Suchergebnisse

This article analyses the three state elections of March 1996 in Baden- Württemberg, Rhineland-Palatinate and Schleswig-Holstein in the context of both the political history and traditions of each Land in turn as well as the national political context in which they took place. These elections served to strengthen the hand of the Bonn coalition of the CDU-CSU and FDP, eliminating in the process the risk to its slim majority in the Bundestag. The most immediate and fundamental questions arising from these three election results concern the SPD. The main problem for the party is the lack of a credible strategy based on a clear sense of what the SPD stands for today. (German Politics / FUB)

THE COLLAPSE OF THE SPD-FDP COALITION GOVERNMENT AFTER NEARLY THIRTEEN YEARS IN OFFICE IN SEPTEMBER 1982 HAS GIVEN RENEWED IMPETUS TO ANALYSIS AND STUDY OF THE POST-WAR WEST GERMAN PARTY SYSTEM. THE ROLE OF THE FDP IN PARTICULAR HAS BECOME THE OBJECT OF CLOSE SCRUTINY AND THIS SEEMS AN ESPECIALLY INTERESTING TASK IF THE WHOLE PERIOD SINCE 1945 IS EXAMINED. THE HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE FREE DEMOCRATS ARE CLEARLY INTERTWINED WITH CHANGES IN THE PARTY SYSTEM AS A WHOLE AND THUS IT MAKES SENSE TO CONSIDER BOTH SIMULTANEOUSLY, BUT OUR ANALYSIS WILL BE MAINLY CONCERNED WITH THE DECISIONS OF THE FDP TO LEAVE GOVERNING COALITIONS WITH DIFFERENT PARTNERS AT THE FEDERAL LEVELTHE CDUCSU IN 1966 AND THE SPD IN 1982. TO WHAT EXTENT WERE THE REASONS FOR THE SWITCHES IN COALITION PARTNERS SIMILAR AND WHAT WERE THE IMMEDIATE CONSEQUENCES OF THE CHANGES? BETWEEN 1966 AND 1969 THE IMAGE, SOCIAL STRUCTURE AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE FDP UNDERWENT MARKED CHANGES (SEE BELOW) WITH THE PARTY AS A WHOLE PLACING GREATER EMPHASIS ON THE "SOCIAL LIBERAL" RATHER THAN "NATIONAL LIBERAL" APPROACH. THIS DEVELOPMENT WAS VITAL IF A COALITION AT FEDERAL LEVEL WITH THE SPD WAS TO BE FORMED. WILL THE CHANGE IN COALITION PARTNERS IN 1982 HERALD A SIMILAR TRANSITION TOWARDS A "NEW" FDP WITH ANOTHER CHANGE IN THE PARTY'S IMAGE AND PERSONNEL? THESE QUESTIONS WILL CLEARLY REQUIRE SOME EXPOSITION OF THE IMMEDIATE BACKGROUND TO THE CHANGING OF COALITION PARTNERS, BUT THE FIRST TASK IN ANY SUCH ANALYSIS IS TO SET OPY: 1984

IN COUNTRIES WITHOUT RELIGIOUS HOMOGENEITY, RELIGIOUS DIFFERENCES PROVIDED A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF VALUE CONFLICT GIVEN THAT RELIGIONS ARE USUALLY CONCERNED WITH PROPAGATING SPECIFIC VALUES THROUGH A NETWORK OF SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. GIVEN A WIDELY ACCEPTED WORLD VIEW BASED ON SUPERNATURAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCE, THE STRENGTH OF THE LINK BETWEEN RELIGION AND MASS POLITICAL BEHAVIOUR PERSISTED. INCREASING EMPHASIS ON A LEGAL-RATIONAL OUTLOOK WHICH STRESSED SCEPTICISM, RELATIVISM AND UNCERTAINTY GRADUALLY UNDERMINED THE SOCIETAL ROLE OF RELIGION TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT THE SOCIAL 'TRUTHS' OF TODAY ARE MORE LIKELY TO ENCOMPASS THE VALUE OF EVER-INCREASING TECHNOLOGICAL SOPHISTICATION THAN THE CHRISTIAN 'TRUTHS' OF YESTERYEAR. IT IS WIDELY ASSUMED THAT SUCH A DEVELOPMENT HAS WEAKENED THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RELIGION AND VOTING BEHAVIOUR. RECENT STUDIES HAVE FOUND A MAJOR DECLINE IN CHURCHGOING AND RELIGIOUS COMMITMENT (BAKVIS, 1981; WHYTE, 1981; WERTMAN, 1982) AND IT IS OFTEN TAKEN FOR GRANTED THAT THIS TREND PROVIDES CLEAR EVIDENCE THAT 'SECULARIZATION' IS OCCURRING AND THAT SUCH A DEVELOPMENT HAS SIGNIFICANT IMPLICATIONS FOR MASS POLITICS. FALLING RATES OF CHURCH ATTENDANCE MIGHT BE EXPECTED TO IMPLY HIGHLY INTERESTING CONSEQUENCES IN TERMS OF POLITICAL 'EMANCIPATION' AND A GREATER FLEXIBILITY WITH REGARD TO PARTISAN PREFERENCES.

