What Can Biopolitics Teach us About Democratic Representation?

2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-8
Author(s):  
Kevin Arceneaux
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Circuitous Route ◽  
Theory Of Democracy

My interest in biopolitics took a circuitous route. My guiding interest in studying politics is the study of democratic representation. Democracy is a special institution. It holds out the hope that we can resolve our differences in a peaceful way by letting the governed govern themselves. As a graduate student, I was immediately taken by Anthony Down’s (1957) theory of democracy. It just made so much sense. People hold preferences that are ordered and coherent. They derive utility from outcomes. Government policy should, therefore, reflect the distribution of policy preferences that maximizes the utility of the most people. Easy peasy, right?

scholarly journals Ambiguous Platforms and Correlated Preferences: Experimental Evidence

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
JUHA TOLVANEN ◽  
JAMES TREMEWAN ◽  
ALEXANDER K. WAGNER
Keyword(s):  
Laboratory Experiment ◽  
Experimental Evidence ◽  
Electoral Competition ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Perceived Similarity ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Treatment Variation

This paper studies, theoretically and experimentally, a model of electoral competition that allows for platforms where candidates may be ambiguous about which policy they will implement if elected. We argue that uncertainty about the policy preferences of the electorate, combined with perceived similarity of voters and candidates, can lead to the latter running on these ambiguous platforms. By appealing to voters from both ends of the spectrum, such platforms can ensure electoral success for noncentrist candidates in a sufficiently polarized society. Ambiguous platforms pose a threat to democratic representation because winning noncentrists always implement policies in favor of a minority and against the preferences of the majority. In our laboratory experiment, ambiguous platforms are chosen frequently by candidates and gain notable support from voters. Our main treatment variation provides causal evidence that ambiguous platforms are more popular among noncentrist voters if one of the candidates is a known centrist.

Responsive Government? Public Opinion and Government Policy Preferences in Britain and Denmark

2005 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Binzer Hobolt ◽  
Robert Klemmemsen
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Responsiveness ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Government Responsiveness ◽  
The Relationship

The ability of a political system to respond to the preferences of its citizens is central to democratic theory and practice; yet most empirical research on government responsiveness has concentrated on the United States. As a result, we know very little about the nature of government policy responsiveness in Europe and we have a poor understanding of the conditions that affect cross-national variations. This comparative study examines the relationship between public opinion and policy preferences in the United Kingdom and Denmark during the past three decades. We address two key questions: First, are the government's policy intentions driven by public opinion or vice versa? Second, do political institutions influence the level of government responsiveness? We suggest that public opinion tends to drive the government's policy intentions due to the threat of electoral sanction, and that this is more pronounced in proportional systems than in majoritarian democracies.

Preference Gaps and Inequality in Representation

2009 ◽  
Vol 42 (02) ◽  
pp. 335-341 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Gilens
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Recent Article ◽  
High Income ◽  
Policy Preferences ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Wide Range

In a recent article inPS, Soroka and Wlezien (2008) argue that the policy preferences of low- and high-income Americans rarely differ, and therefore that “regardless of whose preferences policymakers follow … policy will end up in essentially the same place” (325). In this article, I analyze a much larger and more diverse set of policies than those examined by Soroka and Wlezien and show that income-based preference gaps are much larger and more widespread than their data suggest. In terms of federal government policy, the affluent are far better represented than the poor; the findings in this paper indicate that this representational inequality has substantial repercussions across a wide range of policy issues.

Representative Economic Democracy and the Problem of Policy Influence: The Case of Canadian Co-operatives

1989 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 765-792 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Laycock
Keyword(s):  
Federal Government ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Development ◽  
Economic Democracy ◽  
Business Associations ◽  
Democratic Representation ◽  
Interest Representation ◽  
Internal Structures ◽  
Group Interests

AbstractThis article discusses interest representation by Canadian co-operative business associations, as a way of exploring difficulties faced by democratically structured group interests in influencing federal government policy. Several dimensions of co-operatives’ problems in this regard are examined: their internal structures of democratic representation, their reform ideology, their influence by two conflicting logics of collective action and selected aspects of federal policy development. The article concludes by contending that the problem of democratic representation by economic group interests in the policy process should be taken more seriously by Canadian political scientists.

Observer Agreement on Disfluency and Stuttering

1981 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 595-600 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard F. Curlee
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
Adult Male ◽  
Observer Agreement

Groups of undergraduate and graduate stndent listeners identified the stutterings and disfluencies of eight adult male stutterers during videotaped samples of their reading and speaking. Stuttering and disfluency loci were assigned to words or to intervals between words. The data indicated that stuttering and disfluency are not two reliable and unambiguous response classes and are not usually assigned to different, nonoverlapping behaviors. Furthermore, judgments of stuttering and disfluency were distributed similarly across words and intervals. For both undergraduate and graduate student listeners, there was relatively low unit-by-unit agreement among listeners and within the same listeners from one judgment session to another.

Student's Say: ‘What If My Clients End Up With a Chinese Accent?'

ASHA Leader ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 64-65
Author(s):  
King Kwok
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
English Language Learner ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Learner

A graduate student who is an English-language learner devises strategies to meet the challenges of providing speech-language treatment.

Federal Graduate Student Loans to Cost More

ASHA Leader ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 16 (11) ◽  
pp. 19-19
Author(s):  
Neil Snyder
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
Student Loans

The Graduate Dysphagia Course: Opening the Door to New Frontiers

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (13) ◽  
pp. 104-112
Author(s):  
Karen A. Ball ◽  
Luis F. Riquelme
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Student ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
Speech Language Pathology ◽  
Approaches To Teaching ◽  
Graduate Level ◽  
Graduate Curriculum ◽  
Current Trends ◽  
Language Pathology

A graduate-level course in dysphagia is an integral part of the graduate curriculum in speech-language pathology. There are many challenges to meeting the needs of current graduate student clinicians, thus requiring the instructor to explore alternatives. These challenges, suggested paradigm shifts, and potential available solutions are explored. Current trends, lack of evidence for current methods, and the variety of approaches to teaching the dysphagia course are presented.

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