The Euro and the European Demos: Money and Community beyond the Nation-state

Money represents a form of trust among the members of a community. They share a belief that certain symbolic tokens constitute real value. Sceptics frequently point out that the euro area does not have the characteristics of a community. In particular they view the euro as money without a demos. According to this sceptical view, then, the euro is backed by an insufficient level of solidarity and suffers from a deficit of legitimacy. This article identifies the main flaws and contradictions of the no-demos theory. Most importantly, no-demos theory suffers from the fundamental misconception that political community and democracy are possible only in the nation-state. This conceptualisation of community represents a zero-sum understanding of community that cannot capture the dynamic interaction of multiple communities as well as complex and overlapping identities. In addition, no-demos theory is trapped in an internal contradiction. In order for democracy to be possible among the members of a community, that membership in the community is given and rests on pre-democratic criteria. I argue in this article that we need to accept the notion of disaggregated communities and should drop the concept of a unified and fully sovereign demos altogether. Moreover, under conditions in which the gap between sovereignty and authority continues to grow, European Monetary Union is actually a more democratic form of governance than the pre-Maastricht monetary regime in Europe.     

Blurring the dimensions of privacy? Law enforcement and trusted traveler programs

Risk has become a ubiquitous tool for security governance. This paper analyzes the ongoing shift in airport/aviation security from rule-based to risk-based screening. Seeking to explore the effects of data based passenger risk assessment on privacy through the collection and processing of personal data, it is argued that risk is likely to enroll passengers into a partly voluntary, partly enforced membership in trusted traveler schemes in order to enhance the database, thus enabling a more precise assessment of risk levels. In a disciplinary spatial setting, the once distinct privacy dimensions of citizen-state and consumer-market become increasingly blurred, as law enforcement authorities seek to exploit data that was originally obtained for commercial purposes to improve risk calculations.     

Developing countries' terms of trade in manufactures, 1967–87: A note

Terms of trade, relating only to manufactured exports and imports, are calculated for a sample of 37 industrialised and developing countries over the 1967 to 1987 period. It is found that the terms of trade movements were significantly more favourable for higher‐income countries. This result highlights the importance of export diversification as part of a development strategy.     

Die Empfehlungen zur Änderung des Parteiengesetzes

Zusammenfassung Die Kommission unabh?ngiger Sachverst?ndiger (Kommission) hat am 18.7. 2001 ihren Bericht mit Empfehlungen für ?nderungen des Parteiengesetzes dem Bundespr?sidenten übergeben (Kommission 2001). Aus diesem aktuellen Anlass werden nachfolgend zun?chst die Arbeitsweise der Kommission betrachtet und anschlie?end einige ihrer Empfehlungen einer kritischen Würdigung unterzogen.     

The numerical Hatze-model: also qualified for calculations on children?

The aim of this study was to find out whether the Hatze-model, which is specifically designed for adults, is suitable for calculations on children as well. By means of that program it is possible to calculate various parameters of the human body. After the collection of data and analysis of the results according to Hatze it becomes evident that this model provides good results only for the calculation of the total body mass. As regards the body segments, there are significant under- and overestimations. The same applies to the calculation of mean body density. Indeed there is a significant gender dimorphism indicating that girls have a higher fraction of body fat than boys. However, the values are far below those described in the literature. Due to the formula, the values of the centres of gravity are linear and congruent in both sides of the body. Interpretation of the results is difficult, as there are no valid reference values. Furthermore the program is not able to take characteristic shapes and proportions of children into account. For this reason 88% of the children are defined as either pregnant or obese. In summary, the study shows that the present model should not be used to calculate children and the human models have to be designed specifically for children.     

Possible applications of Y chromosome STRs in examination of abortion tissue

By application of Y-chromosomal STRs, DNA analysis of abortion material can be considerably facilitated since great excess of maternal DNA is tolerated without disturbing the Y-STR amplification. If paternity can't be excluded on the basis of the Y-STR haplotype, further examinations must follow, e.g. autosomal STR analysis. For this purpose, histological preparation of the abortion tissue might still be necessary. Different Y-chromosomal haplotypes of embryo and putative father usually lead to an exclusion from paternity. Based on four case examples, the feasibility of this method is discussed.     

The Political Economy of Fiscal Policy: An Experimental Study on the Strategic Use of Deficits

Field data on the strategic use of deficits to limit thebudgetary scope of future governments are inconclusive aboutthe effects of political polarization or a government'sre-election probability on fiscal policy. Therefore, wedesigned a controlled experiment to examine the strategic useof deficits. Using a within-subjects design, we find thatdeficits rise with a higher degree of polarization and a lowerreelection probability. However, in a between-subjects designneither polarization nor reelection probabilities have asystematic effect. We discuss the implications of ourexperimental results for empirical tests of the strategic useof deficits with field data.     

Flexible Integration,EMU and Relative Voting Power in the EU

This paper studies the implications offlexible integration in the European Union. Itanalyses the voting power of member states in theCouncil of Ministers when differently sized subgroupsof the EU are set up. European Monetary Union isreferred to as the most important example of flexibleintegration. The Banzhaf-Index is calculated to studythe distribution of voting power in the decisionmaking process according to the stability and growthpact. The results show considerable fluctuations,especially for smaller countries, in relative votingpower, the latter being defined as the relationbetween voting power and relative voting weight.