bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Het onbehagen in de democratie
Authors: Scheffer Paul 
Published: July 2021

Democratic institutions are under pressure as was also the case at the end of the sixties. But where in those days the critique was left-liberal and seeking to extend democracy, now the discomfort with democracy has concervative-populist overtones, related to the reaffirmation of exclusive, mostly national, identities. The populist critique of liberal achievements and institutions has raised questions of ethnicity and identity. The historical tension between national identiy and parliamentary democracy offers a broader frame against which the emergence of nationalist and populist movements, like the Republikaner, Front National and the Vlaams Blok can be understood. These considerations lead to some important questions : is a parlementary democracy in the European Union possible? Does democracy need a specific cultural society? If so, European unification would break the historical link between parliamentery democracy and the nation, without realizing a democracy on a higher multi-national level. Those who want to defend the liberal democracy against the challenge of populist and nationalist political movements, will need to study more closely the cultural foundations of democracy.
Electoral Reform and electoral Behaviour in Belgium: Change within Continuity... or conversely
Authors: Rihoux Benoît 
Published: July 2021

Since the November 1991 elections, it has become a common statement to argue that Belgium has entered a -possibly unprecedented- period ofchange and instability. This article focuses on the evolution of the electoral system and electoral behaviour, in order to test this widely agreed-upon judgement. All things considered, one observes that the electoral system has not been radically modified since World War II. In spite of the transformation of the country into a federal state and several severe conflicts, political decision-makers have opted for the 'fine-tuning" of the electoral system instead of radical reforms.As far as electoral behaviour is concerned, the picture is less clear. On one hand, relying on various indicators, one does observe that the early 1990s were characterised by change and transformation. On the other hand, one cannot conclude that the amplitude of change or instability in the early 1990s has been "exceptional" or "unprecedented" as compared with earlier periods.Building upon this ambiguous diagnosis, the author speculates on the probability of a major breakdown of the Belgian political system at the turn of the century.
Controlling political corruption in Italy : What did not work, what can be done
Authors: Della Porta Donatella , Vannucci Alberto 
Published: July 2021

The paper dealt with the control on political corruption in Italy, in particular with the reasons why most of the control mechanisms did not work for a long time, allowingfor the development of"tangentopoli". First of all, we briefly discussed the reasons why the controls ''from below"--that is, from citizens or electors--did not function in Italy: the pervasive occupation of the administration and the civil society by the political parties, as well as "secret" agreements between political parties in order to avoid political scandals were discussed.The paper continued by analyzing two types of institutional control: the administrative controls and the judiciary controls. In the second part, we presented some main characteristics of the Italian public administration that hampered internal controls, the informal control of parties over the bureaucrats through clientelism and complicity in corruption being one among them. In the third part, we focused on the peculiar characteristics of a magistracy that enjoyed of a very high degree of format autonomy from the political power, but was "pushed" towards politics for reasons as different as complicity in corruption and the need to "substitute" for the weak policy making capacity of political parties. In the fourth part, we reviewed some (implemented of planned) reform bills to deal with the control of political corruption.
The Question of Identity in a Divided Media Landscape : The Case of Cyprus
Authors: Gumpert Gary , Drucker Susan J. 
Published: July 2021

The military operations of 1974 in Cyprus led to the formation of two autonomous areas houding Turkish Cypriots in the north and the Greek Cypriots in the south. The island is divided by the "Green Line", patrolled by U.N. peace keeping forces.Movement is blocked and communication severed. There are multiple and conflicting Cypriot identities and feelings of nationalism ranging from pride in being Cypriots, to feelings of connection to Hellenic heritage, and cultural along with political and economic ties to Greece. A Turkish Cypriot identity linked to a distinct religious and linguistic background co-exists with Turkish settlers living in the independent north yet tied to Turkey. This article examines the division from a communication perspective taking into account language, religion, the visual landscape and the media landscape on each side ofthe "Green Line" along with interlocking media landscapes with Greece or Turkey in order to explore influences shaping collective identity and nationalism.
Media, Nationalism and Identity in Canada and Quebec
Authors: Raboy Marc 
Published: July 2021

