Besprechungen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Mechanisms for rent transfers: Subcontracting among military aircraft manufacturers

Models of prototyped and non-prototyped competitions for prime contracts from the U.S. defense department suggest that the latter are much more vulnerable to bid-rigging than are the former. Subcontracting data reveal that pairs of firms who have been rivals in major non-prototyped competitions have a larger number of subcontracts with one another than do other pairs of firms. The analysis concludes that subcontracts may serve as vehicles for division of the spoils of collusive bidding on prime contracts.     

A Committee of No Importance? Assessing the Relevance of the Committee of the Regions

As a result of its formal weakness, the Committee of the Regions is often presumed to be inconsequential in the development of European Union policy. This article draws on ongoing research to argue against this assumption. From an analysis of the Committee's output and an assessment of its impact on both Commission proposals and final legislation, it emerges that the Committee is already playing an important role in decision making. Moreover, the Committee has a strong and devoted protector in the Commission, enabling it further to escape the peripherality of the position it was assigned in the Maastricht Treaty.     

The fate of the Assyrian minority in early independent Iraq: a test case of political violence based on rational primordialism

Analyzing ethno-national conflicts is usually not easy in that not all quantitative scientific tools are useful to the student of a conflict based on primordial elements. The burden of studying the outcome of a conflict is all the more complex given that the two conflicting groups might be at two different stages of their political development at any given time during the course of the conflict. In the case of the fate of the [Eastern Christian] Assyrian community in early independent Iraq, the political rationale for decisions taken by each party was drawn from different sociological, historical and political realms. Decisions in times of conflict and their political and historical ramifications are not always rational, since they draw upon primordial/communal considerations rather than the accurate reading of the overall true strategic scene.

The violence was an outcome of a combination of primordial differences and rational choice. The Iraqis sought to establish a new sovereign state with minimal disturbances from its Christian minority that they perceived as not belonging to the new nation. As for the Assyrians, they chose violence believing that at least some superpowers would support them. Historically, this rational decision based upon a primordial dispute turned out to be a mistake primarily because of lack of external support, weak internal cohesion of the group, and feeble leadership.     

Differential pharmacological treatment of paraphilias and sex offenders

This article gives an overview of current pharmacological treatment of paraphilias and sex offenders focusing on the situation in Germany. Information about selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) is followed by data about established antihormonal substances (cyproterone acetate/CPA, and medroxyprogesterone acetate/MPA), as well as a more detailed account on luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone agonists (LHRH agonists). The results of open, uncontrolled clinical studies with SSRIs (n = 16) and LHRH agonists (n = 11) in paraphilic outpatients confirm the positive effects of these substances. A survey about the use of CPA and LHRH agonists in forensic hospitals in Germany shows that half of the patients treated with any kind of (anti-) hormonal agents received an LHRH agonist. The authors present a protocol on side effects, contraindications, and monitoring of CPA and LHRH agonists and develop an algorithm for differential pharmacotherapy of paraphilias.