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The present study has the objectives to analyse effects influencing the gestation length (GL) and the parturition conception interval (PCI) in Hanoverian warmblood horses and subsequently to estimate heritabilities for the GL and the PCI. Data comprised artificial insemination records of the years 2008–2014 from the National State Stud Celle, Germany, and corresponding foaling data from the Hanoverian Breeding Society, Germany. A total of 19,315 seasonal records including 10,294 mares and 276 stallions were available for GL and 10,244 records for PCI with 5881 mares and 234 stallions. The average GL was 341.7±10.7 days. The fixed effects of the year and month of insemination, the age of the mare at the time of insemination, whether the mare had a foal with her from the previous season, the sex of the foal and the random effects of the mare and the stallion had a significant effect on the GL. For the effect of the month of insemination the GL was longest in the months of December to February and shortest in July and August. It was shortest in 2–4-year old mares and longest in mares >19 years. Also GLs were longer if the mare did not have a foal at foot from the previous season than in mares with a foal with her. Pregnancies with colts were longer than those with fillies. The average PCI was 38.1±25.9 days. Year and month of insemination, the age of the mare at the time of insemination and the mare as well as the stallion had a significant effect on the PCI. PCI was shortest in the months of December to February and increased until July and August. The PCI was longest in the youngest and the oldest age class of the mares. Heritabilities were estimated in linear animal models. A model including the maternal and paternal genetic effect resulted in heritabilities of 0.234 for the mare and 0.024 for the stallion for GL and 0.026 and 0.013 respectively for the PCI. Heritabilities for GL in a model including the maternal and direct genetic effects were 0.269 for the mare and 0.066 for the embryo. Mare-related effects seem to have the largest impact on GL, whereas environmental effects like a good post-parturition management highly influence the PCI.

This article contributes to the study of democratic problems related to governance networks, by focusing on the role of the media. Two main rivalling hypotheses are examined. The functionalist hypothesis postulates that the media accurately inform the public about policy actors and their responsibilities, independent of these actors’ institutional status. The media-bias hypothesis postulates an attention bias towards elected policy actors, resulting in reduced public visibility of non-elected policy actors. The analysis uses standardised data on decision-making processes and newspaper content relating to public transport and economic promotion policies in eight western European metropolitan areas. Findings are that the actor mix of governance networks is quite accurately reflected in newspaper reporting. However, elected actors are more often presented as responsible for policies (‘over-responsibilised’), and they are more often blamed for policy failures than other actors (‘over-blamed’). The extent of this media bias depends on commercial pressure on media outlets. We also show that variations of this general pattern are linked to different types of media systems found across the cases under scrutiny.

Curly coat represents an extraordinary type of coat in horses, particularly seen in American Bashkir Curly Horses and Missouri Foxtrotters. In some horses with curly coat, a hypotrichosis of variable extent was observed, making the phenotype appear more complex. In our study, we aimed at investigating the genetic background of curly coat with and without hypotrichosis using high density bead chip genotype and next generation sequencing data. Genome-wide association analysis detected significant signals (p = 1.412 × 10−05–1.102 × 10−08) on horse chromosome 11 at 22–35 Mb. In this significantly associated region, six missense variants were filtered out from whole-genome sequencing data of three curly coated horses of which two variants within KRT25 and SP6 could explain all hair phenotypes. Horses heterozygous or homozygous only for KRT25 variant showed curly coat and hypotrichosis, whereas horses with SP6 variant only, exhibited curly coat without hypotrichosis. Horses with mutant alleles in both variants developed curly hair and hypotrichosis. Thus, mutant KRT25 allele is masking SP6 allele effect, indicative for epistasis of KRT25 variant over SP6 variant. In summary, genetic variants in two different genes, KRT25 and SP6, are responsible for curly hair. All horses with KRT25 variant are additionally hypotrichotic due to the KRT25 epistatic effect on SP6.

As cities grow and expand, governance networks advocated by the “new regionalism” have become increasingly important for policy making in metropolitan areas. This article examines media reporting about governance networks and the effect this reporting has on democratic accountability and legitimacy. We use data from a standardized content analysis of newspaper coverage about metropolitan policy making in four European metropolitan areas (Zurich, Berlin, Paris, and London), as well as survey data on citizens’ attitudes. We find that the leading newspapers adequately cover governance processes and pay attention to both governmental and nongovernmental actors. Media content is correlated with citizen perceptions of democratic legitimacy, meaning both trust in government as well as satisfaction with democracy. We argue that there is a communicational dimension of public accountability that is important in upholding the democratic quality of “new regionalism” and of governance networks more generally.

