Voter Participation in the 1998 Bundestag Elections: A Theoretical Modification and Empirical Application of Downs��� Theory of Voter Participation

This article seeks to contribute to the illumination of the so-called 'paradox of voting' using the German Bundestag elections of 1998 as an empirical case. Downs' model of voter participation will be extended to include elements of the theory of subjective expected utility (SEU). This will allow a theoretical and empirical exploration of the crucial mechanisms of individual voters' decisions to participate, or abstain from voting, in the German general election of 1998. It will be argued that the infinitely low probability of an individual citizen's vote to decide the election outcome will not necessarily reduce the probability of electoral participation. The empirical analysis is largely based on data from the ALLBUS 1998. It confirms the predictions derived from SEU theory. The voters' expected benefits and their subjective expectation to be able to influence government policy by voting are the crucial mechanisms to explain participation. By contrast, the explanatory contribution of perceived information and opportunity costs is low.

The Function of Norms and Values in the Construction of Social Identity in Groups who experienced intergroup Conflicts

I present my explorative research about conflict and social identity. The Social Identity Approach of Henri Tajfel and John Turner is used as theoretical frame in the study. The main question is how the construction of social identity of group members is influenced by an inter-group conflict. The research project consists of two parts: 1. An empirical study conducted with qualitative research methods to investigate a today���s congregation of the Swiss reformed Church who experienced a conflict about twenty years ago. This conflict ended by the separation of a sub-group from the congregations. This group forms an independent community today. Members of both congregations where interviewed about the meaning which membership has for them and about their interpretation of the conflict. 2. An analysis of the Gospel of Matthew with questions who where developed out of the empirical study and the Social Identity Approach to better understand the separation conflict between the Matthean community and the synagogue.

Dermatology in the immunosuppressed patient

This anniversary book gives an animated description of the first one hundred years of the Swiss Society of Dermatology and Venereology (SSDV ��� SGDV). The approximately 60 authors write from the subjective perspective of the contemporary witness and thus create a vibrant picture of their field and the times in which we live. ���Spirit and Soul of Swiss Dermatology and Venereology 1913 ��� 2013��� is therefore an ideal companion to the medical history book ���Dermatologie und Venerologie in der Schweiz ��� ein historischer R��ckblick��� (2002 Editions Alphil, ISBN 2-940235-08-2), published in 2003 by the SSDV ��� SGDV for its 90th anniversary. The anniversary edition for the centennial is written in English in order to make the history of the SSDV ��� SGDV accessible to a larger international public. The introductory chapter is written in all four national languages (German, French, Italian, and Romansh) and also translated into English. It is followed by chapters about the university and non-university public dermatology and venereology departments, the memoirs of those presidents still living, and the depiction of the numerous sub-disciplines of dermatology. Further important chapters include a large contribution on the beginnings of dermatological research in Switzerland, a series of pieces on medical education and continuing education, and finally an overview of healthcare politics in Switzerland. Our friends in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the USA have provided the outside perspective on Swiss dermatology and venereology in their essays. All in all an informative and entertaining overview of a very diverse medical specialty has been created, which combines historical facts with dynamic insights into this topical field and the current political healthcare framework.

Who Is in Love with Multilateralism? Treaty Commitment in the Post-Cold War Era

Since the end of the Cold War, multilateral treaties have again become a central vehicle for international cooperation. In this article, we study states��� commitment to 76 multilateral treaties concluded between 1990 and 2005. The article offers a systematic account of present-day multilateral treaty-making efforts and asks what explains variation in states��� participation as witnessed in the act of treaty ratification.We test existing explanations and provide a novel argument that accounts for the strong participation of new European democracies in multilateral treaties. We find that regime type and being part of the European Union (EU) strongly affect treaty ratification. New EU democracies, in particular, are much more likely to ratify multilateral treaties than are other new democracies.