The relationship between media, nationalism and identity is increasingly problematic, even in the most politically stable countries. In Canada, media policy has been an integral part of political strategies for preserving the coherence of the Canadian state, with respect to external pressures towards North American continental integration, and internal pressures towards fragmentation and, most recently, disintegration. The alternative project of political indepéndence for Quebec, which nearly achieved a majority in a referendum held in October 1995, represents a threat to the Canadian state that media policy has sought to contain. But media practices reflect the real tensions in Canadian society and can not be held to account for the more or less failed agendas of politicians. The article explores some aspects of the relationship between media and the complexities of national identity in the framework of a political culture where different visions of nationhood must inevitably coexist.
Tussen hervorming en patstelling : de Europese Unie in 1996
Authors: Kerremans Bart 
Published: July 2021

1996 was a y ear of both gridlock and reform for the European Union. The EU experienced one of its major institutional crises with the Mad Cow Disease. ltwas equally confronted with only minor progress in the ongoing Intergovernmental Conference for institutional reform as no major breakthroughs could be expected before the UK elections of May 1997. However, some major achievements occured as well. The adoption of the Stability Pact at the Dublin Summit in December increased the credibility of the EMU-project seriously. At the same time, the EU intensified its efforts to improve its trade relations with different parts of the world, especially South and South-East-Asia. At the same time however, the Commission bas been confronted with increasing disputes on the way in which it uses its prerogatives in competition policy and the enforcement of implementation.
Selectieve uitsluiting in het Belgisch politiek systeem : Innovatie en protest door nieuwe sociale bewegingen
Authors: Hooghe Marc 
Published: July 2021

The Belgian political system is generally portrayed as being closed for outsiders. In this article we ascertain how the system responded to the challenge of the new social movements. The Belgian political elite developed a response strategy, based on thematical openness and actorial closure. The issues of the new social movements were admitted on the political agenda, but the movements themselves were excluded from access to the decision making process. Only those actors were allowed which were willing to accomodate themselves to the traditional elite consensus, based on neo-corporatism, pillarisation and a politically passive population. Confronted with this elite strategy, the new social movements were able to fulfil their agenda function (bringing new issues on the political agenda), but they had little opportunity for introducing new cultural codes into the political decision making process. This lack of innovation enhances the legitimation crisis of the Belgian political system.
The Potential Relevance of Belgian Minority Protection for South Africa
Authors: Alen André , Henrard Kristien 
Published: July 2021

This paper focusses on the Belgian constitutional and legal regulations which are clearly and relatively directly linked to minority protection as welt as their relevance for South Africa by way of analogy, taking into account South Africa's specific circumstances.Generally, what seems to be highly relevant for South Africa is the different kind of solutions in Belgium for its three categories of minorities as related to a different degree of territorial concentration. Going from an emphasis on territorial federalism, providing autonomy, for the highly territorial concentrated linguistic groups, over the use of the relative concentrations of the ideological and philosophical groups in certain federated entities, to a combination of individual human rights and group rights without a territorial connection whatsoever for the religious groups which are highly dispersed throughout the country.An analogous differentiation ofseveral types ofminority protection could bedivised in South Africa as the genera! lack of territoria! concentration of thecountry's several population groups bas a different degree for the ethnic/linguistic groups as compared to the religious ones.
Streekgebonden spreiding van voorkeurstemmen
Authors: Wauters Bram 
Published: July 2021

The way in which preferential votes of a candidate are spread over a large constituency is analysed for the Belgian Senate elections of 1995 and the European elections of 1994 in Belgium, which are both held in large constituencies. A formula that indicates the concentration of preferential votes controls in each sub-unit of the constituency for the number of votes, the number of votes of the candidate's party and the number of preferential votes. When this variabele is combined with a variabele indicating the total number of preferential votes of a candidate, an interesting classification of nine categories of candidates is archieved.The fact that some candidates have a weak concentration of preferential votes in a sub-unit can be explained either by the social distance between candidate and citizen or by the f act that some candidates, due to their media appearences, are welt known all over the constituency and hence that they obtain an equal share of preferential votes in each sub-unit. The place on the party list and the visibility of a candidate in the campaign have an influence upon the category under which a candidate ressorts.
Vakbonden en sociaal overleg in het laatste kwart van de XX° eeuw
Authors: Peirens Willy 
Published: July 2021

