TY - JOUR A1 - Fleischer, Julia A1 - Seyfried, Markus T1 - Drawing from the bargaining pool: Determinants of ministerial selection in Germany JF - Party politics : an international journal for the study of political parties and political organizations N2 - This article expands our current knowledge about ministerial selection in coalition governments and analyses why ministerial candidates succeed in acquiring a cabinet position after general elections. It argues that political parties bargain over potential office-holders during government-formation processes, selecting future cabinet ministers from an emerging bargaining pool'. The article draws upon a new dataset comprising all ministrable candidates discussed by political parties during eight government-formation processes in Germany between 1983 and 2009. The conditional logit regression analysis reveals that temporal dynamics, such as the day she enters the pool, have a significant effect on her success in achieving a cabinet position. Other determinants of ministerial selection discussed in the existing literature, such as party and parliamentary expertise, are less relevant for achieving ministerial office. The article concludes that scholarship on ministerial selection requires a stronger emphasis for its endogenous nature in government-formation as well as the relevance of temporal dynamics in such processes. KW - Candidates KW - Germany KW - government-formation Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/1354068813487108 SN - 1354-0688 SN - 1460-3683 VL - 21 IS - 4 SP - 503 EP - 514 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Karolewski, Ireneusz Pawel A1 - Mehlhausen, Thomas A1 - Sus, Monika T1 - The Polish EU Council Presidency in 2011: Master or Servant? JF - Journal of European integration N2 - The point of departure of this article is limited systematic research on the rotating EU Council Presidency after the Lisbon Treaty. In order to assess rotating presidencies the paper proposes a three-tier approach which includes a functional, a behavioural and a contingency dimension. These dimensions are supplemented by the institutional changes of the Lisbon Treaty referring to the rotating presidencies. Next, the paper applies this evaluation framework to the Polish Presidency that took place in the second half of 2011. Finally, it draws conclusions from the Polish case for both the leadership capacity of the rotating Council Presidency in the post-Lisbon European Union and the performance of Poland's EU Council Presidency. KW - Poland KW - EU Council Presidency KW - Lisbon Treaty KW - institutional changes KW - functions of Presidency KW - three-tier approach Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/07036337.2015.1053085 SN - 0703-6337 SN - 1477-2280 VL - 37 IS - 6 SP - 667 EP - 684 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - INPR A1 - Kohler, Ulrich T1 - Maintaining quality T2 - Survey research methods N2 - Survey Research Methods has slightly revised its publication policies. Firstly, starting with the publication of this Editorial, SRM will accept - under specified conditions - manuscripts that discuss experiments in non-probability samples for peer-review. Secondly, SRM will require authors to publish replication materials of their study as Online supplement to their article. Finally, Survey Research Methods will publish replication studies of articles published in the journal. This Editorial gives reasons for these changes. KW - Editorial policies KW - non-probability samples KW - experiments KW - TOP-Guidelines Y1 - 2015 SN - 1864-3361 VL - 9 IS - 3 SP - 139 EP - 140 PB - European Survey Research Association CY - Duisburg ER - TY - THES A1 - Radenacker, Anke T1 - Economic consequences of family dissolution T1 - Die finanziellen Folgen von Familientrennung BT - comparing Germany and the United States since the 1980s, and married and cohabiting parents in Germany BT - Deutschland und die USA seit den 1980er Jahren im Vergleich, sowie verheiratete und unverheiratete Eltern in Deutschland im Vergleich N2 - Welfare states and policies have changed greatly over the past decades, mostly characterized by retrenchments in terms of government spending or in terms of restricted access to certain benefits. In the area of family policies, however, a lot of countries have simultaneously expanded provisions and transfers for families. Bringing together the macro analysis of policy variation and household income changes on the micro-level, the main research question of the dissertation is to what extent economic consequences following separation and divorce in families with children have changed between the 1980s and the 2000s in Germany and the United States. The second research question of the dissertation regards the differences in dissolution outcomes between married and cohabiting parents in Germany. The dissertation thus aims to link institutional regulations