Participatory effects of regional authority: decentralisation and political participation in comparative perspective

This article studies political participation in the context of decentralisation in Europe. Recent secession attempts demonstrate how the demand for decentralisation energises citizens. Yet the fact that decentralised institutions, initially, were endorsed to increase citizens’ participation is often neglected. In order to test this contention empirically, three theoretically informed arguments are developed, making use of the most recent data on regional authority for 282 regions in 20 European countries. Results of three-level hierarchical models lend support to the arguments. Regional self-rule increases probabilities to engage only in more demanding and less common forms of participation. It also acts as a political opportunity structure, moderating the influence of individual driving forces of participation. Participatory effects on protest activity, however, turn out to be endogenous, as the instrumental variable analysis indicates that decentralisation does not increase protest, but rather the reverse. These findings seem relevant to the current heated debates both on secession attempts and waning political involvement.     

University–industry collaboration and regional wealth

Substantial research has been conducted towards understanding why and how universities shape regional wealth and competitiveness. In this paper we extend this literature to examine empirically causal relationships between university-induced knowledge spillovers and regional wealth using a hand collected panel data set from 1998 to 2012. Literature has identified three possible effects of causality, namely that a university exogenously fosters and spurs regional wealth, second that universities are endogenously shaped by regional wealth and finally that regional wealth and universities follow an interlinked and co-evolutionary path. Our findings support the latter direction in that universities and their regional endowment are linked together.     

How a firm can induce legislators to adopt a bad policy

This paper shows why a majority of legislators may vote for a policy that benefits a firm but harms all legislators. The firm may induce legislators to support the policy by suggesting that it is more likely to invest in a district where voters or their representative support the policy. In equilibrium, no one vote may be decisive, so each legislator who seeks the firm’s investment votes for the policy, though all legislators would be better off if they all voted against the policy. And when votes reveal information about the district, the firm’s implicit promise or threat can be credible. Unlike influence mechanisms based on contributions or bribes, the behavior considered is time consistent and in line with the low campaign contributions by special interests.     

Regional security arrangements as a filter for norm diffusion: the African Union,the European Union and the responsibility to protect

Regional security arrangements play a central role in modifying emerging norms as they travel from the global to the local level. This process of norm localization is shaped by various factors such as the characteristics of regional security cultures, corresponding resonance with the emerging norm, institutional voice opportunities, and mechanisms of framing and pruning as they are utilized by norm entrepreneurs. The article applies this analytical framework to the localization of the responsibility to protect (R2P) norm by the African Union and the European Union. Subsequently, the paper examines how localization of the R2P norm in both regions affected their reactions to the Libyan crisis in 2011. It also examines the likely ramifications that the intervention may have on the future reception of the R2P by African and European actors.     

Democracy,Regional Security Institutions,and Rivalry Mitigation: Evidence From Europe,South America,and Asia

The fact that democracies maintain peaceful relations with each other is regarded as one of the few law-like correlations in international relations, but the causes of this empirical phenomenon remain contested. This paper tries to fill this theoretical gap by attributing the remarkable stability between democracies to inter-democratic institutions. At the same time, it contributes to the debate on the need to differentiate among international organizations in order to assess their peace-building effects. We identify transnational and trans-governmental linkages as crucial features that distinguish inter-democratic from traditional institutions with non-democratic or mixed membership. In order to explain these institutions’ peace-building effect, we analyze the impact of international institutions on rivalry mitigation with a view to five pairs of states: France-Germany, Greece-Turkey, Argentina-Brazil, Indonesia-Malaysia, and Japan-South Korea. Those dyads all look back at a history of rivalry, conflict, and mutual threat perceptions, and they are located in highly institutionalized regional settings but vary with regard to their political regime type. The controlled comparison of cases demonstrates that the embeddedness of international institutions in transnational and trans-governmental linkages corresponds to each member's regime type and that these institutional differences are responsible for the varying extent of rivalry mitigation.     

