To adapt or to defend? Comparing position shifts among Bundestag candidates between 2013 and 2017

In this research note, candidate survey data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) is used to analyse positional shifts of German Bundestag parties between 2013 and 2017. Two developments make Germany a particularly interesting case: (1) the liberal but also controversial policies of the Merkel cabinet during the European refugee crisis and (2) the change of leadership within the right-wing populist party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Applying scaling techniques to locate candidates of both elections in the same two-dimensional policy space, the analysis demonstrates that in 2017 the AfD took a distinct radical right position in the party system of Germany. Moreover, the study finds that almost all parties moved to the right on the cultural left–right dimension in 2017, whereas for the economic left–right dimension this has not been the case. Contrary to the mantra of an ideological delineation against right-wing populism, there has been a robust socio-political conservative shift in the German party system.     

Verminderte Anforderungen an die FFH-Verträglichkeisprüfung und die Prüfung artenschutzrechtlicher Verbotstatbestände, gesteigerte Darlegungslast für ein faktisches Vogelschutzgebiet nach dem Beschluss des BVerwG vom 13. März 2008

Zusammenfassung  Mit den Beschlüssen vom 13. M?rz 2008 zur BAB A 4 (“agdbergtunnel”) hat der 9. Senat des BVerwG die strengen Ma?st?be, die er mit dem Urteil zur “Westumfahrung Halle” für die Prüfung der FFH-Vertr?glichkeit und artenschutzrechtlicher Verbotstatbest?nde gesetzt hat, erheblich abgeschw?cht. Auf der andern Seite wurden die Anforderungen an die Darlegung eines faktischen Vogelschutzgebiets und der Verletzung artenschutzrechtlicher Verbotstatbest?nde für potentielle Kl?ger versch?rft.     

Global resource grabs,agribusiness concentration and the smallholder: two West African case studies

This paper places land grabbing within the context of developments within agribusiness within the last 30 years, tracing the various trajectories of increasing competition and concentration and pressures on commodity prices that have resulted in increasing dispossession of smallholders and a move in some agri-food chains towards large estate production. The paper explores the ways in which contemporary agricultural policies and neoliberal market reforms reflect these developments and examines recent framing of land policies in Africa in the context of the development of agrarian capital and agribusiness. Competitiveness results in dispossession of less successful smallholders from below by commercial smallholders, and from above by large estates vertically integrated into agribusiness marketing chains. This is illustrated with examples from the cocoa sector in Côte d'Ivoire and pineapples in Ghana.