Kerstin Hamann

The Politics of Labour Movement Revitalization: The Need for a Revitalized Perspective

One important common theme of our five-country research is that all union movements see political engagement as essential in their efforts at revitalization. Specific forms of political action, however, vary according to national context. If unions find or build adequate political and institutional supports, they have less incentive to mobilize the membership, organize the unorganized, build coalitions with other groups, or give support to grass-roots initiatives. The irony is that a strong institutional position can reduce incentives to organize, which may be essential to sustain long-term influence; yet organizing unions in America and Britain are hard pressed to sustain gains in the absence of adequate institutional supports.

Party Politics and the Reemergence of Social Pacts in Western Europe

Conventional accounts of the reemergence of social pacts in Western Europe argue they are a governmental response to economic pressures, in particular the requirements for joining the European Monetary Union (EMU). The authors analyze three case studies—the Netherlands, Ireland, and Austria— to illustrate the usefulness of an alternative explanation centering on electoral calculations by political parties in choosing pacts. Parties forge social pacts not only to deal with economic problems but also when they perceive them to be helpful in reducing the potential electoral costs of economic adjustment and wage policies. Alternatively, parties may forgo negotiations with social partners for electoral gain. The authors extend the analysis to seven additional countries to apply the analysis more broadly. By combining the separate literatures on political economy and party politics, they are able to shed new light on the dynamics of social pacts in Western Europe.

Unions Against Governments Explaining General Strikes in Western Europe, 1980–2006

Across Western Europe, unions have increasingly engaged in staging general strikes against governments since 1980. This increase in general strikes is puzzling as it has occurred at the same time as economic strikes have been on the decline. We posit that theories developed to explain economic strikes hold little explanatory power in accounting for variation in general strikes across countries and over time. Instead, we develop a framework based on political variables; in particular, whether governments have included or excluded unions in framing policy reforms; the party position of the government; and the type of government. Our empirical analysis, based on a conditional fixed-effects logit estimation of 84 general strikes between 1980 and 2006, shows that union exclusion from the process of reforming policies, government strength, and the party position of the government can provide an initial explanation for the occurrence of general strikes.

Does Active Learning Enhance Learner Outcomes? Evidence from Discussion Participation in Online Classes

Discussion is one form of active learning, which has been linked to better learner outcomes. Little is known about the relationship between active learning through discussion and learner outcome in the online environment. Here, we construct an index of active learning online that includes the number of postings a student has read, the number of direct responses a student has posted, and how many meaningful “in-depth” statements a student has made. We link this index to course grade as a proxy for learner outcome and find that active learners perform better, on average, than the less active students. We also analyze the component indicators of the index and find that the number of postings read is most closely related to course grade. This is particularly true for those students who came into the class with a lower GPA. We conclude that online courses can stimulate active learning through discussion. Furthermore, we point to the importance of measurement of active learning in any assessment effort and argue that the individual components of active learning behavior through discussions might have a differential effect on learner outcomes.

Assessing Student Perceptions of the Benefits of Discussions in Small-Group, Large-Class, and Online Learning Contexts

A large literature establishes the benefits of discussions for stimulating student engagement and critical thinking skills. However, we know considerably less about the differential effects of various discussion environments on student learning. In this study, we assess student perceptions concerning the benefits of discussions in an upper-level political science class. We compare how students evaluated discussions in the whole-class environment, in small face-to-face discussion groups, and in online discussion groups. Overall, according to student surveys, small discussion groups elicited the highest student satisfaction and scored highest in critical thinking skills, while online discussions provided the best forum to express thoughts. While they did not favor all-class discussions, students reported that this format, too, provided benefits.

Learning from “Listening” to Peers in Online Political Science Classes

Studies of classroom behavior and learning outcomes have demonstrated that student discussion leads to better learner outcomes. Do these effects, which are based on studies of face-to-face interaction, transfer to the virtual classroom? Existing studies of online postings in asynchronous discussion forums have primarily studied the effects on the authors of the postings. The effect on the recipients—the students reading the postings—has been largely neglected. We set out to fill this gap in our understanding of online discussions by analyzing the effect of reading behavior on course performance. We first perform an in-depth analysis of student discussion behavior in two online courses. We consider the quantity and quality of student postings, as well as the number of postings read by each student. We then test our main findings using a larger dataset of 279 students from eight additional classes, controlling for student grade point average, major, class standing, race, gender, and instructor. Overall, our results suggest that reading is significantly and independently related to course performance. We conclude that discussions have an important place in online classes.

The resurgence of national‐level bargaining: union strategies in Spain

Spain has witnessed an oscillating pattern of bargaining in which national-level agreements were first present, then declined, and have since resurfaced. While economic pressures may have motivated changing union responses, the specifics of the bargaining patterns can be better understood if domestic institutions are included in an explanation of union strategies.

Linking Policies and Economic Voting Explaining Reelection in the Case of the Spanish Socialist Party

Economic voting literature has shown that voters hold governments responsible for the state of the economy. Election studies have also found that voters punish governing parties that divert from their campaign promises and move their policy positions. These bodies of literature cannot convincingly explain the repeated reelection of the Socialist Party, which passed supply-side economic measures at odds with campaign promises and its traditional ideology. Furthermore, the party succeeded in gaining reelection regardless of the state of the economy and despite consistently high unemployment. In this article, it is argued that to better understand the repeated electoral success of the Socialist Party, three additional factors have to be taken into account: the party system, compensatory policies, and internal party politics. These factors allowed the Spanish Socialist Party to build an electoral support coalition based on lower classes, rural voters, and voters dependent on state-subsidized income.

Regime Changes and Civil Society in Twentieth-Century Portugal

Abstract Civil society is a frequently understudied, yet crucial actor in transitions to democracy. In Portuguese political history, civil society has traditionally been a marginalized actor. During and immediately after the transition to democracy (1974–76), civil society was unable to develop strong organizations. Yet, while Portuguese civil society played a secondary role during the immediate transition period, voluntary associations and organizations formed and stabilized after 1976, once democratic institutions were established. Thus, even though political institutions were not favourable for the development of a strong civil society for most of Portugals history, an organized civil society (although still weak) is emerging under the new democratic regime.

Partial Online Instruction and Gender-based Differences in Learning: A Quasi-Experimental Study of American Government

College teachers are increasingly using instructional technology to supplement or substitute for face-to-face instruction. The incentives and arguments for doing so are many, including facilitation of higher education for non-traditional students and changing student demographics, skill building to improve student preparation for workplaces that are likely to use computer technology, space restrictions in universities with growing enrollment, the opportunities that Internet classrooms provide for organizing and monitoring student work and assignments, and so on. However, little is known about how online instruction affects the learner. Online instruction is, in many ways, fundamentally different from face-to-face instruction (see, for example, Lee 2003 ; McCormack and Jones 1998 ; Palloff and Pratt 1999 ). For instance, instructors are unlikely to simply post their lecture notes online in the hope that the students will read, take notes, memorize, and retain the information, which would be the closest equivalent to a traditional lecture classroom. Consequently, it cannot be assumed that different instructional modes (such as lectures or online instruction) necessarily have the same learner outcomes. This lack of knowledge concerning the effects of online instruction on learner outcomes also extends to the question of gender equality. Authors are listed in reverse alphabetical order. We gratefully acknowledge financial support for both the redesign and the evaluation of the course from the Pew Learning and Technology Program, Center for Academic Transformation, Pew Grant Program in Course Redesign.