Gemeindeaufsicht ein Spielball der (Partei-)Politik?

Für die politische Zusammensetzung der NÖ Landesregierung ist das Stärkeverhältnis der Parteien im NÖ Landtag maßgeblich. Ändern sich auf Grund des Ergebnisses einer Landtagswahl die Machtverhältnisse im Landtag, bedingt dies regelmäßig auch eine Änderung der Geschäftsordnung (Geschäftsverteilung) der Landesregierung. So geschehen nach der letzten Landtagswahl 2008. Nachstehend sollen die sich daraus ergebenden Probleme hinsichtlich der Gemeindeaufsicht einer näheren Betrachtung unterzogen werden.     

Sentences by Mexican Indian Peasants

Much of the existing literature on the replacement of sharecropping by wage labour in the cotton South during the post‐Depression era tends to focus on developments internal to the United States and to the South as a region. As such, it fails to provide a more global analysis which takes into account the fact that Southern cotton production was integrally tied to a world economy. This article addresses these shortcomings by examining how changes in the class structure of Southern cotton production had an impact on both foreign cotton production and the rise of the man‐made fibre industries between 1930 and 1950. This analysis attempts to avoid some of the major criticisms levelled against dependency theories and world‐system approaches, while showing how a global approach provides a more complete understanding of the relationships between the internal and external socio‐conomic factors which contributed to this historical transformation.     

Vehicle Theft Reduction in Germany: The Long-Term Effectiveness of Electronic Immobilisation

From 1995 on all new vehicles sold in Germany must be fitted with an electronic immobiliser. This measure was part of a comprehensive police plan which, adopted in 1994, reacted to the unprecedented increase in vehicle theft after German re-unification and the breakdown of the former USSR. Whilst international research has already shown that electronic immobilisation is an effective tool to reduce vehicle thefts, comparable studies for Germany have not existed. Based on the situational crime prevention approach, this study indicates that the substantial vehicle theft reductions recorded over the last 15 years in Germany can be explained in particular by the introduction of electronic immobilisers as a ‘target hardening’ mechanism. It will be shown that immobilisers not only effectively obstruct opportunistic vehicle thieves, but also increase the efforts of professional vehicle trafficking groups. Since an external impact evaluation has never been planned for this measure, the study followed a mixed methods approach in using available police data as well as complementary interviews with key experts.     

Responsibilities for Human Capabilities: Avoiding a Comprehensive Global Program

Violence, poverty, and illness are all too prevalent in our world. In order to alleviate their hold systematically, we need normative schemes with a global reach and with definite responsibilities. Martha Nussbaum’s human capabilities theory (Martha Nussbaum 2006) provides us with an insightful example. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (The United Nations 1948), however, already includes most of the human capabilities central to Nussbaum’s theory, and violence, poverty, and illness usually appear as objectionable enough without any additional reference to capabilities. In the current article, the author argues that the primary global responsibilities can mainly be established without Nussbaum’s account of capabilities. The human rights-based approach is more promising for this purpose (Jack Donnelly 2007; Abigail Gosselin, Human Rights Review 8:35–52, 2006; Ivar Kolstad, Human Rights Review, doi:, 2008). However, the author also contends that Nussbaum’s theory may be very instructive as a relatively comprehensive moral approach that supplements the human rights view and inspires its adherents to assume secondary responsibilities in addition to the primary ones. Once we learn to see Nussbaum’s agenda in this way, not as the global program, but as one of the many reasonable and relatively comprehensive views in the global background culture, we can also learn to cultivate the responsibilities it implies in a duly dialogical way.     

The Politics of Competitive Tendering: Political Orientation and Attitudes towards Contracting Out among Finnish Local Politicians

Using survey data on Finnish local politicians (n = 364) we examine the extent to which political orientation affects attitudes towards and perceptions of competitive tendering in social and health service provision. Expectation of cost benefits turns out to be the most important factor accounting for willingness to increase the usage of competitive tendering. The perceived positive impact of tendering on local democracy is also related to local politicians' readiness to implement reforms. However, political orientation does have a strong effect on politicians' perceptions. We also consider whether there are mitigating factors that could mask the relationship between political orientation and attitudes towards tendering. We identify one such factor, municipal employment: public-sector employees form a kind of informal ‘interest group’ resisting public-sector reforms in municipal decision making. In general, our results suggest that macro-level studies on competitive tendering underestimate the effects of political ideology on local decision making.     

The Goldkrieg: Revaluing the Bundesbank's reserves and the politics of EMU

In May and June 1997, Germany's commitment to Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) underwent its most serious test ever when the Bundesbank and the government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl clashed openly over the government's plans to revalue the country's gold reserves. Faced with a budget shortfall and strong political opposition to either tax increases or spending cuts, Finance Minister Waigel attempted to introduce a modest change in the Bundesbank's bookkeeping procedures to bring them in line with the standard practices at other European central banks. The Bundesbank resisted, arguing that the changes would infringe upon its closely guarded independence. This paper explores the political and economic circumstances behind the conflict.