Suchergebnisse

In their study of the state-level party organizations in the US, Cotter et al. (1984) introduce a theory of party organizational strength, arguing that the strongest parties exhibit both organizational complexity and programmatic capacity. In the present era, organizational complexity and programmatic capacity still emerge as the primary dimensions of party organizational strength, but this research demonstrates the importance of new indicators of party technological capacity to our understanding of party effectiveness in the early 21st century. In particular, parties that hire technologically-oriented staff are best equipped to carry out party programmatic activities, as they have the capacity to conduct voter mobilization programs and sophisticated data analytics in an online environment. Using data from a 2011 survey of the state party organizations in the US, this research shows that party organizational strength and party technological capacity are interrelated and overlapping concepts and are essential to understanding the parties' programmatic and voter outreach capabilities.

There is a general consensus both in the news media and scholarly research that 2010 was a highly nationalized election year. Reports have indicated that anti-Obama sentiment, the Democrats' legislative agenda, the economy, and the Tea Party were all factors contributing to Democratic losses in the congressional elections. In this paper, we use data from 2010 Cooperative Congressional Election Study to examine the individual-level dynamics that contributed to the heightened nationalization of the 2010 congressional elections. Our analysis shows that Tea Party support and the attribution of blame and responsibility by voters are essential to understanding the 2010 election outcome, beyond what we would expect from a simple referendum model of midterm elections. Not surprisingly, Tea Party supporters blamed Democrats for the state of national affairs, disapproved of the Democrats' policy agenda, and overwhelmingly supported Republican candidates in the congressional elections. However, our analysis shows that not all voters who supported Republican candidates were driven by high levels of opposition to President Obama and the Democrats. Another key group of voters blamed both Democrats and Republicans for the nation's problems but ultimately held Democrats responsible in the voting booth by supporting Republican congressional candidates. Adapted from the source document.

Military personnel are at high risk of contracting vector-borne and zoonotic infections, particularly during overseas deployments, when they may be exposed to endemic or emerging infections not prevalent in their native countries. We conducted seroprevalence testing of 467 UK military personnel deployed to Helmand Province, Afghanistan, during 2008-2011 and found that up to 3.1% showed seroconversion for infection with Rickettsia spp., Coxiella burnetii, sandfly fever virus, or hantavirus; none showed seroconversion for infection with Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus. Most seroconversions occurred in personnel who did not report illness, except for those with hantavirus (70% symptomatic). These results indicate that many exposures to infectious pathogens, and potentially infections resulting from those exposures, may go unreported. Our findings reinforce the need for continued surveillance of military personnel and for education of health care providers to help recognize and prevent illnesses and transmission of pathogens during and after overseas deployments.