Concession or compromise? The politics of abortion in United Germany

Most GDR policies instituted to secure women's equality between 1949 and 1989 have been dismantled in the name of German unity, including freedom of choice regarding abortion. That right ceased to exist in May 1993, when the Constitutional Court imposed a number of western restrictions on eastern women as the new law of the land. This study addresses the post‐unity search for an acceptable compromise between the western constitutional mandate of foetal protection and the eastern guarantee of a woman's right to choose. It argues that a three‐year reform process which should have provided a positive introduction to the art of democratic compromise served instead as a negative socialising experience for Germans in the new Lander. Besides denying them a chance to render a meaningful policy contribution to their new state, the nature of the process has distorted East German perceptions of the quintessential ‘balance of power’ between legislative and judicial institutions under democracy. ‘Compromise’ has been attained, but consequences for the German Rechtsstaat are not all positive.     

The creation of money by the State Bank of the USSR ∗

This paper justifies the current revival of interest in the Collège by examining the relevance of its ‘sacred sociology’ to post-war anti-utilitarianism. The link between the two periods and set of issues is provided by the review M.A.U.S.S., inspired by Marcel Mauss’s seminal essay on the gift. Mauss was the direct and indirect ethnographic mentor for the Collège’s main figures – Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois and Michel Leiris. How they effected the ethnographic detour to devise their respective assessments of the place of ‘myth, power and the sacred’ in modern society is the central focus of this presentation.     

Lebanese–Palestinian Governance Interaction in the Palestinian Gathering of Shabriha,South Lebanon – A Tentative Extension of the ‘Mediated State’ from Africa to the Mediterranean

This article offers a qualitative case study of the interaction between Lebanese state institutions and Palestinian authorities concerning the unofficial Palestinian camp of Shabriha. It particularly highlights the indirect nature of these interactions and the brokering role of Lebanese political parties. Governance in Shabriha is conceptualized as a manifestation of a ‘mediated state’, a notion that has been instrumental in understanding governance in sub-Saharan Africa but has not yet been applied to the Mediterranean. Based on empirical insights from Shabriha, the article offers a tentative reconsideration of the mediated state concept in order to extend it to scholarship on Mediterranean politics and governance.     

预防犯罪的新思路：美国的经验

在学校和监狱系统实施犯罪预防计划具有很好的效果。学校的犯罪预防就是要实施早期干预和吸毒预防教育。在监狱中实施戒毒、就业服务和社区服务计划,可以有效地遏制累犯率。