Der vorliegende Artikel geht von der allgemeinen These eines Trends von Government zu Governance aus und testet diese anhand einer vergleichenden Studie von acht europaischen Metropolregionen. Urbane Raume werden aufgrund eines anhaltenden Bevolkerungszuwachses immer wichtigere Akteure in einer globalisierten Welt und stehen daher zunehmend im Zentrum von Governance Studien, die entsprechend des New Regionalism ebenfalls von einem Trend zu netzwerkorientierten Entscheidungsstrukturen ausgehen. Die hier vorgelegte Studie zeigt jedoch auf, dass keinesfalls von einem eindeutigen Trend gesprochen werden kann, sondern je nach Kontext unterschiedliche Entwicklungen regionaler politischer Systeme zu beobachten sind. Die geopolitische Lage, das nationale Regierungssystem und die Intensitat des Problemdrucks werden als entscheidende Faktoren identifiziert, die beeinflussen, ob neue Formen von Government oder Governance entstehen oder bestehende Strukturen beibehalten werden.

The question of whether popular votes on minority rights are compatible with a liberal democracy has been broadly debated, with judicial review of popular initiatives having been discussed as a necessary veto point (Eule, Miller). As an institutional change should generally be congruent with voters’ preferences, this article asks who supports the restriction of direct democracy by judicial review and how this is related to voting behavior concerning anti-civil-rights initiatives. Two recent anti-minority votes in California and Switzerland provide examples in terms of voters’ attitudes towards judicial review of direct democracy. Cross-tables and logistic regressions of survey data show that a surprisingly broad majority of voters support judicial review of popular initiatives in both cases. Nevertheless, judicial review is not entirely uncontroversial. In Switzerland, opposition to judicial review can even predict anti-minority votes, and for specific judicial decisions, Californians also tend to blame judges for restricting the people’s sovereignty.

Die indirekte Wirkung der Volksrechte auf den parlamentarischen Prozess bleibt gerade im Bereich der Minderheitenrechte meist unberucksichtigt. Anhand der Analyse von Anerkennungsprozessen fur religiose Minderheiten in den Schweizer Kantonen soll ein Beitrag zur Schliessung dieser Lucke geleistet werden. Es wird argumentiert, dass Parlamente prinzipiell minderheitenfreundlicher entscheiden als das Volk, wenn es sich um schlecht integrierte Minderheiten handelt – drohende Referenden konnen diesen Effekt jedoch verringern. Die systematische Analyse der entsprechenden Parlamentsprozesse mittels einer Fuzzy Set-QCA zeigt auf, dass Minderheitenrechte eher innerhalb von Totalrevisionen von Verfassungen umgesetzt werden, in denen keine Debatte uber eine mogliche Ablehnung durch das Volk gefuhrt wurde. Restriktive Regelungen entstehen hingegen, wenn diese Gefahr der direkten Demokratie thematisiert wurde. Zudem spielt der Islam eine besondere Rolle – allerdings fuhrt er nur dann zu restriktiveren Regelungen, wenn befurchtet wird, dass eine Offnung gegenuber Muslimen die Ablehnung der Vorlage durch das Volk zur Folge haben konnte.

Most of the research on the effects of direct democracy on minority rights is empirically limited to the direct effects of direct democracy. This article takes the issue a step further and examines both direct and indirect effects by investigating the rights of religious minorities in Switzerland. The analysis provides two main insights: all direct effects are negative and can be observed when the rights of out-groups like Islamic minorities are at stake. Second, indirect effects on the parliamentary process can be observed, too: parliaments make laws more restrictive toward Islamic minorities if they fear a popular vote. However, they develop strategies to enforce their liberal interests, as shown by the fact that extensions of the rights of religious minorities are passed in total revisions.

The tension between democracy and the rule of law is a much discussed issue in academia. Yet the special case of direct-democratic institutions and their effect on this relationship has not been examined in detail so far. The tension became even more obvious during the last decade when states with direct-democratic institutions had to face problems over popular initiatives that challenged human or fundamental civil rights – for instance over the same-sex marriage ban in California and the anti-minaret initiative in Switzerland. This chapter begins by analysing this tense relationship theoretically and showing some options for examining it empirically in the future. The theory of democracy and the rule of law will be reviewed and supplemented by a focus on direct democracy. In a second step, the review procedures of direct democracies in Switzerland and the US states will be compared. This discussion can be fruitful not only for the Swiss and US debates on the relationship between direct democracy and the rule of law, but also for other countries planning to introduce or to enhance direct-democratic institutions, such as Germany. The conclusions indicate that direct democracy has to be embedded in a constitutional democracy and that it can be abused in a populist democracy. This theoretical claim should be tested in future research.