What does the European Union do?

The goal of this paper is to evaluate the attribution of policy prerogatives to European Union level institutions and compare them to the implications of normative policy models and to the preferences of European citizens. For this purpose we construct a set of indicators to measure the policy-making intensity of the European Union (European Council, Parliament, Commission, Court of Justice, etc.). We confirm that the extent and the intensity of policy-making by the EU have increased sharply over the last 30 years, but at different speeds, and in different degrees, across policy domains. In recent years the areas that have expanded most are quite remote from the EEC’s original mission of establishing a free market zone with common external trade policy. On the contrary some policy domains that would normally be attributed to the highest level of government remain at national level. We argue that the resulting allocation of prerogatives between the EU and member countries is partly inconsistent with normative criteria concerning the assignment of policies at different government levels, as laid out in the theoretical literature.     

Civil Society and Political Transition in Mexico

This article analyzes the current political transition in México from the vantage point of civil society. It departs from a definition of the Mexican authoritarian regime, now the oldest in the world, as a model of fusion between the state, the market and society. The crisis of the developmental model and the regime's increasing inability to incorporate the new social actors created by industrialization and urbanization opened up a long period of political crisis whose main content was a process of societal differentiation. The failure of President Salinas' project of neo-liberal reconstruction of the authoritarian regime deepened the crisis and led to the formation and consolidation of strong national political parties, the beginning of a still unequal, but effective electoral competition and especially to the emergence of several civic groups that are struggling for a democratization that goes beyond electoral politics. The collective identity as civil society of these civic groups has been instrumental for the critique of the regime's gradualist strategy of "permenent electoral reform".     

An Exploratory Study on International R&D Strategies of Chinese Companies in Europe

We here present a study that arms the reader with various discussion points on the research and development (R&D) foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies of Chinese multinational corporations (MNCs) in Europe. Through archival research and interviews, we adopted a multi‐case study approach to investigate how significant are these investments and how relevant do they become for the local innovation systems. Our analysis shows that the establishment of R&D centers, and more importantly the evolution of these centers, does not coincide with what international business theories would have predicted. The Chinese MNCs considered entered Europe in a variety of forms, guided by various learning goals. However, we found evidence of the growing tendency of these companies to insulate themselves from local partners and to engage in less explorative and more exploitative R&D activity, adapting technologies developed elsewhere for the European market, gaining access to good indigenous labor and technologies rather than to local partnerships.     

Toward a Gendered Social Bond/Male Peer Support Theory of University Woman Abuse

Despite many calls for integratedwoman abuse theories, few have made any suchattempts. Taking as a starting point thatgender blind and conservative theories maystill have some value, Hirschi's social bondtheory is examined with insights from feministmale peer support theory and other criticalperspectives. The goal is not a formal newtheory but rather a heuristic designed to showthe value of adding feminist insight to genderblind theory. Hirschi is turned upside downhere with an argument that attachment andinvolvement with conventional peers may in factpromulgate violence against women thecollege campuses when it is noted thatconventional institutions are patriarchal andpart of a rape culture. University groups(social fraternities, sports teams, etc.) mayenforce adherence through homophobia and grouppressure, while promoting a hypermasculineculture that encourages men to use coercion andforce to increase their count of sexualencounters.     

Estimation of postmortem interval using the protein marker cardiac Troponin I

The importance of determining the time since death is crucial to criminal, civil and forensic cases. A technique exploiting the degradation of a protein, cardiac Troponin I (cTnI), to estimate the postmortem interval (PMI) was investigated. Cardiac Troponin I is a basic regulatory protein found as part of a ternary complex responsible for calcium dependent muscle contraction. An efficient extraction protocol to analyze the banding pattern of cTnI in postmortem tissue was developed. The analysis involves extraction of the protein, separation by denaturing gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and visualization by Western blot using cTnI specific monoclonal antibodies. A bovine model was used to develop and optimize the protocol. The homology of cTnI amongst mammalian species allows for the cross-reaction of human anti-cTnI antibodies with bovine cTnI. The results indicate a characteristic banding pattern amongst human cadavers (n=6), a pseudo-linear relationship between percent cTnI degraded and the log of the time since death (r>0.95), and a qualitative degradation band pattern that in a simple comparative analysis with a standard human heart (known time since death) can be used to estimate the postmortem interval. The degradation-banding pattern of tissue cTnI is useful in the determination of the early postmortem (pm) interval (0-5 days). Overall, this technique offers advantages such a wide postmortem interval, measurable degradation pattern, a temporal semiquantitative relationship and manageable temperature dependence over direct temperature methods.     

古巴当前的形势

首先 ,我衷心感谢中国社会科学院国际合作局和拉丁美洲研究所适时倡议并顺利举办这次论坛。记得 5年前我刚到北京就任时 ,最早参加的官方活动之一就是参加类似今天这样的一次会议 ,那次会议使我得以与从事拉美研究的学者和研究员们建立了初步的联系。正因如此 ,我才有幸见证了近 5年来中国人民和拉美人民之间关系的蓬勃发展 ,这一发展对中国和拉美各国人民及其经济都是有利的。近 2 5年来中国举世瞩目的发展及其和平、合作和尊重各国主权的政策已经成为稳定与进步的因素 ,为拉美各国提供了充满希望的机遇。最近 ,胡锦涛主席和曾庆红副主席的…     

Rebuilding Utopia? Critical criminology and the difficult road of reconstruction in Latin America

This contribution assesses the developmentof criminology, during the last few decades, and contemplates the future course of critical criminology in view of developments in current capitalism, and their impact on ``Third World' societies (Latin America in particular).