The unique character of the socio-economic negociations in Belgium has lost much of its glamour and prestige during the last quarter of the 20th century. While before 1975, there was more or less agreement among the social partners to redistribute welfare to the whole society, after the first oil crisis employers tended to see themselves in competition with other employers, with the trade unions and with the state. Both employers' organisations as trade unions wanted to safeguard their own priorities, respectively the competitiveness of the enterprises and the system of indexation. As a consequence, it became very difficult to reach agreements and hence, there have been no or only very small interprofessional agreements signed since 1975.The role of the government in this period evolved from the role of host for the negociations to that of co-actor and finally to director. When no agreement was possible between the social partners, the govenrment itself took the initiative and both trade unions and employers' organisations tried to lobby the government rather than being partners in negociations. The measures of the government, especially those taken with extra-ordinary powers, were often beneficial for the employers. Despite the emphasis by the trade unions on employment, their efforts beared not much fruit. The first priority of both the government and the employers was the enhancement of the financial and the economic situation of the country. Since the interprofessional agreement of 1999-2000, a new period bas begun. Trade unions and employers' organisations are constrained by what happens in the rest of Europe. Between these constaints, they can negociate and conclude agreements on the basis of freedom and responsibility.The level of negociations shifted in this period from the interprofessional level to the level of the sector or even to the level of the enterprise. Another trend is the creation of an institutional framework for social talks on the Flemish level.The challenges for the future are the installation of a European or even an international world-wide institutional framework for social negociations and the development of themes as permanent education, quality of life and work and the enhancement of the socio-economic democracy.
Fractiecohesie en effectiviteit van parlementen
Authors: Depauw Sam 
Published: July 2021

Although parliamentary government is generally taken to be party government and party cohesion is acknowledged a key element thereof, it seems an accepted part of comparative parliamentary research that the effectiveness of parliaments and the level ofparty cohesion are negatively related. This is in part a remnant of the Anglo-American comparative studies that have dominated the discipline for a long time. Within reactive parliaments, this negative relation fails to materialise. Combining results from earlier research and original data, it is demonstrated that a high level ofparty cohesion does not prevent parliaments to be an effective, independent player in government formation, the recruitment of cabinet ministers or policy making. Comparing ten European parliaments, the more effective parliaments do encompass parliamentary parties with the highest level ofcohesion. A more crucial element isperhaps the characteristic of parliamentary parties as essentially oriented to the extra-parliamentary party or as a dominant element in the party-as-a-whole. Further research is however necessary.
De vraagstelling in volksraadplegingen en referenda
Authors: Billiet Jaak 
Published: July 2021

In the domain of survey research, it is well known and documented that the structure, wording, and context of questions may affect the distributions of the responses to choice questions. Surprisingly, the application of the knowledge about these effects is not often made in the domain of referendums. Only few studies deal with the effects of question characteristics in referendums, although in the field, there are many discussions about the results obtained by problematic questions. In this study, a number of wording effects that can be expected in referendums are discussed in the context of the actual state of theory and knowledge in the research on question wording effects in surveys. Some are well known and others are new, but also very relevant. The expected problems deal with: the choice between real alternatives; the decision about the majority in the case of multiple choice questions; the ambiguity in the choice between "yes" and "no"; the bidden response scale behind "yes-no" questions and the selection of the of verbs or qualifiers; the use of"double barrelled questions"; the suggestive wordings in the question text or in the introduction; the context of the questions when several questions are asked response sets. The importance and seriousness of each ofthese effects is evaluated, and reflections are made on the quality of the questions in referendums. Consequently suggestions are made about the kind of questions that can be used in referendums.
Politieke instituties, strategieën en beleid : de consequenties van multi-level governance
Authors: Deschouwer Kris 
Published: July 2021

Multi-level governance is a fairly new concept, that has however travelled well in modern political science. The status of the concept remains a bit unclear, mainly because it tries to grasp quite a set of (mutually linked) societal and institutional changes, as well as changes in policy style and policy outputs. We try to use multi-level governance as a heuristic tool, and we focus on the potential consequences of the changes that it describes. Four types of consequences are briefly discussed. First we look at efficiency, at the way in which and the degree in which complex institutions can produce policy paralysis. Secondly we deal with representation and accountability, discussing the meaning of these concepts in multilayered settings. Then we look at the way in which territorial representation seems to (re)gain importance as a result of the erosion of the borderlines between domestic and international polities. And finally we look at the way in which legitimacy of politicalauthorities and policies can be organized within the framework of multi-level governance. The other articles of this special issue all deal in more detail with one or more of these four types of consequences of multi-level governance.
Politiek als One-Man-Show : Over de rol van kranten in de personalisering van de politiek
Authors: Van Aelst Peter , Van Mierlo Kristel 
Published: July 2021

