Communicating with their voters: The use of direct mailing by the SPD and the CDU

One of the key functions of political parties in modern democracies consists of mobilising the voters and thereby integrating them into the political system. Opinion formation and interest representation by political parties are central to linking people and government. This article concentrates on the way in which political parties perform these tasks. Presenting the main findings of an empirical study into the use of direct mailing by the two major parties in Germany, the SPD and the CDU, the paper discusses its effectiveness as a new means of communication between political parties and their voters. More specifically, it shows how direct mailing is put to use and to what extent its themes reflect the themes of relevant election programmes. The paper concludes that direct mailing has been more widely used only since the change in legislation on party finance but has the potential of developing into an important means of communicating party policies to members and potential supporters.     

Coping strategies in prolonged kidnappings

This study investigates prolonged kidnappings as a stressful situation and the different coping strategies used to survive it. A 35‐question, semi‐structured interview and an adaptation of the ‘Ways of Coping Checklist’ by Lazarus et al. (1986) were applied to live subjects who had been kidnapped by different Colombian guerrilla groups for periods of time above three months. The results of the interviews and checklist were compared; it was found that to achieve an efficient coping process it is necessary to be versatile with the coping directed to emotions, such as fantasy and self‐guilt, and directed to the problem, such as problem solving. Other topics for future studies are proposed.     

British nuclear non-proliferation policies towards Iran and the Middle East

The article argues that British non-proliferation policies towards the Middle East have had limited success because they are circumscribed by dependence on alliances and constrained by other factors such as Britain's historical legacy, its status as a nuclear weapons state and, especially through the European Union's engagement with the region, the communication of self-interest rather than credible pursuit of the declared objective of regional security-building. Despite promoting and implementing its own disarmament policies, Britain has been unable to overcome mistrust and perceptions of hypocrisy in the region in order to strengthen the non-proliferation regime. This is particularly evident in the dispute with Iran, which is examined in detail with the assistance of Adler's ‘double-damned dilemma’ model. The analysis argues that the Western coercive approach has facilitated the stalemate with Iran, because it has encouraged Iran's provocations and allowed it to respond with a strategy of denial. The analysis suggests that Britain and its allies adopt a defusing strategy which does not reduce the dispute to a proliferation problem, but treats Iran's behaviour as a quest for recognition. Britain has little influence on Iran, but might build on its relationship with Turkey to develop this approach in conjunction with its allies.     

Running with the Hare,Hunting with the Hounds: The Special Relationship,Reagan's Cold War and the Falklands Conflict

This article reconsiders the negotiations between the United States and Britain at the outbreak of the 1982 Falklands War. The Reagan Administration did not support Britain, its staunchest NATO ally, and on the contrary assumed an even-handed position that recognised Argentina as a key ally as much as Britain. Not only did American mediation fail; it also caused a major crisis in Anglo-American relations. The underlying reason for the American decision was the obsessive importance that the Administration attached to fighting communism in Latin America after establishing covert co-operation with the Argentinian military junta in 1981.     

Instability and Oil: How Political Time Horizons Affect Oil Revenue Management

While economic explanations for the “resource curse” are well established, the political factors explaining why governments fail to take corrective action remain poorly understood. Research demonstrates that if governments save oil profits abroad and slowly re-introduce the oil-generated revenue into the domestic economy once the rate of return on investment is greater at home than abroad and the quality of project implementation developed, many of the economic problems that plague oil-rich countries can be avoided. Political time horizons shape the incentives of governments to pursue this strategy. Unstable leaders rely on oil revenue to maintain positions of power. They also have less incentive to save oil windfalls abroad as they fear they will not be in office long enough to benefit from such decisions. This paper uses both quantitative data and case study analysis of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to demonstrate that leaders with longer time horizons save a greater proportion of oil windfalls abroad than their less stable counterparts, helping avoid the economic pitfalls of oil abundance.     

Airway obstruction by laryngeal masses in sudden and homicidal deaths

We present two cases of autopsy detection of laryngeal masses with medico-legal implications. The first is a 56-year-old man who died suddenly of asphyxia due to upper airway obstruction caused by a large glosso-epiglottic retention cyst and glottic oedema. Hypothesis of medical liability was raised, due to delayed tracheotomy as the result of repeated failed attempts at oral intubation by various physicians. Difficult oral intubation due to the presence of a laryngeal mass in an asphyxiating subject requires rapid tracheotomy. The second case deals with a 43-year-old woman who died of asphyxia due to airway obstruction, as a result of injury of a cavernous laryngeal haemangioma after homicidal manual strangulation, with severe haemorrhagic infiltration of the surrounding soft tissues. Damage to laryngeal/hypopharyngeal masses should be considered as a possible sign of manual strangulation, as well as neck skin bruises/abrasions and laryngeal haemorrhages.     

Potential lessons from public health and health promotion for the prevention of child abuse

Two successful public health efforts of the last third of the twentieth century-tobacco control and automobile injury control-are reviewed for relevance to the problem of child abuse. Potential lessons for child abuse prevention are identified and the following approaches are suggested: Investigate varied logic models or conceptual frameworks to identify new opportunities for effective intervention. Use a multidisciplinary, multi-sector approach. Normalize desired behaviors and denormalize undesirable behaviors. Balance efficacy, feasibility, and cultural appropriateness. Develop strategies for effective policy advocacy based upon who benefits and who shoulders most of the burden.     

Highly reliable quantification of proteins such as members of the HSP70 superfamily based on the grey scale index via immune detection stained bands on a Western blot

The HSP70 superfamily is a reliable biomarker for hyperthermia, hypothermia and hypoxia. The Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) respectively immunohistochemically staining methods are the typically used techniques for the quantification of those proteins. As the costs for reagents and devices as well as the work schedule of these methods are immense it was the goal of our study to develop an easy and reliable method to quantify the concentration of specific proteins. We established a procedure to measure the relative concentration of proteins fixed on ROTI(?) PVDF membranes via Western blot, calculating the relative protein concentration in dependency to the grey scale index of the normalized and digitalized pictures of the bands on the blots.