Constructing Crime against the Elderly in Swedish Crime Prevention Campaigns

The study investigates how crime prevention activities frame the problem of crime against the elderly, regarding character, causes, effects and solutions. Data was collected through participant observations, interviews and analysis of a film produced by a local crime prevention council in Sweden. It is concluded that crime prevention for seniors produces complex and contradicting images of the problem. In situational crime prevention seniors are warned to look out for strangers stalking them or trying to access their homes. Statements that victimization is uncommon among the old are combined with warnings that invoke images of mysterious ever-present perpetrators. In social crime prevention, where causes and interventions of crime are discussed, crime prevention officers link the problem to established social problems such as drug abuse and juvenile delinquency. This way of framing the problem is typical for a Swedish Social Democratic perspective, where lack of community and integration are defined as causes of social problems. It is concluded that warnings to look out for strangers who ask for help may be at odds with this striving towards community.     

Turkey in Somalia: challenging North/Western interventionism?

Turkey’s humanitarian and development intervention in Somalia is unusually illuminating as a case study to investigate the relations between emerging and conventional interveners in conflict zones since, in this case, Turkey’s intervention carries adequate impetus to resist assimilation with conventional North/Western counterparts. Our starting point is the observation that Turkish and conventional humanitarian and development interveners have struggled to coordinate or cooperate in Somalia. This article investigates what this uncooperative and uncoordinated organisational behaviour means, and we root our investigation in 21 face-to-face interviews with officials working inside the Turkish and conventional intervention in Mogadishu and Nairobi to inquire about how they understand and theorise this discordant behaviour. We use a parsimonious analytical framework of trustworthiness that questions the ‘ability’ and ‘integrity’ of counterpart organisations to explore the intentions behind organisational behaviours. Our analysis of interview narratives evidences challenges to conventional methods of intervention by Turkish organisations and the protection of the same by North/Western organisations. Our concluding discussion interprets these findings in relation to consequences for the status quo hierarchy of global governance and its promotion of liberal intervention norms, and for the utilisation of securitised and remote-control intervention methodologies in conflict zones such as Somalia.     

‘…I TAKE POLITICAL RESPONSIBILITY!’: THE THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL RELATION BETWEEN MINISTERIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND MINISTERIAL RESIGNATIONS IN GERMANY

How is the doctrine of ministerial responsibility applied in the decisions of German ministers (not) to resign? This question arises from an empirical puzzle as well as from a theoretical contradiction. Despite the prominent principle of ministerial responsibility, empirically, the ‘personal consequences' of ministerial scandals in their area of responsibility, display a large variance. Some ministers resign because of rather trifling affairs, others stay in office in spite of serious scandals. Taking into consideration the delegation relationship between the executive and the parliament, in view of the principal‐agent theory, a minister's resignation due to major political or personal misconduct is to be expected. On the other hand, the actual constitutional configuration of ministerial responsibility casts theoretical doubts on the ministerial loss of office. The quantitative analysis of 133 resignation issues in the years 1949 to 2009 reveals that ministerial responsibility bears no relevance to the decision whether to resign or not. Indeed, when the cause of the resignation issue is directly connected to ministerial responsibility, the probability of a resignation even decreases.     

The legal notion of nationality in the Turkish Republic: from Ottoman legacy to modern aberrations

Shortly after its emergence, the Turkish Republic adopted legislation inspired by European legal systems and traditions, including a law on nationality. The implementation of this law was affected by the staunchly nationalistic early republican policies which were not immune from the influence of the concept of ‘race’, as well as by the Ottoman legal conceptions on nationality based on religion, both of which guided the application of the new laws by the judiciary and the administration. This article proposes a critical legal approach to the issue of Turkish nationality, based on historical reflections. After a survey on the laws on nationality since the foundation of the Republic, it addresses the major confusions in connection with the concept of nationality in the light of textbooks from the relevant period, in order to observe, in conclusion, inherent and insolvable inconsistencies within the law, and a tenacious survival of Ottoman conceptions within the current law on nationality, especially with regard to religious minorities, which are assimilated to dhimmis in the legal subconscious and often equated to foreigners in practice.     

Winds of Change? The June 2015 Parliamentary Election in Turkey

Held in an environment of growing social polarisation, fears of emergent authoritarianism, and economic challenges, Turkey’s June 2015 election ended the Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi’s (AKP’s) parliamentary majority, challenging its single-party rule for the first time in 13 years. This article first provides information on the background to the election, focusing on debates about the authoritarian tendencies of AKP, economic conditions, and the competition for the Kurdish vote. Then, a brief overview of the campaign period is presented, followed by an analysis of election results at the sub-national level. The article concludes with some preliminary discussion of the causes of the loss of AKP’s majority.     

Late Imperial Paradoxes: Old Austria's Last Parliament 1917–18

SUMMARY

In this article Lothar Höbelt has analysed the politics of the last session of the Reicksrat in the Austro-Hungarian Dual Monarchy, which lasted from May 1917 to November 1918. The Lower House, elected in 1911, had been in a state of chronic deadlock and was prorogued in March 1914. Its recall was prompted by the assassination of the prime minister and the death of the Emperor in autumn 1916. In contrast with its pre-war behaviour, during this final session, the parties in parliament began to observe the normal conventions of parliamentary behaviour so that majorities could be formed in support of the government. All the groups in the parliament had an ethnic base, but they now showed a willingness to avoid obstructionist tactics in order to keep parliament functioning. The article describes the political dealings which achieved this effect until, in October 1918 the inevitable was accepted and the parliament agreed to separate into national councils, as a preliminary to the break up of the Habsburg monarchy. The article notes the paradox that it was only during its terminal stage that the Austrian half of the Dual Monarchy was able to practice normal parliamentary politics again.