes reivindicaciones de mayores medios de participación democrática, como contestación a la simple participación mediante representantes elegidos, Suiza nos ofrece, una vez más, un ejemplo muy curioso. Este es un estudio sobre la regulación constitucional y legal del proceso de consultas a través del cual los ciudadanos dejan sentir su voz en todo proyecto normativo relevante. Puede ser considerado un derecho constitucional más pero, a la vez, es un mecanismo de integración territorial y ciudadana en un sistema presidido por la permanente manifestación de la voluntad popular.In the latest demands to enable an increase in popular participation in any democratic government, once more Switzerland offers a very curious example. In this study can be seen the constitutional and legal regulation for the consultation like the process in which, the citizens in Switzerland contribute in the elaboration of the law, expressing their views when the Government is preparing some important legislation. It can be considered another constitutional right; but at the same time it is a mechanism for territorial integration and citizenship in a system chaired by the permanent expression of the popular will.
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Tavis, Anna A. "Russia in Rilke: Rainer Maria Rilke's Correspondence with Marina Tsvetaeva." Slavic Review 52, no. 3 (1993): 494–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2499721.
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Rainer Maria Rilke's widely celebrated fiftieth birthday in December 1925 and his sudden death on 29 December 1926 framed his correspondence with members of Boris Pasternak's family and Marina Tsvetaeva- Efron, for which Leonid Pasternak's initial greetings to his old Moscow friend and Rilke's prompt reply had set the stage. It was agreed that Rilke's letters from Switzerland would be sent to Boris Pasternak in Moscow via Marina Tsvetaeva in Paris. Against all historical and political odds, the three poets decided to form a union, the last one, perhaps, of an era which still believed that the making of poetry equaled the making of life. Rilke's participation in this association reassured uprooted Russian writers of their continuing link with European culture and history.
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Enders, Mark. "“Lack of interest in politics”: a result of non-democratic experiences or of the non-existence of the Kantian republican state in the 21st century?" Studies in Global Ethics and Global Education 10 (June 22, 2019): 57–71. http://dx.doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0013.2507.
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This essay examines the appearance of distrust, disinterest and aversion to politics and political participation in today’s democracies by taking the Kantian concept of a republican state into account. The goal is to find out reasons for the lack of interest in politics by investigating certain aspects in today’s democracies that might be not in compliance with the Kantian understanding of republicanism. The essay will start with an examination of the republican state and why it is mostly referred to as being much as the parliamentary democracy we know today. Then, these results will be compared with modern democracies (USA, Switzerland and Germany) in order to find the underlying reasons for the lack of interest in politics and how it might be possible to overcome it.
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Afonso, Alexandre. "Choosing whom to betray: populist right-wing parties, welfare state reforms and the trade-off between office and votes." European Political Science Review 7, no. 2 (April 17, 2014): 271–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1755773914000125.
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This article analyses the impact of populist right-wing parties (PRWPs) on welfare state reforms in Western Europe in the light of the trade-off that they face between office and votes. On the one hand, PRWPs appeal to traditionally left-leaning blue-collar ‘insiders’ supportive of social insurance schemes. On the other hand, they have only been able to take part in government as junior coalition partners with liberal or conservative parties who are more likely to retrench these very same welfare programmes. In this context, the article argues that these parties have to choose between betraying their electorate (and losing votes), and betraying their coalition partners (and losing office). When they choose office, it enables welfare state retrenchment by allowing their coalition partners to curtail left-wing opposition, but entails high electoral costs for PRWPs. When they choose votes, it generates deadlock and potentially jeopardizes their participation in government. The paper draws on a comparative analysis of pension reforms during three periods of government participation of PRWPs: the Schüssel I and II cabinets in Austria (2000–06), the Rutte I cabinet in the Netherlands (2010–12) and three pension reforms in Switzerland between 1995 and 2010. The analysis draws on original primary material and interviews.
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Oberlin, Adam. "Peasants, Lords, and State: Comparing Peasant Conditions in Scandinavia and the Eastern Alpine Region, 1000‐1750, ed. Tore Iversen, John Ragnar Myking, and Stefan Sonderegger. The Northern World, 89. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2020, xii, 375 pp." Mediaevistik 34, no. 1 (January 1, 2021): 327–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.3726/med.2021.01.44.
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Following two previous volumes on peasants’ relationship to land control, governmental structures, and self-determination resulting from an international project funded by the Norwegian Research Council (2004‐2007), this collection of essays poses a challenge to once prevalent historiographical interpretations of a supposed Scandinavian – and particularly Norwegian – condition, in which agricultural laborers in the northern periphery purportedly enjoyed greater degrees of land ownership, control of resources, and political capital within the local milieu than their contemporaries to the South. To that end, the editors have developed a geographical, more narrowly a topographical and environmental, framework for a comparison between Norway and the West Norse areas of settlement (with a smaller role played by Denmark and Sweden when possible), on the one hand, and the Eastern Alpine region (primarily Tyrol and Switzerland with additional counterexamples in Lower Austria, southern Germany, and elsewhere in Central Europe), on the other. After an introductory chapter outlining the historiographical background and scope of the project, the first part spans three chapters on comparative local examinations of slavery and degrees of freedom, types of land ownership and control, and forms of local political participation, followed by a conclusion; the second offers four chapters on the national historiographical traditions challenged by the comparative studies in the first part and subsequently revised on a local basis here, namely in Norway, Tyrol, various regions of Germany, and Switzerland. (On an organizational note, the table of contents lists four ‘parts,’ the first of which contains only the introduction, while the fourth comprises what are strangely labelled appendices.)
