Rational moralists: The role of fairness in democratic economic politics

In this paper, we empirically test for the influence of fairness considerations on the willingness to redistribute income in private and in democratic decisions. In contrast to standard explanations of income redistribution, our theory takes into account that prices shift decisively as we move from the sphere of private contributions to politics. At the polls, it is nearly costless to observe social norms. Therefore, we expect individuals to behave more fairly in the political sphere than in the market place. We present experimental evidence which is consistent with this hypothesis. In distributive struggles, social norms moderate the inclination of human beings to behave like ‘gangsters’.     

Clinical Assessment of Parents in Child Protection Cases: An Empirical Analysis

We investigated the content and legal relevance of clinical evaluations of parents conducted in child abuse and neglect cases. The sample consisted of 190 mental health evaluation reports, randomly selected from major providers, that had been completed on parents involved in a large, urban juvenile court system. We coded evaluations on 170 objective and qualitative characteristics in order to assess for criteria recommended in the forensic literature. We compared evaluations across groups categorized by type (e.g., psychological, psychiatric, bonding/parenting, substance abuse) and where the assessments were performed (outside or inside the court). We found numerous substantive failures to meet those criteria for forensic relevance. Evaluations of parents typically were completed in a single session, rarely included a home visit, used few if any sources of information other than the parent, often cited no previous written reports, rarely used behavioral methods, stated purposes in general rather than specific terms, emphasized weaknesses over strengths in reporting results, and often neglected to describe the parent's caregiving qualities or the child's relationship with the parent. Some relevant differences were evident across assessment groups, pointing to examples of more thorough, parenting-specific evaluation practices. We recommend ways to improve current practices in forensic parenting assessment.     

Europ?ische und nationale Regulierung der Bioenergie und ihrer ?kologisch-sozialen Ambivalenzen

Europ?isches und deutsches Recht setzen neuerdings stark auf eine ausgebaute Biomassenutzung zur Strom-, W?rme- und Treibstoffgewinnung. Die Biomassenutzung weist eine Reihe ?kologisch- sozialer Vor-, aber auch Nachteile auf. Das bisherige, aber auch das zur Verabschiedung anstehende neue europ?ische und deutsche Bioenergierecht l?st diese nicht immer hinreichend auf. Nachhaltigkeitskriterienkataloge k?nnen diese Rolle auch strukturell nur begrenzt übernehmen, unter anderem weil sie die n?tige Komplexit?t nicht abbilden, Verlagerungseffekte nicht vermeiden und bestimmte zentrale Aspekte (etwa das Weltern?hrungsproblem) erst gar nicht abbilden k?nnen; und wenn, dann müssten die Kataloge über die aktuellen EU-Vorschl?ge hinausgehen. Wirkungsvoller für die Bioenergienutzung selbst wie auch in der Energiepolitik insgesamt w?re aber eine einschneidende Energieeffizienzpolitik – die den Gesamtverbrauch senken und damit die ?kologisch-sozialen Ambivalenzen überschaubarer machen würden, wenn langfristig die erneuerbaren Energien 100% der Versorgung in einer “kohlenstofffreien Wirtschaft” übernehmen. In Verbindung mit der Analyse der Ambivalenzen bietet der vorliegende Beitrag zugleich einen kurzen überblick über das Bioenergierecht.     

What is democratic reliability? Epistemic theories of democracy and the problem of reasonable disagreement

It has proven difficult to reconcile epistemic justifications of political authority, especially epistemic theories of democracy, with a basic liberal commitment to respecting reasonable value pluralism. The latter seems to imply that there can be no universally acceptable substantive outcome standard to evaluate the epistemic reliability of different political procedures. This paper shows that this objection rests on an implausible interpretation of political competence. In particular, the paper defends two claims: first, that epistemic theories of political authority are in fact compatible with a liberal commitment to respecting reasonable pluralism; but second, that if we take reasonable pluralism seriously, the standard of competence we should use is a pragmatic one. Good political decision procedures reliably fix practical problems of social coordination and adapt to new demands and developments; we need not demand that their decisions are all-things-considered just or optimal. This pragmatic account of political competence is compatible with reasonable pluralism, since on this basis we can comparatively evaluate political procedures without controversially asserting a single standard of ‘truth’ in politics. Hence, it is possible to give an epistemic account of political authority that works within a liberal theory of political justification.     

Visibility and facticity in policy diffusion: going beyond the prevailing binarity

Quantitative-oriented diffusion studies, either focused on diffusion patterns or mechanisms, take for granted that policy adoptions are manifest and therefore directly observable in the legislation. A more nuanced perspective of policy adoption taking into account gradual differences between adoption and non-adoption is proposed with this paper, valid for diffusion among communities and states in federal settings and among countries on the global level. Besides the aspect of visibility, intentions are also important when measures are adopted. While some measures are transferred with a clear instrumental aim, others are rather transferred for symbolical reasons. Looking at specific processes, the paper proposes a concept that disentangles the current understanding of policy diffusion and provides empirical evidence that current diffusion research misconceives instances. The four different transfer types are illustrated with empirical evidence from sub-national energy policy-making in Switzerland. The systematic investigation of the cases allows to finding explanations for the different transfer types.     

Integrating biodiversity: a longitudinal and cross-sectoral analysis of Swiss politics

Policy Sciences - The effective conservation and promotion of biodiversity requires its integration into a wide range of sectoral policies. For this to happen, the issue must receive attention...