Life expectancy is rising fast, but not all years gained are free of disease. Therefore, many people wonder to what extent the years that we have gained are enjoyable. Studies however show that... Show moreLife expectancy is rising fast, but not all years gained are free of disease. Therefore, many people wonder to what extent the years that we have gained are enjoyable. Studies however show that life satisfaction generally remains high at old age. We investigate this surprising phenomenon using data from two cross-sectional studies. We ask 1) which factors separate older people with a low from those with a high life satisfaction? And 2) how do older people maintain their high life satisfaction despite physical decline? Compared to earlier studies, this study used large and representative populations, and a broad array of objective health indicators. Physical decline was relatively unimportant for life satisfaction, especially when mental health (operationalised as depressive symptoms and experienced loneliness) remained high. Demographic variables and social resources also had no or a small relationship with life satisfaction. Only mental health was strongly associated with life satisfaction. By investigating various ways of measuring self-rated health, we show that older people may shift their norms and values in the face of declining health. This may thus explain their high life satisfaction, in spite of physical decline. Findings are discussed in relation to other literature and implications are given. Show less
What do elections mean for a single-party regime? Can party-selected deputies do something meaningful for citizens in non-democracies? The dissertation explores how and under what conditions a... Show moreWhat do elections mean for a single-party regime? Can party-selected deputies do something meaningful for citizens in non-democracies? The dissertation explores how and under what conditions a single-party authoritarian regime instrumentalizes popularly elected congress to strengthen its rule in local society. It takes contemporary China as an empirical focus for this exploration. Instead of perceiving Chinese congress either simply as authoritarian window dressing or as an immediate catalyst for democratization, this research is devoted to examining the motivations, strategies, and behaviors of the party regime in playing the cards of congressional elections and representation to make its rule more robust and resilient. This project mainly adopts comparative case study methods, with some quantitative data serving as supportive statistical evidence. As a whole, my thesis argues that congressional election and post-election representation are two cards of China’s party regime. By strategically downplaying input electoral competition but promoting output congressional representation, the communist regime has been striving to develop a mass-line democracy as an alternative to liberal democracy, which features the “Leninist trinity” of the Party’s leadership, the rule of law, and people’s democracy, as well as a new brand of mobilized representation relying on the accountability from the top down. Show less
