'Deliberative Supranationalism'—Two Defences

This paper responds in its first sections to a series of articles in which Rainer Schmalz-Bruns developed a concept of legitimate governance beyond the constitutional state, which he called 'deliberative supranationalism' and contrasted with what Jürgen Neyer and the present author had suggested under the same title. The Epilogue of the paper first comments on more recent critiques brought forward especially by contributors to this Special Issue of the ELJ and then on the programmatic rejection of comitology by the European Commission's White Paper on Governance in the EU. Our querelles allemandes were not specifically Teutonic: while Schmalz-Bruns presented his approach as a systematic elaboration of the theories of deliberative democracy, based, in particular, on recent contributions by Joshua Cohen, Michael Dorf, and Charles Sabel, Jürgen Neyer and I had offered an interpretation of institutional innovations and decision-making practices as observed in the European market-building project. This discussion has had precursors and follow-ups in various contexts, among both lawyers and political scientists. This essay should hence be understood as a contribution to an ongoing debate.     

Social structure and voting in the Austrian party system

An analysis of electoral behaviour in the Austrian party system shows that the cleavages, social class and religion, are still playing a major role—their total impact seems higher than in most Western democracies. In the seventies a declining influence of both dimensions can be registered; but after closer inspection, most of it seems to be due to structural changes.Particularly the expansion of intermediate and higher education can be hypothesized to dissolve the traditional Lager-structure, which made for a very stable vote throughout the electoral history of the Second Austrian Republic. But the question remains, whether the increase in floating vote really supersedes the class and religious cleavages, or only produces more oscillating election outcomes.The analysis also makes clear why regional cleavages are of minor general impact in Austria: on the one hand, historical West-East differentiations prevail over urban-rural cleavages, on the other hand, Austria seems to be too small to give way to major cultural drifting between regions. None the less, the impact of social structure upon voting behaviour seems to be significantly higher than in most Western nations.     

Cognitive mapping in technology transfer

Frequent tensions continue to plague the operations of multinational corporations (MNCs) in less-developed countries (LDCs). Accusations of insensitivity and heed-lessness toward the needs and aspirations of LDCs are commonplace. In this writer's opinion, negative perceptions of the MNCs' operations result in part from differing “world views” between the two groups that are frequently overlooked in strategy formulation. This paper is an attempt to demonstrate that productive, culturally sensitive strategies can be formulated if MNCs use a multiple-perspective approach in their relationships with LDCs. To illustrate this, cognitive mapping is used to analyze the MNCs' decisionmaking behavior. Use of this process should provide MNCs with an opportunity to evaluate the consequences of their actions, the prospect of more effective strategies emerges.     

Assessment of STR Typing Success Rate in Soft Tissues from Putrefied Bodies Based on a Quantitative Grading System for Putrefaction

To date, there is no systematic investigation of the association of short tandem repeat (STR) typing success rate in soft tissues with different signs of putrefaction. Herein, putrefaction was rated using a newly developed 19‐parameter system in soft tissues from a collective of 68 decaying bodies, and DNA yield was determined in 408 samples. DNA integrity was rated using a self‐devised pentaplex PCR generating an “integrity score” (S_i). STR typing success rate was then assessed for selected cases. DNA yield and S_i differed significantly between tissues with kidney on average exhibiting the highest S_i values. Statistical analysis revealed that nine parameters were significantly and positively correlated with S_i. The observed values for each of these nine parameters were summed up to generate a putrefaction score (S_p) for each sample. Our results show that STR typing success rate can be predicted based on S_p before expensive multiplex STR profiling is performed.     

Straightening the three streams: Theorising extensions of the multiple streams framework

This article suggests theoretical refinements to the multiple streams framework (MSF) that make it applicable to parliamentary systems and the decision‐making stage of the policy process. Regarding the former, the important role of political parties in parliamentary democracies is highlighted. Party policy experts are expected to be members of the policy communities in the policy stream and to promote viable policy alternatives in their respective parties, while the party leadership is concerned with adopting policies in the political stream. With regard to the latter, the introduction of a second coupling process to analyse decision making more rigorously is suggested. Moreover, the article provides operational definitions of the framework's key concepts when applied to parliamentary systems and derives a systematic set of falsifiable hypotheses for agenda‐setting and decision making in these systems, thus addressing one of the main critiques against the MSF – namely that no hypotheses can be derived from it.     

Do Minority Cabinets Govern More Flexibly and Inclusively? Evidence from Germany

A widespread view in political science is that minority cabinets govern more flexibly and inclusively, more in line with a median-oriented and 'consensual' vision of democracy. Yet there is only little empirical evidence for it. We study legislative coalition-building in the German state of North-Rhine-Westphalia, which was ruled by a minority government between 2010 and 2012. We compare the inclusiveness of legislative coalitions under minority and majority cabinets, based on 1028 laws passed in the 1985–2017 period, and analyze in detail the flexibility of legislative coalition formation under the minority government. Both quantitative analyses are complemented with brief case studies of specific legislation. We find, first, that the minority cabinet did not rule more inclusively. Second, the minority cabinet’s legislative flexibility was fairly limited; to the extent that it existed, it follows a pattern that cannot be explained on the basis of the standard spatial model with policy-seeking parties.     

Why Leipzig? ‘Exit’ and ‘voice’ in the East German revolution

Albert Hirschman's exit‐voice scheme provides a useful starting point for making sense of the East German revolution. Following Hirschman, it is argued that the conjunction of emigration and protest was key to the mass upheaval of 1989. Going beyond Hirschman, however, ‘exit’ is seen as relevant not only as the cumulative effect of individual emigration, but also as a political force in its own right. Different constellations between voice and exit groups then help to explain why the revolutionary upheaval originated not in East Berlin, but in Leipzig.     

How Neopatrimonialism Affects Tax Administration: a comparative study of three world regions

Neopatrimonialism is a concept that has predominately been applied to describe governance in sub-Saharan Africa. Recently, however, it has also been used to describe governance in states from other world regions. However, scholars have rarely attempted systematically to compare neopatrimonial rule in different regional settings. This paper aims to narrow this gap by examining the effect of neopatrimonialism on the tax administration as a core state function in six countries from three different world regions: Argentina, Venezuela, Indonesia, the Philippines, Kenya and Zambia. We conclude that neopatrimonialism is a valuable concept for comparative area studies with the potential to foster dialogue on the ‘state in operation’ across the regional divide. Nevertheless, several indicators are more valid for some world regions than for others. We find that there is no systematic relationship between neopatrimonial trajectories and the strength of tax administration. Individual actor decisions influence the outcomes of neopatrimonialism substantially.