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The article "Interest-driven Legislation" deals with the topic of lobbying in democracy. It points out that interest groups are an indispensable part of pluralistic democracy and are protected by constitutional law. However, it can be problematic when these groups exert influence on legislation. Various legal means are mentioned to enforce interests, such as public relations, demonstrations, and donations to political parties. The weaknesses of lobbying are also highlighted and examined to determine whether a reassessment of parliamentarism is necessary. Examples of lobbying excesses are mentioned, such as the influence of the automotive lobby in the diesel scandal. Various solution strategies are presented on how the state can deal with lobbying, including the regulation of lobbying and the creation of plurality. The text addresses the topic of lobbying in Germany and Switzerland and proposes measures to curb the influence of lobbyists. [Extracted from the article]

Political journalism results from interactions among journalists, politicians, public relations actors and lobbyists. Recent research projects gathered evidence on interactions between journalists and politicians. The empirical research presented in this article focuses not only on journalists and politicians, but other actors as well. Since interactions may vary substantially depending on the structure of policies, the author compares the interplay of the most important actors in different policy fields and examines the ways they attempt to shape the public and private agendas of Swiss Energy and Culture Policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major part of the delay from onset of symptoms of acute myocardial infarction to arrival in hospital is caused by patients' delayed reporting. Therefore, a media campaign was initiated by the Swiss Heart Foundation with the goal of informing people about the seriousness of chest pain and about the importance of proper action in these situations. An initial 2 months' national campaign was followed by a 3 weeks' intensive local campaign in a mixed urban/suburban area in central Switzerland. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of this media campaign on patients information and reaction in case of cardiac emergency, and to study the possible impact of this campaign on anxiety levels and other emotions. Telephone interviews were performed before and after both the national and the local campaign using a cohort of 500 persons in a longitudinal and 4 x 500 persons in a cross-sectional study. The information had reached about 50% of the population by the end of the local campaign. The percentage of persons who would call the emergency medical services immediately in case of chest pain increased from 40% to 57% in the cross-sectional and from 48% to 65% in the longitudinal study (p < 0.001), and the percentage of persons who would call the ambulance team immediately on witnessing a person with a heart attack increased from 25 to 92% in the cross-sectional and to 96% in the longitudinal study (p < 0.001). Anxiety levels and other negative emotions decreased slightly during the campaign (p < 0.05), whereas feelings of personal safety revealed a slight increase (p < 0.01).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

The article deals with the question how well known a new social service becomes which is completely based on voluntary and honorary work. The new service, organized neighbourhood help in Zürich-Altstetten, has been in existence since three years. To find out to what degree this new social service was known, a representative survey was carried out by telephone in which 208 persons living in the district referred to were interviewed one and a half years after the organized neighbourhood help had started working. --50% of the people living in the district Zürich-Altstetten were aware of the organized neighbourhood help, twice as many women than men knowing about it. The same relationship was observed between people who were fully occupied and people occupied in part-time jobs or not working: twice as many people of the latter group knew about this new social service. --About half of the people interviewed were interested in receiving more information about the service and 36% could even imagine participating in it. Although more information about the neighbourhood help was sent to these people, one year later still no one had applied. --The findings hint at a division of labour between the different channels of information: newspapers provide general information whereas pamphlets and recommendations from other social services are more likely to lead to registration.

Bad nutritional habits can cause or enhance various, especially chronic, diseases. The right amount of calories, an adequate composition and the distribution of the meals over the day are the basis of good nutrition. A coordinating office could improve the information of our population, since many different professions must cooperate. Nutritions education must be improved. Industry, professional organisations, nutritionists, consumer organisations and specialists for communication must cooperate to solve the difficult problem of nutritional habits and to demonstrate that good nutrition can--as the gastrotonomy of the future--help to enjoy life.