Die Vermessung des europäischen Tiefgangs: Extrakonstitutionelle Umwege aus der Verfassungskrise

The negative results of the referenda on the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe (TCE) in France and the Netherlands have twisted the European Union into an inert beast. There are several options to solve the institutional, procedural and constitutional crisis: A further delay of the ratification process is risky. The success of such a strategy depends largely upon the readiness of Europe’s political actors to stick with the political and institutional reforms aimed at in the TCE. A withdrawal or exclusion of all those states which are not ready to take up the TCE appears politically inopportune at the present time. Strategies on the basis of the status quo can only bring success if the actors resolutely push for the implementation of the reforms in the TCE which, after all, were agreed to among parliaments, government representatives and a large part of civil society. Although EU-treaty based and extra-constitutional means of closer or flexible cooperation may successfully address the challenges of the EU’s efficiency and effectiveness, they are likely to intensify the EU’s deficits of democratic accountability and transparency.     

Measuring Local Autonomy in 39 Countries (1990–2014)

Local autonomy is a highly valued feature of good governance. The continuous efforts of many European countries to strengthen the autonomy of local government show the importance given to decentralization and the transfer of far-reaching competences to the lowest units. Measuring and comparing local autonomy, however, has proven to be challenging. Not only are there diverging ideas about the core elements of local autonomy, there are also considerable difficulties applying specific concepts to different countries. This paper outlines a comprehensive methodology for measuring local autonomy. It analyses 39 European countries and reports changes between 1990 and 2014. A network of experts on local government assessed the autonomy of local government of their respective countries on the basis of a common code book. The 11 variables measured show an overall increase of local autonomy but significant variation between the countries. The variables also add up to an overall measurement of local autonomy.     

The Power of Policy Regimes: Explaining Shale Gas Policy Divergence in Bulgaria and Poland

Shale gas policies vary significantly across Europe, notably in Russia‐dependent Central Eastern Europe. Most strikingly, Bulgaria banned shale gas, whereas Poland remains firmly committed to fostering it despite its drawbacks. This article uses a policy regime approach to explain the shale gas puzzle. Drawing on a large set of interviews, the piece investigates regime strength as the causal factor that explains the adoption of specific shale gas laws (Poland) or a fracking ban (Bulgaria). It finds that the Polish shale gas policy regime was strong, based on a powerful political narrative and characterized by an institutional process ensuring the buy‐in of actors from relevant policy levels and subsystems. In Bulgaria the policy regime was weak, failed to co–opt key stakeholders, and was institutionally ill‐designed. The findings show how different degrees of policy regime strength translate into diverging policy trajectories in two countries that otherwise operate in similar environments.     

One Swallow Does Not Make Spring: A Critical Juncture Perspective on the EU Sanctions in Response to the Arab Spring

This article examines to what extent the Arab Spring constitutes a critical juncture – a major turning point – for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Egypt, Libya, Syria and Tunisia. Based on a multidimensional critical juncture operationalization, we find that the Arab Spring only constitutes such a turning point for the EU’s sanctions policy towards Syria. Both the level and nature of measures differ substantially from previous years. By contrast, the EU’s sanctions practice towards Libya, Egypt and Tunisia shows more resilience. More generally, changes in the nature of the measures are prominent, whereas changes in the level of the policy instruments and in underlying norms and goals are limited.     

The Underexplored Species: Selective Participation in Direct Democratic Votes

While electoral research usually distinguishes voters from abstainers, in the Swiss direct democratic context one needs to take into account a third category of citizens, the selective voters, who decide anew at each vote whether they will participate or not. This article offers an investigation of this common but under‐researched form of participation. To that end, we take advantage of a unique data‐set linking official turnout data with survey data. Our results show that selective voters constitute the bulk of the electorate. While they form a heterogeneous group in terms of socio‐demographic characteristics, selective voters lean more towards abstainers than towards permanent voters with respect to political variables. We argue that this is not necessarily bad news in terms of democratic theory.     

Government size and growth: Accounting for economic freedom and globalization

We examine the relationship between government size and economic growth, controlling for economic freedom and globalization, and using Bayesian Averaging over Classical Estimates in a panel of rich countries. Countries with big government have experienced above average increases in the KOF globalization index and in the Fraser institute’s Economic freedom index. To maintain comparability with earlier studies, we use two sample periods: 1970–1995 and 1970–2005. Government size robustly correlates negatively with growth. We also find some evidence that countries with big government can use economic openness and sound economic policies to mitigate negative effects of big government.     

Political values in independent agencies

Despite that independent agencies are typically justified in terms of technical efficiency, they inevitably have to make political judgments. How can political reasoning be legitimate in such institutions? This paper starts by investigating the merits of two prominent models. The “avoidance model” asks agency reasoning to stick to empirical facts and as far as possible stay clear of political values. By contrast, the “specification model” recognizes the need for constructive normative work, but confines it to the refinement of given statutes. This paper challenges both models and defends a third alternative. The “public reason model” requires agencies to ground their value judgments in a publicly accessible framework of reasoning, which is here interpreted as their overarching mandate. The paper argues that agency mandates should be conceived as distinct domains of reasoning, and it delineates three institutional virtues that enable agencies to track this domain.     

Homicide-suicide by a single gunshot to the head

Apart from typical suicides, there are sometimes unusual deaths from gunshots to the head. The presented case is a double death from the autopsy material of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Berlin. The report deals with a murder-suicide of a man, who killed himself and his 2-year-old daughter by a single gunshot. After having administered a tranquilizer to the child, he held her head to his own and fired a contact shot to his right temple so that the bullet passed through both heads.     

Double homicide by shooting with removal of the victims

Despite strict assault weapons laws shooting deaths are not uncommon in the Federal Republic of Germany. Especially in multiple one-stage homicides shooting is a frequently established cause of death. The described double homicide from the autopsy material of the Berlin Institute of Legal Medicine shows the difficulties in the forensic assessment of gunshot wounds. It is noteworthy under criminalistic aspects how methodically the offender proceeded in the removal of the victims and how extensive the search for the bodies was, which were only found after calling in water search dogs.