Varieties of corporate social responsibility (CSR): CSR meets the “Nordic Model”

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is increasingly being promoted as an instrument for global governance to address the regulatory vacuum surrounding transnational business activities and as a method for encouraging business to contribute to sustainable development at the national level. Originally a business-driven, American concept, CSR has now been adopted and promoted by a wide range of governments and multilateral institutions. However, the socio-political model underlying CSR is far from neutral and may conflict with existing models in the societies in which it is introduced. In this article a typology of possible governmental interpretations of CSR is developed, and how CSR is transformed and adapted in its meeting with Nordic governments in order to fit the “Nordic Model” of state-market-society relations is analyzed. The analysis suggests that pre-existing political-economic institutions and cultural norms deeply affect the interpretation of CSR, and that this, when combined with ongoing national political processes, leads to a highly transformed concept of CSR.     

Comparative analysis of the effects of alcoholic drinks of different qualities (author's transl)

The authors compared the effects of alcoholic drinks rich in fusel oil with the effects of diluted pure alcohol of the same quantity on 19 clinically healthy university students. The investigations utilized EEG and physiopsychic testing methods. The clinical symptoms were observed both under the effect of drinks and in a crapulous state ("hang-over"). It was found that alcoholic drinks rich in fusel oil can produce a more deviating EEG curve, an increased worsening of physiopsychic performance and of clinical and subjective symptoms. The necessity of regular quality control of alcoholic beverages is pointed out.     

Eating Problems and the Self-Concept: Results Based on a Representative Sample of Norwegian Adolescent Girls

The joint role of self-esteem and unstable self-perceptions for eating problems was investigated in a representative Norwegian population sample of girls in 3 age groups (N = 5287; aged 12–19 years). Three scales from the 12-item Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-12) measured eating problems: Restriction, Bulimia-food preoccupation, and Diet. Girls low on all EAT scales were most often characterized by high self-esteem combined with stable self-perceptions, whereas girls high on all EAT-scales were characterized by having low self-esteem and unstable self-perceptions. Bulimic tendencies and dieting were more common in older groups, whereas high scores on all EAT-scales simultaneously were equally common in all ages. The findings gave initial support to the continuity hypothesis in indicating that the age trends for eating problems, except for restrictive tendencies, followed those of eating disorders and in that the risk factors found for eating problems parallel those reported for eating disorders.     

What is a service of general economic interest?

European Journal of Law and Economics - The definition of the concept a “service of general economic interest” (SGEI) known from Article 106(2) treaty of the functioning of the European...     

Peace-building and business elites in Guatemala and El Salvador: explaining the discursive ‘institutional turn’

ABSTRACT

The local business elites of El Salvador were generally in favour of the peace agreement and supported its negotiation and implementation in 1992, while in Guatemala the private sector reluctantly supported the peace process and, after the peace agreements were signed in 1996, the private sector sought to obstruct parts of its implementation. In the aftermath of the peace accords, business elites united around an ideology espousing a minimal state and a focus on market solutions to social problems. Although welcoming the security-related measures in the peace accords, business elites have often obstructed transformations towards more inclusive and democratic societies. However, in recent years there has been a change in discourse among influential business associations towards recognition of the need for strong state institutions and the need for institutionalised mechanisms for dialogue to find solutions to social problems. In this article, we seek to shed light on the significance of this discursive turn for continued peace-building.     

Human Capital and Administrative Burden: The Role of Cognitive Resources in Citizen-State Interactions

One means by which the state reinforces inequality is by imposing administrative burdens that loom larger for citizens with lower levels of human capital. Integrating insights from various disciplines, this article focuses on one aspect of human capital: cognitive resources. The authors outline a model that explains how burdens and cognitive resources, especially executive functioning, interrelate. The article then presents illustrative examples, highlighting three common life factors—scarcity, health problems, and age-related cognitive decline. These factors create a human capital catch-22, increasing people's likelihood of needing state assistance while simultaneously undermining the cognitive resources required to negotiate the burdens they encounter while seeking such assistance. The result is to reduce access to state benefits and increase inequality. The article concludes by calling for scholars of behavioral public administration and public administration more generally to incorporate more attention to human capital into their research.     

The bigger the better? Evidence of the effect of government size on life satisfaction around the world

This paper empirically analyzes whether government size is conducive or detrimental to life satisfaction in a cross-section of 74 countries. We thus provide a test of the longstanding dispute between standard neoclassical economic theory and public choice theory. According to the neoclassical view, governments play unambiguously positive roles for individuals' quality of life, while the theory of public choice has been developed to understand why governments often choose excessive involvement in – and regulation of – the economy, thereby harming their citizens' quality of life. Our results show that life satisfaction decreases with higher government consumption. For low, middle income, and male people, this result is stronger when the government is leftwing, while government consumption appears to be less harmful for women when the government is perceived to be effective. Government capital formation and social spending have no significant impact on life satisfaction.     

An extension of Black's theorem on voting orders to the successive procedure

Duncan Black (1958) stated his voting order theorem — ‘the later any motion enters the voting order, the greater its chance of adoption’ — exclusively for the amendment procedure. Niemi and Gretlein's (1985) extension is similarly limited. Here we show that with a change in the focus from social preferences to individual preferences, both Black's theorem and that proved by Niemi and Gretlein apply as well to the successive procedure.     

Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos: criminal and legal aspects of serial homicide with over 200 victims

This is the first scientific report on the crimes of the homosexual paedophile sadist Luis Alfredo Garavito Cubillos, based on a research stay of the authors in Columbia, and including discussions with the investigators, and the offender. Between 1992 and 1999, Garavito killed more than 200 children in the core age span between 8 and 13 years (as an exception, 6 to 16 years). His modus operandi remained stable. During daytime, he lured children of a lower social status out of crowded parts of the city into hidden areas that were overgrown with high plants. Garavito promised either payment for easy work, or drugs, or made other socially believable offers. The children were tied up, tortured, raped, and killed by at least one cut in the lateral part of the neck, or by decapitation. During the killings, Garavito was drunk. Even after his arrest (for attempted sexual abuse under a wrong identity) it was not immediately possible to track his crimes since Garavito had frequently changed his places of stay and his jobs. He also grew different hairdos and used wrong names. During his still ongoing confessions, he directs the investigators correctly to all scenes of crime spread over large parts of Columbia. In our report, we give an overview over the course of investigations, hint to similarities in the cases of the German serial killer Denke (1920's) and homosexual paedophile serial killer Jürgen Bartsch (1960's), and give preliminary impressions on the offender's personality. Furthermore, the violent environment and juridical peculiarities in Columbia are discussed. In spite of a total penalty of 2600 years in prison, it is formally well possible that Garavito will be released out of prison within the next 10 to 20 years, i.e. even before the maximum sentence of 40 years will be over.