Large‐scale solidarity? Effects of welfare state institutions on the admission of forced migrants

The variation among countries when it comes to the admittance of forced migrants – refugees and asylum seekers – is substantial. This article explains part of this variation by developing and testing an institutional explanation to the admission of forced migrants; more precisely, it investigates the impact of domestic welfare state institutions on admission. Building on comparative welfare state research, it is hypothesised that comprehensive welfare state institutions will have a positive effect on the admission of forced migrants to a country. There are three features of comprehensive welfare state institutions that could steer policies towards forced migrants in a more open direction. First, these institutions have been shown to impact on the boundaries of social solidarity. Second, they enhance generalised trust. And third, they can impact on the citizens’ view of what the state should and can do in terms of protecting individuals. The argument is tested using a broad comparative dataset of patterns of forced migration, covering 17 OECD countries between 1980 and 2003. This analysis shows that comprehensive welfare state institutions have a significant positive effect on the admission of forced migrants, under control for a number of factors often highlighted in migration research.     

Einwanderer als Wähler,Gewählte und transnationale Akteure

The political incorporation of immigrants is a relatively new and little researched topic in Germany. This review article presents selected results of recent international research on the political participation of immigrants and members of ethnic minorities. Apart from some core themes of research on the United States, I discuss the role of institutional motors of incorporation, the emergence of parliamentarians with a migration background, protest activities of non-citizens, and some findings on transnational forms of political engagement.     

Fiscal Explanations for Inflation: Any Evidence from Transition Economies?

Recent arguments, motivated partly by the new fiscal theory of price level, suggest that fiscal deficits undermine price stability in transition economies. This paper addresses these claims by examining vector-autoregressive models of inflation for three transition economies (Bulgaria, Romania and Russia). The results indicate that fiscal deficits have increased inflation in Bulgaria and Romania but not in the case of Russia. In Bulgaria and Romania, money aggregates and exchange rate have also been more influential to inflation than fiscal deficits. The analysis based on this method therefore suggests that while fiscal deficits have some influence on inflation, monetary factors mostly determine inflation in these three countries.     

Identität als Netzwerk

Wenn man von „Identit?t” spricht, dürfte sich im Allgemeinen das geistige Bild einer Kugel, etwas in sich Geschlossenes, einstellen. Die entsprechende „klassische” Identit?tsvorstellung ist seit dem cultural turn in eine Krise geraten, ohne dass jedoch eine befriedigende neue Vorstellung an ihre Stelle getreten w?re. Ausgehend von einer relationalen Wirklichkeitsauffassung (Cassirer, Rorty, Bourdieu) unterbreitet der vorliegende Artikel den Vorschlag, sich Identit?ten als Netzwerke von Dispositionen vorzustellen. Die Problematik wird in der Diskussion um kollektive Identit?ten sozialer Bewegungen verortet. Die Entwicklung der theoretischen Modellvorstellung nimmt ihren Ausgang bei der empirischen Untersuchung von religi?sen Bewegungen in einer Bürgerkriegssituation (Guatemala). Eine Analyse der Tiefenstruktur praktischer Operatoren der Wahrnehmung, des Urteilens und des Handelns der Akteure erlaubt die Rekonstruktion dieser Operatoren im Modell eines Netzwerks fundamentaler logischer Relationen, die den allt?glichen Wahrnehmungs-, Urteils- und Handlungsweisen zugrund liegen. Auf dieser Basis werden dann theoretische Perspektiven eines Netzwerk-Modells von Identit?t diskutiert. Dabei werden verbreitete Probleme der Identit?tstheorie im Rahmen der Bewegungstheorie aufgegriffen, wie z.B. individuelle vs. kollektive Identit?t, das Verh?ltnis von Kognition, Affekt und Leib oder die Relation von Identit?ten und gesellschaftlichen Strukturen. Diese Fragestellungen werden mit Hilfe des Netzwerk-Modells neu interpretiert.     

Immediate legitimacy? Problems of legitimacy in a consensually oriented application of law

This article was first presented at the Symposium on the Legitimacy of Law in Modern Society, in Murikka, Finland, in August 1988.     

Norway between NATO,the EU,and the US: A Case Study of Post-Cold War Security and Defence Discourse

This article addresses the post-Cold War security and defence discourse in Norway, focusing on the impact of the transformation of NATO, an increasingly ambitious EU within security matters and the transatlantic tensions in the War on Terror. The article argues that changes or continuity in policy result from the discursive battle between various power constellations, which are forcing conflicting understandings of reality on each other. In this battle, the dominant representation frames NATO's transformation as a precondition for national defence with reference to alliance solidarity, loyalty and interoperability. The alternative representation, on the other hand, has framed NATO's transformation as negative for national defence, claiming that forces trained for global, warlike missions are neither capable nor available for national defence tasks such as containment of Russia's strategic interests in the Barents Sea. The EU has been brought into the security and defence discourse only when new integration steps, such as the European security and defence policy and EU Battle Groups, put the question of how far Norway may participate, to a test. However, developments like the slow withering away of NATO and unilateralist US foreign policy on Iraq are contributing to pushing the Norwegian discourse, and hence policy, closer to Europe.