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Menezes, Isabel. "Participation Experiences and Civic Concepts, Attitudes and Engagement: Implications for Citizenship Education Projects." European Educational Research Journal 2, no. 3 (September 2003): 430–45. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/eerj.2003.2.3.8.
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This article considers participation experiences of 14 year-old and upper secondary students in six European countries that were involved in the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) Civic Education Study: the Czech Republic, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Sweden and Switzerland, countries that vary in their history of institution of democratic regimes. Participation has been considered as a crucial dimension of citizenship, and experiences within civil society are viewed as a relevant opportunity for developing personal and social resources essential for the survival and expansion of democracy. Additionally, participation experiences in adolescence seem to be a good predictor of political engagement during adult life. Results show that participation is most evident in organisations that provide enrichment activities (sports, music, computers), but both 14 year-old and upper secondary students are involved in voluntary activities, in some civic-related organisations (mainly Scouts, religious affiliated and environmental), and in experiences within the school (with student councils and school newspapers at the top). However, cross-national and cross-age variations are significant. Overall, there seems to be a positive impact of the frequency of students' involvement on civic concepts, attitudes and engagement, but results also reveal that more is not necessarily better. The most relevant implication for the development of citizenship education projects is that ‘action’ can be a powerful learning tool but only if it is intentionally designed and systematically supported: the quality of participation experiences, both in terms of meaningful involvement, of interaction with (different) others, and opportunities for personal integration, is therefore crucial if the goal is to promote the personal empowerment and social pluralism on which the essence of democracy relies.
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Vinokurov, V. I., and A. D. Samarets. "The role and place of the institute of neutrality in modern diplomatic practice (on the example of Switzerland)." Diplomaticheskaja sluzhba (Diplomatic Service), no. 4 (August 11, 2022): 293–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.33920/vne-01-2204-05.
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The article is devoted to one of the topical issues in modern international relationships, namely the institute of neutrality, its advantages and disadvantages. The institute of neutrality is a successful political model, it has been used in diplomatic practice since the time of the Congress of Vienna, that is, since the beginning of the nineteenth century. The most successful example of a neutral policy is the Swiss Confederation which became the fi rst State to apply this model in practice. It is important to emphasize that Switzerland got its status thanks to the Russian Empire which not only contributed to the development of this model, its application, but also by refusing the reparations due to it after the War with Napoleon, moreover, it allowed Switzerland to develop the banking sector. The institute of neutrality has both advantages, such as non-involvement in military conflicts which means great opportunities for peaceful development at the expense of internal resources, and disadvantages, for example, insuffi cient regulation at the legislative level. Therefore, neutral states can easily evade regulatory legal acts without giving up their status, however, it aff ects their relations with other countries. The examples of this phenomenon are: the desire of Finland and Sweden to join NATO, the participation of the Swiss Confederation in sanctions against Russia in 2022. Finland owes a lot to the Russian Federation, as the legal successor of the USSR, because it was not fully punished for cooperation with the nazis and crimes against humanity, the authorities of this state for some reason forget about it. Switzerland is the country with permanent neutrality at all, in this regard, recent events are completely incompatible with the institution of neutrality. Such actions cannot do without serious consequences, they and the ways to resolve them will be discussed in the article.
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Ohazuruike, Kennedy, and Micheal Udo Mbanaso. "Federalism and the Challenges of Democratization in Nigeria: Lessons from the Swiss Model." Journal of Global Social Sciences 1, no. 1 (March 1, 2020): 1–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.31039/jgss.v1i1.80.
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Switzerland, a country composed of four major language groups, is comprised of 26 cantons and many municipalities, with each canton being linguistically homogenous, has always been a model of a federal state that is practising an inclusive democracy. The Nigerian federation, on the other hand, has evolved from a colonial federal legacy that was based on three unwieldy component regions into a union of 36 states and 774 constitutionally entrenched localities. Pressures for fundamental federal reforms have remained a persistent, intense and divisive feature of contemporary Nigerian politics, characterised by ethnic, religious and regional contestations that frequently produce episodes of violence. The paper examines the impact of federalism and Democratization process in Nigeria with particular focus on governance, political representation and participation using the Swiss federalism as a model in a comparative perspective. Both primary and secondary sources of data are applied with the theory of Separation of Powers guiding the discourse in the paper. The findings suggest that the Swiss federation has been built into a state where governance is institutionalised, while diversity is seen as strength with the people and the cantons well represented through participation in decision making, whereas in Nigeria, the practice of federalism has thrown up many challenges of governance. The paper recommends that Nigeria should borrow a leaf from the Swiss model of federalism through the devolution of power and decentralisation of functions from the federal government to the states and local governments. Also, Nigeria could adopt the Swiss model of direct democracy, which would allow for more citizens' participation in decision making and governance.
