Anomalies in Political Economy

Results in cognitive psychology and experimental economics indicate that under identifiable conditions individuals do not act in an economically rational way. These results are important for Political Economy. Anomalies appear in the behaviour of voters, politicans and administrators. Economic markets do not fully eliminate anomalies in the aggregation process. It is shown that political aggregation by democracy, bargaining or bureaucracy may weaken or strengthen such individual anomalies. Moreover, institutions can partially be interpreted as endogenously emerging as a result of individuals' demands to cope with anomalies.     

Political Economists and Political Scientists ‐ What Are the Benefits to Economists From Closer Interaction?

This paper discusses how a closer interaction with Political Scientists could impact on Swiss Political Economists by concentrating on four specific hypotheses. The first thesis evaluates how increased interdisciplinary interaction affects the incentives of Swiss Political Economists. It somewhat pessimistically posits that interdisciplinary interaction does not necessarily inseminate the work of Political Economists. The second thesis is more optimistic and discusses some aspects of the politico‐economic process which have been neglected so far in Political Economics but could be integrated thanks to the interaction with Political Scientists. The third thesis proposes that Swiss Political Economists should learn from Political Scientists to be more critical of present Swiss institutions. The fourth thesis proposes that Political Economists and Political Scientists should not only discuss the application of economic reasoning to politics. They should also investigate which governance mechanisms can be transferred from the polity to the economy.     

Zur Konstruktion des Arbeitnehmerbegriffs durch Referenzrahmen am Beispiel der Natur der Tätigkeit: Eine Gefahr für das dogmatische Erbe von Hugo Sinzheimer

Seit 1914 glaubt man mit Hugo Sinzheimer, Vater des deutschen Arbeitsrechts, dass der Arbeitnehmerbegriff für alle Dienstleistenden gleich ist. Nach hM ist das entscheidende Kriterium für die Arbeitnehmereigenschaft die pers?nliche Abh?ngigkeit. Es kommt dabei auf arbeitsorganisatorische Bindungen des Dienstleistenden an. Die Judikatur stellt diese Bindungen aber oft in einen Kontext, den der Autor Referenzrahmen nennen m?chte. Die Referenzrahmen sind: die Natur der T?tigkeit, der Nicht-Vertragspartner und der typische Arbeitnehmer. Gefragt wird nun, wie sich die Bindungen zu diesen Referenzrahmen verhalten. Je nach Ergebnis soll die Bindung für die pers?nliche Abh?ngigkeit relevant sein oder nicht. Der Autor m?chte hier das Argument von der Natur der T?tigkeit in den Vordergrund stellen. Dieses Argument führt je nach Art der ausgeübten T?tigkeit zu unterschiedlichen Anforderungen an die Arbeitnehmereigenschaft und somit zur Gef?hrdung der dogmatischen Erkenntnisse von Sinzheimer. Gleichzeitig führt das Argument zu einer deutlichen Verengung des Arbeitnehmerbegriffs. Die Untersuchung wird zeigen, dass das Argument dogmatisch und ?konomisch verfehlt ist und daher aufgegeben werden sollte.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Ecosystem Restoration Concessions in Indonesia: Conflicts and Discourses

Approaches and instruments focused on market mechanisms and private enterprises, including private protected areas, are promoted as ways to resolve global environmental and developmental problems. In Indonesia, Ecosystem Restoration Concessions (ERCs) have been developed as a new market-oriented governmental instrument to counter current deforestation processes and to restore forest ecosystems. Conservation and development organizations, along with state authorities, view ERCs as a highly promising instrument in Indonesia and in other countries as well. Experiences with ERCs are still limited, however, and their viability is uncertain. The implementation of ERCs in Indonesia has been controversial and the impact of ERCs on forests and forest-dependent communities has been fiercely disputed. This article explores these conflicts and disputes with a focus on the Harapan ERC and weighs the relevance of ERCs for German development cooperation. The improvement of the accountability of such projects and the implementation of mediation facilities are emphasized as prerequisites to establishing such market-oriented instruments according to international standards of nature conservation, the rights of indigenous and local populations, and sustainable development. The author concludes that decisions about strategies and instruments applied in forest-related development cooperation must involve a reconsideration of the mindsets that currently determine conservation approaches and development cooperation.     

‘Supreme Emergencies’, ontological holism,and rights to communal membership

This paper highlights the importance to just war theory of ontological questions about the constitution of personal identity. It does so through a critical reinterpretation of Michael Walzer’s invocation of a supreme emergency exemption to the principles of jus in bello. Walzer’s argument has been widely criticised for attaching more importance to communities than to individuals. I argue that his position normatively prioritises individuals, but is grounded in a holistic ontology. He valorises political community only because of its importance to the individuals who comprise it. On this view, each community forms a moral world and shapes individual identity. This gives individuals a highest order interest in being part of an autonomous community and makes threats to communal existence a form of moral disaster. The paper concludes that the debate about supreme emergency should engage with ontological questions, and that such engagement would mean problematising the study of what liberalism demands in international ethics.     

Consistent allocation of cabinet seats: the Swiss Magic Formula

In 1959, the four largest political parties in Switzerland’s Federal Assembly established a broad coalition government with a specific allocation of the seven cabinet seats among them. This assignment continued unaltered for 44 years up to 1999. It is, therefore, phrased the ‘Magic Formula’. The underlying political paradigm appears to be essentially egalitarian, with a Rawlsian concern for minorities. We thus ask whether the Magic Formula can be implemented by the nucleolus of a weighted voting game for the Swiss government. We provide results over real-valued and integer-valued imputation sets, and for all regular election periods from 1959 to date. It turns out that the Magic Formula is contained in eight out of 11 nucleoli over integer domains between 1959 and 1999, and that it comes very close to the nucleolus in two of the three remaining cases. The game solution likewise predicts in part a major modification of the Magic Formula adopted in 2003.