Debating War and Peace: US Congress and the Domestic Legitimization of Military Interventions

This article investigates how members of US Congress legitimized their votes in four cases of military interventions after the Cold War (Iraq 1991, 2002–2009; Somalia 1993; Libya 2011). Using an original dataset on congressional rhetoric, the qualitative content analysis highlights that the domestic legitimization of military interventions hinges on members of Congress’s perception of external threats and national interests. So far, international relations research focused on the executive and the war powers literature offered mainly quantitative accounts on voting patterns within the legislative branch―especially for the US case. The relevance of national interest arguments within congressional debates confirms the expectations of neoclassical realism while contradicting previous studies about a dominant discourse in US society, which legitimizes interventions with universal values, such as democracy promotion or human rights.     

On unobserved worker heterogeneity and employment protection

It has been claimed that employment protection aggravates problems of adverse selection if workers differ with respect to their productivity. Analyzing European and US labor law, we identify regulations which work in the opposite direction. Where employment protection legislation allows dismissals only for good cause and imposes social criteria upon the employer’s selection process in the event of redundancies, the average productivity of hireable workers is shown to improve. However, we find that the employers’ reduced freedom of choice more than offsets the productivity increase of newly hired workers and job creation is deterred by employment protection legislation. Nevertheless, low-productivity workers may favor the introduction of employment protection provisions.     

Laufbahnklassen. Zur empirischen Umsetzung eines dynamisierten Klassenbegriffs mithilfe von Sequenzanalysen

Based on Bourdieu??s notion of trajectory-classes, the article proposes a dynamic concept of social class that accounts for typical patterns of intra-generational mobility. The hypothesis is that social class trajectories cluster into stable as well as upward and downward mobile trajectory-classes. This assumption is tested empirically by applying sequence analysis to individual trajectories of class positions measured by means of the Goldthorpe class scheme. The data are drawn from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study and cover 15 years of individual occupational histories for four different age cohorts of men and women. In addition to a striking stability of class positions, there are also specific patterns of class mobility for men that point to institutional mechanisms of social closure and career paths. Women??s trajectory-classes are shaped by class-specific patterns of labor market (re-)entries and exits. Furthermore, analyzing the process of capital accumulation based on various indicators of economic, cultural and social capital, the trajectory-classes can be interpreted as a result of investment strategies.     

Deaths in preschool and school age--a retrospective analysis from a medicolegal point of view

At the Department of Legal Medicine in Giessen all forensic autopsies from the years 1990 until 2001 were investigated under the aspect of "death in preschool and school age between 3 and 16 years of age." Out of 69 deaths 19% were due to a natural and 81% to an unnatural cause of death. Both groups (3 to 6 and 7 to 16 years of age) were analyzed retrospectively with regard to age and circumstances of death and compared with the literature. The purpose of the differentiating evaluation is to furnish ideas how to prevent violent deaths of children.     

Detection of the cholinesterase inhibitor tacrine and its main metabolites

Tacrine, a cholinesterase inhibitor for symptomatic treatment of minor to moderate dementia, and its primary metabolites 1-hydroxy-tacrine and 4-hydroxy-tacrine were studied by means of thin-layer chromatography, UV spectroscopy and gas-chromatography/mass spectroscopy. The analytical data (corrected hRf values, UV spectra in solution as well as reflectance spectra, high-pressure liquid chromatography data, GC retention indices and EI mass spectra) including various derivatization methods are described.     

Hemosiderin findings in the liver, spleen and lung in newborn infants and infants

The content and distribution of hemosiderin in the liver, spleen and lungs of stillborn children, newborns and infants were determined histologically by Perl's method (Prussian blue reaction). We describe a study of 59 deaths up to the age of 2 years. The hemosiderin content depends on age and decreases with increasing age. No relevant differences were found in cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). In the liver hemosiderin is localized preponderantly in the periphery of the lobules. The spleen shows a diffuse siderosis of the red pulp. Minimal intrapleural, septal and perivasal depositions of hemosiderin can be found in the lung tissue. The significance of these findings is discussed.