Regulating for media pluralism and the pitfalls of standortpolitik: the reregulation of German broadcasting ownership rules

Germany has witnessed a veritable television boom over the last ten years. However, the plethora of new private channels masks an underlying duopoly, a concentration of media power that has not been prevented by an elaborate system of regulation. This article maps these developments, particularly the Lander competition for investment, the structural power of the media industry, and the emergence of a media policy ‘Grand Coalition’ between SPD North Rhine‐Westphalia and CSU Bavaria. It assesses the Federal Constitutional Court's role and highlights the public broadcasters’ crucial function to act as a pluralistic counterbalance in the dual public/private broadcasting system.     

The impact of a ready‐made state: East Germans in comparative perspective

To understand the impact of reunification upon Germans, we must make before and after comparisons across time, and also across central Europe. The first section shows that from the perspective of comparative Communist regimes, east Germans have been doubly advantaged, in former times because of belonging to a relatively prosperous part of the Soviet bloc and since reunification as subjects of a ‘ready‐made state’ with democracy and a wealthy social market economy. Analysis in the second section of the impact of reunification on west Germans shows that a significant proportion feel less satisfied than before, whereas the opposite is the case for east Germans. The third section introduces comparisons with Austria. Like the Federal Republic, it has enjoyed the advantages of democracy and a market economy, but without the trauma of division and reunification.     

我爱北京

我叫Peter Gonzalez,来自美国的加利福尼亚。12年前,我从加州来到了中国。在这以前,我对中国是一无所知。当我穿着短裤踏上中国的土地,中国人都用奇怪的眼神看着我。当时是秋天,天气已经很凉了,他们一定认为,这个老外疯了。我心里清楚,我没疯,只是心里越来越兴奋,因为我喜欢上了中国,喜欢上了北京。     

Demand for tea in the UK 1874–1938: An econometric study

The main objective of this study is to provide estimates of price and income elasticities of demand for tea in order to explain the growth in tea consumption over the period 1874–1938. Numerous other factors, both economic and social, may contribute to changing patterns of consumption. Indeed, such factors as demographic and organisational changes and different social habits may exert an influence on price and income elasticities. A subsidiary aim of this study is to examine the influence of these factors on the differences in income and price elasticities in demand for tea over various sub‐periods between 1874 and 1938.     

Rural artisans and peasant mobilisation in the socialist international: The fasci siciliani

This article explores the conditions under which peasant cultivators and rural artisans participate in movements of social transformation, a case in point being the Fascio movement of Sicily in the late nineteenth century. It analyses the reasons why artisans could play a critical role in politicising local protest and articulating it with pan‐European socialist movements, by describing their relations to other classes in a differentiated peasant community.