Fight the Youth: Youth Bulges and State Repression

It is generally acknowledged that large youth cohorts or “youth bulges” make countries more susceptible to antistate political violence. Thus, we assume that governments are forewarned about the political demographic threat that a youth bulge represents to the status quo and will attempt to preempt behavioral challenges by engaging in repression. A statistical analysis of the relationship between youth bulges and state repression from 1976 to 2000 confirms our expectation. Controlling for factors known to be associated with coercive state action, we find that governments facing a youth bulge are more repressive than other states. This relationship holds when controlling for, and running interactions with, levels of actual protest behavior. Youth bulges and other elements that may matter for preemptive state strategies should therefore be included in future empirical models of state repression.     

Why and How the CPC Works in China

Why and How the CPC Works in China,edited by Xie Chuntao,a professor with the Party School of the Central Committee of the CPC,records how the Communist Party of China established the People’s Republic and began the construction of a modern socialist country.This time span is     

Lehrer,Sabbatical, Pensionsbeiträge

Die durch § 12g GehG 1956 bewirkten Reduktionen der Bezüge des Lehrers w?hrend seines Sabbaticals gem § 78e iVm § 213a BDG 1979 stellen "durch die Herabsetzung entfallene Bezüge und Sonderzahlungen" im Verst?ndnis des § 116d Abs 3 S 1 GehG 1956 dar.     

Gebührenanspruch des Sachverständigen,keine telefonische Geltendmachung

Bei der Geltendmachung eines Gebührenanspruches eines nichtamtlichen Sachverst?ndigen handelt es sich – im Hinblick auf die durch § 38 Abs 1 GebAG 1975 vorgegebene Frist – um ein "Anbringen", das an eine Frist gebunden und somit iSd § 13 Abs 1 zweiter Satz AVG schriftlich einzubringen ist. Von diesem Grundsatz der Schriftlichkeit macht jedoch § 38 Abs 1 erster Satz GebAG 1975 insofern eine Ausnahme, als dort ausdrücklich (und im Einklang mit § 13 Abs 1 erster Satz AVG) auch die mündliche Antragstellung erm?glicht wird. Eine telefonische Antragstellung – wie im § 13 Abs 1 erster Satz AVG gesondert erw?hnt – ist jedoch vom Gesetz nicht vorgesehen, sodass § 13 Abs 1 letzter Satz AVG nicht heranzuziehen ist.     

Retropharyngeal Hematoma Secondary to Cervical Spine Surgery: Report of One Fatal Case

A 53‐year‐old woman suffering from radicular pain due to cervical herniation underwent a spinal surgery consisting of anterior cervical discectomy and fusion with an implantable titanium cage. Five hours after the procedure, the patient developed cervical swelling and dyspnea. An emergency surgery permitted evacuation of a deep cervical hematoma and intubation of the patient, who died some minutes later. The family of the deceased lodged a complaint with the public prosecutor because of unclear circumstances of death. After analysis of the medical records by two forensic pathologists, a medicolegal autopsy was ordered. Massive retropharyngeal and mediastinal hematomas were diagnosed. Pathological study confirmed acute cervical hemorrhage, but failed to detect the source of bleeding. The forensic pathologists concluded that death was due to mechanical asphyxia secondary to pharyngeal compression by the cervical hematoma. To the best of our knowledge, death secondary to retropharyngeal hematoma in this neurosurgical context is rarely encountered.     

Deliberation and Opinion Change: Evidence from a Deliberative Mini‐public in Finland

A number of studies examining the effects of deliberative citizen forums have found that citizens taking part in deliberative processes experience changes in their policy attitudes. However, it remains unclear why these opinion changes occur, since most studies pay little attention to the communicative exchange that is expected to cause the observed changes. Within deliberative theory, there is an expectation that reasonable individuals should be amenable to changing their preferences as a result of the reflection induced by the deliberative process. However, apart from a few recent studies, there has been little empirical research that directly examines how the quality of the communication affects opinion change. This article fills this gap by examining what factors help explain the opinion changes that occur in citizen deliberation. To do this, the article uses data from a mini‐public organized in Turku, Finland, concerning the use of nuclear power. First, the extent and nature of the opinion changes that occurred as a result of the deliberation are established. Following this, the article examines the explanatory powers of a number of potential explanations: deliberative reasoning, sociodemographic inequalities and issue awareness. The results suggest that both deliberative reasoning and issue awareness are significant predictors, meaning there is no single explanation for opinion changes.     

Environmental Technology Transfer and Dissemination under the UNFCCC: Achievements and New Perspectives

Response to climate change will critically depend on the cost, performance, and availability of technologies that can lower emissions, mitigate, and adapt to climate change. Technological innovation can furthermore lower the cost of achieving environmental objectives. However, and although issues of technology transfer have been central to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since the negotiation of the convention, there is still an urgent need for effective environmental technology diffusion. Building upon lessons learned from technology transfer activities under the Clean Development Mechanism and the Global Environment Facility, the article suggests three possible solutions for enhanced environmental technology diffusion within the UNFCCC regime. First, it advocates in favor of a simplification of the transfer scheme within the convention's bodies, in order to save resources and better allocate responsibilities. Second, it makes some recommendations with respect to technology transfer through the Green Climate Fund. Third, it suggests that the creation of an environmental patents’ pool would help to ensure access to key environmental technologies. To this respect, the article concludes that in order to ensure the full participation of the private sector, right holders should be paid a fair royalty. Therefore, a model where rights would be bought out and then made available to parties through a patent pool is recommended.