Low turnout and the prevalence of national arena motivation in sub-and supranational elections are claimed to be due to voters perceiving that less is "at stake" in secondorder national elections. The article asks whether voters' differential assessments of election stakes when confronted with elections to different representative institutions are evidence of electoral sophistication. In the context of Norwegian elections to county and municipal councils, the standard approaches based on aggregate and survey data are juxtaposed with results from content analysis of local level politicians' argumentative behaviour, as they are exposed in readers' letters published in local newspapers. It is found that voters' differential assessment matches well with the message indirectly conveyed by campaigning politicians at the respective levels, suggesting that voters make adequate assessments of how much is at stake in elections to sub-national government. This substantiates the view that the second-order character is not inherent to all sub-national elections, but rather dependent on the overall institutional design of the specific multilevel system.

No abstract

Background Health personnel had greater odds of contracting COVID-19 during its first wave in Norway, compared with all working-age individuals. Students in health care, but also in social care and teacher education programs may be exposed to the risk of being infected themselves and to infect others through their mandatory practical training. Online education may reduce their risk of becoming patients and spreaders both in their private lives and during their mandatory training. Aim To explore the extent to which unvaccinated professional students fear transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from fellow students and from public transportation during the third wave. Materials and Methods In this cross-sectional study, 3148 students in health care, social care, and teacher education programs and 32 supervisors completed online questionnaires consisting of open and closed questions (mixed methods) after participating in digital interprofessional learning (IPL) small-group seminars (49.6% and 65% response rates, respectively). On a 6-point Likert scale (0–5), all means concerning fear were around 3, with overlapping confidence intervals. Fear of infecting high-risk individuals seemed higher than fear of contracting the virus themselves. High levels of loyalty to and trust in state and health authorities were expressed. Medical-related terminology was frequently used, such as the one-meter distance rule, infection tracking, national guidelines, and hand sanitizer, which implies high levels of health literacy. They expressed strong support for online course delivery (mean 4.5) ahead of practical training as a precautionary public health action. Conclusion These students did not have high levels of fear of contracting the virus from other students or public transport. They expressed a higher fear of infecting others than being infected themselves. The major implication for the public and the educational system is that students, even in a country with low death rates, support digital education as a public health precautional action to prevent the spread of infection.

No abstract