The Push and Pull of Ministerial Resignations in Germany, 1969–2005

When and why are cabinet ministers forced out of office? We argue that ministerial resignations cannot be understood as mechanistic consequences of serious personal or departmental errors as the classical responsibility hypothesis implies. Rather, they follow a systematic political logic. Cabinet ministers have to resign whenever the prime minister perceives the political costs of a minister staying in office to be higher than the benefits of keeping the status quo. We test this argument with resignation events in Germany in the period 1969 to 2005. Based on detailed data collection, we find 111 resignation events, i.e. serious public discussions about a cabinet minister's future, 14 of which ended in resignation. These data are analysed employing statistical as well as Qualitative Comparative Analysis based on Boolean algebra to detect patterns of ministerial resignations.     

Justifying Inequality: A Cross-Temporal Investigation of U.S. Income Disparities and Just-World Beliefs from 1973 to 2006

This cross-temporal meta-analysis examined 6,120 American college students’ scores on the Belief in a Just World Scale (BJW; Rubin and Peplau, J Soc Issues 31(3):65–90, 1975) across the last three and a half decades. Drawing on models of belief threat, we examined whether the causal relationship between perceived injustice and increases in BJW could extend from the laboratory to society by using macro-economic injustice trends to predict changes in BJW across these decades. Specifically, we hypothesized that perceptions of inequality, operationalized as rising income disparities, would result in a greater need to justify this inequality and that this would be evidenced by increased commitment to just world beliefs over time. Consistent with this prediction, BJW scores increased significantly over time and this increase was positively related to increasing income disparities in society. Income inequality remained a significant predictor of BJW scores even after controlling for additional factors of general income and political ideology. Implications of increasing just world beliefs are discussed in terms of psychological and policy outcomes.     

Molecular study of time dependent changes in DNA stability in soil buried skeletal residues

In the past years, many publications about identification and sex-determination of dry human bones by means of DNA analysis have been published. However, few studies exist that investigate the potential use of DNA technique to determine the postmortem interval (PMI). In the present study we analyzed the rate of increasingly smaller fragments of chromosomal DNA and PMI.     

“Victim Refuses to Cooperate”: A Focal Concerns Analysis of Victim Cooperation in Sexual Assault Cases

Research suggests that victim cooperation is a strong predictor of arrest and prosecution in sexual assault cases. Relatively little research has focused on identifying the factors that shape the decision to cooperate and the research that does exist is largely atheoretical. We address these gaps by examining victim cooperation using a revised version of the focal concerns perspective. We use data on cases reported to law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles to estimate models using factors situated within three victim focal concerns—crime seriousness, costs of cooperation, and likelihood of conviction—for three stages of the case process. We supplement these results with qualitative data from police reports regarding the reasons why victims refused to cooperate. The findings of this study provide initial support for the theoretical development of victim cooperation using the focal concerns perspective and provide potential guidance to criminal justice practitioners on how to increase victim cooperation.     

Neuere Beiträge zur empirischen Institutionenanalyse: Von der Gegenstands-zur Problemorientierung

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Post-Hurricane Katrina Racialized Explanations as a System Threat: Implications for Whites’ and Blacks’ Racial Attitudes

This experiment drew upon theoretical perspectives on group and system justification to examine whether exposure to media coverage arguing that racism was responsible for the ineffective Hurricane Katrina disaster response affected White and Black Americans’ intergroup attitudes. Consistent with a system justification perspective, Whites exposed to video clips arguing that the hurricane Katrina disaster response was due to racism displayed greater racial ingroup attachment and ingroup love compared to Whites exposed to videos conveying that the government’s incompetence was to blame for the disaster response. In contrast, Blacks displayed strong levels of ingroup attachment and ingroup love across both video conditions. This research highlights how insights from social psychology are valuable in understanding psychological responses to social justice-related events, such as the tragic response to hurricane Katrina.

Functioning and Impact of Incentives for Amalgamations in a Federal State: The Swiss Case

In Switzerland, where most amalgamations are voluntary, supportive measures for municipal mergers vary considerably between cantons. This study focuses upon the interests of higher-ranking state levels in amalgamation, the design of incentive systems set by the Swiss cantons, and their influence on the municipalities’ amalgamation activities. Empirical results show that with a higher number of municipalities, the canton sets more incentives for mergers. Also, financial incentives positively influence the municipalities’ merger activities. The data sources include comprehensive surveys of the Swiss municipal secretaries (2009/2010) and of the cantonal administrations (2010).     

The timing of elections in federations: a disciplining device against soft budget constraints?

We introduce political economics into the soft budget constraint problem by asking if the timing of elections has the potential to harden budget constraints. Specifically, we ask under which circumstances the soft budget constraint problem is worse—with synchronized elections, i.e. simultaneous central and regional office terms, or with staggered elections, i.e. terms of office that do not coincide. We find that staggered elections clearly improve fiscal discipline at the local level as well as welfare.