Free Movement of Services and Social Security—Quo Vadis?

Dental treatment (of Aline Kohll) and a pair of spectacles (for Nicolas Decker) recently drew public attention throughout the whole of Europe. It is certainly true that the reactions following the Court of Justice's judgements in both cases were not only to be felt in the profession but in the general public most especially in political circles. Some authors even went as far as to place these judgements on a par with those in the Costa/ENEL and Cassis de Dijon cases. In the meantime these decisions have persistently been upheld by two further judgements (Vanbraekel and Smits/Peerbooms). The essence of the judgements lies in the observation that the Member States must respect an insured person's right to freedom of services despite being entitled to organise their own social security services. The following article is a critical analysis of this approach. The author pleads for a solution to the problems to be found within the ambit of the rules and principles of coordination whose further development he calls for.     

Europe at the Fin de Siècle

In 1968 he was a prominent spokesman for noncommunist intellectuals, and he later became a founding member and leader of the human and civil rights movement “Charter 77.” The danger of totalitarianism has been his constant theme.     

Portion size matters: Carrion ecology lessons for medicolegal death investigations—A study in Cape Town,South Africa

Forensic taphonomic studies are regionally specific and improve time since death estimates for medico-legal casework. Within forensic taphonomy and carrion ecology, vertebrate scavengers are under-researched with many studies conducted using multiple, unclothed carcasses. This is a forensically unrealistic experimental design choice with unknown impact. The effect of variation in carrion biomass on the decomposition ecosystem, particularly where vertebrate scavengers are concerned, requires clarification. To assess the effect of carrion biomass load on vertebrate scavenging and decomposition rate, seasonal baseline data for single, clothed ~60 kg porcine carcasses were compared to clothed multiple-carcass deployments, in a forensically relevant habitat of Cape Town, South Africa. Decomposition was tracked via weight loss and bloat progression and scavenging activity via motion-activated cameras. The single carcasses decayed more quickly, particularly during the cooler, wetter winter, strongly correlated with concentrated Cape gray mongoose (Galerella pulverulenta) scavenging activity. On average and across seasons, the single carcasses lost 68% of their mass by day 32 (567 accumulated degree days [ADD]), compared to 80 days (1477 ADD) for multi-carcass deployments. The single carcasses experienced substantially more scavenging activity, with longer visits by single and multiple mongooses, totaling 53 h on average compared to 20 h for the multi-carcass deployments. These differences in scavenging activity and decay rate demonstrate the impact of carrion biomass load on decomposition for forensic taphonomy research. These findings need corroboration. However, forensic realism requires consideration in taphonomic study design. Longitudinally examining many single carcasses may produce more forensically accurate, locally appropriate, and usable results.     

Life After the Bundestag: An Analysis of the Post-Parliamentary Careers of German MPs

Is the transition from the political sphere to highly paid and attractive private and public sector positions a common phenomenon for legislators? If so, which variables determine these career moves? To answer these questions, the following variables are utilised: (1) the expertise gathered in certain committees, (2) strong professional networks resulting from a high position in party and legislature, (3) a business-friendly ideology, (4) the deteriorating party support and networking base indicated by a failed re-nomination, and lastly (5) the political success in winning elections. To comprehensively assess these factors, this study makes use of a new dataset that comprises information on the political positions as well as the professional status of 646 former German MPs who left the Bundestag between 1998 and 2009. Using probit regression analyses, it is shown that a higher hierarchical position in parliament and party and acquired expertise influence the probability of subsequently holding a more attractive private or public sector position. Moreover, the way in which legislators leave parliament – be it due to failed nomination, a scandal or failed re-election –serves as a reliable predictor for the status of subsequent employment.     

Politics of Disclosure: Organizational Transparency as Multiactor Negotiation

Transparency is in vogue, yet it is often used as an umbrella concept for a wide array of phenomena. More focused concepts are needed to understand the form and function of different phenomena of visibility. In this article, the authors define organizational transparency as systematic disclosure programs that meet the information needs of other actors. Organizational transparency, they argue, is best studied as an interorganizational negotiation process on the field level. To evaluate its merit, the authors apply this framework to a case study on the introduction of open data in the Berlin city administration. Analyzing the politics of disclosure, they consider the similarities and differences between phenomena of visibility (e.g., open data, freedom of information), explore the transformative power of negotiating transparency, and deduce recommendations for managing transparency.     

The Illusion of the China-US-Europe Strategic Triangle: Reactions from Germany and the UK

Journal of Chinese Political Science - The dawn of the Sino-US peer competition has broken, denoting a new status quo of instability as Beijing and Washington vie for influence. As leader of the...     

The E-Marketing Strategy of Hamas

Operations to counterterrorism in the southern Philippines have resulted in the arrest and incarceration of a significant number of key militants. As a result, the Philippine government has expressed concern that these inmates may radicalize others and continue to operate while incarcerated. As a preventive measure, the government has considered a number of “soft” counterstrategies, including the development of a de-radicalization program. To study the feasibility of running such a program in the Philippine corrective system, this article examines two interrelated areas of enquiry concerning how terrorist inmates are housed and whether prison gangs foster or discourage radicalization in the Philippine prison system. Initial findings suggest that the integration of terrorist inmates with prison gangs may temporarily encourage disengagement and set the foundations for de-radicalization. However, without a specifically designed intervention strategy, the terrorist inmates may revert to militancy once they have returned to their original social settings.