of welfare states with the actual income situation of families. To achieve this, a research design was developed that has never been used for the analysis of the economic consequences of family dissolution. For this, the two longest running panel datasets, German Socio-economic Panel (GSOEP) and the US American Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), have been used. The analytic strategy applied to estimate the effects of family dissolution on household income is a difference-in-difference design combined with coarsened exact matching (CEM). To begin with, the dissertation confirmed many findings of previous research, for example regarding the gender differences in family dissolution outcomes. Mothers experience clearly higher relative income losses and consequently higher risks of poverty than fathers. This finding is universal, that is it holds for both countries, for all time periods observed, and for all measures of economic outcome that were employed. Another confirmed finding is the higher level of welfare state intervention in Germany compared to the United States. The dissertation also revealed a number of novel findings. The results show that the expansion of family policies in Germany over time has not been accompanied by substantially decreasing income losses for mothers. Though income losses have slightly decreased over time, they have become more persistent during the years following family dissolution. The impact of the German welfare state has meanwhile been quite stable. American mothers’ income losses took place on a slightly lower level than those of German mothers. Only during the 1980s their relative losses were clearly lower than those of German mothers. And also American mothers did not recover as much from their income losses during the 2000s than they used to during the 1980s. For them, the 1996 welfare reform brought a considerable decrease in welfare state support. Accordingly, the results for American mothers can certainly be described as a shift from public to private provision. The general finding of previous studies that fathers do not have to suffer income losses, or if at all rather moderate ones compared to mothers, can be confirmed. Nevertheless, both German and US American fathers face a deterioration of the economic consequences of family dissolution over time. German fathers’ relative income changes are still positive though they have decreased over time. One reason for this decrease is the increasing loss of partner earnings following union dissolution. Also among American fathers, income gains still prevail in the year of family dissolution. Two years later, however, they have been facing income losses already since the 1980s which have furthermore increased considerably over time. Zooming in on Germany, family dissolution outcomes by marital status show negligible differences between cohabiting and married mothers in disposable income, but considerable differences in losses of income before taxes and transfers. It is the impact of the welfare state that equalizes the differences in income losses between these two groups of mothers. For married mothers, losses are not as high in the year of event but they have difficulties to recover from these losses. Without the income buffering of the welfare state, married mothers would, three years after family dissolution, remain with relative income losses double as high as for cohabiting mothers. Compared to mothers, differences between married and cohabiting fathers are visible in changes of income before as well as after taxes and transfers. The welfare state does not alter the difference between the two groups of fathers. With regard to both income concepts, cohabiting fathers fare worse than married fathers. Cohabiting fathers suffer moderate income losses of disposable income while married fathers experience moderate income gains. Accounting for support payments is decisive for fathers’ income changes. If these payments are not deducted from disposable income, both married and cohabiting fathers experience gains in disposable income following family dissolution. N2 - Wohlfahrtsstaaten unterlagen in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten einem deutlichen Wandel, vor allem gekennzeichnet durch Ausgabenkürzungen oder durch Begrenzung des Zugangs zu Leistungen. Gleichzeitig hat es in vielen Ländern einen Ausbau von familienpolitischen Maßnahmen und Leistungen gegeben. Im Mittelpunkt der Dissertation steht die Frage ob und inwieweit sich die Einkommensfolgen nach einer Trennung der Eltern in US-amerikanischen und deutschen Familien mit Kindern vor dem Hintergrund dieses Wandels zwischen den 1980er und 2000er Jahren verändert haben. Einen weiteren Schwerpunkt der Arbeit bildet die Analyse der Einkommensfolgen von Familientrennung in Deutschland mit Blick auf den Familienstand der Eltern. Um die Forschungsfragen zu beantworten, wurde ein für die