Bad banks: a proposal based on German financial history

In conventional bad bank models, the estimated fundamental value of the illiquid assets is paid to the ailing bank, thereby leaving considerable economic risk with the asset management company. In this paper, a different approach is proposed which combines the bad bank solution with equalization claims, an instrument that has successfully been used in two previous German debt crises. The main idea is to temporarily swap toxic assets for government bonds with an open maturity date. This approach not only leaves total losses with the banks, but also avoids the problem of evaluating the toxic assets in advance. The current German bad bank legislation largely follows this idea, but suffers severely from unnecessary complexity and lack of participation by commercial banks.     

Women's bread — men's capital

The family enterprises of small rural entrepreneurs in proto-industrial textile production have been little studied so far. This article focuses on the ways in which family labor assists in entrepreneurial activities and nonindustrial activities within the domestic unit contribute to the creation of proto-industrial capital. The empirical material on early modern Zurich (Switzerland) documents large household economies among entrepreneurs engaging in agriculture as well as among drapers who employ their family labor in weaving or in ancillary tasks connected with the activity of putting out dependent weavers. It also demonstrates an association between proto-industrial entrepreneurship and baking, the latter often being performed by female family labor. This finding is explained by the use of bread as a means of paying workers and by the lack of access to capital markets: baking implies the creation of a surplus value within the family economy that can be directly converted into proto-industrial capital.     

Academic faculty governance and recruitment decisions

We analyze the implications of the governance structure in academic faculties for their recruitment decisions when competing for new researchers. The value to individual members through social interaction within the faculty depends on the average status of their fellow members. In recruitment decisions, incumbent members trade off the effect of entry on average faculty status against alternative uses of the recruitment budget if no entry takes place. We show that the best candidates join the best faculties but that they receive lower wages than some lesser ranking candidates. We also study the allocation of surplus created by the entry of a new faculty member and show that faculties with symmetric status distributions maximize their joint surplus under majority voting.     

The Institutional Power of Western European Parliaments: A Multidimensional Analysis

Parliaments are more than legislative bodies. However, we lack an adequate understanding of the theoretical relationship between different facets of parliamentary activity or ‘parliamentary functions’. Relying on the principal–agent framework, this article argues theoretically that parliamentary power is a multidimensional concept comprising three distinct mechanisms to ensure policy outputs in line with the collective preferences of parliaments: direct influence on policymaking, the ex ante selection of external officeholders, and the ex post control of the cabinet. These mechanisms mirror the classic legislative, electoral, and control functions of parliaments. Empirically, the paper uses factor analysis of newly developed indicators for electoral powers and established measures of legislative and control resources to show that the institutional powers of 15 Western European parliaments comprise four distinct dimensions. These dimensions match the three theoretically derived mechanisms with committee power as an additional factor. Locating the 15 parliaments in this multidimensional space of parliamentary powers demonstrates that classifications based solely on lawmaking lead to biased assessments of parliamentary strength and weakness. Instead, the paper provides a more nuanced picture of the ways in which Western European parliaments can influence policymaking under the conditions of delegation.     

Living in the world risk society

Abstract

In a world risk society, we must distinguish between ecological and financial dangers, which can be conceptualized as side effects, and the threat from terrorist networks as intentional catastrophes; the principle of deliberately exploiting the vulnerability of modern civil society replaces the principle of chance and accident.     

The Other Side of the COIN: Private Security Companies and Counterinsurgency Operations

The Iraq War was a watershed regarding the scope of battlefield support by Private Security Companies (PSC). Skeptics soon raised concerns about these new actors being an impediment to the success of the very same operations they are meant to support. According to the critics, PSCs are grist to the mill for insurgents as they employ aggressive tactics and thereby alienate the population, cause credibility problems because they enjoy impunity, and increase coordination problems since they are not subordinated under the military chain of command. This article argues that this is not a necessary result of their employment, but rather the consequence of a lack of preparedness to operate alongside PSCs. However, the military is accustomed to adapting to new unexpected circumstances. Hence, when problems occurred, the armed forces underwent a trial and error learning process that improved PSC employment. The empirical picture supports this view. Initially, the counterinsurgency effort did indeed suffer from the actions, lack of oversight, and lack of coordination of PSCs. However, over the course of the Iraq War, most of the shortfalls were either improved significantly or even resolved.     

Zur Funktion normierter Prinzipien im Umweltrecht

Zusammenfassung  Die Dogmatik normierter Prinzipien im einfachen Gesetzesrecht ist unterbelichtet. Das ver?nderte Verh?ltnis von Staat und Gesellschaft führt zu einer neuen Sicht auf die traditionellen Rechtsfiguren. Gerade normierten Prinzipien wachsen insbesondere unter dem Governance-Blickwinkel neue, weitere Funktionen zu. Das l?sst sich am Beispiel der Produktverantwortung zeigen. In der Konsequenz lassen sich solche Prinzipien als “hybride Normen” einordnen.     

Problems of a Concept of European Citizenship

Abstract: The article explores the possible content of the newly established institution of ‘Citizenship of the Union” as stipulated in Articles 8–8d of the EU Treaty. Within the broad scope of varying historical meanings which the concept of citizenship has undergone in the last two thousand years its main relevance must be found in its affiliation with the modern constitutional nation-state and its basic political feature, namely its anti-primordialism and its representative character. Although the European Community does not satisfy the conditions of democratic representation which are essential for the constitutional nation-state, the idea of citizenship can acquire a new meaning within the framework of the EU in that it is disconnected both from nationality and from national identity and opens the space for actions of which the significance is no longer defined by the territorial boundaries of the nation-state.     

Vom generellen Vorrang des Straßenbaus vor dem Naturschutz in der Rechtsprechung

In der Rechtssprechung des BVerwG haben die Belange, die für den Straßenbau sprechen, gegenüber den Belangen des Natur- und Landschaftsschutzes grundsätzlich ein größeres Gewicht. Dies wird besonders deutlich bei der Behandlung von Alternativen zu dem planfestgestellten Vorhaben (I.), der Beurteilung der Auswahl von Natura-2000-Gebieten (II.) und der Einordnung der Eingriffsregelung (III.).