The World Trade Organization at work: Performance in a member-driven milieu

This article discusses performance in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Applying the framework by Gutner and Thompson and inspired by principal-agent theory, it is argued that existing studies have underspecified the institutional milieu that affects performance. The WTO represents a member-driven organization where Members are part of the international organization (IO) (e.g., through rule-making) and at the same time act outside the IO (e.g., through implementation). Thus, a narrow reading of the IO (focusing on the civil servants and the Director-General and his staff) will not suffice to understand IO performance in the WTO context. Selected evidence is presented to illustrate aspects of the WTO’s inner-working and the institutional milieu of performance. In addition, the article discusses a number of performance parameters, including the relationship between Secretariat autonomy and performance, the role of information, and the mechanisms of performance aggregation. The article ends by cautioning against quick fixes to the system to improve performance.     

Election campaigns, agenda setting and electoral outcomes

Framing effects and bounded rationality imply that election campaigns may be an important determinant of election outcomes. This paper uses a two-party setting and simple game theoretic models to analyse the strategic interaction between the parties' campaign decisions. Alternations of power emerge naturally, even if both electoral preferences and party positions remain constant.     

Vorschläge zur Errichtung einer nationalen Menschenrechtsinstitution in Österreich

Österreich hat im Hinblick auf seinen nationalen Grund- und Menschenrechtsschutz durch die 1920 geschaffene Zentralinstanz des Verfassungsgerichtshofs lange Zeit eine Vorreiterposition in Europa belegt. Inzwischen wird jedoch immer deutlicher, dass zur Erfüllung völkerrechtlicher Menschenrechtsverpflichtungen sowie eines umfassenden Grundrechtsschutzes auf nationaler Ebene – im Sinne der Trias "respect, protect, fulfill" – die nachprüfende gerichtliche Kontrolle allein unzureichend ist. Die Schaffung einer unabhängigen und pluralistischen nationalen Institution würde dem Prozess einer kontinuierlichen Verbesserung der normativen und faktischen Menschenrechtssituation am Besten zum Ziel gereichen. Das umfangreiche Mandat einer solchen Menschenrechtsinstitution soll neben der Beratungs- und Berichtsfunktion gegenüber Regierung, Gesetzgebung und anderen staatlichen Organen insbesondere eine breite Kontrollbefugnis betreffend die Maßnahmen von Sicherheitsexekutive, Justizwache und Militär umfassen. Mediatives Einschreiten sowie die Kooperation mit internationalen und Nichtregierungsorganisationen komplettieren gemeinsam mit menschenrechtlicher Bildungs- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit, Forschung und Dokumentation die Hauptaufgaben der Institution. Seit der Weltmenschenrechtskonferenz 1993 in Wien besteht an der besonderen Bedeutung derartiger Einrichtungen kein Zweifel mehr; durch stetige Vorstöße internationaler Gremien, wie des Europarates und letztlich der Europäischen Union, erfährt die diesbezügliche Diskussion jetzt zusätzlichen Antrieb. Neben dem generellen, weltweiten Trend zur Errichtung nationaler Menschenrechtsinstitutionen stellen besonders die Entscheidung der EU, die in Wien ansässige Beobachtungsstelle für Rassismus und Fremdenfeindlichkeit (EUMC) ab März 2007 in eine Europäische Grundrechteagentur umzuwandeln, sowie Österreichs kurz bevorstehende Ratifizierung des Fakultativprotokolls zur UNO-Folterkonvention (OPCAT) unser Land vor die bedeutsame Aufgabe, endlich mit den zahlreichen europäischen Staaten gleichzuziehen, deren nicht-gerichtlicher Menschenrechtsschutz schon längst einer an den "Pariser Prinzipien 1993" orientierten, finanziell sowie organisatorisch unabhängigen Institution obliegt.     

