On the Electoral Relevance of Education Policy in the German Länder

Education policy in Germany experienced a boom throughout the 2000s. Numerous reforms were implemented, quite far-reaching shifts of party programmes occurred, and the scope of institutions with an educational mandate widened considerably. At the same time, Landtag elections came to be seen as less dominated by federal politics. Yet we still know little about education policy's electoral relevance. The present article, following a most-likely design, analyses those five Landtag elections that were held since the reform of federalism in 2006 for which the importance of education policy ought to have been highest. It turns out that even though education is one of the very few policies which the Länder can decide upon autonomously, and despite the recent upsurge of regional factors in determining the outcomes of such second-order elections, nearly all Landtag elections are won or lost on other battlefields.     

The 2013 South Tyrolean Election: The End of SVP Hegemony

The results of the 2013 South Tyrolean elections, held on 27 October, caused major changes in the political system of the autonomy. For the first time since the Second World War the South Tyrolean People's Party (SVP) lost its absolute majority. While the German secessionist parties increased their electoral support, the Italian parties suffered heavy electoral losses, thus leading to an under-representation of Italian speakers in the political institutions. The election report shows how the electoral results affect the South Tyrolean system of ethnic proportional representation, which is characterized by an increasing asymmetry.     

Literatur

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Regulating and Combating Underground Banking

In combating and regulating underground banking, a choice can be made of roughly two models, the risk model and the assimilation model. The risk model comes down to a complete prohibition of underground banking combined with an active investigation and prosecution policy. In the assimilation model, underground banking is recognised as a form of financial services but at the same time, all rules that generally apply to financial services are declared applicable to underground bankers. An effort is made simultaneously to lower the threshold of the formal banking system. The international recommendations and legislation—in particular of the Financial Action Task Force and the European Union—take the assimilation model as their starting point, albeit that no or hardly any attention is paid to the role of the formal banking system. With that, relatively little account is taken as yet in the international community of the historic and socio-economic backgrounds of informal banking systems, their embedment in different cultures and the advantages of the services offered. Professor of Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Law, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology.     

Die Empfehlungen zur Änderung des Parteiengesetzes

Zusammenfassung Die Kommission unabh?ngiger Sachverst?ndiger (Kommission) hat am 18.7. 2001 ihren Bericht mit Empfehlungen für ?nderungen des Parteiengesetzes dem Bundespr?sidenten übergeben (Kommission 2001). Aus diesem aktuellen Anlass werden nachfolgend zun?chst die Arbeitsweise der Kommission betrachtet und anschlie?end einige ihrer Empfehlungen einer kritischen Würdigung unterzogen.     

An Empirical Analysis of Soviet Economic Relations with Developing Countries

Soviet trade with the developing countries is analyzed using formal statistical techniques. Soviet imports of primary products are found to grow more rapidly but to be no more stable than imports of these products by market economies. Evidence is found of Soviet price discrimination in trade in favor of LDC members of the CMEA and against LDCs with which it has bilateral clearing agreements (BCAs). BCAs are correlated with greater trade volumes, relatively diverse export structures and more stable LDC exports to the Soviet Union. No evidence exists that Soviet aid deliveries are linked systematically with later Soviet imports. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: 124, 421, 443