Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The watchdog of Parliament: the centenary of the legislative audit

Abstract. August 1, 1978, marks the one hundredth anniversary of the establishment of the office of the Auditor General of Canada. This article traces the development of the concept of the legislative audit from the time of its first application in Canada to the present day. The first legislation, modelled on the United Kingdom Exchequer and Audit Departments Act of 1866 and virtually unchanged in substance from 1878 to 1931, vested in the Auditor General the dual functions of comptroller of issue and auditor of the public accounts, with the emphasis on legality and conformity with appropriation requirements. In 1931 responsibility for issue control was removed from the Audit Office and transferred to a newly created executive officer, the Comptroller of the Treasury, who assumed responsibility for a pre-audit of expenditures, leaving the Auditor General his post-audit functions. The article describes the transfer in 1969 of responsibility for pre-audit from the Comptroller of the Treasury to departments in response to the recommendations of the Glassco Royal Commission on Government Organization; the development of the ‘value for money’ concept by the Independent Review Committee on the Office of the Auditor General of Canada; and the embodiment in legislation in the 1975 Auditor General Act of the ‘value for money’ concept in which the audit emphasis is primarily on economy, efficiency and effectiveness.     

State mortgage foreclosure policies and lender interventions: Impacts on borrower behavior in default

Due to the rise in foreclosure filings, policymakers are increasingly concerned with helping families in financial distress keep their homes. This paper tests the extent to which distressed mortgage borrowers benefit from three types of state foreclosure polices: (1) judicial foreclosure proceedings, (2) statutory rights of redemption, and (3) statewide foreclosure‐prevention initiatives. Based on an analysis of borrowers in default who reside in 22 cross‐state metropolitan statistical area pairs, state policies generally have weak effects. Both judicial foreclosure proceedings and foreclosure prevention initiatives are associated with modest increases in loan modification rates. Using a matching procedure, a lender's letter promoting mortgage default counseling was associated with increases in loan modifications, decreases in loan cures, and decreases in foreclosure starts. The effects of the letter were also stronger in states with judicial proceedings. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

德国与欧盟的社会标准:全球化及欧洲一体化的影响

本文一方面旨在探究全球化和欧洲一体化对民族国家社会标准以及社会政策行动空间和分配空间的潜在影响;另一方面概述发达民主国家在过去二十年里社会政策的核心发展趋势,并讨论这样一个问题,即改革结果到底是由全球化和欧洲一体化这些外部条件变化促成的、还是因社会经济现代化进程以及社会福利国家自己造成的问题状况等内因导致的,或是所有上述因素综合影响的结果。最后本文简要阐释在欧盟层面进行社会政策再规制的可能性。讨论这一问题之所以具有重要意义,是因为很多学者将国家间和超国家的社会标准看作是维持西欧福利国家成就的救命稻草,这尤其因为在经济全球化时代,民族国家已经无力提供有力支撑。     

Allele frequencies for 15 autosomal STR loci and admixture estimates in Puerto Rican Americans

Allelic frequencies of 15 short tandem repeats (STR) markers (CSF1PO, FGA, THO1, TPOX, VWA, D3S11358, D5S818, D7S820, D8S1179, D13S317, D16S539, D18S51, D21S11, D19S433 and D2S1338) were determined using the AmpFl STR Identifiler PCR Amplification Kit in Puerto Rican American individuals (N=205) from Massachusetts. The FGA, D18S51 and D2S1338 loci had a high power of discrimination (PD) with values of 0.967, 0.965 and 0.961, respectively. Significant deviations from the Hardy-Weinberg (HW) equilibrium were not detected. An important genetic contribution of Caucasian European (76.4%) was detected in Puerto Rican Americans. However, comparative analysis between Puerto Rican American and other neighboring populations from United States mainly with African and Caucasian Americans, revealed significant differences in the distribution of STR markers. Our results are important for future comparative genetic studies of different American ethnic groups, in particular a cultural group called Hispanic-Americans and should be helpful for forensic and paternity testing.     

Ausverkauf des „Tafelsilbers“: Bestimmungsfaktoren der Privatisierungserlöse in EU- und OECD-Staaten 1990–2000

The 1990s have witnessed unprecedented attempts at privatising state-owned enterprises in virtually all OECD democracies. This contribution analyzes the differences in the privatisation proceeds raised by EU and OECD countries between 1990 and 2000. It turns out that privatisations are part of a policy of economic liberalisation in previously highly regulated economies as well as a reaction to the fiscal policy challenges imposed by European integration and the globalisation of financial markets. In addition, institutional pluralism exerts significant and negative effects on privatisation proceeds. Partisan differences only emerge if economic problems are moderate, while intense economic, particularly fiscal problems foreclose differing partisan strategies.