The Politics of Financial Regulatory Reform in Britain and Germany

Over the past decade, Britain and Germany have both made fundamental changes to their financial regulatory regimes with the creation of single powerful regulators. In both cases, this meant either ending or severely limiting the regulatory role of central banks. This article argues that the creation of these new regulatory actors cannot be understood without reference to the preferences of domestic political actors responding to the increased political salience of financial regulation as a policy issue. The result was distinct partisan differences about institutional design and responsibilities with centre-left parties seeking regulatory actors clearly accountable to government and parliament. Such an account of institutional change is in contrast to previous accounts of the evolution of financial regulation that are largely exogenous to domestic politics.     

The Politics of Labour Market Reforms and Social Citizenship in Germany

Since the second half of the 1990s, German labour market policy has experienced paradigmatic changes, undermining the conservative ideal of preserving social status and maintaining achieved living standards. Reforms carried out by the conservative–liberal government of the 1990s focused largely on workfare measures. This development had its roots in the progressive disintegration of the cross-class alliance of organised business and trade unions that had previously supported Bismarckian unemployment protection. The withdrawal of employers from the conservative welfare state can be related to far-reaching socio-economic changes which were thought to undermine the functional feasibility of the social dimension of the ‘German Model’. Instead of pursuing ‘social democratic’ activation, the Red–Green government (1998–2005) not only continued on the reform trajectory of its predecessor, but accelerated the departure from the established policy path. Understanding the revision of social democratic labour market policy requires scrutiny of both shifts in power and policy learning.     

The Politics of Defense Allocations in Western Europe

This article discusses some features of the politics of defense allocations in Western Europe as a case of budgeting under conditions of diminishing capacity to govern, coupled with harsher constraints on public expenditures. While defense allocations have a number of unique characteristics, nevertheless they share many common features with other budgeting problems. Therefore, this case may also serve to bring out some of the growing problematics of budgeting traditions and budgeting practices as a whole.     

Bicameralism and Party Politics in Germany: an Empirical Social Choice Analysis

This paper analyses whether and how party politics transform German bicameralism. Based on the policy positions of bicameral legislators, the study computes the win sets, the yolks of each chamber and a Nash solution in order to analyse empirically the effects of party politics on German bicameralism. In comparison to the basic bicameral model, hypotheses on bicameral conflict and policy stability are tested in the case of similar and different party majorities in the two-dimensional policy space of German labour politics. The results show that party politics transform German bicameralism in two ways. Similar majorities collapse bicameral checks-and-balances, while different party majorities come close to the basic bicameral model with high policy stability and conflict between both chambers.     

Germany and the Eurozone Crisis: Between Hegemony and Domestic Politics

This paper explores Germany’s centrality to the outcome of the eurozone crisis. It argues that the eurozone crisis has led Germany’s ordo-liberal principles to trump its other longstanding commitment – i.e. to European integration. These two principles are explored in order then to shed light on how they have played out during the crisis. German centrality has created high expectations for it to provide leadership. Exploring hegemony conceptually and in practice, it is argued that international legitimacy and increasing domestic constraints have limited a leadership role. Indeed, it is argued that it is the domestic political situation that explains why ordo-liberalism has trumped pro-Europeanism. Ordo-liberal emphasis on stability culture has provided a valuable strategic resource for securing German objectives within the eurozone while satisfying the requirements of domestic politics.     

Digital Politics in Western Democracies: A Comparative Study

Satisfaction with democracy is driven by the two mechanisms that affect citizens’ income: the market and the state. When people consider that the levels of economic growth and redistribution are sufficient, they are more satisfied with the performance of democratic institutions. This relationship is moderated by personal income: since low-income citizens are more sensitive to changes in personal economic circumstances than high-income citizens, they give more weight to economic perceptions and opinions about redistribution. In this paper evidence is found of this conditional relationship in survey data from 16 established democracies. The results offer a rich characterisation of the state and market-based mechanisms that affect satisfaction with democracy.     

