Eine Disziplin auf der Suche nach Wissenschaftlichkeit: Entwicklung und Stand der Methoden in der deutschen Politikwissenschaft

The article takes stock of methods use in German political science. Based on an analysis of articles published in four German political science journals it is shown that only a minority takes an explicit theory-guided empirical perspective on research. A large share of publications can be better characterized as a knowledgeable discussion of a particular topic. This finding is amended by a placement of Germany in the international context and a glance into the political science curricula at some German universities. The finding is then nuanced by exemplary references to methodologically innovative work by German political scientists in four research areas. This work, however, has only seldom been published in German scholarly journals but has been preferably sent to international ones. The article closes by referring to the specific character of research questions in political science compared to neighbouring disciplines.     

Anfechtung des Verpflichtungs- oder Verfügungsgeschäfts; Hemmung der Anfechtungsfristen durch Vergleichsverhandlungen

Hat (auch) der Schuldner die Einverleibung eines Rechtes beantragt, so nimmt er bis zum Zeitpunkt der Einverleibung Rechtshandlungen (bzw Unterlassungen) vor; daher ist dieser Zeitpunkt für das Vorliegen der subjektiven Voraussetzungen der Absichtsanfechtung ma?gebend. Dass auch der Vertragspartner die Einverleibung beantragen h?tte k?nnen, ist unerheblich. – Bei der Schenkungsanfechtung genügt es, wenn das (selbst?ndig anfechtbare) Verfügungsgesch?ft in der kritischen Frist liegt. – Vergleichsgespr?che k?nnen auch dann die "unverzügliche Einklagung" (§ 9 Abs 1 Z 2 AnfO) hinausschieben, wenn diese nur mit dem Schuldner ohne Einbeziehung des Anfechtungsgegners geführt werden.     

Aggression homicide and rejection homicide: a communicative classification of homicide

Based on a 10-year sample of homicides (n = 50), the hypothesis was tested that it is possible to differentiate between aggression and rejection homicide. The aggression homicide results from the offender/victim relationship, which is no longer accepted for some reason. In contrast, in the rejection homicide the offender radically strives for a goal which can only be reached if the victim is eliminated. Based on forensic-psychiatric expert opinions (n = 50), the case analyses yielded 31 aggression homicides and 18 rejection homicides, one case could not be classified. Aggression homicides differed significantly from the rejection homicides with regard to their main motives. Hate in quarrel (n = 8), violent occupation of the victim (n = 7), delusions (n = 5), revenge (n = 3), self-defence (n = 2), and jealousy (n = 1) characterized the aggression homicides, whereas rejection homicides were dominated by economic motives (n = 14). Two offenders intended to get rid of the victim and one offender wanted to rescue a third person. From a forensic-psychiatric point of view, the pertinent statistical data (social data, diagnosis, criminal responsibility) are reported and the significance of the differentiation between aggression homicide and rejection homicide for medico-legal or criminological case profiling and for the prognosis of the risk potential is discussed.     

Building the firm's political (lobbying) strategy

• In this paper, we present a framework for building a firm's issue‐specific lobbying strategy. We argue that there are five critical elements of a lobbying strategy and that the major choices concerning political lobbying strategy relate to these elements. The five elements, and the primary strategic choices concerning these elements are: (1) the choice of the level and type of inclusiveness of the strategy; (2) the choice of the form, or forms, of argument to be used in persuading relevant target constituencies; (3) the choice of jurisdictional venue to be addressed; (4) the choice of organizational target that will be engaged and (5) the choice of delivery mode—that is, whether political strategies should be implemented directly by firm managers or outsourced to professional suppliers of these services. We explain these elements in detail. However, in order to engage in a lobbying strategy on a specific issue, the firm must first be able to identify relevant government actions and understand their profitability impact. We show how the strategic logic can be generated by an augmented version of Porter's ‘five forces’ (5F) model (Porter, 1980 ) that explicitly recognizes the role of government—‘six forces’ analysis.

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.