Social Science and the Public Interest

Social Science and the Public Interest

Social Science and the Public Interest January/February 2010     

Der Gebietsschutz im Umweltgesetzbuch III (Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege)

Zusammenfassung Der Entwurf des UGB III – Naturschutz und Landschaftspflege – liegt seit dem 20. November 2007 vor (www.umweltgesetzbuch.de.). Gegenstand der folgenden Er?rterung sind Abschnitt 4 “Schutz bestimmter Teile von Natur und Landschaft” ( 20-35) sowie die 68, 69, 70.     

Reinforcement vs. change: The political influence of the media

The aim of this paper is to analyze competition between two ideological media outlets that want to influence their viewers so as to boot the number of votes for their preferred political party. We consider two ways of influencing viewers, which correspond to two prominent theories borrowed from the literature on Sociology: the “Reinforcement Approach” and the “Attitudinal Orientations Approach”. Our findings show that the aim of influencing viewers generally pushes media outlets to differentiate their opinions, and that the extend of this differentiation deeply depends on the viewers’ behavior. More precisely, we observe that if the viewers channel hop, media outlets end up differentiating their opinions more than if the viewers receive all their information from just one media.     

Kein naturschutzrechtliches Beteiligungsrecht anerkannter Verbände im immissionsschutzrechtlichen Verfahren

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Dokumentation Österreich

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Military–economic planning in socialist Hungary: The history of the general organisational department of the National Planning Office, 1948–1971

This article analyses the institutional framework of military–economic and defence industrial planning in Hungary in the Socialist period. At the beginning of the 1950s the Soviet military planning system was mechanically adopted in Hungary and during the Korean War a system of general mobilisation was developed, and the whole economy was militarised. Although some limitations were introduced into this structure in the following years, it was only in the 1960s that the planning methods and apparatus were reorganised and modernised. It was at this time that the implications of atomic war were brought into the considerations of the planning office, resulting in radical change.     

Beitragspflichtigkeit eines Wasserverbandes für Grundstücke, die unter Naturschutz gestellt sind

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Institutioneller Wandel als Hybridisierung

In March 2005, institutional investors forced Deutsche Börse AG to withdraw its takeover bid for the London Stock Exchange, followed some time later by the resignation of both the enterprise’s CEO and supervisory board. This event highlights in an exemplary manner the transformation of joint-stock companies in Germany from insider systems towards systems including both insiders and outsiders and the related transformation of their corporate governance. The conflict between Deutsche Börse AG’s principals and agents demonstrates, first of all, the hybridization of different governance systems. Contrary to assumptions speaking of ?path dependency“ or a convergence of the different varieties of capitalism in the direction of the US model of market-based capitalism, the conflict concerning Deutsche Börse AG underlines the typical example of a transformation displaying path dependencies and convergences at the same time. Secondly, it is demonstrated that the enterprises’ market opening will not necessarily involve stronger market control, but that this process instead evokes new options for corporate policy governance.