No Country for the Market: The Regulation of Finance in Germany after the Crisis

The severity with which the financial crisis struck Germany in 2008 came as a shock to German elites. The relatively traditional shape of its bank-based financial system was supposed to isolate the country from the vagaries of Anglo-Saxon capitalism. Instead, the government was forced to unprecedented steps, such as the de facto nationalisation of banks and an unlimited guarantee on savings deposits. A comprehensive reform of financial regulation in the country seemed imperative. This article evaluates change in the institutional structure of financial sector regulation and supervision in Germany. The inconclusive debate about the reorganisation of financial supervision, the emergence of new regulation in the field of bank restructuring, and the attempted reform of the deposit insurance system are used as empirical cases. It is argued that the constraints of the German political system impeded the comprehensive reform that might have been expected after a major shock. Instead, a pattern of institutional layering was perpetuated which contains the germs of future dysfunctions.     

China's Latent Human Capital Investment: achieving milestones and competing for the top

In this paper we provide an overview of China's human capital strategy and educational achievements over the last two decades. While everyone acknowledges China as an economic superpower, very few are aware of or realize China's notable achievements in education as well as its internationalization of education. Since 1978, the landmark for the foundation of the Chinese modern higher education system, China has made tremendous strides in education both domestically and internationally. While China maintains 10% growth in GDP, albeit with a GDP per capita at a low level for a developing country, it is also producing serious scholars and a tremendous amount of scholarly output; more and more Chinese students are seeking higher education abroad; and international students are showing a rising interest in receiving education in China.     

2011命运之年?——德国社民党的危与机

社民竞今年不得不摒弃在五竞格局中继续作为全民党存在的想法,但无论是党的领导层,还是社民党自身,目前均未承认这一点.这对社民党是不利的,因为它尚未在德国政党格局中找到自己的定位.然而,社民党仍有着良好的机遇,因为没有一个政党像社民党那样拥有可以与所有政党组成联盟的优势,这将强化它在政党谱系中的地位,扩展它的权力选择,而能...     

Legal Culture and State Building: Liberal Constitutionalism and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Droit Administratif</Emphasis> in early Twentieth Century Argentina

This paper deals with the ways in which jurists and law professors applied transnational systems of public law, in particular US constitutionalism and French droit administratif, in their approaches to the state building process in late nineteenth century Argentina. In covering these movements of adaptation of a nascent legal culture to changing ideological and political circumstances, this article attempts to illuminate the strong links between the process of institutionalization of certain academic disciplines or forms of social knowledge, and modern state building in Latin America.     

Democracy in crisis? The declining support for national democracy in European countries, 2007–2011

The Great Recession that started in 2007/2008 has been the worst economic downturn since the crisis of the 1930s in Europe. It led to a major sovereign debt crisis, which is arguably the biggest challenge for the European Union (EU) and its common currency. Not since the 1950s have advanced democracies experienced such a dramatic external imposition of austerity and structural reform policies through inter‐ or supranational organisations such as the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or as implicitly requested by international financial markets. Did this massive interference with the room for maneuver of parliaments and governments in many countries erode support for national democracy in the crisis since 2007? Did citizens realise that their national democratic institutions were no longer able to effectively decide on major economic and social policies, on economic and welfare state institutions? And did they react by concluding that this constrained democracy no longer merited further support? These are the questions guiding this article, which compares 26 EU countries in 2007–2011 and re‐analyses 78 national surveys. Aggregate data from these surveys is analysed in a time‐series cross‐section design to examine changes in democratic support at the country level. The hypotheses also are tested at the individual level by estimating a series of cross‐classified multilevel logistic regression models. Support for national democracy – operationalised as satisfaction with the way democracy works and as trust in parliament – declined dramatically during the crisis. This was caused both by international organisations and markets interfering with national democratic procedures and by the deteriorating situation of the national economy as perceived by individual citizens.     

Scanning for patterns of relationship: analyzing kinship and marriage networks with Puck 2.0

The article presents the software Puck (Program for the use and computation of kinship data), a computer tool for the in-depth analysis of kinship networks. Its core feature consists in identifying, counting and classifying matrimonial circuit structures (resulting from marriages between kin or affines). Such matrimonial censuses make it possible to explore in a rigorous fashion one of the most central questions in kinship studies: the relationship between particular marriage choices and the patterning of the global kinship network that emerges from them. At the same time, Puck constitutes a general tool for the management, treatment and exploratory analysis of genealogical datasets, including non-genealogical relations and random simulations. Puck has been designed to meet two complementary expectations: the identification of the recurrent, cross-cultural organizational properties of kinship networks, and the ability to situate particular actors within social processes involving both genealogical and non-genealogical factors. This article presents the theoretical foundations and main functions of Puck, using concrete examples drawn from a genealogical dataset of upper-class Parisian Jewish banking dynasties present in Paris during the nineteenth century.