Party Competition and Government Formation in Germany: Business as Usual or New Patterns?

The process of coalition formation following the 2017 Bundestag election was the most difficult in German post-war history. For the first time, Germany saw negotiations fail, a minority government being discussed as a real possibility, and the federal president involved as formateur in coalition politics. The aim of this contribution is to explain why government formation was so intricate after the 2017 election. To this end, we trace patterns of party politics and the development of the German party system since 2013. We then study general patterns of government formation at the regional and national levels since the 1990s and evaluate whether these have changed with the advent of the right-wing populist party, Alternative for Germany. Our analysis of the 2017–2018 government formation is based on a novel expert survey of the policy profiles of German parties on various issue dimensions, conducted in 2017. The results show that the continuation of the incumbent coalition government of Christian and Social Democrats was the most likely outcome, and that the Social Democrats were indeed able to enforce a surpassing share of their policy positions in the final negotiation rounds.     

Soziale Ungleichheit in der Informations- und Wissensgesellschaft

Ein zentrales Deutungsangebot angesichts gegenwärtiger — vor allem sozioökonomischer — Wandlungsprozesse ist das Konzept der Informations- und Wissensgesellschaft, das einen signifikanten Bruch mit den Verhältnissen der Industriegesellschaft markieren soll. Wenn sich in diesem Sinne die Konturen eines neuartigen Gesellschaftstyps abzeichnen, so stellt sich die Frage, welche Bedeutung dieser Wandel für die soziale Ungleichheit als einem grundlegenden sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschungsbereich hat. Anhand der einschlägigen Ansätze von Peter Drucker, Daniel Bell und Manuel Castells geht der vorliegende Beitrag dieser Frage nach. Es soll geklärt werden, welche Perspektiven die drei Autoren für die Entwicklung sozialer Ungleichheit aufzeigen und inwieweit sich neue Impulse für die soziale Ungleichheitsforschung ergeben.     

30 Jahre Vogelschutzrichtlinie

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Do political variables affect fiscal policy adjustment decisions? New empirical evidence

We test eight hypotheses on political factors influencing the likelihood that a fiscal policy adjustment occurs. We employ a panel discrete choice model for 20 OECD countries for the period 1970–2003. Two different definitions of fiscal adjustments are used to capture the differences between rapid and gradual adjustments. We find that these types of fiscal adjustment are primarily driven by economic factors and are hardly affected by political variables. The likelihood that a rapid adjustment takes place is only influenced by upcoming elections, while the likelihood that a gradual adjustment takes place increases in case of broad policy reform.     

Halogenated solvent interactions with N,N-dimethyltryptamine: formation of quaternary ammonium salts and their artificially induced rearrangements during analysis

The psychoactive properties of N,N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT) 1a are known to induce altered states of consciousness in humans. This particular attribute attracts great interest from a variety of scientific and also clandestine communities. Our recent research has confirmed that DMT reacts with dichloromethane (DCM), either as a result of work-up or storage to give a quaternary N-chloromethyl ammonium salt 2a. Furthermore, this was observed to undergo rearrangement during analysis using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) with products including 3-(2-chloroethyl)indole 3 and 2-methyltetrahydro-beta-carboline 4 (2-Me-THBC). This study further investigates this so far unexplored area of solvent interactions by the exposure of DMT to other halogenated solvents including dibromomethane and 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE). The N-bromomethyl- and N-chloroethyl quaternary ammonium derivatives were subsequently characterised by ion trap GC-MS in electron and chemical ionisation tandem MS mode and by NMR spectroscopy. The DCE-derived derivative formed at least six rearrangement products in the total ion chromatogram. Identification of mass spectrometry generated by-products was verified by conventional or microwave-accelerated synthesis. The use of deuterated DCM and deuterated DMT 1b provided insights into the mechanism of the rearrangements. The presence of potentially characteristic marker molecules may allow the identification of solvents used during the manufacture of controlled substances, which is often neglected since these are considered inert.     

30 Jahre FFH-Richtlinie – Erfolge und Defizite beim Schutz des europäischen Naturerbes

Natur und Recht - Im Jahr 1992 wurde von der Europäischen Gemeinschaft die FFH-Richtlinie beschlossen. Seither sind drei Jahrzehnte vergangen, gleichwohl gibt es bis heute Defizite bei der...