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Bezarov, Oleksandr. "Participation of Jews in the processes of Russian social-democratic movement." History Journal of Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University, no. 53 (June 21, 2022): 131–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.31861/hj2021.53.131-142.
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The formation of social democracy in the Russian Empire was another stage in the «Russian reception» of the Western models of the socialist movement, the result of certain ideological contradictions on the Russian ground. Given the semi-feudal society of the Russian Empire, the paternalism of autocratic power, the absence of deep traditions of liberal culture, the Russian social democratic movement could hardly count on obvious success without a deep revolutionary renewal of the entire socio-economic and political system of the Russian state. Since Jews were an urban ethnic group, it is not surprising that the provinces of the Jewish Pale in the late 19th century proved to be the epicentre of the revolutionary energy concentration.Thus, in the late 19th century the processes of formation and development of not the Russian, but the Jewish social-democratic movement continued on the territory of the Jewish Pale, the prominent centres of which were the Belarusian and Ukrainian cities of the Russian Empire. Despite the low level of the industrial development in the north-western part of the Russian Empire, as well as police persecution, imprisonment, and exile of many activists, the Jewish Social Democratic movement grew qualitatively and quantitatively, got loyal supporters, and spread to other cities such as Minsk, Grodno, Bialystok and Warsaw. The Bund (the Union of Jewish Workers in Lithuania, Poland, and Russia) played a key role in organizing the Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) on March 1-3, 1898, at which the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was founded which was supposed to unite revolutionary Marxist groups of the empire, regardless of their ethnicity. The processes of formation of the organizational and personnel structure of the Russian Social-Democracy continued during the First Russian Revolution. Jews took an active part in these processes. Their role in the organization of Russian social-democratic movement and in its staffing is difficult to overestimate. In particular, S. Dikstein, H.S. Khurgin, E.A. Abramovich, I.A. Gurvich, E.A. Gurvich, O. Belakh, L. Berkovich and many other Jewish activists found themselves at the origins of Russian social-democratic movement, and such distinguished Jewish figures of Russian social democracy as P. Axelrod and Yu. Martov in the early 19th century headed the Menshevik wing of the RSDLP.The author noted that until 1917 the model for the development of the social democratic movement in the Russian Empire was the European Social Democracy, among the recognized authorities of which were also Jews (F. Lassall, E. Bernstein, V. Adler, O. Bauer). Eventually, the Jewish origin of Marx, the founder of «scientific» socialism, canonized his doctrine in the mass consciousness of the urban Jewry of the Russian Empire, which awaited a new messiah who would «bring» them out of the ghetto of the Jewish Pale.At the same time, the theory of self-liberation of the Jewish proletariat, adopted by the Jewish Social Democrats of Vilno, Minsk, and Kyiv as opposed to the seemingly utopian ideas of the Zionists from Basel, Switzerland, became the leading ideology of the Russia’s first political organization of Jewish proletarian – the Bund, which emerged in the same 1897, when the First World Congress of Zionists took place.Thus, the intensification of state anti-Semitism, the Jewish pogroms, and the escalation of the political crisis in the Russian Empire on the eve of the First Russian Revolution pushed Russian and Jewish Social-Democracy to develop a common position on the proletariat’s participation in future revolutionary events, optimized the search for overcoming the internal party crisis that arose after the withdrawal of the Bund from the RSDLP. For the first time in its history, the Jewish Social Democrats tried to ignite the fire of the Russian revolution on the «Jewish street» and prove the political significance of the powerful revolutionary potential of the Jewish masses in the Jewish Pale for the all-Russian social democratic movement.
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Preisendörfer, Peter, Lucie Herold, and Karin Kurz. "Road Traffic and Aircraft Noise as Drivers of Environmental Protest?" KZfSS Kölner Zeitschrift für Soziologie und Sozialpsychologie 72, no. 2 (June 2020): 165–91. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11577-020-00686-z.
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Abstract This article investigates whether and to what extent unfavorable local environmental conditions furnish an important motivator for environmental protest. We do so using individual-level data on objective and subjectively perceived residential road traffic and aircraft noise pollution, pertaining to the cities of Mainz (Germany) and Zurich (Switzerland). By referring to fine-grained noise data, we are able to test the predictive power of grievances and self-interest in explaining protest participation more stringently than has been the case in most previous studies. Theoretically, our study is inspired by Klandermans’ socio-psychological framework of political protest, the pressure-response approach, the self-interest perspective, and the collective-interest model. Our empirical findings only partially confirm the grievances assumption that unfavorable local environmental conditions in the form of residential road traffic and aircraft noise stimulate environmental protest. Noise caused by airplanes seems to be more “protest-inducing” than that produced by road traffic. It is not so much the objectively measurable noise level as its subjective perception and evaluation that are deciding factors. However, in line with Klandermans’ protest framework and other theories of political protest, there are more influential drivers of environmental protest, such as environmental concerns and a left-wing political ideology. Thus, the effects of residential road traffic and aircraft noise turn out to be relatively moderate. Ultimately, this means that our tailored measures of grievances corroborate a relatively well-established finding of protest research.
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Kohnstamm, N. M. "Approaching Judgment Day: The Influence of Brexit on the EU Pharmaceutical Framework." Legal Issues of Economic Integration 46, Issue 2 (May 1, 2019): 161–79. http://dx.doi.org/10.54648/leie2019010.
