Leadership Traits and Ghana’s Foreign Policy: The Case of Jerry Rawlings’ Foreign Economic Policy of the 1980s

This article examines Ghana’s foreign policy-making with reference to internal and external determinants (structural/systemic). Besides these determinants, political actors (primarily, presidents/heads of state) have shaped the country’s foreign policy outcomes, but this field of enquiry (i.e. the individual-level analysis) has not, received much attention in the literature. To enhance the understanding of leadership and personality traits in foreign policy-making, this study draws on the theory of Leadership Trait Analysis to examine Jerry John Rawlings and Ghana’s foreign economic policy in the early 1980s. It argues that the leadership traits of Rawlings to some extent shaped Ghana’s foreign economic policy decisions in the early 1980s.     

Microeconomic Determinants of Income Inequality in Rural Pakistan

Inequality matters for poverty reduction. However, it is often unclear what policy could do to change the distribution of income as to date there is little quantitative evidence about the household characteristics that determine the level of income inequality and its changes over time. This paper sets out to identify these determinants by adapting a regression-based inequality decomposition technique and applying it to panel data from rural Pakistan. Land ownership is key to explaining the level of inequality, but not its changes. In contrast, higher education drives changes, but not the level of inequality. Household location affects both, reflecting growing differences in market access across regions.     

Das Protokoll von 2004 zum Pariser Übereinkommen—wesentliche Verbesserungen im internationalen Atomhaftungsrecht

Das im Jahr 1960 abgeschlossene Pariser Übereinkommen steht im Zentrum des Rechts der Haftung für nukleare Schäden. Trotz über die Jahrzehnte offenbar gewordener Lücken im internationalen System des Atomhaftungsrechts und gewandelter Vorstellungen von Nutzen und Risiken der friedlichen Nutzung von Kernenergie blieben die tragenden Prinzipien der einschlägigen Atomhaftungskonventionen im Wesentlichen unverändert. Nach mehrjährigen Vorarbeiten ist das Pariser Übereinkommen nunmehr einer grundlegenden Reform unterzogen worden. Der folgende Beitrag stellt die wesentlichen Neuerungen im Gesamtkontext des staatsvertraglichen Haftungsregimes vor und unterzieht sie einer ersten Würdigung.     

Regulation vs Symbolic Policy-Making: Genetically Modified Organisms in the German States

Germany’s federal states can enforce stricter regulations on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) than does the national government. Empirically, the study analyses two outcomes at the state level: the symbolic accession to the GMO-free network, in which regional units mobilise against the EU’s regulatory approach, and hard GMO policies/regulations. Besides focussing on political parties and environmental interest groups, the article provides various additional theoretical explanations for the variation in outcomes. The research questions are the following: what conditions a state’s accession to the GMO-free network? What conditions a state’s adoption of GMO regulations? To assess these questions, the study employs fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis. One finding is that the inclusion of the Green Party in government is not a predominant condition for the adoption of regulations, but ministers affiliated with the Greens are dominant drivers of symbolic policy-making. The study reveals differing regulatory action by CDU/CSU ministers in the western and eastern states, which can be explained by the differing interests of farmers. Other findings reveal that SPD ministers regulated GMOs to much the same extent as CDU/CSU or Green ministers. Environmental interest groups were also found to have positively conditioned symbolic policy-making, having no effect, however, on the adoption of concrete regulations.     

Comparison of the analytical capabilities of the BAC Datamaster and Datamaster DMT forensic breath testing devices

The State of Michigan uses the Datamaster as an evidential breath testing device. The newest version, the DMT, will replace current instruments in the field as they are retired from service. The Michigan State Police conducted comparison studies to test the analytical properties of the new instrument and to evaluate its response to conditions commonly cited in court defenses. The effects of mouth alcohol, objects in the mouth, and radiofrequency interference on paired samples from drinking subjects were assessed on the DMT. The effects of sample duration and chemical interferents were assessed on both instruments, using drinking subjects and wet-bath simulators, respectively. Our testing shows that Datamaster and DMT results are essentially identical; the DMT gave accurate readings as compared with measurements made using simulators containing standard ethanol solutions and that the DMT did not give falsely elevated breath alcohol results from any of the influences tested.     

THE VIETNAMESE REFUGEES AT OUR DOORSTEP: POLITICAL AMBIGUITY AND SUCCESSFUL IMPROVISATION

In the spring of 1975, the United States was faced not only with military defeat in Vietnam, but also with the challenge of processing, caring for and eventually resettling more than 130,000 persons fleeing Vietnam.
This paper presents a case study of the operation-"New Life" which evacuated these refugees and cared for them on Guam until they could be resettled. The account focuses on the logistic problems and pragmatic solutions reached in a situation where there existed a wide gap between public policy and i t s application. This discussion is especially instructive in light of the growing national and international problem of refugee relocation.