Law and the media

I would like to thank Margaret Andersen, Dan Slater, and Ron Roesch for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this essay.     

Interfirm collaboration as a modernization strategy: A survey of case studies

Interfirm collaboration (IFC) has been explored by organizations seeking a vehicle for the industrial modernization of small and medium-sized manufacturers. This paper offers five models of the impacts of IFC networks based on a survey of 123 case studies. The models examine the association between impacts of IFC with variables describing the origins, activities, and structures of networks. Impacts are measured through aggregate assessments of business expansion, bottom line savings, increases in projects, increases in membership, and increases in other benefits. We find that business expansion is associated most strongly with factors related to the origins of projects. Increases in membership and other benefits are most strongly associated with structural factors. Finally, bottom line savings and increases in projects are most closely associated with both origin and structural factors.     

A comparison of three institutions for monetary policy when central bankers have private objectives

Public Choice - How do different institutional arrangements for the central bank perform when central bankers have private objectives and society' objectives vary with time? This paper...     

Parties,candidates and issues in the German federal election of 1980: An application of normal vote analysis

An application of the concept of a normal vote to the West German political system is attempted. Normal vote parameters for West Germany are calculated and the 1980 Federal election is analysed by means of this newly established baseline. Furthermore, a modified version of the well-known Boyd formula for the computation of short-term effects will be proposed since under some circumstances Boyd's S may be seriously inflated. Finally, the formula will be extended to multivariate relationships. Applying the resulting partial short-term coefficient shows quite clearly that the outcome of the 1980 German Federal election was more strongly influenced by candidate evaluations than by issue orientations.     

Call for papers

European Journal of Law and Economics -     

Industrialization of hybrid electric vehicle technology: identifying critical resource dimensions

The purpose of this study is to identify critical resource dimensions for the industrialization of hybrid electric vehicle technology. This study focuses on small- and medium-sized technology-based firms in Sweden that employ between 1 and 500 employees and that could be potential suppliers of hybrid electric vehicle technology. The empirical data were collected using a survey (questionnaire) and it covers 40 technology-based firms in eight industrial branches in Sweden. We have included 18 variables in order to identify critical resources regarding Business and R&D networks in three dimensions: ideas and advice, production, and R&D. Two regression models developed for battery systems and battery cells have significant findings. Networks with universities and consultants are especially important. One operative way is building strategic alliances with other firms. The main contributions of this study are empirical support that network resources are necessary and important in battery systems and battery cells and, more broadly, networks are necessary systems for technology shifts in the hybrid electric vehicle industry.     

Stilwell in the stocks: the Chinese nationalists and the allied powers in the second world war

Dr Hans van de Ven is Reader in Modern Chinese History at Cambridge University. His most recent publication is War and Nationalism in China, 1925–45 (Routledge, London, 2003; this will be reviewed in the next issue of Asian Affairs). Other publications include Warfare in Chinese History (Leiden, Brill, 2000) and From Friend To Comrade: The Founding of the Chinese Communist Party (University of California Press, Berkeley, 1991). This article is based on the talk which Dr Hans van de Ven gave to the Society on 11 March 2003.     

Media,democracy and the public sphere: towards a reconceptualisation of the public sphere

ABSTRACT

This article brings a synthesis of the recent literature about the role the media have played for the transformation of the public sphere. Departing from this literature, a general research framework for a critical political economy of the public sphere is presented. The central thesis of this approach is that a political economy of the public sphere shouldn't be restricted to an analysis of its institutional configuration and the actual labour process, but must extend its radius of action from the production of media messages to a political economy of reception and its signification.     

Misleading the German public: The new bundestag law on parliamentarians

This article outlines the history of several attempts to increase salaries and pensions of members of the German Bundestag in the early 1990s. It shows the unethical tactics used by parliamentarians and the way in which public information was in part consciously designed to mislead. It is argued that Bundestag members tend to form a political cartel when decisions concerning their salaries and pensions are made. Similiar tendencies can be observed in all parliamentary decisions involving party finance, providing support for Katz and Mair's thesis that ‘catch‐all’ parties are generally being replaced by ‘cartel parties’. Having analysed the issues involved, the article calls for greater accountability and responsibility on the part of German politicians when their own personal advantage is at issue.