Examining Self-Advantage in the Suffering of Others: Cross-Cultural Differences in Beneficiary and Observer Justice Sensitivity Among Chinese,Germans, and Russians

Other-related concerns for justice are fundamental components of morality and interpersonal behaviors. In this paper, we investigated macro/cultural and micro/individual differences in justice concerns for others. More specifically, beneficiary sensitivity (BS) and observer sensitivity (OS) were compared across China as a typical collectivist society, and Germany and Russia as two individualistic societies. Individualism–collectivism was assumed to mediate the cultural variance of BS and OS. In Study 1, Chinese participants exhibited more BS but less OS compared to German participants. In Study 2, the Chinese participants exhibited more BS but not significantly different OS compared to Russian participants. Moreover, collectivism mediated this cultural difference in BS but not OS. In Study 3, collectivist participants identified according to their proposals in social value games exhibited more BS than did individualistic participants, while the two groups revealed no significant difference in OS. Taken together, our studies consistently show that higher collectivism both on the cultural and individual levels is related to BS but not to OS, suggesting that collectivist values make people sensitive to self-advantage in comparison to the suffering of others.     

Enhancing the assessment of verbal aggression through observational methodology

The assessment of verbal aggression in adolescent and young adult dating relationships has largely relied on self-report methodology. We investigated whether information on verbal aggression derived from an observational assessment would enhance the prediction of romantic relationship satisfaction and dissolution in a sample of young adult dating relationships (N = 113). Observationally assessed verbal aggression was moderately associated with self-reported verbal aggression. Consistent with previous findings, neither self-reported nor observationally assessed verbal aggression was associated with relationship dissolution. Observationally assessed verbal aggression and self-reported verbal aggression each uniquely accounted for a substantial amount of variability in romantic relationship satisfaction. The findings of this study provide additional support for conducting multimethod assessments of verbal aggression and incorporating observational methodology in the study of aggression in young adult dating relationships.     

An already archived latent fingerprint as a DNA source for STR typing in a murder case

Former studies have shown that even a single skin contact, resulting in a latent fingerprint, can transfer enough DNA for genetic analysis. However, up to now latent fingerprints have usually not been used for DNA typing. In the present case the smeared trace of a hand was found in the suspect's car and archived. As it could not be evaluated in a classical manner, the evidence had to be examined by molecular genetic methods. DNA was extracted and typed in five different STR loci. Based on the yielded results, the significance of the findings is discussed.     

Deaths in preschool and school age--a retrospective analysis from a medicolegal point of view

At the Department of Legal Medicine in Giessen all forensic autopsies from the years 1990 until 2001 were investigated under the aspect of "death in preschool and school age between 3 and 16 years of age." Out of 69 deaths 19% were due to a natural and 81% to an unnatural cause of death. Both groups (3 to 6 and 7 to 16 years of age) were analyzed retrospectively with regard to age and circumstances of death and compared with the literature. The purpose of the differentiating evaluation is to furnish ideas how to prevent violent deaths of children.     

Online Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat haplotype reference database (YHRD) for U.S. populations

We describe here an online Y-chromosomal short tandem repeat haplotype reference database (YHRD) for U.S. populations, which represents 9-locus Y-STR haplotypes for 1705 African-Americans, European-Americans and Hispanics as of October 2001. This database is available online (http://www.ystr. org/usa/), free to access and was generated in order to supply the U.S. forensic DNA community with a valuable resource for frequencies of complete or incomplete 9-locus Y-STR haplotypes, as well as information about typing protocols and population genetic analyses. Pairwise R(ST)-statistics derived from the Y-STR haplotypes indicate no significant substructure among African-American populations from different regions of the U.S., nor (usually) among European-American and Hispanic populations. Thus, pooling of Y-STR haplotype data from regional populations within these three major groups is appropriate in order to obtain larger sample sizes. However, pooling of different major populations is generally not recommended due to statistically significant differences between African-American populations and all European-American/Hispanic populations, as well as between some European-American and Hispanic populations.