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Though the plans for Brexit keep changing daily at the time of writing of this article, it seems useful to identify and discuss the differences between various types of EU trade agreements with third countries as possible models for a future EU–UK relationship, whatever the outcome. At some point after all the political drama, civil servants and negotiators will need to get down to business and find practical solutions for the new situation. This article examines the impact of such a transition on the integrated EU pharmaceutical industry. First, a state of play chapter details the EU and UK legislation regarding Brexit, possible future agreements and an overview of the pharmaceutical regulatory framework. The focus of the analysis itself is the level of participation in the European Medicine Association on the basis of a European Economic Area (EEA) Agreement (Norway), a Bilateral Agreement (Switzerland), and a Free Trade Agreement (Canada). Within this framework, key regulatory complications of the EU pharmaceutical framework (Market Authorization, Research & Development and Safety Monitoring) are investigated. Finally, the article demonstrates some of the dilemmas and diverging demands of the EU and UK as new trading partners in the pharmaceutical sector.
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Holtsch, Doreen, Sebastian Brückner, Manuel Förster, and Olga Zlatkin-Troitschanskaia. "Gender gap in Swiss vocational education and training teachers’ economics content knowledge and the role of teaching experience." Citizenship, Social and Economics Education 18, no. 3 (December 2019): 218–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2047173419893595.
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In the commercial sector, which is of crucial importance to the Swiss economy among other countries, a large number of apprentices are trained on a vocational education and training programme every year. Besides other subjects, the subject Economics and Society forms an integral part of the vocational education and training curriculum and serves to prepare apprentices for professional, economic and civic participation. Although content knowledge is widely considered necessary to both teaching quality and student achievement, little is known about the subject-specific content knowledge of Swiss Economics and Society teachers. As previous research has shown a gender gap in the content knowledge of (pre-service) teachers in economics, we focus on the question as to whether Swiss Economics and Society teachers’ economics content knowledge differs, including in relation to gender. As additional influencing factors, our study included teaching experience and teaching load. We measured the economics content knowledge of 153 Economics and Society teachers with a shortened German version of the Test of Understanding College Economics in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Multivariate analyses indicated a gender effect that manifested itself in higher test scores among male Economics and Society teachers. These findings are relevant to the training of vocational education and training teachers.
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Voronina, N. A. "Swiss Сonfedеration experience on reception of migrants." Upravlenie 7, no. 4 (January 27, 2020): 123–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.26425/2309-3633-2019-4-123-130.
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The experience of Swiss Confederation in the field of integration of immigrants – one of the most economically developed countries of the world, occupying the leading position in Europe on the rate of foreign population in general demographic structure, – has been examined in the article. Evolution of the notions of “integration”, “social assimilation”, “acculturation” and others has been considered and different scientific approaches of Western researches to these notions have been adduced. Swiss immigration policy for the past decades has been traced and the modern integration policy of the country in the field of integration of foreign citizens into receiving society has been analyzed. A detailed analysis of the Swiss normative and legal framework in the field of migration, asylum and integration has been made also, and active development of migration laws over the last decade has been noted. Swiss migration politics, like in other developed Western countries-recipients of foreign labor, contains both: immigration policy (control over entry and stay of foreigners in the country) and policy of integration towards foreigners subject to integration processes.The process of integration of a foreign citizen into a new socio-economic, political and cultural environment is a complex, multidimensional phenomenon. There is a developed and scientifically grounded system of reception, accommodation and integration of foreigners and asylum seekers in Switzerland, which is based on constitutional values, respect and mutual tolerance. At the core of this system is a general strategy of integration, which constitutes a country’s core policy of integration and covers various areas: law, politics, labour issues, housing, education, culture and religion. In order to implement the policy of integration, in Switzerland there are being developed and implemented federal and cantonal integration programs. Integration processes management is administered through the developed system of state authorities at federal, cantonal and other levels, with active participation of different public organizations, including migrant organizations. Federal Council publishes reports on development of integration policy in the country, Federal Migration Office issues annual reports, numerous scientific researches on the theme are being conducted. At present each canton has its own Integration program, designed in accordance with the Modal cantonal program, that allows to implement different integration models, depending on regional requirements and priorities.
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Smith, Alexander, Anna Buadze, Petra Stute, and Michael Liebrenz. "Political representation of medical doctors in Switzerland’s executive and legislative branches in 2023." F1000Research 12 (February 27, 2023): 219. http://dx.doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.130986.1.