There seems a growing consensus on the personalisation of politics, meaning that not parties but more and more individual politicians have become the central actors in politics. The media, and especially television, are given a prominent role in this tendency towards 'candidate centred politics'. In this article we discuss the role of newspapers in this regard. Is there a more personalised and less party political way of reporting in the written press ? On the basis of a longitudinal study (1958-1999) of two Flemish newspapers we found only a modest and gradual tendency towards a personalisation of politics. Political parties have not been removed to the backstage of political reporting and remain a dominant player in the written press.
Les élections régionales et européennes du 13 juin 2004 : Analyse des résultats
Authors: Fraeys William 
Published: July 2021

In Belgium the European elections and those for the regional councils were held on the same day. The elections of June 13th 2004 deserve a threefold analysis. First a comparison can be made with the results obtained five years ago for the same assemblies. lt shows that in Flanders the socialist party has progressed but that this advance was mainly due to the constitution of a cartel with one faction - Spirit - of the defunct Volksunie. The christian democrats made headway, their progress being enhanced by the contribution of N-VA, the other faction stemming from the Volksunie. The liberals declined fairly markedly as did the green party but to a lesser extent than in the elections for the federal parliament. The June 2004 elections saw above all progress for the extreme right Vlaams Blok, which has become the second biggest party of Flanders with 24 pct of the vote. In the Walloon provinces the socialists progress most thereby increasing the gap separating them from the liberals. The christian democrats advance somewhat while the green party Ecolo declines substantially. The parties of the far right gain support and reach 8.73 pct of the vote. In Brussels the socialist advance is very marked allowing this party to conquer first place to the detriment of the liberals who are in decline. The progress made by frenchspeaking christian democrats is significant.A second approach for the analysis consists in comparing the results of the regional elections with those of the European ones. The differences are slight and rnainly due to the popularity of the candidates. In Belgium there was no "eurosceptic" or "sovereignty" list. The third angle consists in comparing the 2004 results with the ones of the parliamentary elections of 2003. One then observes in Flanders a decline of the socialists, a significant fall in support for the liberals and a progression of the christian democrats. But the main development remains the progression of the Vlaams Blok which gains more than 6 pct compared to its good result of 2003. In the Walloon provinces, the socialists remain at their 2003 level but increase their positive gap with regard to the liberals who are in decline. The christian democrats advance by some 2 pct whereas Ecolo recovers a small part of its 2003 loss. The parties of the far right gain some 1.5 pct. In Brussels, the most noteworthy developrnent is the progress of the frenchspeaking socialists who take over the first place from the liberals.In genera!lthese elections are characterised by a reinforcement of the far right to the detriment of the centre parties and by a status quo of the aggregate consisting of socialists and greens, but to the benefit of the former.
Patient Perceptions on Data Sharing and Applying Artificial Intelligence to Health Care Data: Cross-sectional Survey
Authors: Aggarwal Ravi , Farag Soma , Martin Guy , Ashrafian Hutan , Darzi Ara 
Published: July 2021

Background
Considerable research is being conducted as to how artificial intelligence (AI) can be effectively applied to health care. However, for the successful implementation of AI, large amounts of health data are required for training and testing algorithms. As such, there is a need to understand the perspectives and viewpoints of patients regarding the use of their health data in AI research.

Objective
We surveyed a large sample of patients for identifying current awareness regarding health data research, and for obtaining their opinions and views on data sharing for AI research purposes, and on the use of AI technology on health care data.

Methods
A cross-sectional survey with patients was conducted at a large multisite teaching hospital in the United Kingdom. Data were collected on patient and public views about sharing health data for research and the use of AI on health data.

Results
A total of 408 participants completed the survey. The respondents had generally low levels of prior knowledge about AI. Most were comfortable with sharing health data with the National Health Service (NHS) (318/408, 77.9%) or universities (268/408, 65.7%), but far fewer with commercial organizations such as technology companies (108/408, 26.4%). The majority endorsed AI research on health care data (357/408, 87.4%) and health care imaging (353/408, 86.4%) in a university setting, provided that concerns about privacy, reidentification of anonymized health care data, and consent processes were addressed.

Conclusions
There were significant variations in the patient perceptions, levels of support, and understanding of health data research and AI. Greater public engagement levels and debates are necessary to ensure the acceptability of AI research and its successful integration into clinical practice in future.