A quota for the outsourcing of television programmes: an economic analysis of its effectiveness

A European Directive stipulates that at least 10% of programmes broadcast by each European broadcaster must be produced by an independent producer. By stimulating independent productions the European Union and the Dutch government aim to improve the quality of television programmes. In 1997, the Netherlands increased this requirement to 25%. This paper evaluates the policy, using a unique Dutch dataset that includes all independent productions appearing on public television from 1996 until 2000. We show that: (i) the producers are highly specialised; (ii) programming is volatile; (iii) entry of new firms is substantially reducing average rates of turnover; (iv) the producers who lobbied for the higher quota were losing market share and were relatively well‐organised. Therefore, the outsourcing requirement does not lead to the desired levels of stable production by individual producers and it is unlikely to be an effective instrument.     

Middle–Upper Jurassic marine gastropods from central Saudi Arabia

Ferrari, M., El-Hedeny, M., Zakhera, M., El-Sabbagh, A. & Al Farraj, S., May 2018. Middle?Upper Jurassic marine gastropods from central Saudi Arabia. Alcheringa.

A total of 68 gastropod specimens are reported from the Middle?Upper Jurassic sedimentary successions exposed at central Saudi Arabia. The studied material comes from the Tuwaiq Mountain and Hanifa formations at the Khashm al Qaddiyah, Dirab, Jabal al Abakkayn and Maáshabah sections. Thirteen species are identified, described and illustrated. Among them, a new Aporrhais species (A. sauditica sp. nov.) is introduced. In addition, two further possible new Pseudomelania species from the same strata are mentioned. Other members of the assemblage include Kosmomphalus? sp. aff. K. reticulatus Fischer, Bourguetia? sp. aff. B. saemanni (Oppel), Bourguetia? sp., Ampullospira sp., Globularia? sp. cf. G. bajociana Fischer, Purpuroidea sp. aff. P. glabra Morris and Lycett, Purpuroidea sp., Cossmannea sp. aff. C. desvoidyi (d’Orbigny), Cryptoplocus sp. aff. C. depressus (Voltz) and Actaeonina? sp. Stratigraphically, seven species of this gastropod assemblage were only reported from the Middle Jurassic, whereas the other six ones are extending from the Middle to the Upper Jurassic of the studied succession. As compared with their gastropod content, the Khashm al Qaddiyah represents the richest section (33 out of 68 specimens, 48.5%), whereas the Maáshabah section showed an impoverished gastropod assemblage (only three specimens, 4.4%). The species reported here show paleobiogeographical affinities with coeval gastropod assemblages from India, east Africa, Middle East (Israel, the Sinai of Egypt) and western Tethys. The identified species confirm three depositional settings: open shelf lagoon, shoal/fore-shoal and open marine environments. The lower degree of fragmentation, poor sorting and scarcity of abrasion indicate a parautochthonous faunal assemblage.

Mariel Ferrari [mferrari@cenpat-conicet.gob.ar] Instituto Patagónico de Geología y Paleontología (IPGP-CCT CONICET-CENPAT), Bvd. Brown 2915, U9120CD, Puerto Madryn?Chubut, Argentina; Magdy El-Hedeny* [mmelhedeny@gmail.com] Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21568, Egypt; Mohamed Zakhera? [zakhera40@yahoo.com] Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Aswan University, Aswan 81528, Egypt; Ahmed El-Sabbagh [ah.elsabbagh@gmail.com] Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21568, Egypt; Saleh Al Farraj [salfarraj@hotmail.com] College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 12371, Saudi Arabia. *Also affiliated with Deanship of Scientific Research, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia. ?Also affiliated with Vice Rectorate for Development and Quality, Najran University, Najran 11001, Saudi Arabia.     

‘Footnote Policy’ and the Social Democratic Party’s Role in Shaping Danish EEC Positions, 1982–1986

The so-called footnote period in the 1980s is a controversial era in the history of Danish foreign policy. This article shows how footnote policy was not restricted to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) area; rather, it reflected a wider parliamentary practice whereby footnotes and parliamentary resolutions were also used as strategies to impose Social Democratic preferences on the official European Economic Community (EEC) positions of the otherwise right-of-centre government. The article provides a nuanced analysis of the policy making in that period, arguing that the relative importance of different explanatory factors in the literature changed in the period 1982–1986. For instance, support is found for the transnational thesis that the Scandilux security-policy forum had some importance in determining the Social Democratic position, especially during negotiations on the Single European Act (SEA) in 1985. In other periods, short-term electoral concerns played a role, for instance in December 1985 and January 1986. However, the Social Democratic positions on the institutional questions in the 1982–1985 period were remarkably stable and could be interpreted as an attempt to maintain internal party cohesion.     