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Background: Healthcare policy is an important societal concern in Switzerland, often dominating the national agenda. In other countries, studies have explored the influence of physicians in public office on healthcare policies, but little is known about the representation of medical doctors in Switzerland's political structures, despite ongoing health-related debates. Methods: In January 2023, we examined the proportion of registered doctors currently serving in Swiss governmental branches: the executive (the Federal Council) and the legislative (the Council of States and the National Council, together the United Federal Assembly). We used publicly available information to demarcate Federal, State, and National Councillors with professional medical backgrounds. We subsequently verified physician registrations using the Federal Office of Public Health’s “Register of Medical Professionals” (MedReg) Results: Six physicians registered in MedReg were identified across the Federal Council and the United Federal Assembly in 2023, equivalent to 2.37% of the total number of Councillors in these chambers. This corresponds to 14.20% of members in the Federal Council (the executive chamber) and 2.03% of members in the United Federal Assembly (the legislative chamber). Conclusions: Rates of physicians sitting in Switzerland’s Federal Council and United Federal Assembly are higher than general population trends for doctors per person. Nonetheless, physicians in Swiss legislative positions are proportionally lower than comparative data from the United States. We highlight how existing professional frameworks may already ensure medical doctors are sufficiently participating in Swiss healthcare debates outside of formal roles. We also suggest that more international evidence is needed to determine the benefits of physicians serving in public office.
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RUIZ VIEYTEZ, Eduardo J. "La democracia directa como alternativa a la democracia representativa: algunas lecciones desde la experiencia suiza." Revista Vasca de Administración Pública / Herri-Arduralaritzarako Euskal Aldizkaria, no. 108 (August 30, 2017): 153–80. http://dx.doi.org/10.47623/ivap-rvap.108.2017.05.
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LABURPENA: Azken urteotan, erreferenduma gehiago erabiltzea proposatu dute hainbat sektore sozial eta politikok, herritarrek parte hartzeko mekanismoa izan dadin eta gure sistemaren birsorkuntza demokratikoa ekar dezan. Europako testuinguruan, Suitzak erabiltzen du gehien erreferenduma. Suitzako esperientziak erakusten duenez, erreferenduma sarri erabiltzea ez dago arazo politiko eta juridikoetatik salbuetsita. Lehenengoen artean, hautesleen parte-hartzea txikia izaten dela, populismoa areagotu egiten dela eta, giza eskubideei eragin diezaieketen arren, herritarren erabakiak goresten dituen kultura politikoa eratzen dela aipa daiteke. Erreferendumean onartutako xedapenek nazioarteko arauei aurka egiten dietenean, zailtasun handiak agertzen dira arlo juridikoan; zehazki, giza eskubideen eremuan. Gure sistema politikoan erreferendumaren erabilera areagotzeko orduan, faktore horiek aintzat hartu behar dira. RESUMEN: En los últimos años varios sectores sociales y políticos han propuesto un mayor uso del referéndum como mecanismo de participación popular y de regeneración democrática de nuestro sistema. En el contexto europeo Suiza es el país que más profusamente hace uso del referéndum. Su experiencia suiza muestra que la utilización frecuente del referéndum no está exenta de problemas políticos y jurídicos. Entre los primeros pueden citarse la baja participación del electorado, el aumento del populismo y la configuración de una cultura política que ensalza las decisiones populares aun en los casos en los que éstas puedan afectar a los derechos humanos. En el plano jurídico se plantean importantes dificultades cuando las disposiciones aprobadas en referéndum contradicen normas de carácter internacional, en particular en el ámbito de los derechos humanos. Estos factores deben ser tenidos en cuenta a la hora de incrementar el uso del referéndum en nuestro sistema político. ABSTRACT: In the last years, several social and political sectors have suggested a more frequent and efficient use of referendum as a mechanism for political participation and democratic regeneration in our system. Within the European context, Switzerland is the country that most frequently uses the referendum. Its experience shows that a frequent use of referendum is not free from political and legal problems. Among the political concerns, it can be mentioned ta low turnout, an emerging populism and a peculiar political culture that enshrines popular will even in the cases in which this might go against human rights. From the legal perspective, important difficulties can be found when clauses adopted by referendum go against international legal standards, particularly in the field of human rights. These problematic factors must be seriously considered in a possible increase of the use of referendum in our constitutional system.
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Rodionov, Vladimir A. "«Мягкая сила» малых стран: опыт Монголии." Oriental studies 15, no. 2 (July 15, 2022): 228–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.22162/2619-0990-2021-60-2-228-243.
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Introduction. The experience of recent decades shows small countries — though characterized by relatively limited foreign policy capacity — can defend their interests through ‘soft power’. Being obviously inferior to greater powers in military, political and economic aspects, small countries seek to compensate for their vulnerability with softer methods of influence. Nowadays, Mongolia is a classic case of a small country under the influence of such great powers as Russia, China, and the United States to successfully employ soft power tools. Goals. The article aims to identify where and how Mongolia uses soft power in its foreign policy. Materials and methods. The study primarily explores Mongolia’s official documents dealing with its national security and foreign policy, international initiatives of Ulaanbaatar, statements of Mongolian executives on relations with foreign partners, media materials. The employed research methods include the comparative, narrative, and retrospective ones. Results. There are three most promising lines for soft power in contemporary Mongolia’s foreign policy. The first one is that the country presents itself as a successful young democracy in the heart of Asia capable of becoming a model for a number of other small countries in the region. The second one is the policy of de facto neutrality manifested in refusal to deploy nuclear weapons and foreign military bases in Mongolian territory, as well as the active participation in UN peacekeeping operations. Finally, the third soft power line (to be perceived as one) is Ulaanbaatar’s active promotion of its mediation role to resolve urgent problems localized in Northeast Asia. Maintaining friendly relations with virtually all Northeast Asian states, Mongolia seeks to become a platform for international negotiations similar to that of Switzerland. Conclusions. Thus, soft power for Ulaanbaatar is an important two-sided tool supposed, firstly, to accelerate international influence and, secondly, to ensure national security and sovereignty.
