The EU ‘partnership principle’: still a sustainable governance device across multiple administrative arenas?

This article analyses the 'partnership principle'– which is of particular importance for multilevel governance interpretations of European integration – as it evolved in EU regional policy–making. After sketching in the crucial analytical lines of the current debate on 'partnership' on the example of the implementation of the EU structural policy in Germany, I examine how it functions. A closer look at two important sub–fields of 'partnership'–'societal participation' and 'policy evaluation'– reveals that theoretical expectations regarding its transforming potential, in terms of pitting supranational and subnational actors against central state authority and thereby circumventing the latter, have not materialized. On the contrary, recently rising resentment and out–and–out conflict between the European Commission and regional authorities so far point to theoretically unexpected limitations of 'partnership', calling into question whether it is an appropriate and sustainable inter–administrative co–ordination device – at least when viewed from the perspective of the EU multilevel governance thesis. In the light of the reported insights into the practice of 'partnership', this 'new mode of EU governance' thus needs to be reassessed.     

An Update on the Hazards and Risks of Forensic Anthropology,Part II: Field and Laboratory Considerations

This paper focuses on potential hazards and risks to forensic anthropologists while working in the field and laboratory in North America. Much has changed since Galloway and Snodgrass published their seminal article addressing these issues. The increased number of forensic practitioners combined with new information about potential hazards calls for an updated review of these pathogens and chemicals. Discussion of pathogen hazards (Brucella, Borrelia burgdorferi, Yersinia pestis, Clostridium tetani and West Nile virus) includes important history, exposure routes, environmental survivability, early symptoms, treatments with corresponding morbidity and mortality rates, and decontamination measures. Additionally, data pertaining to the use of formaldehyde in the laboratory environment have resulted in updated safety regulations, and these are highlighted. These data should inform field and laboratory protocols. The hazards of working directly with human remains are discussed in a companion article, “An Update on the Hazards and Risks of Forensic Anthropology, Part I: Human Remains.”     

Introduction to “charting,tracking, and mapping: new technologies,labor, and surveillance”

Advances in information technologies over the last two decades have offered the promise of revolutionizing workplaces and other settings by expanding the capabilities of individuals working in various professions. Enabled by high-speed computing systems and marked by an intensification of command and control properties, new technologies have expanded, and in some cases intentionally surpassed, the scope of the senses. Technologies such as drones, surveillance cameras, and airport and border security systems promise the seemingly infinite catchment and infinitesimal account of human actions, while computer processing software provides real-time data on large-scale transactional processes occurring in monetary systems and security markets. Charting, tracking, and mapping functions open up new vistas for quantifying social behaviors and detecting misbehaviors, creating new frontiers for criminal justice, the military, and economic activity. The papers in this special issue reveal the processes guiding the rapid transformation and flexible adaptation of institutional structures, economic and financial systems, and threat surveillance and military/police mobilization in the near future.     

Price control in underdeveloped countries

In addition to the classical criteria of logic and relevance, development studies can also be judged in terms of their interdisciplinary consistency. Slavish adherence to behavioural findings in the other social sciences which tend to corroborate the conventional assumptions of micro‐economic theory, however, should be discounted where their own logic and relevance remain controversial.

Micro‐economic studies of ‘industrial organization’ in Thailand have widely adopted the social anthropological thesis that Thai society is ‘loosely structured’, implying that the Thai behave as typical economic entrepreneurs. Analyses of Thai economic history subscribe to this view for the peasantry but not for the elite. An alternative model of Thai ‘industrial organization’ which dispenses with the purported market orientation of Thai peasants provides greater explanatory value than the conventional interpretation.

The entourage model of ‘industrial organization’ views the Thai economy as a hierarchy of relationships within which each participant is patron to associates of lower rank, and client to one of higher rank. Each entourage, composed of a patron and a coterie of clients, is integrated by a web of functionally and temporally diffuse economic‐social‐political reciprocities. Furthermore, mobility within the system follows rank enhancement opportunities rather than pecuniary incentives.

Thai economic development over the past century can be satisfactorily explained in terms of the entourage model, which deals directly with problems (such as the role of the Chinese and the decline of human bondage) not readily explained in the conventional context. Application of the entourage model, in conclusion, suggests that Thailand's development prospects under guidelines geared to the market model may be seriously misleading.     

Democracies only: When do IMF agreements serve as a seal of approval?

Conditional lending by the IMF is predicated, in part, on the belief that IMF programs are associated with increased capital inflows to participating countries. This belief is generally consistent with theoretical arguments in the academic literature (e.g., Bird and Rowlands 1997; Bordo et al. 2004) but the empirical literature often finds otherwise (e.g., Jensen 2004). This paper argues that the effect of IMF agreements on a country’s access to foreign direct investment (FDI) depends on its domestic institutions. Access to FDI depends on a country’s ability to credibly commit to implementation, and this ability varies systematically across regime type. The theory is empirically tested using a treatment effects model with a Markov transition in the treatment equation in a dataset covering 142 countries from 1976 to 2006. We find that in democracies IMF program participation has a strong positive effect on FDI inflows and in autocracies participation has a weak negative effect.     

Autopsy at 2 months after death: brain is satisfactorily preserved for neuropathology

Disclosure of neurological disorders by neuropathological examination may be one important aim of forensic autopsies. There are insufficient data on human brain tissue preservation after prolonged postmortem periods. Here, we describe neuropathological findings in a brain of a 77-year-old woman that was fixed at autopsy 2 months after death. The body had been stored in a cooling chamber at 3 degrees C temperature. Gross inspection of the brain was satisfactorily possible. Histomorphology was excellently preserved. Many histochemical and immunohistochemical stains allowed satisfactory neuropathological evaluation of brain tissue and the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. Nevertheless, some immunohistochemical stainings repeatedly yielded negative or suboptimal results. We conclude that neuropathological examination of human brain tissue extracted from the skull and fixed after prolonged body storage in a cool environment is feasible for forensic diagnosis of neurological disorders even several months after death. However, in such cases the significance of negative immunohistochemical staining results must be interpreted with caution.     

Green Light for PPP on German Motorways?

While public–private partnerships (PPPs) have surged worldwide since the 1990s, they have been met with growing skepticism during the last years. A recent revision of Germany’s constitutional rules on motorway construction and observations on the use of PPPs published by both the German and the European Courts of Auditors illustrate this new caution. These two examples fit into a general trend towards a revival of the public sector, which can be summarized under the cross-level umbrella term “publicization.” It would, however, be remiss to replace the uncritical euphoria that once surrounded privatization with a similarly undifferentiated euphoria regarding publicization. Rather, it is crucial to identify the most appropriate solution for the fulfilment of each public task from the “toolbox” of publicization on the one hand and privatization on the other hand in order to ensure the most effective completion of public functions.