儒家理想政治与西汉政权

所谓儒家的理想政治,就是原始儒家设计的一种政治方案。它主要包括对君主的选择、君臣关系、对人民的态度、政治体制及救补政治弊端的措施等方面。西汉政权之所以能建立起稳定统治,其实正是采纳儒家理想政治的结果。至于汉初的“黄老政治”,只是一种过渡形式,而且也是在吸收了大量的儒学内容的基础上才形成的。     

Prisoners and Politics: Western Hostage Taking by Militant Groups

Hostage taking of Westerners by militant groups has increased since 9/11. Despite this rising problem, there has been little academic research on how a hostage’s individual characteristics influence the outcome of the incident. Using a newly collected dataset of over 1,000 individuals taken hostage in incidents involving terrorist groups since 2001, this article evaluates how individual, national, and group characteristics influence the likelihood that hostage incidents end with the release or execution of the hostage. The findings show that a hostage’s nationality and occupation are significant individual-level drivers of outcomes, while the nature of the militant group itself also matters.     

大变局时代的身份政治与西方民主政治危机

不断深化的全球化进程,持续升级的信息技术,日趋极端的个人主义,反向激发的族群认同,促使身份政治在当代欧美迅速崛起。身份政治具有普遍性、多重性、冲突性和后现代性等显著特征,最初只是边缘针对主流的反抗政治,后演变为左翼与右翼之间的对抗政治。福山高度关注身份裂变的政治影响,认为身份政治源自人类对尊严的渴望,其在当代的崛起虽然具有一定的必然性,但对民主政治构成了重大冲击和挑战,必须采取有效措施克制身份政治的碎片化和部落化倾向。如何深刻理解身份政治的逻辑与缺陷,准确判断身份政治的趋势与影响,对大变局时代的政治发展和治理现代化具有重要意义。     

Patterns of Disagreement in Democratic Politics: Comparing Germany, Japan, and the United States

An important ingredient in democratic politics is the experience of disagreement through social communication and political discussion. If people fail to encounter contrary viewpoints, their own views are never challenged, they are never forced to reconsider initially held opinions, and they are effectively excluded from democratic deliberation. This article examines patterns of political agreement and disagreement within the communication networks of citizens in Germany, Japan, and the United States. Several questions are addressed. Are there cross‐national differences in patterns of agreement and disagreement among citizens? To what extent are these patterns subject to individual attitudes, to the structure of communication networks, and to levels of aggregate support for particular preferences and opinions? Finally, what are the implications of disagreement for civic capacity and political engagement? Empirical analyses are based on cooperative election surveys conducted in each country during the early 1990s.     

The interdependence of law and politics: Judges and the constitution in Western Germany

The comprehensive power of judicial review accorded to the Federal Constitutional Court represented a break with the German positivist legal doctrine. The Court has become firmly established and enjoys considerable influence and prestige. An examination of various rulings given by the Court shows how it has sought to arbitrate between the competing claims of law and politics. Inevitably, a form of political involvement is attached to the functioning of the Court, but this has not had harmful consequences. There is a widespread view that a sharp line should not be drawn between law and politics, and the legal context favours a reference to general and moral principles rather than narrow interpretations of the law. Thus far, the Court has succeeded in avoiding a weakening of its authority in becoming the subject of political contention.     

The Politics of Budget Consolidation in Britain and Germany: The Impact of Blame Avoidance Opportunities

According to important parts of the literature, blame avoidance opportunities, i.e. the necessity and applicability of blame avoidance strategies, may differ between countries according to the respective institutional set-ups and between governing parties according to their programmatic orientation. In countries with many veto actors, a strategy of ‘Institutional Cooperation’ between these actors is expected to diffuse blame sufficiently to render other blame avoidance strategies obsolete. In contrast, governments in Westminster-style democracies should resort to the more unilateral strategies of presentation, policy design and timing. At the same time, left-wing parties are expected to have an easier time implementing spending cuts while right-wing parties are less vulnerable when proposing tax increases. Evidence from the politics of budget consolidation in Britain and Germany does not corroborate these hypotheses. Instead, it seems that party competition conditions the effects institutions and the partisan complexion of governments have on the politics of blame avoidance.