Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

The 1992 health reform victory over pressure group politics

The 1988 health reform was substantially undermined by the influence of powerful pressure groups representing the interests of the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry and resistance from the German federal states. Consequently, it failed to achieve its aim of ‘cutting costs’. The theory supporting ‘resistance to reform within the health care system’ was widely accepted in the literature on the subject. The 1992 reform appeared to contradict this theory, as the political leadership succeeded in overcoming both party policy and intergovernmental differences, as well as making considerable cost savings and structural changes in spite of resistance from the opposition ‘lobby’. Three factors were responsible for this. They were under enormous pressure to act due to the financial crisis and the interdependent costs within the welfare state, the changing motives within the health care system, and a new political strategy which responded to this. In the long term, prospects are for a trend towards ‘greater privatisation’.     

Differentiation of blue ballpoint pen inks by laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry and high-performance thin-layer chromatography

The differentiation of inks on a questioned document can highlight a fraudulent insertion and is usually carried out by optical comparison and thin-layer chromatography (TLC). Laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) may also be used for the analysis of dyes from ink. This analytical technique was compared with a standard method of high-performance TLC (HPTLC) according to their capacity to differentiate blue ballpoint inks. Ink entries on paper from 31 blue ballpoint pens have been analyzed and their dye ink formulations compared. The pens were classified into 26 classes by LDI-MS against 18 for HPTLC. LDI-MS proved to be a more powerful method for differentiating ink formulations because it provides information about dye structures (molecular weights) and relative quantification of dye classes (peak areas). Sample preparation was minimal and analysis time was short in contrast to the more complex extraction, application, and development steps of the HPTLC method. However, only basic dyes and pigments were identified using positive mode LDI-MS, while HPTLC did yield additional information about acid dyes.     

Participation and voting in committees: Evidence from the ILO

Although many international organisations are formally built on the principle of ‘one country–one vote’, the lack of representativeness in decision-making may give a subgroup of members disproportionate influence. Using data on participation and voting in 51 decision-making committees of the International Labour Organization (ILO), we do find a bias in voting outcomes due to committee composition. Recent theoretical research has argued that voters with extreme preferences may self-select into committees. A procedure is proposed to test for this prediction. There is no indication that governments with extreme preferences are drawn disproportionately into ILO committees.     

Brain amino acid abnormalities in liver disease--a postmortem study

In a postmortem exploratory study, we examined whether specific amino acid abnormalities associated with liver diseases in vivo may also be detected in human brain samples obtained at clinical autopsies. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAA: valine, leucine, isoleucine) were decreased in the group of patients with liver diseases compared with the control group, whereas the aromatic amino acids (AAA: phenylalanine, tyrosine) were increased. However, the ranges overlapped significantly and were not statistically different. The molar ratio BCAA/AAA was determined to be 1.92 in the collection of patients with liver diseases compared with 2.27 in the control group. In patients with liver disease, ornithine concentrations in the brain appeared significantly decreased whereas glutamine was significantly increased. No significant difference was found in the brain concentrations of proline. Amino acid analysis may contribute to the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms of liver disease, which are discussed, and may supplement the postmortem diagnosis.     

Von „alten“ und „neuen“ Kriegen — Zum Gestaltwandel kriegerischer Gewalt

There is a growing debate in the field of conflict and peace research as to whether the ways wars are fought have changed since the end of the cold war. Whereas some claim to identify the emergence of a new type of war — the so-called new wars — others deny a fundamental transformation of warfare. This article intervenes in this debate by subjecting the thesis of the new wars to a first plausibility test. An analysis of three case studies on the wars in Cambodia, Afghanistan and Angola suggests that there has indeed been a transformation of warfare since the end of the cold war. In contrast to the warfare of the 1980s, in the 1990s one can observe a privatisation of the conflict parties, a criminalisiation of their war economies, an economisation of their motives and a brutalisation of their strategies.     

Duverger's concept: Semi-presidential government revisited

Abstract The article attempts to follow up the fate of the concept Maurice Duverger created to explain the regime of the French Fifth Republic: semi–presidential government. Duverger expounded the concept in his fundamental book Échec au roi in 1978, trying to illustrate the fact that regimes of this type worked quite differently in the seven Western and Northern European countries that institutionalized it. 'Semi–presidentialism' is now widely, but very often controversially, used. The recent appearance of such regimes in newly democratizing states points to the fact that this form of government is often the preferred solution in times of transition. A critical review of Duverger's concept seems expedient as the diversification of these regimes raises new and perhaps intriguing questions. Due to the rejection of Duverger's concept or its ignorance in parts of the European scientific community, it is necessary to defend it as an important tool for political analysis. Moreover, it opens the opportunity for the examination of fundamental problems in political science.