Geographical redistribution with disproportional representation: a politico-economic model of Norwegian road projects

Politicians bias public policies to favor particular election districts. According to the traditional common pool model, districts facing low tax shares should receive relatively large government projects. We suggest a swing-voter model where the number of voters on the ideological cut point, lack of party identification and number of district representatives per voter determine project sizes. We analyze the allocation of state road investments in Norway from 1973–1997 exploiting unique data on characteristics of voters, legislative representation and tax prices in 19 election districts. Geographical representation to parliament is biased, mostly due to an ancient constitution. Shares of swing voters and legislative over-representation lead to higher levels of road investments, while high levels of party identification reduce investments.     

Soziales Mietrecht in Schweden

Der vorliegende Beitrag setzt die Reihe "Soziales Mietrecht in Europa" fort; die Beitr?ge werden im Rahmen eines von Prof. Dr. Paul Oberhammer (Zürich) und Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Kletečka (Salzburg) geleiteten und vom Jubil?umsfonds der Oesterreichischen Nationalbank gef?rderten Projekts (Projektnummer 11997) erstellt und sollen rechtsvergleichende Impulse für die ?sterreichische Diskussion bieten.     

Partisan bias in inflation expectations

Public Choice - We examine partisan bias in inflation expectations. Our dataset includes inflation expectations of the New York Fed’s Survey of Consumer Expectations over the period June 2013...     

Disappearance of ethyl glucuronide during heavy putrefaction

Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) is involved in systemic reactions to stress. The aim of the present study was a comprehensive analysis of serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) levels of ACTH, and the pituitary immunohistochemistry with special regard to fatal hypothermia in routine forensic autopsy cases (n=162: 5-97 years of age; 114 males and 48 females; 4 h to 3 days postmortem, median, 19.2 h). The ACTH concentrations were independent of the postmortem time, gender, or age of the subjects. The serum ACTH level was similar to the clinical reference value for sharp instrument injury, fire fatality, and hypothermia, but was lower in other groups including hyperthermia, in particular for asphyxia and poisoning. The CSF level was usually much higher than the serum level, but was significantly lower for hypothermia and hyperthermia than in other groups (p<0.01). The rate of ACTH-immunopositivity in the anterior pituitary was low in cases of fatal hypothermia and hyperthermia, while it was high in cases of blunt injury, fire fatality, and acute ischemic heart disease. These observations showed that ACTH levels in the serum and CSF depended on the cause of death. The serum level was maintained despite a low CSF level and pituitary immunopositivity for fatal hypothermia, while the serum and CSF levels as well as pituitary immunopositivity were decreased for hyperthermia.     

“They Have Achieved a Lot Because we Have Paid Them to do a Lot”: NGOs and the International Community in the West Balkans. Perceptions of Each Other

Strengthening civil society has had a prominent place in the international community's strategy for the West Balkans. Rather than creating an independent and sustainable NGO sector, however, it has made local NGOs largely dependent on the international community for funding and other assistance. This article examines the international community's perceptions of local NGOs and vice versa, drawing on findings from 60 in-depth interviews with representatives of the international community and 18 focus groups with NGO representatives in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia. While the international community is fairly positive towards the NGO sector, the NGOs are more critical of the international community, and particularly so in Macedonia. Perceptions are shaped by a number of individual and organisational factors as well as by the international community's overall agenda in the region.     

Why we need bricoleurs to foster robust governance solutions in turbulent times

The public sector frequently confronts a heightened societal turbulence triggered by an increasing number of unpredictable and disruptive economic, political, and environmental crises. How can the public sector respond to this challenge? This article argues, first, that to continue to provide relevant solutions, public governance must be robust in the sense of adapting and innovating policies, programs, and services in ways that facilitate the achievement of basic public ambitions, functions, and values in the face of challenges, stressors, and threats. Second, to build robust governance, public managers must engage in bricolage and become bricoleurs in order to flexibly combine elements from competing and co-existent public governance paradigms. Doing so necessitates the construction of institutions conducive to bricolage, that is, institutions that are characterized by a high degree of flexibility that allows for experimentation; institutions that foster inclusive deliberation, knowledge sharing and joint learning; and institutions that balance centralization with distributed agency.     

The social dynamics of revictimization and intimate partner violence: an embodied,gendered, institutional and life course perspective

This article offers a qualitative, institutional analysis of the dynamics of revictimization as the accumulation of disadvantages over time and across different institutional contexts, and its multiple gender dimensions. It draws on 37 qualitative interviews with victims of intimate partner violence, detailing the institutional causal pathways to victimization and revictimization over the life course, through the in-depth analysis of one case. Drawing on the vulnerability approach, developed by Martha Albertson Fineman, the analysis demonstrates how victimization and revictimization have been facilitated, tolerated, and even produced by particular institutional contexts, illustrating how the risk of revictimization is not a characteristic of the individual, nor is it destiny. The article contributes to a constructive social science, elucidating how victimization is contingent on social and institutional contexts, and how at several critical points, better institutions and better institutional responses to particular events might have prevented or interrupted the dynamics of accumulating victimization. Focusing on embodied, gendered subjects and the role of institutions in producing as well as remedying inequalities has far-reaching implications for research and prevention of violence. In contrast to a risk-factor approach targeting particular groups and individuals, a vulnerability analysis calls for a responsive state and universal institutional solutions.     

充分发挥中国特色案例指导制度作用 积极履行人民法院历史使命

法律是社会管理的基本手段。社会主义法律体系形成后,弘扬社会主义法治精神,加强宪法和法律的实施工作显得尤为紧迫,对司法工作提出了更高的要求。进一步加强公正高效权威的社会主义司法制度建设,需要理论和实践的总结与创新。     

新形势下的人民法院群众工作

一、问题的提出在党的十七届五中全会上,胡锦涛总书记深刻指出:高度重视群众工作,坚持人民主体地位,发挥人民首创精神,是由我们党的性质决定的,也是由我们党的根本宗旨决定的。群众是真正的英雄,是我们党的力量源泉和胜利之本。     

Dreams and disillusionment: engagement in and disengagement from militant extremist groups

People engage in terrorism and similar forms of violent extremism for a variety of reasons, political or non-political. The frequent failure to achieve what they expected or dreamed about is also usually the source of their disillusionment, and subsequently, a main reason to disengage from violent extremism. Individuals involved in terrorism often come from a diversity of social backgrounds und have undergone rather different processes of violent radicalisation. Profiles of terrorists do not work as a tool to identify actual or potential terrorists because such profiles fail to capture the diversity and how people change when they become involved in militant extremism. This study suggests a more dynamic typology of participants in militant groups, based on dimensions which represent dynamic continuums rather than static positions. During their extremist careers individuals may move from resembling one type initially into acquiring more of the characteristics of other types at later stages. When it comes to prevention and intervention measures, one size does not fit them all. The typology may be used as an aid to develop more specific and targeted strategies for preventing violent radicalisation and facilitating disengagement, taking into account the diversity and specific drivers behind different types of activists.