Bank regulation and supervision in bank-dominated financial systems: a comparison between Japan and Germany

This paper compares bank regulation and supervision in Japan and Germany. We consider these countries because they both have bank-dominated financial systems and their banking systems are often lumped together as one model, yet, bank stability differs significantly. We show that Japan and Germany have chosen different approaches to bank regulation and supervision and ask why they made their choices. We argue that bank regulation and supervision were less efficient in Japan than in Germany and that these differences were decisive for bank behavior.

Families of nations and public policy

Employing cluster analysis, this article reconsiders a concept formulated by Francis G. Castles that stresses the existence of four families of nations, which markedly differ in respect of public policy‐making. For two policy fields — social and economic policy — the hypothesised families of nations can be shown to exist, and they are quite robust and stable over time. Cluster analysis also reveals different paths towards modernity. On the one hand, there are more state‐oriented versus more market‐oriented models of public policy‐making; on the other, there is a cleavage in public policy‐making between rich countries located at the centre and somewhat poorer countries located at the periphery.     

10 Jahre neues Internationales Seerecht – Eine Bilanz des UN-Seerechtsübereinkommens 1994–2004

Der Beitrag zieht eine erste bewertende Bilanz des 1994 in Kraft getretenen Seerechtsübereinkommens (SRü) der Vereinten Nationen. Die relativ hohe Zahl der Beitritte zum SRü und die weitgehend einheitliche Staatenpraxis bei der Inanspruchnahme von hoheitlichen Meereszonen sind positiv zu bewerten, ebenso wie die Arbeit der neuen Seerechtsinstitutionen. Andererseits entsteht ein wachsender Katalog von ungel?sten alten Streitfragen oder neu entstehenden Problemen, die zu einer Nachbesserung dr?ngen, wie z. B. die Nutzung neuer energetischer, biologischer und chemischer Sch?tze des Meeres oder der Klima- und Artenschutz. Die Suche nach dem richtigen Weg für die Weiterentwicklung des Seerechts hat begonnen.     

Prävention zur Vermeidung von Unfällen und von Umweltverschmutzung auf See

Als Folge spektakul?rer Unf?lle, wie des Untergangs der „Erika“ (1999) und der „Prestige“ (2002) mit erheblicher Meeresverschmutzung an den Küsten Frankreichs und Spaniens, hat die Europ?ische Gemeinschaft mit diversen neuen Verordnungen und Richtlinien zu Schiffssicherheit, Unfallmanagement auf See und zum schiffsabh?ngigen Meeresumweltschutz gesetzgeberisch eingegriffen. Sie tritt damit als regionaler Gesetzgeber in Konkurrenz zu der weltweit zust?ndigen Internationalen Schifffahrtsorganisation IMO. Diese Entwicklung ist Teil einer neuen maritimen Politik, mit der Europa sich auf das begonnene ozeanische Jahrhundert einstellt. Nach Erika I und II ist das Erika III Paket mit sieben Vorschl?gen die jüngste und zugleich umfangreichste Initiative zur Versch?rfung der Schiffskontrollen in den Gew?ssern der EU.     

Transport Policies and Development

This survey reviews the current state of the economic literature, assessing the impact of transport investments and policies on growth, inclusion, and sustainability in a developing country context. It also discusses the specific implementation challenges of transport interventions in developing countries.     

Inner‐party reforms: The SPD and labour party in comparative perspective

In the wake of the crisis of the Keynesian Welfare State the social democratic parties in western Europe have been searching for new concepts to retain their image as reform parties. One way to achieve this is to democratise and renew the intra‐party structures. In the 1980s and 90s, the SPD and the Labour Party have developed different patterns to implement the process of intra‐party reforms. The objectives are to increase the autonomy of action for the parties’ various sub‐units, in particular the party elite, and to reduce the political influence of the body of delegates. On paper the individual member is to get greater rights to participate, in practice this coincides with greater influence of powerful elites. In between, there have been different problems of the intra‐party reforms. In the SPD, personal controversies and the old battles between old and new left and the right wing still determine the political agenda. Its reform got stuck halfway after Rudolf Scharping took office as party chairman. His counterpart Tony Blair tries to continue the reform process initiated by Neil Kinnock. In the Labour Party, the modernisers have had some success in reducing the internal power of the unions and in strengthening individual members. But these are only a few steps in becoming a ‘New Labour Party’.     

A proposal for standardization in forensic canine DNA typing: allele nomenclature of six canine-specific STR loci

In this study a proposal for the allele nomenclature of six polymorphic short tandem repeat (STR) loci (PEZ3, PEZ6, PEZ8, PEZ10, FHC2161, and FHC2328) for canine genotyping (Canis lupus familiaris) is presented. The nomenclature is based on the sequence data of the polymorphic region of the microsatellite markers as recommended by the DNA commission of the International Society of Forensic Haemogenetics (ISFH) in 1994 for human DNA typing. To cover commonly and rarely occurring alleles, a selection of homozygous and heterozygous animals were analyzed and subjected to sequence studies. The alleles consisted of simple tri- and tetra-nucleotide repeat patterns as well as compound and highly complex repeat patterns. Several alleles revealing the same fragment size but different repeat structures were found. The allele designation described here was adopted to the number of repeats, including all variable regions within the amplified fragment. In a second step the most commonly occurring alleles were added to an allelic ladder for each marker allowing a reliable typing of all alleles differing in size. A total number of 142 unrelated dogs from surrounding municipal animal homes, private households, and canines in police duty were analyzed. The data were added to a population database providing allele frequencies for each marker.     

Nachruf auf Winfried Steffani

Ohne Zusammenfassung