Amici fragili: the alliance between the Lega Nord and the Popolo della Libertà as seen by their representatives and members

The alliance between the Lega Nord (LN) and Forza Italia (FI), later Popolo della Libertà (PDL), continued, uninterrupted, for over a decade, until November 2011. The problems that beset it under the fourth Berlusconi government are known; however, there is a lack of academic analysis of how such an alliance was seen and experienced by the people who made up the fabric of its constituent organisations. Based on interviews with institutional representatives and members from both parties, this article addresses the question of how people within them saw their ally and its leaders, and what they thought of the centre-right alliance under the fourth Berlusconi government. The analysis reveals that, although the LN's rhetoric, style and uncompromising stances on policy were the target of much criticism within the PDL, the latter nonetheless showed much respect for its ally, the way it was led, its ability to communicate effectively and its rootedness at the local level. However, LN members and representatives were, in turn, extremely critical of the PDL and its leader, and very much conceived of the alliance as a ‘marriage of convenience’. This notwithstanding, it is reasonable to expect that the PDL and the LN may find ways to rebuild their alliance in the future, if indeed the PDL continues to exist in its present form, due to their fundamental compatibility at the ideological level and their understanding of each other's priorities.     

The Prodi government of 2006 and 2007: A retrospective look

Now that the fifteenth legislature has come to an end, it is appropriate to assess the performance of the government whose fall was responsible for this event, as well as the coalition's significance for the trajectory of Italian politics generally. The four articles that follow this one together initiate the task, exploring performance from an institutional and policy-making point of view. This article suggests four criteria for evaluating the performance of any government and offers a brief initial ‘summary report’ in terms of them –?paying special attention to implementation of the programme and to communications. Bearing in mind the structural conditions in which it had to work, the government had some notable achievements to its credit, but these same conditions undermined it by opening up an unbridgeable gap between performance and popular perceptions of performance.     

The institutional odyssey of the Italian Parliamentary Republic

This article examines the Italian foreign policy of the second Berlusconi government. The first section focuses on the episodes that critics have used to argue that, under the second Berlusconi government, there has occurred a process of ‘Americanization’ of Italian foreign policy, and provides an interpretation of their significance. The second section looks at these episodes against the historical background of Italian?–?American relations since the end of World War II and argues that, from this perspective, very little, if anything, has changed in Italian?–?American relations or Italian foreign policy in general.     

The Italian political system after the 9 – 10 April 2006 elections

Abstract

All recent Italian elections have produced important electoral consequences. In this brief introduction, the author highlights some of the problems, difficulties and perspectives for the Italian political system following the electoral victory of the centre-left. More precisely, he suggests that there are two complex issues in need of being analyzed and politically tackled: the revisions to be introduced into the Italian Constitution and the transformation of some Italian parties and the reorganization of the party system. In conclusion, at least in this phase, the Italian political system is bound to remain in a situation that can still be defined as an ongoing political and institutional transition.     

Interview with Romano Prodi

On the occasion of the Conference on the State of Italy, held at Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies on 29–30 October 2013, David Kertzer interviewed former two-time Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. Their focus was on the evolution of Prodi's involvement in Italian government and politics. This first in what is planned to be two such interviews examines Prodi's initial move from an economics professor at the University of Bologna interested in the study of political economy and industrial policy, to a major figure in implementing industrial policy in Italy. It looks at his brief stint as Minister of Industry under Giulio Andreotti, his founding of the influential industrial study group Nomisma, and then his presidency of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI), Italy's giant holding company. With the crisis of the Italian political system in the early 1990s, Prodi was central to the creation of a new centre-left coalition, named L'Ulivo (the Olive Tree), an experience he recalls here, along with his first experience as Prime Minister, from 1996 to 1998.     

Defending ‘the Principle of Representation’: Andrew Bisset,The English Civil War,and The History of the Struggle for Parliamentary Government in England

Abstract

Victorian attitudes to the past were varied and in some cases irreconcilable. Newer standards of expertise and objectivity coexisted with older approaches, and the idea that history should be used for present purposes remained intact. Throughout the Victorian age there were circumstances in which history was a polemical tool, designed to give one set of interpretations or values or policies an advantage over its rivals. This article explores the work of a relatively neglected figure in Victorian historiography – the reform-minded historian and lawyer Andrew Bisset (1803–1891) – whose primary goal was to illustrate and advance what he called ‘the principle of representation’. He discussed people and events of the past to this end, offending reviewers along the way because of his obvious political agenda, but also developing a rigorous source-based style, usefully evaluating for his readers the work of Macaulay, Carlyle, and others, and helping to shape Victorian opinion about, in particular, the political and religious crises of seventeenth-century Britain. Like others, Bisset believed that the disputes of that period had relevance to the public controversies of his own day. This article is designed to contribute to ongoing debates about the Victorians’ relationship with the past.