Thinking for Thousands: Emerson's Theory of Political Representation in the Public Sphere

This article develops Emerson's theory of representative democracy as it applies to a deliberative public sphere. By highlighting the democratic content of Emerson's thought, this article challenges tradition readings of Emerson that claim his thought to be elitist or antipolitical. According to Emerson, the public sphere is structured by representative individuals who are analogous to those representatives found in electoral institutions. These representatives make public the beliefs and values present in their "constituencies." They deliberate in the name of their constituencies, saying what their constituencies could and would say, were they to also directly engage in such deliberations. Representative individuals are tied to their constituencies through bonds of "sympathy and likeness." The moral consequences of a representative public sphere include the development of a sense of deliberative justice on the part of the citizenry and the reduction of the possibility of domination and oppression by ideologically oriented elites.     

Clinical and morphological findings on mustard gas [bis(2-chloroethyl)sulfide] poisoning.

In 1984 and 1985, a total of eleven Iranian patients were transferred to hospitals in Munich, Germany, after a reported gas attack in the Iran-Iraq war. The initial symptoms and pretreatment in Teheran, Iran, as well as the admittance examination data, the clinical courses of the patients, and the clinical laboratory data in Germany, are reported. The main injuries were to the skin, the eyes, and the respiratory tract. One patient stopped breathing suddenly on the third day of treatment (eight days after the exposure). A large piece of mucous membrane blocking a bronchus was removed during an immediate bronchoscopy, but attempts at resuscitation failed. The most important autopsy findings in this case were severe pseudomembranous inflammation of the trachea and the bronchial tubes. The histological findings are reported. Chemical proof of the poison (mustard gas) was established. A review of the history of chemical warfare, the physical and chemical properties of mustard gas, and a literature survey of clinical findings (including, especially, experiences from World Wars I and II) contribute to the understanding of the actual cases.     

Transatlantic cooperation,alliance politics and extended deterrence: European perceptions of nuclear weapons

This article discusses the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) debate regarding American nonstrategic nuclear weapons (NSNW) in Europe, given the broad spectrum of views on nuclear issues when comparing individual member states. What is striking is the gap between public attitudes – which are broadly hostile to keeping NSNW in Europe – and elite opinion, which privileges the maintenance of NATO commitments to preserve alliance cohesion. To better understand this tension, this article dissects the elements of extended nuclear deterrence in Europe, addressing the difficulties associated with current nuclear-sharing arrangements. For some NATO states, the alliance's nuclear weapons are a political liability, since nuclear sharing clashes with international disarmament and nonproliferation commitments. For other NATO members, maintaining the status quo is preferable, as long as there is no alliance-wide consensus on the question of NSNW. These debates have been put to rest, for now, with NATO's Deterrence and Defense Posture Review, which reaffirmed the purpose of the alliance's nuclear weapons. However, these divisive debates point to more fundamental issues in alliance management, namely the credibility of American commitments, the sustainability of extended nuclear deterrence in Europe and the inevitable political tensions these questions provoke at the domestic level for NATO allies.     

Paternity analysis in deficiency cases with related putative fathers: simulation of a deficiency analysis in 27 families

During the last few years, the number of privately ordered paternity investigations has increased considerably. Probably due to financial reasons in more and more cases only the putative father and the child are investigated. Additionally, very often only one method, such as STR analysis, is employed. This raises the question whether such a reduced analysis leads to reliable and clear results when investigating cases with related putative fathers. We investigated 165 individuals from 27 families using the AmpFlSTRIdentifiler multiplex PCR and calculated the paternity probabilities of the children to their biological fathers, uncles, grand fathers and other relatives. In more than 30% less than three exclusions between child and relative were detected. In five cases no exclusions were found between child and uncle, always leading to paternity probabilities >99.9%. These results show that the calculation of high probabilities (>99.9%) does not necessarily lead to the accurate conclusion of fatherhood. In many of our cases misleadingly the brother of the real father or another close relative would have been declared to be the biological father.     

Asymmetric Federalism and Coalition-Making in Belgium

This article examines the asymmetric aspects of Belgian federalism.The term "asymmetry" covers many meanings. The cultural, socioeconomic,political party, and formal-institutional differences betweenthe regions of the Belgian federation clearly make Belgium astrong case of asymmetry. However, these asymmetric featureshave largely been neutralized by preferences of the major-partyleaders for building symmetric or congruent government coalitionsin the federal and regional arenas. The article not only explainswhy Belgian party elites have acted accordingly but also demonstratesthat the genuine meaning of asymmetry cannot be understood properlywithout putting the concept of asymmetry into the frameworkof party politics.