The politics of mortgage credit expansion in the small coordinated market economies

Abstract

Recent contributions to the comparative political economy literature claim that liberal market economies are vulnerable to asset booms and busts because of financial deregulation, shrinking welfare states and a political ideology emphasising financial self-sufficiency. This article examines the rapid expansion of mortgage lending in three coordinated market economies (CMEs): Denmark, Sweden and the Netherlands. This expansion is puzzling given that all three countries are CMEs with generous welfare states. Yet the pattern of mortgage lending resembles the Anglo-Saxon or liberal market economies (LMEs) more than other CMEs. The article argues that mortgage bubbles in the small CMEs emerged as the unintended outcome of pairing neoliberal programmes to expand home ownership with collectivist housing institutions. This resulted in supply restrictions and rising property values which saddled households with extraordinarily high mortgage debts. In short, mortgage credit bubbles are not unique to Anglo-liberal welfare states and may have different origins.     

ICC Pre-Trial Chamber Allows Victims to Participate in the Investigation Phase of Proceedings

The decision rendered by the International Criminal Court (ICC)Pre-Trial Chamber I on 17 January 2006 allows victims to beinvolved in ICC proceedings at an early stage of the investigation.The Prosecutor, who has filed an appeal against this decision,has consistently argued that the right of victims to participatein the proceedings does not cover the investigation phase. Itis argued that the impact of this decision goes far beyond theissue of victims’ participation in the investigations;it has general implications for the balance of power betweenthe judiciary and the prosecution in proceedings before theICC.     

女性的身份认同与自然科学的基础--以物理学教学为例

传统观念认为女性不适合、也不善于学习自然科学;但是,一些女性主义研究者认为,正是传统的性别观念导致了女性与男性对自己的性别身份认同的偏差,而女性对自己的身份认同与学习自然科学所要求的身份的差距,成为女性学习自然科学的障碍之一.在国外相关研究的基础上,以物理学教学为例分析传统的与物理学相关的身份认同对女性学习物理学产生的消极影响,提出改变这种身份认同的方法,由此,在性别的视角下对自然科学的基础与性别之间的关系做出一个不同于传统观念的新的解释.     

论我国刑事证人资格的扩张

我国对刑事证人资格规定得过于狭窄,无法将警察、鉴定人以及同案犯罪人纳入其中,给我国刑事诉讼带来不便。由于警察、鉴定人不属于证人,因而无需出庭,造成庭审多采用书面审理的形成;而同案犯罪人不能充当证人不仅使得污点证人制度无法建立,同时也使同案被告人的口供问题无法解决。为此,需要对我国刑事证人的资格进行扩张,以将警察、鉴定人与同案犯罪人纳入其中。     

Newspaper juries

This article reports on a field experiment on the effect of media information on people’s attitudes towards the justice system. For the duration of a year a Dutch local newspaper took small groups of readers, called ‘newspaper jurors’, to court sessions of criminal cases and subsequently reported on their experiences and perceptions. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined whether an attitude change in the general reader population of this particular local newspaper occurred as a result of the jury’s newspaper reports. Findings show that, after the treatment interval of 1 year, no attitude change in the general reader population could be identified that was absent in the control group.