Überhangmandate bei der Bundestagswahl 2009 – das ewige Menetekel

Surplus mandates are a peculiarity of the German electoral system. Surplus mandates emerge when a party gains more constituency seats than the total amount of seats to which it is entitled according to the proportionality principle as determined by its share of second votes. Until Reunification in 1990, surplus mandates were only negligible phenomena. However, since then their number and relevance has dramatically increased. In the federal election of 2009, 24 surplus mandates emerged, more than ever before. This increase is foremost the consequence of the changed structure of the party system, which is now an established 5-parties-system with two comparatively minor big parties. Surplus mandates are on the one hand a problem of constitutional law while on the other hand they represent a violation of fundamental principles of fairness and justice. One solution for all these problems would be to create two-member-districts for the representatives who are directly elected on the first vote.     

Altes und Neues zum Grundsatz der Gewaltentrennung

Der Grundsatz der Gewaltentrennung steht heute vor der Herausforderung, jene Funktionen unter ver?nderten Rahmenbedingungen zu erfüllen, die ihm im 19. Jahrhundert zugedacht wurden. Diese Funktionen sind dem Prinzip nach heute aktueller denn je. Und sie erfordern, diesen Grundsatz mehr als bisher aus rechtsstaatlicher Perspektive zu betrachten und jene Elemente, die die Judikatur des VfGH seit Jahrzehnten unver?ndert aus ihm ableitet, einer kritischen Revision zu unterziehen.     

Detecting Domestic Violence: Spanish External Validation of the Index of Spouse Abuse

The aims of the study were to assess the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA), and to validate it against external criteria of intimate partner violence. The Spanish version of the ISA was administered to 223 non-abused women and 182 victims of intimate partner violence. Internal consistency coefficients oscillated between 0.88 and 0.98. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis failed to replicate the original two-factor structure. Using Exploratory Factor Analysis, a two-factor solution was found: physical (ISA-P) and non-physical (ISA-NP), but the items included in each factor were slightly different from the original two subscales. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis revealed an AUC value for the ISA global score of 0.99 (95% CI: 0.98–0.99), with the optimal cut-off of 12 for detecting intimate partner violence. The Spanish version of the ISA is a valid instrument for detecting intimate partner violence in a female population.     

Gender Differences in Initiation of Negotiation: Does the Gender of the Negotiation Counterpart Matter?

In this study, we investigated if and how gender differences in the propensity to initiate a negotiation are affected by the gender of the counterpart in the negotiation. We enlisted 204 Swedish students to take part in an experiment in which they had to decide whether to initiate a negotiation for higher compensation. In line with previous research, we found that men were more likely than women to initiate a negotiation: 42 percent of the male and 28 percent of the female participants initiated a negotiation. The gender difference, however, was only large and statistically significant when the negotiation counterpart was a woman. With a female negotiation counterpart, women were less likely than men to initiate a negotiation by 24 percentage points, while with a male negotiation counterpart, the gender difference was only 5 percentage points and not statistically significant. This result suggests that the gender of the negotiation counterpart should be taken into consideration when analyzing gender differences in initiation of negotiation.