The failure of a Nazi “killer” amendment

Public Choice - We describe a remarkable instance of a motion-proposing and agenda-setting strategy by the Nazi party, NSDAP, during the Weimar Republic. Their purpose was to kill a motion of...     

The grundgesetz after 50 years: Analysing changes in the German constitution

Fifty years after its original drafting, the German constitution has seen its text amended many times. Indeed, among OECD countries, the Grundgesetz has one of the highest rates of constitutional change. This article analyses these changes. It does so in a quantitative manner in its first section, before proceeding to ask how the numerous changes can be explained. Three approaches from the legal and political science literature are presented: one emphasising historical‐structural factors, one analysing changes as constitutional revisionism, and an institutional approach which focuses on the conditions for constitutional amendment. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are then compared and contrasted, before the article concludes with an assessment of the characteristics of German constitutional policy.     

Labour,neo-liberalism and the conflict over economic and monetary union: a comparative analysis of British and German trade unions

Trade unions have generally been neglected in the discussion of Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the related neo-liberal restructuring of European social relations of production. This article helps to fill this gap through a comparison of British and German unions' position on EMU and European co-operation. It is demonstrated that there is a split between British transnational production sector unions, which support EMU and Europe-wide co-operation, and British national sector unions, which criticise the deflationary implications of EMU and focus on the national level in their policy-making efforts. In Germany, by contrast, EMU is generally accepted by unions with the exception of the construction workers' union. A division between internationally oriented and nationally oriented sector unions can only be identified in relation to the issue of Europe-wide co-operation, where the former are in favour and the latter reluctant. Importantly, however, unions in both countries strongly criticise neo-liberal economics, whether they support or oppose EMU. This may become the basis for a counter, neo-liberal strategy within the European Union.     

Non-violent political protest in East Germany in the 1980s: Protestant church,opposition groups and the people

The main aim of this article is to explore why the activists of the ‘peaceful revolution’ in East Germany (GDR) employed non-violent means of protest (e.g., peace prayers, human chains, appeals). The link between Lutheran Church and opposition groups is also covered. To deal with these questions, a qualitative methodological perspective is applied. Members of East German civil rights groups, participants in Leipzig demonstrations in 1989 and experts were interviewed; pamphlets, manifestos from and about action groups and social science studies were analysed. Results show that there are moral and religious as well as tactical and rational reasons to act in a non-violent way.     

Warum die Kontrolle abgeben? Die Delegation von Migrationskontrolle aus der Prinzipal-Agent-Perspektive

More and more, management and control of immigration is conducted in an exterritorial form that is beyond the territory of destination countries. The visa procedure in embassies and the reliance on carrier sanctions as well as the cooperation with countries of transit or within the EU’s Schengen area aim at conducting control before migration flows reach the respective country of destination. As all these control practices require the delegation of control measures, the paper identifies four types of exterritorial migration control by relying on a principal-agent framework and develops an analytical frame for studying this type of migration management. Within the visa procedure, exterritorialization is achieved by delegation between different agencies and ministries of countries of immigration. The delegation of control to transport enterprises enables exterritorialization by incorporating private actors. Delegation between sovereign nation states is the mechanism for both the cooperation with countries of transit as well as within the EU’s Schengen area. From a principal-agent perspective, the paper analyzes the logics of delegation, the actors’ rationales as well as the resulting costs of shifting migration control to places beyond national territories.     

The Use of Twitter during the 2009 German National Election

During the 2009 election campaign, Twitter not only served as a source of news for the media but also became a public stage for active political users. In particular, hopes were raised about a pluralistic grass-roots sphere of public communication in which political information can be shared in a non-ideological, decentralised and egalitarian manner. To test whether Twitter led to new patterns of political interaction and to determine the beneficiaries, we present findings from a large-scale network analysis investigating about four million tweets by more than 33,000 users including citizens, journalists and politicians in the 2009 National Election. Our analysis identifies the most popular users, contents and topics in this political sphere, revealing the Pirate Party movement as the most influential group during the campaign. A network analysis of the participating actors confirms the strong position of established online activists and bloggers in contrast to traditional mass media, politicians and parties.