Variation in policy success: radical right populism and migration policy

How do radical right populist parties influence government policies in their core issue of immigration? This article provides a systematic analysis of the direct and indirect effects of radical right anti-immigration parties on migration policy reforms in 17 West European countries from 1990 to 2014. Insights from migration policy theory serve to explain variations in the migration policy success of the radical right. While previous studies mostly treat migration policy as uniform, it is argued that this approach neglects the distinct political logics of immigration and integration policy. This article reveals significant variations in policy success by policy area. While immigration policies have become more liberal despite the electoral success of the radical right, when the radical right is in government office it enacts more restrictions in integration policies. Accordingly, anti-immigrant mobilisation is more likely to influence immigrants’ rights than their actual numbers.     

Risk vs Reward Strategies in Indirect Presidential Elections: Political Parties and the Selection of Presidential Electors in Germany, 1949–2017

Parties across parliamentary republics compete fiercely over capturing the presidential office. However, they are often torn between seeing their preferred candidate elected and exploiting the election for publicity purposes. The German case, specifically parties’ ability to nominate extra-parliamentarian electors (EPEs) as part of the electoral college, offers a particularly interesting perspective on how parties balance these competing goals. While EPEs allow parties to boost their profile and strengthen ties with selected groups, they also present a risk factor as their voting behaviour is more difficult to predict. Based on a novel data set on party delegations in German presidential elections, 1949–2017, the analysis shows that – contrary to traditional assumptions – competition in the electoral college did not play a role in EPE nominations. Rather, party strategies were influenced by the varying signalling power of the elections. Parties were more risk-averse and nominated fewer EPEs during grand coalitions, when they were part of the federal government, or when federal elections approached, yet nominated more EPEs when they had a larger support base to reward. The results call for further comparative research on indirect elections and different types of EPEs in Germany.     

Visiting Mechanisms to Eradicate Torture: A Foucaultian Analysis

In this Article, I examine the Visiting Mechanisms under the Convention against Torture (CAT) and the Optional Protocol thereto (OPCAT), applying an analytic approach resting on Foucault’s Discipline and Punish. I argue that international Visiting Mechanisms essentially constitute disciplinary apparatuses as depicted by Foucault. However, because they fail to recognise this functional similarity, they do not effectively apply the methods of inducing panoptic power. Most notably the concept of ‘hierarchical observation’ is hardly utilised at all. The two introduced legal entities, the Committee against Torture under CAT, and the Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture under OPCAT, both engage in visits to states with a view to eradicate torture and ill-treatment throughout the world. Critically examining their systemic design and practises reveals that the preventative ante hoc mandate of the Subcommittee is more effective than the post hoc inquiries of the Committee. Nevertheless, because both entities unfortunately fail to fully utilise panoptic power, the article concludes by offering a set of recommendations for both bodies that could arguably enhance their overall effectiveness.     

What Role for Private Rule-Making in Global Environmental Governance? Analysing the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

This article assesses the recent trend of rule-making by private multi-stakeholder initiatives – a hitherto largely unnoticed phenomenon in global environmental governance – by analysing the multiple functions and impacts of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), one of the best-known private institutions in global environmental politics. After clarifying the general context of private governance, I turn to the specific function of private rule-making institutions. I argue that rule-making can be understood as the act of agreeing on both constitutive and regulative rules that prescribe the behaviour of a specific group of actors, whether individuals or organisations. Further, I argue that the FSC, as one example of private rule-making in world politics, performs three additional functions that shape the contours of global governance: (1) facilitating a solution to complex multi-interest problems, (2) brokering knowledge and norms among a wide range of stakeholders, and (3) constituting a learning network in environmental governance.     

The Dynamics of Inertia: Institutional Persistence and Change in Telecommunications and Health Care

Important strands of the new institutionalism assume that the efficiency of institutions declines over time. Institutions, according to this view, are more stable than their environment, which supposedly results in an ever increasing misfit. This misfit, it is hypothesized, can only be corrected by the creative destruction of the institutions. The article takes issue with this view. Using case studies from the international telecommunications regime and the German health care system, it argues that institutional persistence does not necessarily prevent institutional adaptation. While it is an obstacle to creative destruction, it is compatible with other forms of institutional transformation, which have not received much attention from institutionalist scholars. Inert structures can be patched up with new structures or transposed to new functions. The article analyzes patching up and transposition as distinct modes of institutional change, and assesses their adaptive potential.     

Individual identification of fallow deer using microsatellite polymorphism in a case of poaching]

The paper reports on molecular biological investigations in a case of poaching which resulted in considerable damage for property. Blood traces from poaching sites have been analysed and compared with blood from two knives and a pair of trousers of the suspects. In two of three poaching sites, genomic DNA could be amplified by PCR and assigned to fallow deer. The authors could demonstrate identical allelic combinations between one of the poaching sites and a part of the traces. Problems of the legal appreciation in this case are described.