Anti-Americanism and Public Attitudes toward Transatlantic Trade

The recent debate about the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) has triggered widespread opposition to the trade agreement in Germany. It is not clear, however, what factors drive public attitudes toward transatlantic trade. This article explores the role of anti-Americanism in predicting attitudes toward TTIP among the German public. It argues that the impact of anti-Americanism depends on the extent to which political elites frame the TTIP proposal as a basic conflict between American and European values. Using data from two national representative surveys, it is found that attitudes toward America strongly predict support for the TTIP agreement. The results further demonstrate that the effect of national resentment is moderated by issue awareness, with citizens with a strong anti-American sentiment being significantly more likely to oppose the agreement if they follow the elite debate more closely. Taken together, the results suggest that national resentments are more important for the explanation of TTIP preferences than traditional factors such as partisanship, ideology and material concerns.     

Public sector think tanks in interagency policy-making: designing enhanced governance capacity

Abstract: Since World War Two, the role of non profit think tanks in the United States has grown and diversified. Today, the United States' government and Congress is advised on many matters of policy-making and implementation by such think tanks. The Westminster system of parliament, as practised in the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, has rarely provided a fertile ground for the creation and sustained existence of such privately operated institutions. Despite limited links with similar United States' organizations, the seeds have never really flourished outside the United States of America. Australian Commonwealth governments have been most antagonistic in this regard. On the other hand, management consulting companies, many of which have headquarters in the United States, lobbyists, and corporate representation flourish in the quasi-corporatist political environment carefully constructed by the Australian Labor party (ALP) government since 1983. Policy-related research divisions and statutory authorities have likewise grown in size and importance within the departmental agencies of government itself. Energy, agriculture, immigration, and social service research “arms” have been encouraged within the ministerial arena of policy analysis and advice. Especially important has been micro and macro-economic research, urban and infrastructural planning, the Industry Commission, and the Bureau of Industry Economics, respectively. This paper will analyse the growth of these specialized forms of government think tanks, study the range of their ministerial advice, and speculate about their changing role in an increasingly “managerialist” type of Westminster-style parliamentary setting. Sommaire: Aux États-Unis, depuis la Seconde Guerre Mondiale, le rôle des groupes de réflexion à but non lucratif, ou think tanks, a pris de l'ampleur et s'est diversifié. Aujourd'hui, ces groupes prodiguent des conseils au gouvernement et au Congrès des États-Unis sur de nombreuses questions de définition et de mise en oeuvre de politiques. Le système parlementaire de Westminster, tel que pratiqué au Royaume-Uni, au Canada, en Nouvelle-Zélande et en Australie, a rarement favorisé la création et l'existence de telles institutions exploitées par le secteur privé. Malgré certains liens limités avec des organisations américaines similaires, elles ne se sont jamais vraiement épanouies à l'extérieur des États-Unis.     

欧洲水下滑翔机发展应用现状及其法律规制——对中国借鉴意义之思考

海洋观测与调查的科学活动为中国海洋事业的金方位发展提供了重要的基础资料和科学依据。科学技术的发展使得海洋科学调查方法不断面临新的变革。水下滑翔机，作为目前国际上的研究热点，欧洲对其发展及应用给予了高度关注，并在法律规制方面开始进行深入探讨。中国对于水下滑翔机研究起步较晚，尚未广泛应用，对其法律规制更是鲜有涉及。通过对欧洲水下滑翔机发展应用现状的介绍，详细分析了水下滑翔机的应用在目前国际法律体系中存在的法律规制问题，介绍了欧洲正在开展的相关工作，希望为中国相关规定的制定提供参考和借鉴，保障中国海洋调查新方法的顺利应用。     

A note on the functioning of international commodity price stabilisation agreements in periods of fluctuating monetary exchange rates

A belief held by many government officials and development economists is that sizeable and irregular commodity price fluctuations have important detrimental effects on both exporting and importing countries. Given the nature of these adverse effects attempts have been made to negotiate international price stabilisation agreements under which some central authority would make market interventions to offset the random price fluctuations. However, this study argues that the utility of such agreements should be re‐examined due to the effects of floating exchange rates. Empirical evidence is also presented which shows that recent exchange rate variability has had at least as much of a destabilising influence on commodity export earnings as fluctuating prices, and that the effects are borne unevenly by exporters of the same commodity due to their association with different currency blocks. When examined from the viewpoint of commodity importers the price and exchange rate effects are also found to be very different for individual countries.