Analyse der finanziellen Folgen von Familientrennung bislang noch nicht verwendetes Forschungsdesign entwickelt. Die angewendete Methode ist ein Difference-in-Difference Design in Kombination mit Coarsened Exact Matching (CEM). Dafür wurden die beiden längsten Paneldatensätze, das deutsche Sozio-Oekonomische Panel (SOEP) und die amerikanische Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), verwendet. Zunächst hat die Dissertation viele Ergebnisse vorangegangener Forschung bestätigt, beispielsweise in Bezug auf die Geschlechterunterschiede in den finanziellen Folgen von Trennung und Scheidung. Mütter erleben deutlich höhere relative Einkommensverluste und sind folglich einem höheren Armutsrisiko ausgesetzt als Väter. Dieses Ergebnis gilt universell, das heißt für beide Länder, für alle untersuchten Zeiträume, und auch für alle hier verwendeten Einkommensmaße. Weiterhin konnte bestätigt werden, dass die wohlfahrtsstaatliche Unterstützung in Deutschland größer ist als in den USA. Die Dissertation hat aber vor allem eine Vielzahl neuer Erkenntnisse hervorgebracht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich der Ausbau familienpolitischer Leistungen in Deutschland nicht in deutlich reduzierten Einkommensverlusten für Mütter wiederspiegelt. Obgleich die Einkommensverluste im Zeitverlauf etwas geringer wurden, wurden sie gleichzeitig persistenter in den Folgejahren nach einer Trennung. Die Abfederung der Einkommensverluste durch den Wohlfahrtsstaat ist währenddessen relativ stabil geblieben. Die Einkommensverluste von amerikanischen Müttern haben auf einem etwas geringeren Niveau stattgefunden als jene von Müttern in Deutschland. Nur während der 1980er Jahre waren ihre Einkommensverluste deutlich geringer als die der deutschen Mütter. Auch amerikanische Mütter erholten sich in den 2000er Jahren nicht mehr so schnell von Einkommensverlusten wie noch in den 1980er Jahren. Für sie hat die Wohlfahrtsreform von 1996 zu einem deutlichen Rückgang an staatlicher Hilfe geführt. Entsprechend können die Ergebnisse für amerikanische Mütter durchaus als eine Verschiebung von öffentlichen hin zu privaten Maßnahmen der Bewältigung von Einkommensverlusten beschrieben werden. Sowohl deutsche als auch amerikanische Väter sehen sich im Zeitverlauf mit einer Verschlechterung der Einkommensfolgen nach einer Trennung konfrontiert. Die relativen Einkommensveränderungen von deutschen Vätern sind immer noch positiv, wobei die Zuwächse über die Zeit abgenommen haben. Ein Grund für diesen Rückgang ist der zunehmende Verlust von Partnereinkommen nach einer Trennung. Auch bei amerikanischen Vätern finden sich weiterhin relative Gewinne im Jahr der Trennung. Allerdings sehen sie sich zwei Jahre danach Verlusten ausgesetzt, und zwar bereits seit den 1980er Jahren, welche im Zeitverlauf außerdem deutlich zugenommen haben. Ein genauerer Blick auf Deutschland hat außerdem gezeigt, dass die Unterschiede in den Trennungsfolgen zwischen zum Zeitpunkt der Trennung verheirateten und unverheirateten Müttern vernachlässigbar sind, zumindest was das verfügbare Haushaltseinkommen betrifft. Allerdings gibt es deutliche Unterschiede in den Einkommensverlusten wenn das Einkommen vor Steuern und Transfers zur Beurteilung herangezogen wird. Es ist also der Wohlfahrtsstaat, der die Unterschiede in den Einkommensverlusten zwischen diesen Müttern angleicht. Verheiratete Mütter verlieren relativ betrachtet weniger Einkommen, haben aber mehr Schwierigkeiten sich von diesen Verlusten wieder zu erholen. Im Vergleich zu Müttern sind die Unterschiede zwischen verheirateten und unverheirateten Vätern sowohl im verfügbaren Haushaltseinkommen als auch im Einkommen nach Steuern und Transfers deutlich sichtbar. Dabei ergeht es unverheirateten Vätern schlechter als verheirateten. Während verheiratete Väter leichte Gewinne im verfügbaren Haushaltseinkommen verzeichnen, müssen unverheiratete Väter leichte Verluste hinnehmen. Für die Ergebnisse von Vätern ist die Berücksichtigung von Unterhaltszahlungen entscheidend. Werden diese nicht vom Haushaltseinkommen abgezogen, dann erfahren sowohl verheiratete als auch unverheiratete Väter relative Gewinne nach einer Familientrennung. KW - family dissolution KW - separation KW - divorce KW - marital status KW - household income KW - poverty KW - Germany KW - United States KW - panel data KW - difference-in-difference KW - matching KW - Trennung KW - Scheidung KW - Familienstand KW - Haushaltseinkommen KW - Armut KW - Deutschland KW - USA KW - Difference-in-Difference KW - Matching Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-100217 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bruttel, Lisa Verena A1 - Friehe, Tim T1 - A note on making humans randomize JF - Journal of behavioral and experimental economics N2 - This note presents results from an experiment studying a two person 4 4 pure coordination game. We explore different strategy labels in an attempt