infonet-economy

Social Network Analysis (SNA) conceptualizes a policy-making process as a network of actors. It can assess if an interest group (IGs) occupies a leading central position within this policy network, if it belongs to various ad hoc coalitions or if it plays a brokering role between different stakeholders. Such network variables are crucial to capture how IGs mobilize and gain access to…

Studying the outcomes of social movements is important if we want to elucidate the role of collective action in society. While most works have addressed aggregate-level political outcomes such as changes in laws or new policies, a relatively small but substantial body of literature deals with the personal and biographical consequences of social movements at the micro-level, that is,…

This article discusses the methodological challenges of legislative surveys. Following an overview of different types of survey biases, the article argues that self-selection and misreporting are the most critical problems for legislative surveys. In order to identify the self-selection and misreporting biases, we compare the answers to a survey from Swiss members of parliament with…

This research note presents an innovative dataset of Swiss MPs’ interest ties between 2000-2011. The longitudinal analysis shows that the average number of interest ties per MP has more than doubled: from 3.5 in 2000 to 7.6 in 2011. Since the mid-2000s, public interest groups have accounted for approximately one out of two ties between MPs and interest groups, showing the strongest…

This dissertation takes up a theoretical problem that prejudices justifications of multiculturalism. If we understand multiculturalism as a position holding that cultures are valuable entities that deserve respect and recognition, we must not only show that there indeed are such things as cultures, but also that culture is the right kind of entity to possess value. However, these…

This dissertation examines the reasons for the selection of roll call votes and their effects on legislators' voting behavior in democratic legislatures. First, the dissertation shows that legislators have an incentive to facilitate the use of roll call votes when they expect that their policy preferences are aligned with those of important actors outside the legislature.…

Must privacy and freedom of expression conflict? To witness recent debates in Britain, you might think so. Anything other than self-regulation by the press is met by howls of anguish from journalists across the political spectrum, to the effect that efforts to protect people’s privacy will threaten press freedom, promote self-censorship and prevent the press from fulfilling its vital…