The trade and fiscal impact of EU/ACP economic partnership agreements on West African countries

The European Union is currently negotiating free trade agreements, called Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs), with African countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific countries. The paper empirically assesses the impact of the EPAs on trade flows and government revenue for 14 West African countries. The results indicate that the decline in import duties due to the preferential tariff elimination might be of some cause for concern and that complementary fiscal and economic policies have to be implemented before or at the time the EPAs come into force.     

Autopsy at 2 months after death: brain is satisfactorily preserved for neuropathology

Disclosure of neurological disorders by neuropathological examination may be one important aim of forensic autopsies. There are insufficient data on human brain tissue preservation after prolonged postmortem periods. Here, we describe neuropathological findings in a brain of a 77-year-old woman that was fixed at autopsy 2 months after death. The body had been stored in a cooling chamber at 3 degrees C temperature. Gross inspection of the brain was satisfactorily possible. Histomorphology was excellently preserved. Many histochemical and immunohistochemical stains allowed satisfactory neuropathological evaluation of brain tissue and the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, some immunohistochemical stainings repeatedly yielded negative or suboptimal results. We conclude that neuropathological examination of human brain tissue extracted from the skull and fixed after prolonged body storage in a cool environment is feasible for forensic diagnosis of neurological disorders even several months after death. However, in such cases the significance of negative immunohistochemical staining results must be interpreted with caution.     

Backups and the right to be forgotten in the GDPR: An uneasy relationship

The recent enforcement of the GDPR has put extra burdens to data controllers operating within the EU. Beyond other challenges, the exercise of the Right to be Forgotten by individuals who request erasure of their personal information has also become a thorny issue when applied to backups and archives. In this paper, we discuss the GDPR forgetting requirements in respect with their impact on the backup and archiving procedures stipulated by the modern security standards. We specifically examine the implications of erasure requests on current IT backup systems and we highlight a number of envisaged organizational, business and technical challenges pertained to the widely known backup standards, data retention policies, backup mediums, search services, and ERP systems.     

In the Line of Fire—21st-Century Approach to an Ancient War Injury

Abstract:  Authentic black-powder muzzle-loader weapons or replicas are used today primarily for re-enactments of historic battles. A lay actor playing the role of a Prussian infantryman sustained life-threatening gunshot injuries during a recent re-enactment of a historic battle of the Sixth Coalition. As only blank historic muzzle-loading weaponry was used, the origin of the missile causing the wounding was initially unclear. Further investigation revealed a ramrod that had been propelled out of the barrel of another gunner's smooth-bore gun as cause of injury. The ramrod was hurled on a trajectory of more than 20 m, breaking the victim's shouldered barrel and hitting the victim resulting in severe abdominal, thoracic, and upper limb injuries. The critical incidents while handling muzzle-loading weaponry leading to premature discharge are elucidated. Furthermore, this report demonstrates how actual diagnostics and subsequent surgical treatment enabled this infantryman to survive an injury to which his comrades-in-arms would have succumbed 200 years ago.     

“One size fits all”? Convergence in international corporate social responsibility communication—A comparative study of CSR mission statements in the United States and India

So far, no study has investigated determinants that shape corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication in mission statements, as previous studies have focused on CSR reports and homepages. Our study, which is based on institutional theory, fills this gap. By conducting a directed content analysis of the statements of 200 listed companies in the United States and India, we examine the content conveyed with respect to 5 CSR dimensions, the 5 most prominent stakeholder groups, and additional components of CSR mission statements. Moreover, we examine whether Unted States and Indian companies' CSR communication varies according to their (a) home country, (b) industry affiliation, (c) degree of internationalization, (d) company size, (e) profitability, (f) founding year, (g) length of the CSR mission statement, and (h) compliance with the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative. Whereas the findings reveal that the companies' home country, degree of internationalization, and size have no considerable bearing on their CSR communication, we evidence that their communication can be explained by their industry affiliation, the profitability ratio return on assets, founding year, length of the statement, and compliance with the Global Reporting Initiative guidelines. Moreover, we explain the cross-country conformity of CSR communication by a convergence towards global and universal CSR communication approaches.