to implement the mixed strategy equilibrium that selects all four strategies with equal probability. Such strategy labels must be free from salient properties that might be used by participants to coordinate. Testing 23 different sets of strategy labels, we identify two sets that produce a distribution of subjects' choices which approximate the uniform distribution quite well. Our results are relevant for studies intending to compare the behavior of subjects who play against a random mechanism with that of participants who play against human counterparts. KW - Coordination game KW - Experiment KW - Mixed strategy Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2015.06.008 SN - 2214-8043 SN - 2214-8051 VL - 58 SP - 40 EP - 45 PB - Elsevier CY - New York ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scheller, Henrik T1 - Framing Citizen Participation: Participatory Budgeting in France, Germany and the United Kingdom JF - German politics Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09644008.2015.1032511 SN - 0964-4008 SN - 1743-8993 VL - 24 IS - 2 SP - 210 EP - 211 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Korff, Valeska P. A1 - Balbo, Nicoletta A1 - Mills, Melinda A1 - Heyse, Liesbet A1 - Wittek, Rafael T1 - The impact of humanitarian context conditions and individual characteristics on aid worker retention JF - Disasters : the journal of disaster studies, policy and management N2 - High employee turnover rates constitute a major challenge to effective aid provision. This study examines how features of humanitarian work and aid workers' individual characteristics affect retention within one humanitarian organisation, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) Holland. The study extends existing research by providing new theoretical explanations of employment opportunities and constraints and by engaging in the first large-scale quantitative analysis of aid worker retention. Using a database of field staff (N=1,955), a logistic regression is performed of the likelihood of reenlistment after a first mission. The findings demonstrate that only 40 per cent of employees reenlist for a second mission with MSF Holland, and that workplace location and security situation, age, and gender have no significant effect. Individuals are less likely to reenlist if they returned early from the first mission for a personal reason, are in a relationship, are medical doctors, or if they come from highly developed countries. The paper reflects on the findings in the light of policy. KW - aid worker KW - humanitarian organisations KW - personnel policy KW - retention KW - staff turnover Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12119 SN - 0361-3666 SN - 1467-7717 VL - 39 IS - 3 SP - 522 EP - 545 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Entrich, Steve R. T1 - The Decision for Shadow Education in Japan: Students' Choice or Parents' Pressure? JF - Social science Japan journal : an international journal of social science research on Japan N2 - Following decision theory (Boudon, Raymond. 1974. Education, Opportunity, and Social Inequality: Changing Prospects in Western Society. New York: Wiley.), social origin strongly affects educational decisions, especially at transition points in educational attainment. In Japan, the fierce competition in gaining access to the next level of schooling intensifies the impact of educational decisions on students' future careers. In addition to selecting a certain school, families are forced to decide whether or not to invest in shadow education. Thus far, socioeconomic background and parents' educational aspirations, in conjunction with students' academic achievement, have been deemed influential to such decisions in Japan. The agency of the student is rarely even considered. Based on calculations from the 2011 Hyogo High School Students' (HHSS) survey, the theoretical approach presented in this article stresses the importance of acknowledging the existence of a multitude of actors involved in each phase of the decision-making process, including the students themselves, especially when explaining inequalities in modern societies. KW - shadow education KW - educational aspirations KW - decision theory KW - juku KW - Hyogo Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/ssjj/jyv012 SN - 1369-1465 SN - 1468-2680 VL - 18 IS - 2 SP - 193 EP - 216 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - THES A1 - Jantz, Bastian T1 - The dynamics of accountability in public sector reforms T1 - Accountability-Dynamiken und Reformen des öffentlichen Sektors N2 - This PhD thesis is essentially a collection of six sequential articles on dynamics of accountability in the reformed employment and welfare administration in different countries. The first article examines how recent changes in the governance of employment services in three European countries (Denmark, Germany and Norway) have influenced