Zur Zulässigkeit kommunaler Pflichtaufgaben im Bereich der Daseinsvorsorge

Verschiedene Bundes- und Landesgesetze verpflichten die Gemeinden zu daseinsvorsorgender T?tigkeit mit Mitteln des Privatrechts. Kommunale Pflichtaufgaben stehen jedoch in einem Spannungsverh?ltnis zu der den Gemeinden durch Art 116 Abs 2 B-VG garantierten Handlungsfreiheit im Bereich der Privatwirtschaftsverwaltung. Die Zul?ssigkeit dieser Bestimmungen wurde daher bereits vielfach diskutiert, aber bislang nicht abschlie?end gekl?rt. Der folgende Beitrag setzt sich mit dieser Frage anhand einer eingehenden Analyse der Entstehungsgeschichte des Art 17 B-VG und des Art 116 Abs 2 B-VG auseinander.     

State Project Europe: The Transformation of the European Border Regime and the Production of Bare Life

Giorgio Agamben refers to a basic problem in the constitution of the modern nation state: the state as a nation implies that "bare life" becomes the foundation of sovereignty. With the loss of their citizenship, refugees lose not only all their rights, but more fundamentally the "right to have rights" (Arendt). This dilemma of modern statehood does not vanish under conditions of European integration; it is rather re-scaled. Applying a state-theoretical approach to the European border regime, we will concentrate on the two main techniques by which the EU produces "bare life": the "camp" and the invisible "police state." It will become apparent that the institutionalization of "the right of every human being to belong to mankind" is still lacking. Yet, in contrast to Agamben, we do not trace this constellation back to the collapse of the concept of human rights, but to hegemonies and power relations.     

?Managing Migration“ – Eine intersektionale Kapitalismusanalyse am Beispiel der Europ?ischen Migrationspolitik

This essay examines the Europeanization of migration policy on the basis of a materialist theory of the state that is extended by an intersectional approach. The analysis revolves around four dimensions of the international division of labour: class, sex, North-South relations and ethnicity. They provide the context for both the following analysis of actors inspired by reflections on hegemony and the illustration of the hegemonic project of ??migration management??, e.g. the European recruiting of highly skilled worker and national special regimes for domestic workers. In doing so, the essay argues that such an intersectional analysis of capitalism must not end with the study of individual policies; rather it has to treat the interwoven social power relations as a starting point for further research.     

The influence of federalism on fiscal policy making

Abstract. This article attempts to refine the statement that federal states face difficulties in fiscal policy making because of the territorial division of powers by comparing two federal countries, Canada and Germany. These two countries differ in terms of their type of federalism: Canada displaying a power-separation system and Germany corresponding to a power-sharing type. According to the authors, the territorial factor influences fiscal policy making through the distribution of taxing and spending powers as well as through patterns of intergovernmental relations. The use of fiscal policy instruments and the likely effects on conflict and cooperation in those two countries is discussed with empirical evidence. The authors come to the conclusion that federalism is indeed a constraint on fiscal policy making, but that the two types of power division face different obstacles and deal differently with fiscal problems. In the power-separation system of Canada, the federal government has encompassing competencies to use fiscal policy instruments unilaterally and without restraint, but faces a lack of concerted action with the provinces which reduces its scope of action in fiscal policy making. In the power-sharing system in Germany, concerted action facilitates macroeconomic stabilisation strategies but the compulsory negotiation system distorts the use of fiscal policy instruments by distributive bargaining.     

Swiss Federalism from a Comparative Perspective –Dealing with Reform Obstacles

Swiss Federalism from a Comparative Perspective ‐ Dealing with Reform Obstacles In the first part of this introductory contribution, the authors present the content of this special edition as well as the individual articles and their main findings. The contributions are organized along three main comparative themes: the international and inter‐temporal comparison of Swiss federalism, the comparison of the constituent units from an institutional point of view, and the comparative analysis of their functioning in specific policy areas. In the second part of this article, the authors develop three theses concerning reform obstacles and opportunities of Swiss federalism related to polity, politics, and policy. They argue that federalism reforms are difficult to undertake given the conjunction of both centrifugal and centripetal dynamics. However, reforms are facilitated in Switzerland because institutions of federalism hardly ever turn into a politically contended issue and because federal conflicts and reform obstacles can be avoided by means of informal coordination.     

Risk-taking behaviour and criminal offending: an investigation of sensation seeking and the Eysenck personality questionnaire

This study investigated relationships between hostility, Zuckerman's sensation seeking, and Eysenck and Eysenck's personality scales within a prison population, to explore whether they could be conceptualized in terms of two socialized and unsocialized sensation seeking factors. Participants included 79 incarcerated adult male offenders (age range = 18-62). Findings support the distinction between socialized and unsocialized sensation seeking and suggest that these factors represent more overarching personality factors. Psychoticism was a clear marker of the more broad impulsive, unsocialized sensation seeking factor, rather than representing a supertrait in its own right. This factor was also represented by lie, disinhibition, and boredom susceptibility scales. Findings relating to hostility also supported such a reformulation, as unsocialized scales did cluster together to predict the unsocialized hostility factor, whereas unsocialized scales did not. The results demonstrate the need for a theoretical reformulation of the two given theories of personality.