Care-Politiken,Care-Arbeitsmarkt und Ungleichheit: Schweden,Deutschland und Italien im Vergleich

Social and demographic changes in western societies have led to a (re-)definition of social rights related to care-dependency and the introduction of further regulations of formal and informal care delivery. Care has increasingly become provided in the public sectors – the state, market and civic sector – and new types of cash benefits to support informal family care have been introduced. In this article, the concept of social care is used as a theoretical tool to analyse the relationship between the (re-)definition of social rights, the growth of a regular or grey care labour market and the related development of new forms of inequality according to socio-economic class and ethnicity in the female dominated area. The empirical comparison of the developments in Sweden, Germany and Italy reveals the dimensions of social rights – eligibility criteria, level and types of benefits – which are decisive for the growth of a regular and grey care labour market and the intersection of different forms of inequality.     

Nationale und globale Ungleichheit

The impact of globalization on the structure of social inequality is controversial discussed in actual debates. The national focused research is challenged by globalists. The article concentrates on the problem of order and shows how this is solved by the national structures of social inequality. In the next step the reasons for and against the national solution are presented. Finally the possibility of transnational constituting structures of social inequality is examined. How probable is the structuration of global inequality if basic elements of order are missing on this level?     

Reproduktion als Praxis

The interdependency of ?production“ and ?reproduction“ has increasingly attracted the attention of the scientific community and the media. Biological and social reproductions are topics of family and gender studies: In family research reproduction is analysed as a basic function of the family; in gender research reproduction is mainly studied as a factor that effects social inequality. While sociological research was for a long-time concentrated on the ?conciliation“ of ?work“ and ?(family) life“, nowadays a change of perspective is necessary: How can employees maintain their psychological and physical strength when the work sphere becomes more and more flexible? How can they safeguard their social relationships? The article connects the categories ?work-strength –life-strength “ as a perspective that considers the structural and contradictory relationship of ?work“ and ?life“. With the concept of ?doing reproduction“, individual efforts are brought in the centre of research. Hereby is shown that the functionality of reproduction as a social sphere is fundamentally based on reproduction as an individual practice.     

Das Internet und die Transformation der Musikindustrie

Since the late 1990s, the music industry has been undergoing a period of significant and crisis-ridden changes, which was initiated and forced by a new set of technologies: digitalization, data compression and the internet. This paper analyzes the repercussions of this new technological constellation on the socioeconomic structures and institutions of this sector. The reconstruction of this technology-based sectoral transformation shows that the constitutive impulses for restructuring came from the fringes of the sector and from external actors. The established companies in the music business were hesitant in accepting the new technological challenges. They initially reacted with blockades and containment strategies and only defined a strategical repositioning upon massive and indisputable pressure to change. The paper argues that the low ability to anticipate and adapt to these technological, organizational and institutional challenges is due to the interplay of several factors. Among these are (1.) general difficulties to anticipate the socioeconomic impact of fundamentally new technological opportunities, (2.) complex and time-consuming processes of establishing a new techno-institutional match, (3.) the technological conservatism and (4.) the oligopolistic structure of the sector as well as (5.) the hierarchically structured core companies. Together these factors obstructed a controlled sectoral transformation led by the established core players.     

Reformfähigkeit messen? Konzeptionelle Überlegungen zu einem Reformfähigkeitsindex für OECD-Staaten

In the present article, I propose to determine reform capacity based upon policy outcomes and the governing performance of executives. Both components shall be measured through expert assessments and quantitative data for the 30 OECD member states in order to construct an index of reform capacity. The concepts underpinning the index are explained and compared with existing approaches of performance and governance measurement. Criteria are developed to assess the strategic capacity of governments and the accountability-generating functions of political actors surrounding the government. The envisaged measurement and aggregation methods are described and the potential of the proposed approach is discussed.     

Die Deutschen und die Türkeifrage: eine Analyse der Einstellungen zum Antrag der Türkei auf Mitgliedschaft in der Europäischen Union

In this paper, I examine the sources of support for Turkey’s EU-entry in the German public. I propose several models and explore their respective empirical validity using survey data gathered in May and June 2005. The analysis shows that neither trust in the federal government nor evaluations of the EU institutions play a role in attitudes toward Turkey’s bid for membership. By contrast, attitudes towards this issue are considerably affected by preferences about EU enlargement and, more strongly, by beliefs about whether Turkey at least partly belongs to Europe. Likewise, when forming attitudes towards Turkey’s bid for EU membership, Germans appear to consider the presumed consequences of including Turkey in the EU. Both East and West Germans are particularly likely to take consequences for regional security into account. The paper concludes with a discussion of several implications for German public opinion on this EU issue.     

Rechtsextremistische Wahlabsicht und regionaler Kontext: Mehrebenenanalysen zur Rolle sozialer Milieus und regionaler Gruppenkonflikte in Deutschland

In this article, we test individual and contextual level hypotheses about right-wing extremist voting in Germany derived from cleavage theory and the theory of realistic group conflicts. The data base is exceptional insofar as it allows multilevel analyses of right-wing extremism that include the level of the German districts between the respondent and the federal state level. Our findings demonstrate — to our knowledge for the first time — that the contextual influence of the religious/catholic milieu as well as of the regional tradition of trade union membership reduce the likelihood of a right-wing extremist party preference. Cleavage theory is thus clearly supported. With respect to the theory of realistic group conflicts we find support for some of its implications.     

Strategisches Wählen bei der Nachwahl in Dresden zur Bundestagswahl 2005

During the German federal elections in 2005 one peculiarity occurred which had considerable consequences. Due to the death of a district candidate in Dresden, there was a by-election in this district two weeks after the regular date. As a consequence, the electors in Dresden already knew the election results in the rest of Germany, when they cast their votes. This circumstance offered many of them a golden opportunity to vote strategically. This article proves that they indeed seized this chance and discusses the legal consequences and theoretical implications of that evidence.     

论全心全意依靠工人阶级根本指导方针的现实意义及其实现途径

全心全意依靠工人阶级是我们党的根本指导方针.为什么要坚持这一方针以及如何坚持这一指导方针,是我们在建设有中国特色的社会主义过程中必须搞清楚的问题.     

The Attlee government and welfare state reforms in post-war Italian Socialism (1945–51): Between universalism and class policies

The purpose of this article is to analyse how the Italian socialist movement viewed the social reforms of the Attlee Labour government introduced just after the Second World War. The intention is to study the extent and limits of the labour influence on Italian socialism. The Labour Party made the re-founding of a new interclass social pact, a universal matter intending to meet the needs of both the working and middle classes. The Italian socialist movement monitored the Labour government’s changes with interest, assessing them from two different perspectives. The reformist wing had a better grasp of the political–ideological implications of Labour’s approach to the welfare state. Vice versa, the majority of the Italian socialists pursued a class socialism and a strong alliance with the Communist Party, rejecting the Labour social policy model. After the split of 1947, however, the two views of Italian socialism failed to develop and implement a political programme for a welfare state based on the British universalistic tendency model. The political weaknesses of Italian socialist organizations in the field of social policy contributed to the characterization of the Italian welfare state in the post-war period and fundamentally delayed its universalistic implementation, at least until the 1960s.