Social Identity and Social Capital: The Collective Self at Work

Organizational scholars and institutional theorists have shown a great deal of interest in the concept of social capital. To a large extent, this interest has been fueled by accumulating evidence that social capital plays a vital role in the development of more cooperative, productive, and stable relationships within organizations and institutions. Recognizing these benefits, a major focus of recent theoretical efforts has been explicating the antecedents of social capital. Drawing on concepts from social identity theory and related theories of the self, this paper develops a framework for conceptualizing how individuals' psychological identification with a collective enhances their willingness to engage in behaviors that contribute to the creation and maintenance of social capital. The paper reviews empirical evidence in favor of the framework and draws out some of its theoretical and applied implications.     

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.     

Durch den Balkan nach Europa? Deutschland und Frankreich in den Jugoslawienkriegen

Starting from very different positions on the outbreak of violence in Slovenia and Croatia in 1991, French and German policies slowly converged over time and even reached a similar position on the Kosovo crisis. Yet, both foreign policies did not concentrate on the conflict solution as such but were rather concerned with preventing any negative spill-over on the European integration process and Franco-German relations respectively. The first part of the article summarises the two foreign policies in three phases of the Yugoslavian drama: First, the recognition of Slovenia and Croatia, second, the Bosnian war and third, the Kosovo crisis in 1998–99. By means of two heuristic criterea (behaviour towards institutions and conflict perception), both foreign policies are then compared analytically. Moreover, the striking differences in policies towards institutions and conflict perceptions motivate the generation of hypotheses in the next part. For France, we hold that identity theory might present a good approach in order to understand why French foreign policy was primarily driven by self-perceptions. Germany, by contrast, seems to be better suited to the application of role theory with its strong emphasis on alter-expectations. The article concludes by focusing on the perspectives of European integration and the Franco-German relations.     

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.     

Duverger's concept: Semi–presidential government revisited

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.     

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.