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GREENBERG, UDI. "ERNST CASSIRER'S MOMENT: PHILOSOPHY AND POLITICS." Modern Intellectual History 10, no. 1 (April 2013): 221–31. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1479244312000431.
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The emergence of the German Jewish philosopher Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945) as the object of scholarly attention has been both surprising and rapid. In the decades since his early death while in exile in the United States, Cassirer never fell into complete oblivion. His works remained known to specialists in German intellectual history; his participation in a famous 1929 debate with Martin Heidegger in Davos, Switzerland, one of the most iconic moments in modern Continental thought, made his name familiar to most students of modern philosophy. Yet Cassirer lacked the widespread recognition given to contemporaries such as Heidegger or Walter Benjamin, and his work never became the center of historical or philosophical study. This neglect stemmed, in part, from dismissal by his peers; as Edward Skidelsky explains in his new study, Rudolf Carnap found him “rather pastoral,” Isaiah Berlin dismissed him as “serenely innocent,” and Theodor Adorno thought he was “totally gaga” (125). The last few years, however, have seen the rise of a remarkable new interest in Cassirer in both Germany and the English-speaking world. Among this recent literature, Edward Skidelsky's and Peter Gordon's works lead the small “Cassirer renaissance” and offer the best English-language introduction to his thought. Both Gordon and Skidelsky ambitiously seek to relocate Cassirer at the forefront of modern German and European thought. Gordon goes as far as to call him “one of the greatest philosophers and intellectual historians to emerge from the cultural ferment of modern Germany” and one of the most important thinkers of the twentieth century (11). In making such bold statements, Gordon and Skidelsky clearly set their sights beyond the person himself; they aspire to highlight a central strand of thought that enjoyed a powerful presence in early twentieth-century Germany but fell into neglect in the postwar era. In doing so, they seek to reevaluate the nature and legacy of Weimar thought, its complex relationship with the period's unstable politics, and its relevance today.
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Schmid, Benjamin, Thomas Meister, Britta Klagge, and Irmi Seidl. "Energy Cooperatives and Municipalities in Local Energy Governance Arrangements in Switzerland and Germany." Journal of Environment & Development 29, no. 1 (November 7, 2019): 123–46. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1070496519886013.
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Participation of citizens in local energy decisions is increasingly recognized as helpful for a successful decentralized energy transition. In this article, we focus on energy cooperatives in which private individuals jointly develop facilities to generate energy from renewable sources, thus involving citizens both politically and economically. Focusing on Switzerland and Germany, we show that there is a strong linkage between such cooperatives and municipalities, characterized by collaboration and support, and that the cooperatives are well suited as collaborating partners. We also show that federalist structures are most suited for such local arrangements as municipalities must have leeway to support cooperatives in a targeted manner and to compensate for shortcomings in the energy policy of superordinate governmental levels. Based on these results, we suggest that local governments should be given sufficient financial capacities and autonomy to strengthen implementation of a decentralized energy transition that involves citizens. However, we also recognize that municipal structures alone are often insufficient and that superordinate policies, especially national subsidies, remain essential. Hence, policies at the municipal and national levels should take greater account of citizen initiatives, such as energy cooperatives, which exhibit various noncommodifiable advantages relevant to the energy transition.
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SEMIANOVSKYI, V. "“Problem Barometer” as a tool for cooperation of the Society, Power and Business: Switzerland’s experience." Scientific Bulletin of the National Academy of Statistics, Accounting and Audit, no. 3 (November 1, 2019): 139–47. http://dx.doi.org/10.31767/nasoa.3.2019.13.
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The objective of the study is to substantiate the need for introducing “Problem barometer” to address the problems of power-community-business cooperation on the participative management principles, enhance the performance of power offices and the civil society, for gradual settlement of difficult problems arising in contemporary society. The working task is to highlight European instruments for the power-community-business cooperation by the Swiss example and substantiate the possibilities of adapting this practice in Ukraine.
The cooperation triangle “Community – Power – Business” is built. An extensive review of “Swiss worry” barometer is given. Using this Swiss practice and data from Kyiv International Institute of Sociology for 2014–2019, “Problem barometer” for Ukrainian is constructed. The public concerns measured by this barometer cover war in the east of Ukraine, life standards, economic situation, security in Ukraine, crime, political situation, relations with Russia, environmental problems, renaissance of the Ukrainian nation, relations with EU, annexation of Crimea, international relations, interethnic relations, other. The options “hard to say” and “refuse to answer” are also included.
It is stressed that for political parties or deputies Ukrainian “Problem barometer” signals what social problems should come in their focus in time of the cadence. For public institutions “barometer” shows what social problems call for solutions with the government’s involvement. The “barometer” indicators are also important for the business, especially the socially oriented one. For voters “barometer” indicates whether a deputy or a public official is concerned with the needs of the population or his own needs (or needs of party sponsors). This determines the citizens’ trust in the respective institutions. The conclusion is made that the proposed “Problem barometer” (built by analogy with “Swiss barometer”) is an instrument for streamlining the community-power-business cooperation, which makes it more effective.
