In the twilight of democracy: public affairs consultants in Switzerland

• Modernization processes within different fields of political communication rise new challenges. Public affairs consultants are said to meet these challenges in both an effective and efficient way. Nevertheless, the rise of public affairs consultants also poses the question of their accordance with basic principles of modern democracy. Do public affairs consultants foster or impede the democratic process with respect to participation and representation? This question is answered on the basis of empirical data on public affairs consultants in Switzerland. The analysis points out three distinguishable fields of service: lobbying, political public relations and campaigning. Whereas campaigning has the strongest public‐orientation and emphasizes direct democratic institutions, the other two fields tend to be more in the backstage of the public. Results regarding public affairs services suggest a structural discrepancy between public and non‐public forms of communication, which according to normative democracy theory has to be judged critically. With view to clients, policy fields and party affiliations, the results show strong imbalances in interest representation, which seem to have mainly structural and economic reasons. In the conclusion, these results are discussed with view to the necessity of more transparency and a further professionalization.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Moral Reasons for an Intercultural Criminal Law. A Philosophical Attempt

The internationalization of our societal relations has even had an impact on criminal law. While criminal law previously fell almost exclusively within the scope of the responsibilities of individual states, internationalization has affected the practice of criminal law for a long time now. Neither terrorism nor gun-running nor drug trade nor child prostitution observe national borders. In such a new frame of cross-cultural legal problems, the paper shows that—insofar as criminal offences can be justified with universal and human rights arguments, as they usually can—moral reasons for an intercultural criminal law can be given.     

B. Reviews: general

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SEMINAR FÜR ARABISTIK UND ISLAM WISSENSCHAFT, WESTFÄLISCHE WILHELMS UNIV. MÜNSTER

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REVOLUTION AND ECONOMIC TRANSITION: THE IRANIAN EXPERIENCE. By HOOSHANG AMIRAHMADI. Albany, State University of New York Press, 1990. 420pp.

TURKEY AND THE MIDDLE EAST. By PHILIP ROBINS. London, Pinter for the Royal Institute of International Affairs. 134pp.

THE US‐TURKISH‐NATO MIDDLE EAST CONNECTION: HOW THE TRUMAN DOCTRINE AND TURKEY'S NATO ENTRY CONTAINED THE SOVIETS. By GEORGE McGHEE. Foreword by Lord Carrington. Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1990. xvii, 224pp. £40 (hb).

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