The Czech Islamophobic movement: beyond ‘populism’?

ABSTRACT

Sla?álek and Svobodová’s paper focuses on the ideology of the Czech Islamophobic movement as seen during the 2015–16 migration crisis. In their analysis of interviews with demonstrators and speeches by leaders of the movement, they discuss first how the movement imagined its enemies, and then describe its vision of positive core values. They conclude that the movement’s key ideological features are: an emphasis on social and civilizational decline (declinism); a return to an assumed naturalness in economic and gender relationships (naturalization); and the open evocation of violence and severity (brutalization). In terms of Rogers Brubacker’s distinction between xenophobic ethno-nationalism in Eastern Europe, and the xenophobic defence of liberal values in the West, Sla?álek and Svobodová find that the Czech case fits the allegedly western pattern better than the eastern one, which may cast doubt on the whole essentialization of distinctions between ‘western’ and ‘eastern’ populisms.     

Competition and switching in public service markets: Can they reduce inequalities?

Regulatory reforms to public infrastructure services across European Union (EU) countries were aimed at increasing consumer welfare by introducing competition and choice into service markets. However, empirical evaluations have questioned whether these reforms have benefitted all consumers, suggesting that vulnerable groups of service users (especially those with lower levels of formal education), might be locked into poorly performing services. We assess the relationship between the level of competition in electricity and fixed telephony markets in EU countries and evaluate the affordability of these services for different socio‐educational layers. Our findings show that – although in countries where there is a relatively high frequency of switching, inequalities between socio‐educational groups are smaller and eventually disappear – competition as such does not play a part. These results suggest that demand‐side regulation that successfully enables consumer switching has the potential to equalize social welfare, thereby reflecting a possible convergence of regulatory instruments and the central aims of the welfare state in this context.     

The emergence of regulatory regionalism: transnational networks and the diffusion of regulatory agencies within regions

The regulatory regionalism approach has increasingly claimed that a new mode of regional governance is emerging globally. Regional policy regimes, developed in broad social and economic territorial areas, affect the internal transformation of the state. The authors plan to provide comprehensive empirical evidence about the emergence of worldwide regulatory regionalism by identifying how regulatory agencies have diffused very successfully within the regional level in recent decades. The paper aims to identify, using an original methodological design, the ways in which such diffusion of agencies occurred, as this may have theoretical relevance for the study of regulatory regionalism. The authors' hypothesis suggests that transnational political interactions in each regional cluster triggered agency diffusion, contributing to the development of the regulatory state within the countries of each region. To test this hypothesis, the authors employed a data set of regulatory agencies including the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), and most Asian and Latin American countries (+59) from 1950 to 2007, for 15 sectors related to finance, risks, utility and competition. Bayesian data analysis was used to estimate the parameters of interest.     

Planerische Steuerung von privilegierten Vorhaben im Außenbereich

Durch das Europarechtsanpassungsgesetz (EAG Bau) werden die planerischen Steuerungsmöglichkeiten von Außenbereichsvorhaben unter Übernahme des Darstellungsprivilegs in § 35 Abs. 3 S. 3 BauGB um einen Teilflächennutzungsplan (§ 5 Abs. 2b BauGB) und Zurückstellungsmöglichkeiten (§ 15 Abs. 3 BauGB) ergänzt. Der Beitrag stellt die gesetzlichen Neuregelungen vor und behandelt die Frage, welche Verbindlichkeit die planerischen Ausweisungen für die Betroffenen haben und ob die Flächennutzungspläne und Raumordnungspläne (Gebietsentwicklungspläne) damit zu unmittelbar geltenden Rechtsnormen werden. Zugleich wird über die Rechtsprechung zu Windkraftanlagen berichtet. *) Bernhard Stüer lehrt an den Universitäten Münster und Osnabrück das Öffentliche Baurecht, Fachplanungsrecht, Raumordnungsrecht, Umweltrecht und Kommunalrecht und ist Richter im Nebenamt am Anwaltsgerichtshof des Landes NRW. Eva Stüer ist in anwaltlicher Beratung und Prozessvertretung mit Fragen der planungsrechtlichen Zulässigkeit von Außenbereichsvorhaben befasst, vgl. auch die Schrift der Verfasserin Außenbereichsbebauung: Entwicklung und geltendes Recht (§ 35 BauGB 1998), Beiträge zum Siedlungs- und Wohnungswesen und zur Raumplanung, Bd. 177, Münster 1997.

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