A never-ending story: Britain in Europe

Books reviewed in this article:
Baker, David and Seawright, David (eds.) Britain For and Against Europe. British Politics and the Question of European Integration
Buller, Jim National Statecraft and European Integration. The Conservative Government and the European Union, 1979-1997.
Eltis, Walter Britain, Europe and EMU
Ellison, James Threatening Europe. Britain and the Creation of the European Community, 1955-58
Gowland, David and Turner, Arthur Reluctant Europeans. Britain and European Integration 1945-1998
Gowland, David and Turner, Arthur Britain and European Integration 1945-1998. A Documentary History
Larres, Klaus, with Elizabeth Meehan Uneasy Allies.British-German Relations and European Integration since 1945
May, Alex Britain and Europe since 1945
Milfull, John (ed.) Britain in Europe: Prospects for Change
Young, Hugo This Blessed Plot. Britain and Europe from Churchill to Blair
Young, John W. Britain and European Unity 1945-1999     

Taking Others into Account: Self‐Interest and Fairness in Majority Decision Making

Research on the formal properties of democratic aggregation mechanisms has a long tradition in political science. Recent theoretical developments, however, show that in the discussion of normative contents of democratic decisions, the actual shape of preferences deserves just as much attention. However, our knowledge about the concrete motivations of individual behavior in democratic decisions is incomplete. Using laboratory experiments, this article examines the existence of social preferences in majority decisions. Contrary to earlier experiments of committee decision making, we develop a design that controls for the conditions of communication and the level of information between subjects. This allows us to comparatively test the predictive power of several theories. We find strong evidence that self‐interest and fairness motivate human behavior in majority decisions.     

Swedish intelligence in the Second World War

Henry C. Clausen and Bruce Lee, Pearl Harbor: Final Judgment (New York: Crown Books, 1992). Pp.485. $25.00.     

Religion,identity and politics in Tanzania

In Samuel Huntington's world of hostile civilisations, Tanzania would fall into the category of a torn country, a battle ground for the forces of African, Western and Islamic meta-cultures to expand their influence. On the surface, this might seem the case. Tanzania is an impoverished country where the benefits of economic liberalisation have reached only a narrow stratum and the fruits of political liberalisation are yet to be seen, placing severe strain on national social cohesion. There is certainly a possibility that pent up economic and political frustrations could be channelled into religious extremist movements. However, religion has not served as a primary fault-line for sustained political violence and conflict, although there are signs that this might be changing. In this paper we argue that uncovering and analysing these relationships elucidates how cross-cutting cleavages complicate the mobilisation of individuals and organised groups based on identity, not only in Tanzania, but in other societies as well.     

Heat-related mortality in selected United States cities, summer 1999.

As part of a public health response to severe heat waves in the midwestern and northeastern United States in the summer of 1999, the authors actively solicited the number of heat-related deaths from 38 medical examiner and coroner jurisdictions comprising 35 metropolitan areas to enumerate heat-related deaths in areas affected by heat waves. They also determined the usefulness of these data for surveillance and rapid investigation of heat-related deaths. A total of 334 heat-related deaths were reported during the study period of July 1 - August 31. Minor changes in data collection and diagnostic criteria in some medical examiner and coroner jurisdictions would allow for greater comparability among jurisdictions. The National Association of Medical Examiners' position paper on heat-related mortality diagnosis provides important guidance to medical examiners and coroners regarding the certification of heat-related deaths and may require some refinement to address certain issues. Among these are certifying manner of death and classifying potential causes of heat-related death not involving hyperthermia or heat stroke, but where heat is a potential contributing factor to death. Medical examiners and coroners are an important resource for heat-related mortality research, and improvements in data collection and reporting could yield tremendous benefits to our understanding of and interventions for heat-related deaths.     

