How to Manage a Party Brand: Empirical Perspectives on Electoral Probability and Internal Conflict

What happens when political party branding is modeled according to the preferences of either voters or party members? Employing the concept of brand identity and the analytical GAP model, this empirical study details the consequences of brand management decisions by political parties using the example of the two biggest parties in Germany. Strategic branding decisions have an impact not only on voting probabilities but also on their internal conflict potential, such as when a branding decision conflicts with the internal image a party maintains among its members. It thus can be highly beneficial for a political party to encourage its members to communicate their image of the party to other voters.     

The German Constitutional Court and the European Arrest Warrant: 'Cryptic Signals' from Karlsruhe

In an important 2005 judgment, the German Federal ConstitutionalCourt declared void the German Act that was meant to implementthe European Union Framework Decision on the European ArrestWarrant. However, according to the Constitutional Court, theFramework Decision itself did not necessarily provoke a breachof the German Constitution. If the German legislator had madeadequate use of the tolerance provided by the Framework Decision,he could have avoided any conflict with the Constitution. While,at first sight, the Court's criticism solely seems to referto German national law, a closer look at some statements thatdeal with European law reveals a high potential for future disagreementbetween the German Constitutional Court and European institutions:they do not share the same view as to the development of Europeancooperation in criminal matters.     

The scope of sexual victimization in Germany

This study examined the sexual victimization of 309 female students in Germany. The results indicate that the majority of the subjects have been victims of minor offenses and that a minority of subjects was severely victimized. As to the relation of victim and perpetrator, the milder offenses are more likely to be committed by strangers. In contrast, the most serious offenses are more likely to be committed by perpetrators with a close relation to the victim. It was also investigated whether the perception of being victimized correlates with the subjects' gender-role orientation and their health problems.     

Prognosemodell auf dem Prüfstand: Die Bundestagswahl 2005

Our forecast model for German elections came within three-tenth of a percent in predicting the vote of the governing parties (SPD and Greens, 42.3% combined) in the 2005 Bundestag election. The predictors of the vote were (1) the popularity of the incumbent chancellor, (2) the long-term electoral support for the incumbent parties, and (3) a discount for the governing coalition’s tenure in office. Given the recent formation of a new party left of the SPD, the popularity of Chancellor Schröder was adjusted (assuming that supporters of this new party favored him as chancellor over the CDU challenger). Our forecast gave the governing parties enough of a vote to rule out victory for the center-right alternative (CDU/CSU and FDP) so long as the new left party did as well as polls suggested.     

Recklessness,depression, and reasons for living in predicting suicidality in college students

To assess the predictive value of recklessness in suicidality, 155 college students took the Sommerfeldt-Clark Adolescent Experience Scale (S-C), Zung Self-Rating Depression scale, Reasons for Living Inventory (RFL), and the Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI). The S-C Suicidal Tendencies subscale accounted for the most variance in suicidality (26.0%) and Coping Beliefs of the Reasons for Living subscale accounted for additional variance (5.6%). Further, the S-C was moderately internally consistent (Cronbach alpha=.83) and had adequate validity, as indicated by significant correlations in the expected directions with the SSI total score (r=.25, p< .01), and RFL total score (r= –.28, p<.001). Recklessness was not a component of suicidality among those non-clinical older adolescents, but may be a factor in clinical or younger samples of adolescents.Received M.A. in Psychology from Xavier University, Ohio. Research interests include suicide, eating disorders, and adolescence.Received Ph.D. from Georgia State University. Research interest: suicide.     

Candidates and issues in the 1980 campaign: The ideological connection

The notion that ideological perceptions in the mass public are shaped to some extent by elites and political candidates is widespread in the public opinion literature. However, there has been a lack of empirical research directly demonstrating the links between elites and the masses whose thinking they supposedly cue and structure. This paper attempts to show, through magnitude scale data collected over time in the 1980 campaign, the significant impact of political candidates in altering ideological perceptions of political stimuli. The chief carrier of ideology in 1980 is shown to be Ronald Reagan, whose strong issue stands and ideological label influenced perceptions of specific issues' ideological content. The findings are discussed in terms of both measurement problems in the ideology literature and more general theories of elite and environmental influences on mass political thought.     

Fiscal Policy,Deficits and Politics of Subnational Governments: The Case of the German Laender

The first part of the paper briefly describesinstitutional aspects of the German federal system andexamines the economic and fiscal performance of theGerman Laender since 1970. Taking into account theinstitutional settings, especially the fact that theGerman Laender cannot set tax rates individually, wedevelop a highly stylized model of subnationalgovernments that do not have access to the tax rateinstrument and thus have to use expenditures as apolicy variable. The model implies an expendituresmoothing policy of subnational governments andcomplements the famous tax smoothing model. Theempirical section examines whether governments ofvarious ideology show significant differences infiscal stabilization policy. Our results indicatethat regional differences in public debt accumulationand public expenditure policy in general is largelydetermined by interregional differences in economicperformance, whereas we do not find any significantimpact on the ideological composition of the Laendergovernments.     

Local Financial Development and Household Welfare in Vietnam: Evidence from a Panel Survey

We examine the impact of local financial development on household welfare in Vietnam. We employ household-level panel data for the periods 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2013 covering three provinces and measure local financial development at the district, sub-district and village levels. To account for potential endogeneity that could emanate from the fact that local economic development could spur local financial development, we employ a recently suggested method of identification through heteroscedasticity. Our results show that local financial development has a significantly positive effect on household annual income, consumption and consumption smoothing.     

§ 1096 ABGB und das MRG

In neuester Zeit wird – wohl in einem nicht zuf?lligen Zusammenhang mit Verbandsklagen nach dem KSchG – nachdrücklich die These vertreten, dass die Erhaltungspflicht des § 1096 ABGB auch im Vollanwendungsbereich des MRG anwendbar ist, um auf diese Weise auch im Vollanwendungsbereich des MRG zu einer unbeschr?nkten Erhaltungspflicht des Vermieters auch im Inneren der einzelnen Mietobjekte zu kommen. Dabei wird allzu sehr mit reiner Wortinterpretation gearbeitet, die im Wohnrecht, das weitgehend von Politikern und nicht so sehr von der Rechtswissenschaft gepr?gt wird, leicht in die Irre führt; auch der Charakter des Mietverh?ltnisses als Dauerschuldverh?ltnis wird dabei ignoriert.