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Cabal-Escandón, Victoria-Eugenia. "Developments and Challenges in Advanced Practice Nursing." Revista Colombiana de Enfermería 18, no. 2 (August 31, 2019): e007. http://dx.doi.org/10.18270/rce.v18i2.2663.
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Advanced Practice Nursing (APN) emerged as a response to the need for professionals capable of giving care to patients, thereby improving the quality of healthcare; the results obtained by implementing APNs in healthcare teams confirm that APNs can be implemented in the healthcare of patients of all ages and with varied health situations (1).
Levels of development in APN are very diverse in distinct countries, in the legal aspect as well as in the roles that a nurse with this level of training can fulfill. The International Council of Nurses (ICN) counts around seventy countries as being preoccupied with introducing clear function for APNs (20); nonetheless, literature describes the main progress in this sense occurring in Canada, Australia, Ireland, Finland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, although in the last ten years significant advances have been identifies in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Thailand, Singapore, Korea, and Africa (3, 4).
In Latin-American, progress in this initiative is embryonic: the role that a APN can fulfill has not been sufficiently disseminated and the implementation of this strategy has been limited by healthcare policies in many countries or by the opposition to APNs by professionals in other areas who are reacting to misinformation or to fear of usurpation of certain functions by APNs. However, in primary care, APNs have been incorporated into healthcare teams, and research shows positive results for the expansion of coverage and reduction of healthcare costs, in both rural areas and urban centers (1, 5).
Thanks to these advances, in 2000 the ICN supported the creation of the International Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nursing Network (INP/APNN) with the objective of favoring dialogue, advancing the installation of APNs in the countries, facilitating the interchange of knowledge, determining the limits in the expansion of the role of nurses, and defining the guidelines for the formation of human resources at this level. Likewise, the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) have worked with universities and nursing associations in Latin America and the Caribbean to, through context analyses, propose implementation of APNs (5).
During August 2018, the 10th Conference of the International Nursing Council convened in Rotterdam with the goal of exploring the role of APNs in the transformation of healthcare (6). With the participation of more than fifty countries, the council established a global panorama of the situation and of the challenges nursing faces as an active participant and agent for achieving universal health coverage. An important conclusion drawn from the event is the recognition given by all participating countries to APNs for allowing significant advancement of strategies for primary healthcare and the achievement of goals related with universal health coverage and sustainable development: the guarantee of a healthy life and the promotion of wellness for everyone at every age (4, 5).
These propositions imply a process and the need for countries to work towards the expansion of nursing roles, which requires the promotion of a collective project that unites different sectors involved in the formation of human talent, on one hand, that the offering of health services on the other. Likewise, administrators of education and health policy along with associations involved in the nursing discipline need to contribute to the analyses of strategies for implementing a sustainable and efficient health system that allows universal access to health (1, 4, 7).
In this context, APNs are understood to have undergone master or doctorate level training that develops scientific knowledge, clinical expertise, leadership, political formation, communicational capacity, and education for the patient, family, and community groups. Therefore, the professional is enabled to take ethical decisions, work autonomously, interact in intra- and interdisciplinary groups, and understand that ANP’s work will be determined by the unique environment, healthcare structure, and legislation of different countries.
In accord with Morán-Peña (8), the International Nursing Council states that APNs are characterized by an autonomous practice that allows the implementation of tools like: valuation, diagnostic reasoning, decision making for the handling of cases, plan development, implementation and evaluation of programs as part of consultation services, and being the first point of contact in the healthcare system. This implies that an ANP will have competencies to participate in the elaboration of public policy as well as on teams dedicated to care for individuals, families, groups, and communities in disease prevention, health promotion, treatment, recuperation, and palliative care (7, 9, 10).
Consequently, working on the implementation of the EPA can possibly lead to transformation of healthcare systems in the clinical area, improvement in the access to primary healthcare, and in the design and development of investigation projects whose results can be applied in practice; in short, it would affect the quality and effectiveness of healthcare at different levels and allow the urgent and much needed evolution of healthcare systems (11).
With this perspective, the fundamental question is whether sufficient political interest exist for the development of APN’s roles, the definition of APN’s limits, the adaption of the existing structure, the establishment of guidelines for educational programs, and the application of expert knowledge, among other aspects, in benefit of health coverage, healthcare quality, and the establishment of a sustainable healthcare system.
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Schell-Kiehl, Ines, Melissa Laurens, Nicole Ketelaar, Peter Sommerfeld, Nadja Hess, Sarah Bühler, Nikolaus Meyer, and Sebastian Franz. "Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the work of social workers." Journal of Comparative Social Work 17, no. 1 (August 15, 2022): 123–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.31265/jcsw.v17i1.390.