accountability relationships from a very wide-ranging perspective. It starts from the overall assumption in the literature that accountability relationships are becoming more numerous and complex, and that these changes may lead to multiple accountability disorder. The article explores these assumptions by analyzing the different actors involved and the information requested in the new governance arrangements in all three countries. It concludes that the considerable changes in organizational arrangements and more managerial information demanded and provided have led to more shared forms of accountability. Nevertheless, a clear development towards less political or administrative accountability could not be observed. The second article analyzes how the structure and development of reform processes affect accountability relationships and via what mechanisms. It is distinguished between an instrumental perspective and an institutional perspective and each of these perspectives takes a different view on the link between reforms and concrete action and results. By taking the welfare reforms in Norway and Germany as an example, it is shown that the reform outcomes in both countries are the result of a complex process of powering, puzzling and institutional constraints where different situational interpretations of problems, interests and administrative legacies had to be balanced. Accountability thus results not from a single process of environmental necessity or strategic choice, but from a dynamic interplay between different actors and institutional spheres. The third article then covers a specific instrument of public sector reforms, i.e. the increasing use of performance management. The article discusses the challenges and ambiguities between performance management and different forms of accountability based on the cases of the reformed welfare administration in Norway and Germany. The findings are that the introduction of performance management creates new accountability structures which influence service delivery, but not necessarily in the direction expected by reform agents. Observed unintended consequences include target fixation, the displacement of political accountability and the predominance of control aspects of accountability. The fourth article analyzes the accountability implications of the increasingly marketized models of welfare governance. It has often been argued that relocating powers and discretion to private contractors involve a trade-off between democratic accountability and efficiency. However, there is limited empirical evidence of how contracting out shapes accountability or is shaped by alternative democratic or administrative forms of accountability. Along these lines the article examines employment service accountability in the era of contracting out in Germany, Denmark and Great Britain. It is found that market accountability instruments are complementary instruments, not substitutes. The findings highlight the importance of administrative and political instruments in legitimizing marketized service provision and shed light on the processes that lead to the development of a hybrid accountability model. The fifth and sixth articles focus on the diagonal accountability relationships between public agencies, supreme audit institutions (SAI) and parental ministry or parliament. The fifth article examines the evolving role of SAIs in Denmark, Germany and Norway focusing particularly on their contribution to public accountability and their ambivalent relationship with some aspects of public sector reform in the welfare sector. The article analyzes how SAIs assess New Public Management inspired reforms in the welfare sector in the three countries. The analysis shows that all three SAIs have taken on an evaluative role when judging New Public Management instruments. At the same time their emphasis on legality and compliance can be at odds with some of the operating principles introduced by New Public Management reforms. The sixth article focuses on the auditing activities of the German SAI in the field of labor market administration as a single in-depth case study. The purpose is to analyze how SAIs gain impact in diagonal accountability settings. The results show that the direct relationship between auditor and auditee based on cooperation and trust is of outstanding importance for SAIs to give effect to their recommendations. However, if an SAI has to rely on actors of diagonal accountability, it is in a vulnerable position as it might lose control over the interpretation of its results. N2 - Die öffentliche Verwaltung sieht sich einem immer stärker werdenden Legitimationsdruck ausgesetzt, da Verwaltungshandeln nicht mehr nur innerhalb hierarchisch strukturierter Behörden erfolgt, sondern eine Vielzahl von Akteuren (öffentlich und privat) – mit für den Bürger teilweise unklaren Zuständigkeiten – beteiligt sind. Die Beziehungen zwischen