Between haiderisation and modernisation: The German free democrats since party unification

This article examines the development of the German Free Democrats (FDP) since party unification in 1990. Two‐fifths of the FDP's membership now come from the new Lander which adds considerably to the party's internal volatility while it is faced with a dual policy and functional crisis. The current internal debate indicates the extent of the resulting disorientation and illustrates the post‐unification search for a new identity. There now appear to be three principal options for the FDP's future development: firstly, the ‘West German option’, that is the retention of the internal status quo ante; secondly, a radical Haider‐style transformation or the ‘Austrian option'; and thirdly, the ‘modernisation option’, which sees party unification as an opportunity for positive change which could make the Liberals the first truly all‐German party.     

Federal-level Government Participation and State-level Electoral Performance: A Party-based Analysis of Land Elections in Germany, 1949–2017

To what extent does the federal political arena contaminate the regional one in Germany? Does a party’s position as government or opposition on the federal level have a systematic impact on its performance in Land elections? Land elections are often characterised as second order elections, but existing empirical studies that use real election data suffer from important methodological problems. Unlike previous approaches using survey data or comparing vote shares in regional and federal elections, we analyse contamination in two ways. First, we test whether a party’s role at the federal level has a systematic impact on gaining or losing office at the Land level. Second, we examine the vote difference of parties relative to their result in the previous election in the Land. Drawing on a complete dataset of all Land elections from 1949 to 2017, we find confirmation for two phenomena well known in comparative electoral studies. First, the anti-incumbency effect: government parties tend to lose votes. In the German context, as in many other multilevel systems, this is exacerbated by the second effect: contamination. Gaining power or votes on the Land level is very difficult when a party is in government on the federal level.     

Foreclosing on the American dream? The financial consequences of low-income homeownership

Federal programs have consistently encouraged ever-lower-income households to buy homes, despite concerns about the long-term sustainability and desirability of homeownership from the perspective of wealth-building, especially since the recent housing market collapse and the epidemic of mortgage foreclosures. We ask in this paper: can very low-income households build wealth through sustainable homeownership, with the aid of an innovative public program? We answer this question by examining 122 very low-income households who purchased their homes between 1996 and 2007 after completing an extensive asset-building and homeownership education/counseling program offered by the Housing Authority of the City and County of Denver (DHA), called HOP. We analyze our own longitudinal surveys and focus groups, as well as data compiled from administrative agency sources, real estate records, and longitudinal census data from the Neighborhood Change Database and the Piton Foundation's Neighborhood Facts Database. We find that homeownership attained through HOP typically did provide very low-income households with opportunities to build home equity (both absolutely and relative to generic homeowner cohorts in Denver) and net wealth, although this was contingent on time of purchase and ethnicity. Our multivariate analyses revealed that changes in annualized home equity appreciation were associated with the ethnic composition of the neighborhood and age of property. Annualized wealth accumulation was associated with annualized home equity appreciation, being married throughout the tenure of homeownership, and year of home purchase. HOP homebuyers received exceptionally favorable initial mortgage terms and conditions, often enhanced with down-payment assistance from their own DHA escrow account or from local housing and neighborhood development organizations, resulting in a dramatically low rate of default and foreclosure to date. Moreover, HOP homebuyers were not immune to financial stresses, and the continuing lack of wealth for many makes them vulnerable to future interruptions in primary wage earner's employment or health. We discuss the implications for low-income homeownership policy and argue that the goal of expanding homeownership opportunities should not be abandoned.     

Viewpoint: Chinese Anti-Satellite Weapons: New Power Geometry and New Legal Policy

China entered the field of space weapons with the successful anti-satellite test on 11 January 2007. National policies of spacefaring states commit to the principle of peaceful uses of outer space as enshrined in the Outer Space Treaty, but there is no detailed internationally binding regulation on anti-satellite weapons. Since 1981, the United Nations General Assembly passed annual resolutions on the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space. These resolutions call for negotiations in the Conference of Disarmament for establishing an internationally binding instrument about space weapons. However, the Conference of Disarmament is deadlocked. China's weapons test has changed the power geometry. This paper examines the policy impact of the Chinese test, especially on the United States.