Domestic and International Politics during an EU Intergovernmental Conference: Bridging the Gap between Negotiation Theory and Practice

This article describes selective results of a large-scale study of within-governmental coordination processes and international negotiations. We examined a European Union intergovernmental conference (IGC), the so-called IGC 1996, which led to the Amsterdam Treaty, from a quantitative negotiation analysis perspective. Our focus of attention has been the embeddedness of international negotiations within formal governmental organizations and within informal communication networks. We have identified the relative impact on negotiation dynamics and on negotiation performance of each of the parties by using various statistical techniques. We argue that such insights can be used for a research-based consulting in which social scientists respond to practitioners'"what-if" questions with evidence-based simulations and scenarios.     

Konflikte durch Bäume an der Grenze

In letzter Zeit sind mehrere Urteile des BGH und auch von Oberlandesgerichten veröffentlicht worden, die sich mit Konflikten zwischen Grundstücksnachbarn wegen Bäumen befassen; sie geben in mancher Hinsicht Anlass zu Überlegungen und Erörterungen. Im Einzelnen geht es um folgende Aspekte:     

Limitations on the ability to negotiate justice: attorney perspectives on guilt,innocence, and legal advice in the current plea system

In the American criminal justice system the vast majority of criminal convictions occur as the result of guilty pleas, often made as a result of plea bargains, rather than jury trials. The incentives offered in exchange for guilty pleas mean that both innocent and guilty defendants plead guilty. We investigate the role of attorneys in this context, through interviews with criminal defense attorneys. We examine defense attorney perspectives on the extent to which innocent defendants are (and should be) pleading guilty in the current legal framework and investigate their views of their own role in this complex system. We also use a hypothetical case to probe the ways in which defense attorneys consider guilt or innocence when providing advice on pleas. Results indicate that attorney advice is influenced by guilt or innocence, but also that attorneys are limited in the extent to which they can negotiate justice for their clients in a system in which uncertainty and large discrepancies between outcomes of guilty pleas and conviction at trial can make it a sensible option to plead guilty even when innocent. Results also suggest conflicting opinions over the role of the attorney in the plea-bargaining process.     

The symbolic use of cohort studies: Redefining crime between diversion and “selective incapacitation”

The societal definition of crime is eroding. As a consequence of this secular process the focus of interest among criminologists and the agents of the criminal justice system is widening towards the whole of society. A new definition of crime is emerging, based on the difference between dangerous career criminals and spontaneous one time offenders. This difference is determined in terms of personality and character types based on criminological ideas about the typical hard core criminal. Cohort studies provide the data and information to construct this ideal type.     

Austria

European Journal of Political Research -     

Electoral behaviour in a two-vote system: Incentives for ticket splitting in German Bundestag elections

Abstract. The ballot structure of German Bundestag elections allows two votes: one for a constituency candidate and the second for a party list. About one-fifth of the voters usually split their ticket. Several hypotheses are derived about incentives for ticket splitting and tested with survey data from a 1998 pre-election poll. We argue that an explanation of split tickets in the German system has to take into account both party rankings and coalition preferences. One of the most important incentives is a preference or top ranking of a minor party like the FDP or Greens, if it is combined with a preference for a coalition with either the CDU/CSU or SPD. Contrary to this finding, the hypothesis of threshold insurance voting of CDU/CSU or SPD supporters choosing the party list of their prospective minor coalition partner is rejected for the 1998 election.     

Fatal trauma to the neck: immunohistochemical study of local injuries

As fatal trauma to the neck is often associated with short survival times, proof of vitality may often be difficult using standard histochemical techniques. Soft tissue neck injuries resulting from strangulation by ligature or manual strangulation were examined immunohistochemically using antibodies to myoglobin, fibronectin, C5b-9 and MRP14, and compared to controls consisting of accidental soft tissue neck injuries as well as undamaged neck soft tissue. Although survival times in the study and control groups were unknown and certainly some individual variation may be expected in the time course of normal wound development, both the study and control groups demonstrated similar time courses in the immunohistochemical detection of antigen. Myoglobin was always found in those samples in which only one antigen was shown to be involved in an injury-specific pattern; myoglobin and fibronectin were found in samples with dual antigen involvement. Samples involving three antigens always included C5b-9 in addition to myoglobin and fibronectin. The single positive MRP14 sample in the study and control groups was simultaneously positive for the other markers used. Myoglobin, fibronectin, C5b-9 and MRP14 are therefore suitable for immunohistochemical detection of vital reactions and estimation of temporal relationships in the early posttraumatic period after neck trauma.     

Evaluating Measures of Campaign Advertising Exposure on Political Learning

Scholars employ various methods to measure exposure to televised political advertising but often arrive at conflicting conclusions about its impact on the thoughts and actions of citizens. We attempt to clarify one of these debates while validating a parsimonious measure of political advertising exposure. To do so, we assess the predictive power of six different measurement approaches—from the simple to the complex—on learning about political candidates. Two datasets are used in this inquiry: (1) geo-coded political advertising time-buy data, and (2) a national panel study concerning patterns of media consumption and levels of political knowledge. We conclude that many traditional methods of assessing exposure are flawed. Fortunately, there is a relatively simple measure that predicts knowledge about information featured in ads. This measure involves combining a tally of the volume of advertisements aired in a market with a small number of survey questions about the television viewing habits of geo-coded respondents.