Agents, Trustees, and International Courts: Nomination and Appointment of Judicial Candidates in the WTO Appellate Body

Scholars have increasingly theorized, and debated, the decision by states to create and delegate authority to international courts, as well as the subsequent autonomy and behavior of those courts, with principal���agent and trusteeship models disagreeing on the nature and extent of states��� influence on international judges. This article formulates and tests a set of principal���agent hypotheses about the ways in which, and the conditions under which, member states are able use their powers of judicial nomination and appointment to influence the endogenous preferences of international judges. The empirical analysis surveys the record of all judicial appointments to the Appellate Body (AB) of the World Trade Organization over a 15-year period. We present a view of an AB appointment process that, far from representing a pure search for expertise, is deeply politicized and offers member-state principals opportunities to influence AB members ex ante and possibly ex post. We further demonstrate that the AB nomination process has become progressively more politicized over time as member states, responding to earlier and controversial AB decisions, became far more concerned about judicial activism and more interested in the substantive opinions of AB candidates, systematically championing candidates whose views on key issues most closely approached their own, and opposing candidates perceived to be activist or biased against their substantive preferences. Although specific to the WTO, our theory and findings have implications for the judicial politics of a large variety of global and regional international courts and tribunals.

Book Review: Regulating Code : Good Governance and Better Regulation in the Information Age

Digital technologies have profoundly changed not only the ways we create, distribute, access, use and re-use information but also many of the governance structures we had in place. Overall, "older" institutions at all governance levels have grappled and often failed to master the multi-faceted and multi-directional issues of the Internet. Regulatory entrepreneurs have yet to discover and fully mobilize the potential of digital technologies as an influential factor impacting upon the regulability of the environment and as a potential regulatory tool in themselves. At the same time, we have seen a deterioration of some public spaces and lower prioritization of public objectives, when strong private commercial interests are at play, such as most tellingly in the field of copyright. Less tangibly, private ordering has taken hold and captured through contracts spaces, previously regulated by public law. Code embedded in technology often replaces law. Non-state action has in general proliferated and put serious pressure upon conventional state-centered, command-and-control models. Under the conditions of this "messy" governance, the provision of key public goods, such as freedom of information, has been made difficult or is indeed jeopardized.The grand question is how can we navigate this complex multi-actor, multi-issue space and secure the attainment of fundamental public interest objectives. This is also the question that Ian Brown and Chris Marsden seek to answer with their book, Regulating Code, as recently published under the "Information Revolution and Global Politics" series of MIT Press. This book review critically assesses the bold effort by Brown and Marsden.

Luxurious Merovingian Textiles Excavated from Burials in the Saint Denis Basilica, France, 6th-7th century

A new examination of the textile fragments found in the Merovingian burials in the basilica of Saint Denis, near Paris, has recently underscored the diversity of fabrics used to make garments in which members of the royal court were buried. Among them, some woolens of fine quality had been dyed with indigotin. The most astonishing fibre found belongs to a mixed textile (not skin) with beaver fibers and wool. Silks contained shellfish purple and in one case kermes? Two dyestuffs associated with royalty and privilege. Along with this was large number of gold threads, probably produced locally and that were used in tablet-woven borders or for embroideries. In addition, several figured silks, of oriental origin, testify to the importance of this "foreign" material and the taste for textiles woven with complex techniques and probably what had originally had beautiful designs. Although none of these designs have been preserved and many colors have been greatly damaged, the technical characteristics of the remnants indicate proveniences as far as Byzantium, Sassanid Persia and the Chinese court. Such precious textiles show the high social status and political power of the Merovingian court, a testament to their ability to access such luxurious and costly textiles through diplomacy and/or trade with other powerful empires. The examination of these rare textiles along with other fine silks and luxury objects from the same period found in France expand our view of the fundamental role of textiles in the political sphere of this early period of European history.

The Road Not Taken: Enabling and Limiting Mobility in the Eastern Pamirs

Based on fieldwork conducted between 2008 and 2011, this article explores the role of roads in enabling and limiting the movement of people and goods in Tajikistan���s Eastern Pamirs. The article focuses on the Pamir Highway and a newly established trade route linking Tajikistan with China. Besides materially facilitating mobility, both roads serve as trajectories for opportunities, but often also signify the lack of such to those who live along them. This article thus seeks to analyse the shifting roles of roads against the backdrop of past and present state dispensations, shifting ideologies and newly emerging economic practices. By emphasising roads as both enabling and limiting spatial entities shaped by materiality, politics and economics, this article argues, on the one hand, that roads are important factors in directing and accelerating the mobility of people and goods and, on the other, that roads are also symbols of immobility inasmuch as they set limitations on the movement of people.