Zur Zulässigkeit der Änderung von allgemeinen Teilen durch den Wohnungseigentümer – Flugdach über Terrassentür

Der Begriff des "wichtigen Interesses" in § 16 Abs 2 Z 2 WEG 2002 ist besonders unter dem Gesichtspunkt zu beurteilen, ob die ?nderung dazu dient, dem Wohnungseigentümer die dem heute üblichen Standard entsprechende Nutzung seines Objekts zu erm?glichen (hier: kein wichtiges Interesse an einer Lüftungsm?glichkeit bei Wind und Regen).     

Major depression – a study on the validity of clinicians’ diagnoses in medicolegal assessment

Major depression ranges among the most frequently diagnosed psychiatric disorders. Accordingly, diagnoses of depression are often underlying insurance, compensation or disability claims. This report evaluates the validity of clinicians’ diagnoses of major depression in a sample of claimants. In 2015, n = 127 consecutive cases were examined for medicolegal assessment. For all of them, a diagnosis of major depression had been established by clinicians. All testees underwent a psychiatric interview, a physical examination, they answered questionnaires for depressive symptoms according to DSM-5, embitterment disorder, post concussion syndrome (PCS) and unspecific somatic complaints. Performance and symptom validity tests were administered. Only 31% fulfilled the diagnostic criteria for DSM-5 major depression according to self-report, while none did so according to psychiatric assessment. Negative response bias was found in 64% of cases, feigned neurologic symptoms in 22%. Symptom exaggeration was indiscriminate rather than depression-specific. By self-report, 64% of the participants qualified for embitterment disorder and 93% for PCS. In conclusion, clinicians’ diagnoses of depression seem often confounded by improper assessment of the diagnostic criteria, confusion of depression with bereavement or embitterment and also by response bias.     

Political Finance Regimes in Southeast Asia: Introduction

ABSTRACT

The three articles in this themed collection investigate the interplay between political finance regimes and the quality of democracy in Southeast Asia. Andreas Ufen's piece on political finance in Malaysia and Singapore argues that the semi-authoritarian regimes in both states have blocked the reform of campaign and party funding regulations in order to keep their opposition in check. The article on Indonesia, authored by Marcus Mietzner, showcases the country's dysfunctional political finance system as a major hurdle toward further democratization. In their contribution on Thailand, Napisa Waitoolkiat and Paul Chambers show that weak political finance regulations have contributed significantly to the shallowness of Thai parties. Overall, the collection demonstrates that without meaningful political finance reforms, Southeast Asia's democratic stagnation is likely to persist for many years to come.     

Laissez-faire versus Strict Control of Political Finance: Hegemonic Parties and Developmental States in Malaysia and Singapore

ABSTRACT

This article compares the financing of political parties and candidates in two Southeast Asian countries. In Malaysia, some political finance regulations exist only on paper, and political financing is for the most part not restrained at all. In contrast, the financing of candidates and parties has always been tightly circumscribed in Singapore. These different strategies, “laissez-faire” versus “strict control,” are the consequence of various factors. In Malaysia, the New Economic Policy has effected a close, often economically unproductive linkage between the state, the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition, and business. The rise of businesspeople has resulted in the commercialization of competition within (the United Malays National Organisation. Additionally, increasing competition between the ruling coalition and the opposition has resulted in growing expenditures for electioneering in the form of advertisements and electoral patronage. The laissez-faire style of regulation has been compounded by the difficult-to-control practices in East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak), where vote buying, electoral patronage based on the largesse of oligarchs, and obvious nonobservance of the rules have been typical. In contrast to Malaysia as a whole, the costs for parties and candidates are still relatively low in Singapore. As a cadre party, the PAP (People's Action Party) is relatively autonomous from private business interests, and intraparty competition is not commercialized; the developmentalist state is highly productive, and the ties between the state, the PAP, and business are not characterized by cronyism. Moreover, electioneering is not very commercialized because the opposition is still relatively weak.     

Process Management as a Contagious Idea: A Contribution to Røvik's Virus-Inspired Theory

‘Travelling ideas’ denotes the fact that virtually identical management ideas crop up more or less simultaneously in similar organizations. Røvik, who recently launched his ‘virus-inspired theory’ approach, seeks to pinpoint the possibility that the encounter between idea and practice may be lasting, ideas may affect practice, and leaders in organisations may play a more active role than the one often depicted in management fashion theory. This article is a contribution to his virus-inspired theory. It focuses on processes in their pragmatic form, as value-creating flows in organisations. We have studied Process Management (PM) as an idea, and how it has penetrated and flourished in the Swedish Customs Service. We argue that the empirical test in this article supports Røvik's belief that a virus-inspired theory gives a richer picture than the fashion theory. Through our analysis we show that four of our six hypotheses, derived from the virus-inspired theory, are strengthened by the empirical story from the Customs Service.     

Doing time after time: an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of reformed ex-prisoners' experiences of self-change,identity and career opportunities

Abstract

The study of desistance from crime has generated a wealth of research in the last few decades. Despite the many barriers ex-prisoners face when attempting to ‘go straight’ many successfully lead law-abiding lives. Two key features identified in criminal desistance are a shift to a pro-social identity and worthwhile employment or the development of a new career path. There is, however, little psychological knowledge available on reformed offenders' experiences of self-change. This study focuses on ex-prisoners' experiences of employment and career opportunities. Five male reformed offenders took part in semi-structured interviews. Data collected was subjected to an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Participants demonstrated that desistance involves a shift to a pro-social identity and that self-change was a positive experience. An important aspect to emerge was the conflict experienced by the label ‘ex-offender’, which had a contradictory influence on the men's sense of self.     

Progressive taxation and tax morale

Due to strong evidence indicating that tax morale affects actual tax-paying behavior, finding the determinants of tax morale could help both to understand and to fight tax evasion. In this paper we analyze the effect of progressive taxation on individual tax morale using a cross-country approach—a research question that has not been investigated in the existing literature. Our theoretical analysis leads to two testable predictions. First, an individual’s tax morale is higher, the more progressive the tax schedule is. Second, the positive impact of tax progressivity on tax morale declines with income. In our empirical analysis we make use of a unique dataset of tax progressivity measures, namely the World Tax Indicators, and follow most of the tax morale literature by employing the World Values Survey to measure individual tax morale. Controlling for a wide range of potential confounders, we are able to confirm both hypotheses in our empirical analysis.     

Radical Protestantism and doux commerce: the trials and tribulations of Nantucket's Quaker whaling community

Abstract

This paper discusses the complex relationship between morals and markets and uses the case of Nantucket as an illustration. I argue that it was a specific Protestant work ethic promoted by Quakerism that facilitated the rise of Nantucket to become the capital of the American whaling fleet for more than a century. However, I also argue that the same morals and values that helped to give birth to the Quaker whaling empire contributed significantly to the downfall of the Quaker community, decades before whaling in general got into crisis. In more general terms this paper attempts to be a historical case study that illustrates the complexities of Albert O. Hirschman's doux commerce argument and particularly the way the Protestant spirit fits into Hirschman's explanation.