Search Results (7)

Background/Objectives: Teen birth rates remain a pressing public health issue in the United States, with significant long-term health risks for both mothers and children. Previous research has primarily focused on the impact of women in elected office on reproductive health outcomes, but less is known about the influence of women candidates. This study explores the relationship between the number of women candidates in county-level elections and county-level teen birth rates, highlighting the role of women candidates as visible role models and agents of potential policy change. Methods: We utilized a dataset covering county-level elections from 2010 to 2020, along with teen birth rate data from the CDC. We employed a multilevel model to analyze the relationship between the cumulative number of women candidates and teen birth rates, controlling for socioeconomic and health-related factors, such as insurance coverage and social vulnerability. Results: The findings indicate that as the number of women candidates increased, the estimated county-level teen birth rate declined. This effect was observed across different election years, with more substantial impacts in midterm and presidential elections. The analysis also confirmed that socioeconomic conditions, such as a lack of health insurance, contribute to higher teen birth rates. Conclusions: Women candidates, even when not elected, serve as important role models and influence reproductive health outcomes in their communities. Increasing the number of women candidates at the local level may be an effective strategy for reducing teen birth rates and improving public health outcomes. Full article

The electoral court is a specialized branch of the Brazilian judiciary that not only organizes and regulates elections in the country but also resolves conflicts between political actors involved in the electoral process. The (mis)use of money in electoral campaigns is one of the causes of the judicialization of electoral processes in Brazil. In fact, among many other reasons, such judicialization can occur when actors in the electoral process (candidates, parties, and party coalitions) are accused, either by their opponents and/or by the Electoral Public Prosecutor’s Office, of irregularities such as abuse of economic power, illegal fundraising or expenditure of electoral resources, electoral corruption, or falsification of the campaign’s accounting records. Through the study of electoral lawsuits filed between 2008 and 2016 against mayoral candidates, this work has two objectives: (i) to dimension the importance of the relationship between money and politics as a cause of the judicialization of electoral processes in Brazilian local elections and (ii) to characterize the candidates that appear as defendants in electoral lawsuits filed by that cause. Full article

The number of legal disputes in the field of medical liability has increased exponentially in the last decades. The aim of this study is to investigate the outcomes of criminal cases against healthcare professionals in Italian criminal courts. The hypothesis is that the majority of cases are dismissed and/or most professionals in these cases are acquitted. This retrospective analysis considers criminal proceedings related to medical professional liability registered with the general register of crime reports of the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Rome in the time interval between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2015. A total of 4793 criminal proceedings were ultimately identified. Proceedings related to the field of orthopedic trauma were then examined and identified. A complete analysis of 132 of the identified files (76.7%) was carried out. The field with the highest risk of disputes was determined to be the field of trauma. The most frequent complaint was found to arise from unsatisfactory surgical outcomes following elective surgery. The most affected anatomical district is the lower limb in both elective and trauma cases, followed by the upper limb in traumatology and spine cases. The surgeon is the most frequently quoted role of the professional involved. The number of physicians actually convicted (3.93%) and for whom liability was thus recognized, i.e., the existence of a causal link between their conduct and the event that took place was established, appears to be extremely small when compared with the far more significant values related to dismissals (53%) and acquittals (14.2%). Adequate legal reform aiming to reduce this disproportion is necessary to ensure physicians experience a more relaxed daily profession and to restore the original connotations of the doctor–patient relationship with the abolition of defensive medicine. Full article

The popularity of staging Olympic Games has dropped in democratic countries as a series of failed referenda and withdrawn bids as well as protests against mega sport events have shown in recent years. Nevertheless, the there still are democratically elected office-holders willing to become involved in an Olympic bid despite the high probability of public opposition and the threat of an almost unwinnable referendum. This conceptual study analyses the individual risk management that these politicians have to concern themselves with because of their involvement in Olympic bids and referenda. It does so by looking at possible ‘personal legacies’ the politicians can obtain. It is interesting to note that although the size of such legacies will vary, they can result irrespective of the outcome of a bid or a referendum and can have positive, negative, or neutral effects for the politician(s) in question. As will be shown, personal legacies can also be obtained by opponents of Olympic bidding ambitions, which is not the only finding that is problematic particularly for the IOC and National Olympic Committees interested in hosting Olympic Games or other sport events. Full article

The climate of division and polarization in the US politics is increasing, going beyond the time in the office of a specific leader. Several political or technological challenges have ended up eroding this trust, making social cohesion difficult. In this context, this research examines the communication strategies of the elected president Biden after the 2020 elections, shedding light on how his legitimacy was built. All the messages that the Democrat published on his personal Twitter account (@JoeBiden) were collected, from the day after the presidential elections (4 November 2020) until his inauguration as president of the United States (20 January 2021). Using a content analysis method on issue/game frame and dissemination of the messages (n = 379), and an analysis of the 100 first keywords, results showed a plan of the Democratic candidate to reinforce the role of public institutions but without interaction with the polarized electorate. In this sense, the strategies of the president-elect related to the promotion of political action, the call for unity, and the fight against the pandemic stood out. The frequent use of words with a positive attitude reveals how Biden avoided confrontation with Donald Trump. Full article

This article analyses the differences in the level of transparency and quality of information on the institutional websites of Spanish councils depending on whether the mayor’s office is held by a woman or a man. We focus on 605 Spanish municipalities with more than 10,000 inhabitants in which women mayors represent 26.3% (n = 159) of the total. The method is based on 52 quantitative indicators divided into two thematic blocks related to municipal transparency and to information for participation. The principal results reveal that municipalities led by women yield better results in terms of compliance with the indicators evaluated, with 50.68%, compared to the municipalities in which the mayor is a man, with 38.13%. In addition, a more detailed analysis reveals how women mayors obtain better results in all groups of indicators: transparency, quality of the information published on municipal websites and tools provided for citizen participation. The study reveals how the increase in elected women has a positive influence on the implementation of policies that allow for more transparent information and communication and that promote greater inclusion of citizens in the public debate. Full article

In sub-national governments, elected public officers can exercise considerable influence on the regulation of local water services, in such ways as, for example, contributing to the design of local regulatory institutions, to the formulation of tariff rules, and to the supervision of water firms. Relatively little we know, however, about how elected public officers think about the regulation of local water services. This Q methodology study provides some evidence of the variety of opinions held on how local water services are delivered, how well they perform, and how they should be regulated among elected public officers in local governments in Italy. The study shows that the policy discourse on water regulation in Italy is highly fragmented into alternative and partially conflicting views. These findings bear some relevance for better understanding sources of stability and change of water regulatory regimes at the local level. Full article