Changing Roles for a State Agriculture Department: Driving Forces and Organisational Responses in the 21st Century

This article examines the forces of change that have been operating on a state agriculture department over recent decades. These forces of change include pressures for the department to meet community expectations on issues such as animal welfare and ecological sustainability — issues which were not emphasised in its former focus on agricultural production. The article then goes on to look at the responses that have occurred in a public sector agency to these forces and what these may mean for the future of this traditionally conservative arm of government in terms of changes to what have been its primary client groups and its most important priorities.     

Determinants of Pro‐Fracking Measure Adoption by New York Southern Tier Municipalities

New York municipalities passed more than 60 measures promoting high‐volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), 2008–12. These policies and resolutions signaled to state officials that municipalities desired HVHF's promised economic benefits and were anxious for an end to the state's HVHF moratorium. They also may be evidence of municipalities proactively preparing for a drilling boom. Why did some jurisdictions adopt these measures while others did not? While scholarship suggests that policy adoption is facilitated when jurisdictions and citizens possess more resources, capacity appears to have a negative or negligible impact on pro‐HVHF action. Such action appears more likely when local actors anticipate HVHF's potential gains but have not previously experienced substantial drilling, perceive that the industry could be viable locally, and can access relevant policy examples. Some lessons from conventional adoption scholarship may not apply when policies are symbolic, advocacy may be elite‐driven, and mimicry is an important diffusion mechanism.     

Empty Promises and Nonincorporation in Mercosur

Why do the member states of the world’s fourth-largest trading block incorporate only about two-thirds of all policies they adopt? This article argues that empty promises are an important reason for Mercosur’s incorporation problems and that Mercosur’s institutional design furthers such a defective behavior. Member governments easily sign agreements whenever they are rewarded for the mere act of doing so. However, if they expect high costs from implementing these policies, they try to avoid incorporation. Since only the last state to incorporate a policy triggers its overall legal validity, Mercosur’s members can easily veto any agreement ex post. In addition to empty promises, mismanaged drafting and incorporation and the abuse of negotiation power also pose important obstacles to incorporation. Free riding, however, does not play a role. Due to the incorporation rules, there can be no externalities that incentivize unilateral defection. The article substantiates the arguments empirically with the multivariate analysis of the complete incorporation record of 1,033 policies adopted between 1994 and 2008.     

Unentgeltliche überlassung von Mieterinvestitionen an den Vermieter: ausnahmsweise keine Einkünfte aus Vermietung und Verpachtung

Werden mit Beendigung eines (steuerlich anerkannten) Bestandverh?ltnisses zwischen Ehegatten die Mieterinvestitionen vom Mieter unentgeltlich dem Vermieter überlassen, obwohl – Ma?stab des Fremdvergleichs – eine Abgeltung mit Erfolgsaussichten verlangt h?tte werden k?nnen, so k?nnen die dem Vermieter als Eigentümer zukommenden Investitionen nicht im Rahmen der Einkünfte aus Vermietung und Verpachtung erfasst werden.     

Gemeinsames Wohnen von Ehegatten – Beweisfragen

Gem § 90 ABGB sind die Ehegatten (ua) auch zum gemeinsamen Wohnen verpflichtet. Von diesem (typischen) Bild einer aufrechten Ehe darf die Beh?rde (auch im Verwaltungsverfahren nach dem AlVG) grunds?tzlich in freier Beweiswürdigung ausgehen, solange nicht die Parteien eine davon abweichende Lebensführung behaupten und die erforderlichen Beweismittel beibringen.     

Rechtsbezeugende Beurkundung eines mündlich abgeschlossenen (Bestand-)Vertrages in einem späteren Schriftstück

Ein zuvor mündlich abgeschlossener Bestandvertrag kann durch narrative Erw?hnung in der Pr?ambel eines schriftlichen Anbots (zur Vertrags?nderung) rechtsbezeugend beurkundet werden; Gebührenpflicht hiefür tritt ein, wenn das schriftliche Anbot dem Anbotempf?nger ausgeh?ndigt wird.     

Die Eigentümergemeinschaft nach WEG ist nicht Schuldner der Klagenfurter Kanalgebühr

Nach der Klagenfurter Kanalgebührenverordnung sind es – auch bei Wohnungseigentum – die Miteigentümer, die die Kanalgebühr (zur ungeteilten Hand) schulden.     

Issue Definition, Information Processing, and the Politics of Global Warming

Past research has proposed various macrolevel theories of issue definition and agenda setting. However, we propose a microlevel theory of issue definition rooted in how individuals process information. We theorize that people process information about policy issues through a filter that emphasizes past assessments, ideology, background, social cues, and the continuing intrusion of new information. Most of these factors lead individual issue definitions toward stability. However, the introduction of an information signal of appropriate magnitude and character can produce punctuations in issue definition by individuals through time. Since the macrolevel definition of an issue is a type of aggregation of individual definitions, understanding how individuals define issues becomes a precursor to understanding issue definition at the system level. In evaluating the theory, we develop and evaluate a survey to study the issue definition process for individuals across multiple issues, and for global warming specifically. The survey also includes two embedded experiments to demonstrate the potential for punctuation in the issue-definition process for individuals and the system.