Full textAbstract:
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on everyone’s life. Like many other professionals, social workers have been forced to adapt to these new working conditions and new challenges in order to support clients during the pandemic, as new needs have arisen. Together with professional associations from three nations (Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands), we used a coordinated approach to explore the consequences of the pandemic for social work professionals. This study was conducted during the most severe contact and hygiene restrictions of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the winter of 2020/2021. The data addresses the changes perceived by social work professionals in relation to their contact and communication with clients, the use of digital technology in the context of work, the professional response in terms of innovation, the working conditions and the psychosocial risks they face. MethodsCross-sectional data was collected from 7,241 social workers in Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands through online surveys. ResultsThe results show an increase in the workload of professional social workers and compounding problems of clients, together with a negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on communication and contact with clients. All of this takes place within the framework of changing working conditions and contexts. Our data shows that the use of digital technologies does not cause bigger problems for most of the participating social workers. It should in fact be noted that professionals have many positive associations with the use of digital technology in general. ConclusionsThere are both remarkable and alarming results concerning the mental health of social workers and their working conditions, as well as the position of the social work profession in general.
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Dukhan, Haian. "The Politics of Tribalization in Syria." International Journal of Middle East Studies 53, no. 3 (August 2021): 502–6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0020743821000817.
Full textAbstract:
International media outlets have covered the news of Syrian tribes since the beginning of the protest movement that erupted in the country in 2011. This started with the “Friday of Tribes,” when Syrian tribes participating in protests against the Syrian regime in the Syrian city of Dar‘a began chanting “faz‘a” (chanting for support), which meant that they were seeking solidarity from other tribes for defense against the regime's aggression. As the Syrian uprising turned into a civil war that involved many players, some media outlets focused on the scenes of tribal leaders pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or of others being summoned to Geneva, Switzerland, to hold talks with Western powers about the possibility of mobilizing against ISIS militants. One could only wonder exactly why tribal loyalties continued to play such a significant role in the everyday events of the Syrian civil war when many civil society advocates had argued that tribal affiliation in Syria had diminished.
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Kooijmans, P. H. "The Mountain Produced a Mouse: The CSCE Meeting of Experts on Peaceful Settlement of Disputes, Valletta 1991." Leiden Journal of International Law 5, no. 1 (February 1992): 91–97. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0922156500002004.
Full textAbstract:
From the very beginning peaceful settlement of disputes has been on the agenda of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Principle V of the first chapter of the Final Act of Helsinki of 1975 (the so-called first basket) reaffirmed the obligation of the participating states to settle their disputes by peaceful means. The Final Act, however, does not provide a mechanism through which such disputes can be resolved. The Swiss delegation had submitted in 1973 a draft-convention (called the Bindschedler-proposal after its auctor intellectualis Rudolf Bindschedler, the Legal Advisor of the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs), containing a detailed system of compulsory dispute settlement. A distinction was made between judiciable and non-judiciable disputes. Judiciable disputes would be submitted to a permanent Arbitral Tribunal, non-judiciable disputes to a permanent Commission of Inquiry, Mediation and Conciliation. This proposal was, however, unacceptable to the East European states (with the exception of Romania) which had always rejected the idea of compulsory third-party dispute settlement, whereas the greaterpart of the Western states, although in principle favourable to a system of compulsory dispute settlement, had serious objections against the substance of the Swiss proposal, inter alia with regard to the rather artificial distinction between judiciable and non-judiciable disputes. The Swiss delegation did not insist on its proposal and went along with a clause in the Final Act which provided for a follow-up meeting of experts with the task “to pursue the examination and elaboration of a generally acceptable method for the peaceful settlement of disputes aimed at complementing existing methods”. It was decided that this meeting of experts was to be convened by Switzerland afterthe first follow-up meeting which was planned for 1977 in Belgrade.
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Dzvinchuk, Dmytro, Mariana Orliv, Brigita Janiunaite, and Victor Petrenko. "Creating innovative design labs for the public sector: A case for institutional capacity building in the regions of Ukraine." Problems and Perspectives in Management 19, no. 2 (June 21, 2021): 320–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.21511/ppm.19(2).2021.26.
Full textAbstract:
Innovative design labs were created by public authorities of the USA, Australia, Singapore, Finland, Canada, the UK, Switzerland, Denmark, China, and other countries to accelerate changes and develop modern public service. This paper provides further insight to establishing external innovation accelerators for strengthening capacity of public institutions. The study aims to define the development opportunities for innovative design labs for the public sector in Ukraine’s regions by the case of the Laboratory of Intellectual Development for Empowering Regions (LIDER). The study was conducted at two stages: (1) exploring the features of innovation implementation in the public sector and outlining the main problems of innovation capacity of public institutions; (2) defining the development opportunities for the LIDER via SWOT-analysis. To substantiate the study results, the correlation analysis between autocratic, bureaucratic, competitive, self-protective, and participative leadership behaviors of CEOs and innovation index based on data from 18 countries was performed, as well as a survey of 195 public servants of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and an interview of 9 experts were conducted. The following key development opportunities for the LIDER were detected: promoting the introduction of incremental innovations in public institutions by using design thinking methodology; assisting the development of pro-innovative culture and participative leadership via individual-centric and system-oriented approaches; developing effective tools for performance management and supporting public institutions in project activity; organizing the competitions for regional innovative projects; assisting in creation of radically human systems in public institutions. AcknowledgmentThe paper was prepared within the framework of the joint Ukrainian-Lithuanian R&D project “Competence Development of Lithuanian and Ukrainian Public Sector Employees Using Design-Thinking Methodology”.The project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT, agreement № S-LU-20-5) and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine (agreement № М/31-2020).