Looks at television news during the month of the official election campaign, and then uses the British Election Campaign Study panel survey to see what influence television had on the electorate in that short span of time. (Abstract amended)

Plankton form the base of the marine food web and are sensitive indicators of environmental change. Plankton time series are therefore an essential part of monitoring progress towards global biodiversity goals, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets, and for informing ecosystem-based policy, such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Multiple plankton monitoring programmes exist in Europe, but differences in sampling and analysis methods prevent the integration of their data, constraining their utility over large spatio-temporal scales. The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool brings together disparate European plankton datasets into a central database from which it extracts abundance time series of plankton functional groups, called "lifeforms", according to shared biological traits. This tool has been designed to make complex plankton datasets accessible and meaningful for policy, public interest, and scientific discovery. It allows ex�amination of large-scale shifts in lifeform abundance or distribution (for example, holoplankton being partially replaced by meroplankton), providing clues to how the marine environment is changing. The lifeform method enables datasets with different plankton sampling and taxonomic analysis methodologies to be used together to provide insights into the response to multiple stressors and robust policy evidence for decision making. Lifeform time series generated with the Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool currently inform plankton and food web in�dicators for the UK's Marine Strategy, the EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and for the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) biodiversity assessments. The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool currently integrates 155 000 samples, containing over 44 million plankton records, from nine different plankton datasets within UK and European seas, collected between 1924 and 2017. Additional datasets can be added, and time series can be updated. The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool is hosted by The Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data (DASSH) at https://www.dassh.ac.uk/lifeforms/ (last access: 22 November 2021, Ostle et al., 2021). The lifeform outputs are linked to specific, DOI-ed, versions of the Plankton Lifeform Traits Master List and each underlying dataset.

Plankton form the base of the marine food web and are sensitive indicators of environmental change. Plankton time series are therefore an essential part of monitoring progress towards global biodiversity goals, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity Aichi Targets, and for informing ecosystem-based policy, such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Multiple plankton monitoring programmes exist in Europe, but differences in sampling and analysis methods prevent the integration of their data, constraining their utility over large spatio-temporal scales. The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool brings together disparate European plankton datasets into a central database from which it extracts abundance time series of plankton functional groups, called "lifeforms", according to shared biological traits. This tool has been designed to make complex plankton datasets accessible and meaningful for policy, public interest, and scientific discovery. It allows examination of large-scale shifts in lifeform abundance or distribution (for example, holoplankton being partially replaced by meroplankton), providing clues to how the marine environment is changing. The lifeform method enables datasets with different plankton sampling and taxonomic analysis methodologies to be used together to provide insights into the response to multiple stressors and robust policy evidence for decision making. Lifeform time series generated with the Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool currently inform plankton and food web indicators for the UK's Marine Strategy, the EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive, and for the Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic (OSPAR) biodiversity assessments. The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool currently integrates 155 000 samples, containing over 44 million plankton records, from nine different plankton datasets within UK and European seas, collected between 1924 and 2017. Additional datasets can be added, and time series can be updated. The Plankton Lifeform Extraction Tool is hosted by The Archive for Marine Species and Habitats Data (DASSH) at https://www.dassh.ac.uk/lifeforms/ (last access: 22 November 2021, Ostle et al., 2021). The lifeform outputs are linked to specific, DOI-ed, versions of the Plankton Lifeform Traits Master List and each underlying dataset.