The European Council and the European Commission have a similar role in agenda setting. Both place issues on the EU agenda. However, these institutions have distinct designs. They have... Show moreThe European Council and the European Commission have a similar role in agenda setting. Both place issues on the EU agenda. However, these institutions have distinct designs. They have different political attributes (the European Council has considerably more political authority) and information-processing capacities (the Commission can handle many more issues simultaneously). In domestic political systems, organizations often differ on what issues to attend and how to do it, circumstances induced in part by their designs. But we know little about how this happens in the EU system. Do the European Council and the Commission set the agenda differently, according to their distinct architectures? Or do they do it similarly, according to their similar roles? Further, while the function of each institution is formalized, their relationship is not. We do not know how their designs affect their interaction. Who follows whom? Or do the institutions influence each other? The study reveals and explains underlying dynamics in EU agenda setting. It looks into the processes of each agenda (intra-agenda dynamics) and between them (inter-agenda dynamics) across decades. The field of organized crime is examined over time. The study shows that to better understand their interplay, we need to observe their individual behaviors. Show less
In support of efforts to develop effective intervention and prevention programs to reduce (the devastating consequences of) child maltreatment, it is important to understand the origins of child... Show moreIn support of efforts to develop effective intervention and prevention programs to reduce (the devastating consequences of) child maltreatment, it is important to understand the origins of child maltreatment. Why do some parents use dysfunctional parenting strategies and others do not? Different research angles have been of guidance in tracking down the etiology of child maltreatment (e.g., stress-regulation, intergenerational transmission, attachment security). An influential line of thought is that parental responses to child behavior depend on the way parents interpret and evaluate child behavior, also known as parental attributions. Milner (1993, 2003) incorporated parental attributions as key component in the Social Information Processing (SIP) model of Child Physical Abuse (CPA). The model explains how parental cognitions (e.g., perceptions, attributions) and affective schemata based on prior experiences, guide parenting behavior. The model hypothesizes that parents who attribute more responsibility and hostile intent to child behavior, and evaluate the behavior as more wrong and blameworthy, are parents who are at risk for child abuse. In this dissertation, negative parental attributions and their interrelated components as theorized by the SIP-model, are the main focus of investigation in a quest to improve our understanding of the etiology of dysfunctional parenting, and subsequently child maltreatment. Show less
Beckerman, M.; Van Berkel, S.; Mesman, J.; Alink, L.R.A. 2017
