Repraesentatio identitatis : l’idée de représentation politique en débat dans la République de Genève lors de la crise de 1707

In the Republic of Geneva, the Small Council and the Great Council considered themselves to be representative of the people, although they were not elected by citizens, but were mutually co-opted instead. There were still elections by the General Council, the assembly of all burgesses and citizens, but they were only meant to promote the members of these co-opted councils to particular magistracies. During the political crisis of 1707, government thinkers tried to justify in theory this conception of representation, which is similar to what the German legal philosopher Hasso Hofmann called repraesentatio identitatis. For them, the Small and the Great Councils were inherently representative of the people owing to their large numbers and their concern for the public interest. The main thinkers of the ‘popular party' not only rejected this argument, but also advocated an alternative political model, with a redistribution of powers between the Councils and the restoration in practice of the sovereignty of the General Council, which it should directly exert. On either side, no project of representative government – in the sense that the Small and the Great Councils would be elected by the people – was ever put forward in these debates.     

Does the messenger matter? A comparison of the effects of Eurosceptic messages communicated by mainstream and radical right-wing parties on citizens’ EU attitudes

The fact that the European elections in 2014 resulted in an unprecedented success for Eurosceptic parties raises questions concerning the influence of political elites on citizens’ Euroscepticism. This paper examines whether Eurosceptic messages have a different impact when communicated by mainstream right-wing parties vs. their more radical counterparts. We do so using data from a survey experiment conducted in Germany in 2013. Our results show that Eurosceptic messages from mainstream parties significantly increase Euroscepticism among voters but that those effects are confined largely to “in”-partisans. Furthermore, when a message is effective among “out”-partisans, it is due to a combined effect of source and message credibility. This holds true for both mainstream and radical right parties suggesting that contrary to expectations, the former do not enjoy any advantage over the latter in terms of perceived credibility.     

Towards an Integration of Distributive Justice,Procedural Justice,and Social Resource Theories

The aim of this paper is to formulate new and more precise predictions regarding behavioral reactions to distributive and procedural injustice via insights from resource theory. The three theories share focus on discrepancies between actual and ideal states of existence as well as on psychological and behavioral reactions to discrepancy. But they also differ from each other in their conceptualizations and theorizing about these matters. Equity theory conceptualizes discrepancy as a perceived mismatch between inputs and outcomes; multiprinciple distributive justice and procedural justice theories view discrepancy as a mismatch between expected and applied distribution and procedural rules, respectively. Resulting feelings of inequity/injustice may trigger attempts to restore justice. Within the framework of resource theory, discrepancy concerns an inappropriate match between the nature of the provided and received resources. This leads to frustration which, in turn, may trigger attempts at retaliation. Limitations of the theories are discussed, with particular focus on their inability to match specific discrepancies with appropriate behavioral reactions. Behavioral predictions are based upon established congruence between behavioral reactions and violated procedural rules as well as type of inequity, as determined via their respective resource isomorphism. Limitations of the present integration attempt are discussed.     

Hepatitis in drug poisonings

In the period between 1983 and 1987 autopsies were carried out on 120 drug victims at the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Hamburg, and 93 cases were serologically tested for hepatitis B. It was found that 50 cases (54%) were positive for anti-HBc, 39 (42%) for anti-HBs, and 5 cases (5%) for HBsAg. The prevalence of hepatitis-B-virus markers was dependent upon the age of the victims. In 81% inflammatory alterations of the liver (including unspecific reactive hepatitis) were diagnosed histologically. The pathogenesis of these serological and pathomorphological findings is discussed. Drug addicts are a group at risk for hepatitis B, and it can spread on account of the epidemiological connection with other risk groups, e.g., prostitutes and homosexuals. Postmortem serological investigations for hepatitis markers proved to be a well-established and reproducible means of differentiating histopathological liver alterations.