Institutions and Morality Policy in Western Democracies

This article investigates whether different political institutions such as executives, legislatures, parties, party systems, judiciaries, decentralization, constitutionalism, and referendums across 24 Western democracies are venues for debate across five individual morality policies. Using data since 1945, the article compares three theories of morality policy—(1) Policy Type leading to different institutional venues; (2) Two Worlds of religious/secular party systems; and (3) U.S./European exceptionalism. In order, the most frequently debated issues are abortion, same sex marriage, euthanasia, stem cells/assisted reproductive technology (ART), and capital punishment. There is considerable variation in the institutions and country groups that debate them although fewer differences in the Two Worlds model. Abortion, euthanasia, and same sex marriage are the most convergent issues across institutions, party systems, and country groupings while capital punishment and stem cells/ART show the most diverse patterns of deliberation. The general Policy Type model of morality policy is upheld, but varies institutionally by specific issues. The Two Worlds model is of some importance, but only on three issues. There also are regional differences between the United States, Europe, and non‐European democracies.     

Power Sector Reforms and Technical Performance: Good News from an Instrumental Variable Analysis

Over the past three decades, various power sector reforms have overhauled the governance of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution in almost a hundred countries. Have these reforms produced benefits? Using instrumental variables, we improve upon earlier studies and demonstrate that power sector reforms enacted between 1982 and 2008 have both had large positive effects on the availability of generation capacity and reduced transmission and distribution losses. We also show that the positive effects on generation capacity are pronounced in developing countries and that hybrid reforms falling short of privatization and free competition are effective in improving generation capacity in particular. Overall, the results show that these reforms are an effective tool to remove an important constraint on economic growth.     

Opposing Energy Transitions: Modeling the Contested Nature of Energy Transitions in the Electricity Sector

Energy transitions are fiercely contested. The incumbents of the fossil‐ and nuclear‐based energy systems have much to lose from a transition to a sustainable and decentralized energy system. They therefore employ their material and political resources to reverse, halt, or slow down this transition. They also attempt to stop and reverse the decentralization of energy production. This article provides a framework that can be used to analyze the contestation that surrounds energy transitions. The analytical framework breaks apart the macro paths of energy transitions, and differentiates between three meso‐paths (political, economic‐technological, and legitimation), emphasizes the feedback processes between these paths, and acknowledges the crucial role that actors play in engendering these feedback processes. It uses Germany as a case study to illustrate the analytical model. It also provides hypotheses that will be tested in the subsequent contributions to this special issue.     

Senior Executives' Political Connections and Corporate Environmental Behavior—Empirical Research From the Chinese A‐Share Market

This thesis analyzed the cross‐section data of 630 non‐financial listed enterprises and adopts a logit model to estimate the relationships between political relations and corporate environmental behavior. The paper also adopts an ordered logit method to estimate the marginal impact of political connections to enterprises’ disclosure of information on environment and sustainable development. Through analysis, this thesis found that political connections lower the probability for enterprises to disclose information on environment and sustainable development. With the Level III scoring method, this article classified the performances of disclosing corporate environmental information into three levels. It is found that corporate political connections increase the probability for enterprises not to disclose any environmental information and lower the probability for enterprises to refer to GRI Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.     

Local Renewable Energy Initiatives in Germany and Japan in a Changing National Policy Environment

Our article explores the contribution of local initiatives to the creation of path dependencies for energy transition in Germany and Japan in the face of resistance from entrenched incumbents at the national level. We use a process‐tracing methodology based partly on interviews with local participants. In particular, we explore the role of local initiatives in securing “socio‐political space” for the expansion of renewable energy (RE) and in embedding themselves in “ecosystems” of public and private institutions. German energy activists were more successful than their Japanese counterparts in expanding this space and creating positive feedback in part because they were able to build horizontal networks that anchored the energy transition firmly in local communities. Although problems with grid technology have led to retrenchment in both cases, Japanese activists' reliance on vertical networks has limited their ability to weather a backlash from national government and utility actors. Our study demonstrates the interaction of political, economic/technological, and legitimation paths to energy transition and highlights the importance of the latter two.     

Rechtsanwälte,Disziplinarrecht, Werbung,Meinungsäußerungsfreiheit

Die zugrundeliegende Disziplinarstrafbestimmung ist hinreichend bestimmt. Eine demokratische Gesellschaft kann die inkriminierte Werbung hinnehmen, ohne dass der Schutz des guten Rufes oder das Ansehen und die Unparteilichkeit der Rsp Schaden erleiden. Die Disziplinarstrafe verletzt die Bf im Grundrecht auf Meinungs?u?erungsfreiheit, indem die bel Beh dem Gesetz einen verfassungswidrigen Inhalt unterstellt hat.     

Zur Pflicht eines Geschäftsführers einer KG,behördliche Zustellungen zu ermöglichen

Es finden sich keine gesetzlichen Grundlagen, aus denen sich ein allgemeiner Grundsatz ableiten lie?e, es sei im gesch?ftlichen Verkehr generell von jedem Empf?nger zu verlangen, stets auf beh?rdliche Zustellungen gefasst zu sein und für eine Nachsendung oder Vertretung Vorsorge zu treffen, andernfalls die Wirkungen einer wirksamen Zustellung eintreten. Die Pflicht, die für Zustellungen ma?gebliche Gesch?ftsanschrift zum Firmenbuch anzumelden, ist nur mit Schadenersatzansprüchen gegen den Gesch?ftsführer sanktioniert.     

Exekutiver Zugriff auf eine Genossenschaftswohnung

Beim exekutiven Zugriff auf eine Genossenschaftswohnung kann der Privatgl?ubiger des Genossenschafters der Wohnungsgenossenschaft dessen Bestandrecht pf?nden und sich zur Ausübung der Kündigung des Rechtsverh?ltnisses gem § 333 EO erm?chtigen lassen, um dann im Wege der Forderungsexekution auf das Auseinandersetzungsguthaben des Genossenschafters greifen zu k?nnen. Gegen den Verwertungsantrag kann der Verpflichtete das Exekutionshindernis einwenden, die Genossenschaftswohnung sei unentbehrlicher Wohnraum. Dieser Einwand ist nur dann berechtigt, wenn der Verpflichtete behauptet und nachweist, dass ihm die erforderlichen Mittel für die Anschaffung einer zumutbaren Ersatzwohnung und für die übersiedlung fehlen. Die zumutbare Ersatzwohnung muss nur bescheidenen Ansprüchen gerecht werden.     

Individualrecht jedes Wohnungseigentümers gegenüber dem WE-Verwalter auf jederzeitige,bloß durch das allgemeine Schikaneverbot begrenzte Einsichtnahme in die Belege des gesonderten Kontos der Eigentümergemeinschaft nach § 20 Abs 6 WEG 2002

Der WE-Verwalter hat, ausgestattet mit allen Rechten und Pflichten eines Machthabers iSd §§ 1002ff ABGB, nach § 20 Abs 6 WEG 2002 jedem Wohnungseigentümer auf dessen Verlangen jederzeit (§ 1012), also ohne Beschr?nkung auf bestimmte Zeitr?ume oder auf das Vorliegen wichtiger Gründe, Einsicht in die Belege des gesonderten Kontos der Eigentümergemeinschaft (oder des Anderkontos des WE-Verwalters) zu erm?glichen. Dieses Individualrecht wird lediglich durch das allgemeine Schikaneverbot gem § 1295 ABGB begrenzt.