den Akteuren innerhalb dieser Netzwerke folgen nicht länger einer klaren Hierarchie, sondern es entwickeln sich unübersichtliche Strukturen, innerhalb derer es schwierig ist, konkrete Instanzen zur Verantwortung zu ziehen. Die Pluralisierung und Dynamisierung von Governance-Strukturen verändert somit die Legitimationsgrundlage staatlichen Handelns. Kritische Stimmen sprechen in diesem Zusammenhang gar von einem Legitimationsdefizit. Zentral innerhalb dieser Diskussion ist das Konzept der Accountability, definiert als Beziehung, in deren Rahmen ein Akteur einem anderen Akteur gegenüber eine Verpflichtung zur Rechenschaft eingeht und von diesem Gegenüber für diese Rechenschaft im Gegenzug legitimiert wird oder auch sanktioniert werden kann. Ganz im Gegensatz zu der gestiegenen Aufmerksamkeit für Accountability fehlt es derzeit an einer systematischen Diskussion über den Bedeutungs- und Formenwandel von Accountability. Accountability-Phänomene werden weiterhin mit den Maßstäben tradierter und vergleichsweise statischer Accountability-Konzepte behandelt. Die vorliegende Arbeit setzt hier an, indem Accountability als soziale Beziehung konzeptualisiert und analysiert wird. Accountability-Beziehungen sind somit als dynamische Arrangements zu verstehen, die Prozesse des Wandels, der Reform, Veränderung, Hybridisierung oder Transformation durchlaufen können. Dieses konzeptionelle Verständnis von Accountability-Dynamiken wird in der Folge auf die jüngsten Reformen im Wohlfahrtsstaat, insbesondere in der Arbeitsmarktpolitik, angewendet. Wohlfahrtsstattliche Systeme stehen seit geraumer Zeit unter Reform- und Anpassungsdruck, gängige Kritikpunkte sind mangelnde Effizienz und Nachhaltigkeit sowie sinkende öffentliche Unterstützung. Politische Legitimität und Verantwortlichkeit ist dabei eine der Grundvoraussetzungen für das Fortbestehen des Wohlfahrtsstaates kontinentaleuropäischer Prägung. Daher untersucht die Arbeit, in welcher Form die jüngsten Wohlfahrtsstaatreformen die Accountability-Strukturen beeinflusst haben. Dabei haben die jüngsten Modernisierungsansätze im Zuge der internationalen Reformbewegung des „New Public Management“ auch im Bereich der Arbeitsmarktverwaltung das Verhältnis zwischen demokratischer, politischer Accountability auf der einen Seite und organisatorischer Autonomie der administrativen Einheiten zur Erbringung von arbeitsmarktpolitischen Dienstleistungen auf der anderen Seite, verändert. Somit gerät das Spannungsverhältnis zwischen Legitimation und Effizienz in den Blickpunkt. Wie können die unterschiedlichen Verantwortlichkeiten (Ergebnis- und Leistungsverantwortung der dezentralen Ebenen und politische Verantwortung der gewählten Körperschaften) verknüpft werden? Wie verändert sich die Rechenschaftspflicht nachgeordneter Organisationen im Bereich der Arbeitsmarktpolitik durch zunehmende autonome Kompetenzen? Der Analysefokus richtet sich somit primär auf Organisationsreformen und deren Einfluss auf die Veränderung der Verantwortlichkeitsstrukturen in der Arbeitsmarktverwaltung in unterschiedlichen Ländern (Norwegen, Dänemark, Großbritannien und Deutschland). KW - accountability KW - administrative reforms KW - employment services KW - Accountability KW - Rechenschaftspflicht KW - Verwaltungsreformen KW - Arbeitsmarktpolitik Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-78131 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ganghof, Steffen T1 - Four Visions of Democracy: Powell's Elections as Instruments of Democracy and beyond JF - Political studies review N2 - The article critically reviews the conceptual ideas of G. Bingham Powell's Elections as Instruments of Democracy and explores ways to develop them further. Powell's conceptual alternative to the Westminster model - the 'proportional' vision of democracy - comes in two variants, one focusing on proportional representation ( PR) and the other on proportional legislative influence. If one focuses on the former, it is possible to distinguish four visions of parliamentary democracy based on the main stage at which majorities are formed. The four stages are: party, alliance, cabinet, and law formation. The corresponding normative visions can be placed on a conceptual continuum between 'simple' and 'complex' majoritarianism. This article discusses the goals and trade-offs associated with them as well as their underlying institutional designs. It also re-emphasises Powell's insight that the congruence between policy makers and the median voter in a unidimensional policy space is a more appropriate normative standard for some visions of democracy than for others. KW - G. Bingham Powell KW - visions of democracy KW - ideological congruence KW - simple majoritarianism KW - complex majoritarianism Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1478-9302.12069 SN - 1478-9299 SN - 1478-9302 VL - 13 IS - 1 SP - 69 EP - 79 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER -