Die Zitadellengesellschaft: Soziale Exklusion durch Privatisierung und Befestigung urbaner Lebenswelten

In den Vereinigten Staaten wie auch in einer Reihe anderer westlicher Industrienationen ist seit einiger Zeit eine radikale Privatisierung und Befestigung von urbanen Lebensr?umen zu verzeichnen. In sogenannten „gated communities“ wird kollektiver und traditionell ?ffentlich genutzter Raum zum interdiktorischen Raum redefiniert. Der breiten ?ffentlichkeit wird der Zutritt zu diesen Territorien mit Hilfe von Z?unen, Mauern und überwachung der Zug?nge durch moderne Sicherheitssysteme bzw. durch Angeh?rige privater Sicherheitsdienste verwehrt. Hauptziel dieser Einrichtungen ist die soziale Exklusion unerwünschter Personen zur Sicherstellung physischer, sozialer und kultureller Integrit?t der Bewohner. Inzwischen existieren in den USA sch?tzungsweise mehr als 20.000 dieser Anlagen, in denen etwa acht Millionen Menschen Zuflucht vor den insbesondere in den Gro?st?dten virulenten sozialen Problemen suchen. Die radikale r?umliche Abschottung hat jedoch gravierende soziale, kulturelle, politische und psychische Konsequenzen. In diesem Beitrag werden Ursachen, Typen und Formen der als „Zitadellen der Sicherheit“ bezeichneten Lebensr?ume sowie Konsequenzen ihrer Proliferation kritisch diskutiert.     

Books in review

the author of numberous works in U.S. Jewish history and culture. Her most recent book is The Wonders of America: Reinventing Jewish Culture, 1880–1950.     

AGAINST THE SPIRIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: THE MAKING OF TASMANIAN TOWN AND COUNTRY PLANNING LEGISLATION

Abstract: Town planning as part of a wider program of postwar reconstruction gained support in Tasmania in the 1940s. This support resulted in the passage of the Town and Country Planning Act 1944, the first major major piece of town planning legislation in Tasmania. This article examines the background to this statute, focusing on the deliberations of a joint committee of parliament appointed to hear the views of interested parties on town planning. Particular attention is devoted to the dispute over whether municipal councils or a town planning board with wide powers should regulate town planning. The land use planning reforms introduced in 1993 are also assessed.     

Upholding justice in an unjust world: a practitioner's view of public administration ethics

This article presents the author's approach to profes sional ethics as a practitioner of public adrninistra tion. Public administrators are held to be personally responsible for their actions. Therefore, professional ethical standards are both possible and necessary, not only to prevent: wrongdoing but also to guide and promote right behavior. An ideally just regime is first hypothesized, based on the principles of justice developed in John Rawls's A Theory of Justice. A normative ethical standard of neutral competence is then postulated for agents of such a hypothetical regime- The author then addresses the implications of real-world injustice, and discusses the exceptions to neutral competence which are justifiable when confronted by injustice. The suggested approach establishes a high ethical st-andard, providing justification for not only avoiding wrongdoing, but also for doing right. This approach also provides practical and realistic guidance for et.hica1 decision-making. Both justifiability and applicability are held to be necessary if such an ethical. system is to be followed by public administrators.     

危机中的俄罗斯:一个超级能源大国的终结

叶利钦时期俄罗斯的掠夺式资本主义导致了后苏联时期俄罗斯经济转型的灾难性后果。普京当政后对这一政策进行了大幅修正,转而奉行传统俄罗斯式的反市场经济模式。强力部门人士进入权力核心,国家控制取代市场运营成为主要战略。重组能源部门并借此巩固新的政治权力基础,进而恢复俄罗斯超级大国地位,构成了普京当局的优先政策。俄罗斯经济在普京作为俄罗斯总统任内的强势复苏似乎标志着俄构建能源超级大国的战略进展顺利,但金融危机的冲击暴露了现存俄罗斯制度的危险性。俄已经错过了调整经济结构的宝贵机会,克里姆林宫将能源同时作为财富增长和外交杠杆的时代已经结束。在这一背景下,梅普共治体制的改革以及经济政策的调整也许将成为可能。但历史的惯性和重负经常使俄在经历混乱失序后回归原点。俄罗斯市场经济的转型必将是一个漫长的过程。     

Das Parlament in der Mediengesellschaft — Verschränkungen zwischen parlamentarischer und massenmedialer Arena

The assumed decline of parliaments’ power in the political decision making process is blamed on a complex social and political transformation. Among others, changes in the structures of the public space, especially the emergence of mass communication, represent a crucial challenge for parliamentary representation. Parliaments depend on a functioning external communication, since their relations to the public are a central source of parliamentary legitimacy and power. In two fields one can observe an evident overlapping between the systems of parliament and mass media: in parliament’s management of communication and in parliament’s procedures of opinion forming and decision making. In a case study of the German Bundestag, processes of adaptation to the structures of the mass media system can be found in these areas. Adaptation comes to its limits where it collides with the necessity to provide space for bargaining processes. Furthermore, the processes of adaptation illustrate how political actors realize and structurally actualize the ambigious relationship between publicity and power.     

The UN Global Compact and the Global Governance of Corporate Social Responsibility: Complex Multilateralism for a More Human Globalisation?

In recent years, questions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) have developed into a global policy issue. Multinational corporations, as high-profile representatives of economic transnationalisation and globalisation, have come under ever closer scrutiny in regard to their actual development impact, especially in Third World countries. The UN Global Compact as an example for evolving “complex multilateralism on a global level” aims at solving two problems at once, namely the implementation of minimum standards of “good corporate conduct” and socio-economic development, especially of poor countries. In a paradigmatic policy shift, the United Nations has fostered close partnerships with global business to promote CSR and socio-economic development, thereby opening the UN system to private business interests. This shift has been criticised by many civil society actors. Despite its remarkable achievements, the Global Compact reveals many problems of contemporary global governance related to its understanding of globalisation, the implementation and control of its core norms and rules as well as in regard to issues of transparency and democratic legitimacy. Finally, the Global Compact serves to illustrate how international institutions try to adapt to the growing complexity of development and economic governance issues and the larger influence of non-state actors in the global political economy.     

Democracy out of Reason? Comment on Rainer Forst's “The Rule of Reasons”

In my paper, I comment on Rainer Forst's paper in this issue. I raise doubts as to whether the justification of democracy emerges from a fundamental moral right to reciprocal and general justification, as Forst claims. His basic argument appears questionable because democracy is different from a "hypothetical-consent-conception" of moral legitimacy, which limits as well as enables democratic legitimacy. The former cannot, however, justify the latter through an argument centered on self-government: Such an argument relies heavily on the possibility of consensus, thus neglecting the crucial phenomenon of disagreement or dissent. As a result of not adequately dealing with this phenomenon, the argument is unable to account for the basic democratic principle of majority rule as the remedy at hand.     

Naturschutzrecht im Zeichen des Klimawandels

Zusammenfassung  Der Aufsatz er?rtert naturschutzrechtliche Problembereiche, die im Hinblick auf die Adaption an den Klimawandel von besonderer Bedeutung sind. Hierzu z?hlen die Anpassung und Dynamisierung der Schutzgebietskonzepte und des Schutzes von Natur in der Fl?che, die Realisierung von Biotopverbünden als Infrastrukturen zur Anpassung wie auch der Umgang mit gebietsfremden Arten. Um den Anpassungsbedarf des Naturschutzrechts besser absch?tzen zu k?nnen, stellt der Aufsatz einleitend die m?glichen klimatischen Folgen für Natur und Landschaft dar.