Editorial

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Europa als besonderer Kommunikationsraum

This paper develops a sociological perspective on the process of social integration that has been initiated in the course of the evolution of European political institutions. This perspective wants to avoid the pitfalls of normative diagnoses (which complain about what is not there) as well as the pitfalls of national comparisons (which do not see more than national similarities and national differences). A more abstract notion of social integration is presented as providing an analytical framework for understanding and explaining the process of socially integrating a culturally heterogeneous Europe. The key concept is that of a transnational space of communication and its discursive closure (with recourse to Deutsch and Bourdieu). The central theoretical idea is to use communicative density as the criterion of the emergence of a communicative space in which two different types of experience make possible its discursive closure: the experience of being treated fairly by the others inhabiting this space (the cognitive capital of a community) and the construction of a common memory frame resulting from the confrontation of differing national (and subnational) memories in this space (the narrative capital of a community). Thus two mechanisms can be identified which explain discursive closure. This model leaves open whether this will happen, but it offers a strategy for identifying the extent and the causes of such processes without recourse to normatively motivated wishful thinking.     

Measuring the capability to raise revenue: process and output dimensions and their application to the Zambia Revenue Authority

The worldwide diffusion of the good governance agenda and new public management (NPM) principles has triggered a renewed focus on state capability and, more specifically, on the capability to raise revenue in developing countries. However, the analytical tools for a comprehensive understanding of the capability to raise revenue remain underdeveloped. This article aims at filling this gap and presents a model consisting of the three process dimensions ‘information collection and processing’, ‘merit orientation’ and ‘administrative accountability’. ‘Revenue performance’ constitutes the fourth capability dimension which assesses tax administrations' output. This model is applied to the case of the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA). The dimensions prove to be valuable not only for assessing the how much but also the how of collecting taxes. They can be a useful tool for future comparative analyses of tax administrations' capabilities in developing countries. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Der Schweizer Rechtsextremismus im internationalen Vergleich

Der Gegenstand des Beitrags ist der schweizerische Rechtsextremismus im internationalen Vergleich. Auf breiter Datenbasis wird gezeigt, dass der Umfang des rechtsextremen Potentials in der Schweiz bestenfalls nur geringfügig unter dem Durchschnitt anderer westeuropäischer Länder liegt. Für die geringe Grösse des rechtsextremen Potentials und das Fehlen einer starken und stabilen rechtsextremen Partei oder Organisation lassen sich mindestens fünf Gründe angeben: Die bisherige Vermeidung von Verunsicherungen durch schwere Wirtschafts- und Beschäftigungskrisen und durch Globalisierungsprozesse; die politische Kultur der Schweiz, die sich anderen Ländern gegenüber besonders durch die breite Unterstützung der Grundrechte auf eigene Sprache und Kultur auszeichnet; die direkte Demokratie, in der rechtsextreme Einstellungen temporär politisch relevant werden können, ohne dass sie institutionell stabilisiert würden; das System der etablierten bürgerlichen Parteien, die den grössten Teil des rechtsextremen Potentials politisch integrieren; die programmatische Ausrichtung der potentiell rechtsextremen Parteien, die sie daran hindert, zum zeitlich stabilen organisatorischen Zentrum eines starken schweizerischen Rechtsextremismus zu werden.     

Bizarre impalement fatalities--where is the implement?

Two fatalities due to unusual impalement injuries are reported. (1) A large branch broken off during a storm had entered a passing car and perforated the chest of the driver and the back of the seat. The chest organs were grossly lacerated. The car was subsequently stopped by another tree and this second impact removed the wood from the body. (2) A man suffered anorectal impalement by the leg of a stool turned upside down. He had introduced one stool leg into his anus for sexual stimulation and fell onto it. This resulted in a wound channel 36 cm long including perforation of the rectum, urinary bladder, mesentery, transverse mesocolon and liver. Before autopsy, the mode of death was unclear because the man had removed the stool leg himself, his wife had hidden the stool from the scene, and there were no relevant external injuries. In both cases, a reliable reconstruction required investigation of the scene and consideration of extremely unlikely circumstances or of bizarre human activities.     

Besprechungen

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<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ansgar Klein,Ruud Koopmans,Heiko Geiling</Emphasis> (Hg.): Globalisierung,Partizipation, Protest

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