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Sports Law
(2002)
The Erosion Continues: Reply
(2002)
The paper assesses current trajectories of change in the German system of industrial relations by analysing the co‐determination and collective bargaining systems. It argues that two parallel developments undermine the institutional stability of the German model. First, the institutional base of the German industrial relations system, which has served as the pre‐condition of its past success, has been shrinking during the last two decades. This is due to a decline in coverage by the two major industrial relations institutions: the works council system and wage agreements. Today fewer than 15 per cent of German plants are covered by both a valid collective agreement and a works council. Second, increasing decentralization pressures within collective bargaining tend to undermine the division of labour between co‐determination and collective bargaining. The dynamics of an institutional erosion of the German industrial relations institutions and the decentralization of collective bargaining disturbs the fine‐tuning of the mediating process between macroeconomic steering capacity and co‐operative workplace industrial relations. This tendency has been aggravated by the effects of German unification. The current institutional developments of the German industrial relations system leave serious doubts about the future of a successful model of co‐operative modernization.
This paper considers whether political business cycles existed in East European accession countries during the period 1990-9. Based on the Mundell-Fleming model expanded in Clark and Hallerberg (2000), we argue that the type of exchange rate regime and the relative independence of the central bank affects the instruments governments use to influence the economy before elections. In our empirical analysis, we find that accession countries with dependent central banks and flexible exchange rates have looser monetary policies in electoral periods than in non-electoral periods. If a country has a fixed exchange rate regime, it manipulates its economy in election years through running larger budgets instead of through looser monetary policy. The presence of such cycles in Eastern Europe has implications for the introduction of the euro in EU accession countries.
This paper reconsiders German unification during the period 1815-1871. First, it makes explicit the comparison between the German Empire and the European Union. Actors faced remarkably similar institution-building problems in both organisations. The second part of the paper evaluates the usefulness of three arguments from two theoretical traditions in European Union integration studies to explain the course of German unification. Following an analytic narrative approach, it considers the relevant actors and the relevant decision points to evaluate two versions of intergovernmentalism, one focused on the security concerns of actors and one focused on economic concerns, as well as neo-functionalism. Economic interests did play a role even in the geopolitically heavy 19th century. Neo-functionalism was less useful, although some structures like pan-German interest groups in support of further integration did develop as neo-functionalists would predict.
Under EMU, monetary policy is oriented toward the euro area as a whole and fiscal policy is an important instrument remaining in the hands of national governments to cushion economic shocks to individual countries. The current paper analyses the cyclical pattern of public finances in Europe and addresses the question of whether fiscal policies have been geared towards this stabilising role. Although taxes fluctuate countercyclically in a conventional manner, we find that discretionary measures have tended to undermine automatic stabilisers. On the expenditure side, we find that public investment also displays a consistent procyclical pattern. Dynamic analysis reveals that a permanent shock to output induces asynchronous fluctuations in taxes and expenditures in the year of the shock and in periods thereafter. Finally, we examine political and institutional factors. The political fragmentation of the government as well as the partisan hue of the government do not interfere with the cyclical response of public finances, but we do find evidence of a pronounced electoral cycle.
I argue that two types of veto players matter in the choice of monetary institutions: party veto players and subnational governments, which are strong in federal systems but weak in unitary systems. A crucial issue is whether voters can readily identify the manipulation of the economy with party players. A second issue concerns the national party veto player's ability to control either fiscal or monetary policy. In one-party unitary governments identification and control are clear; parties where such governments are common prefer flexible exchange rates and dependent central banks. In multiparty coalition governments in unitary systems, identification is traditionally difficult, and the ability to target benefits to specific constituencies under fiscal policy makes fiscal policy autonomy more attractive for coalition governments. Such governments prefer central banks that are politically independent but that finance government debt. Under federalism, parties that constitute the central government have less control over fiscal policy and they prefer flexible exchange rates. Subnational governments do not support a dependent central bank that gives more power to the central government.
This paper examines the political economy of taxation in the Bundesstaat of Prussia during the Kaiserreich period. It examines how different factors of production with different levels of relative mobility, organized roughly along party lines, interacted with one another on taxation issues. It pays particular attention to the institutional composition of the Prussian state and how the institutions affected the mix of taxes the state levied. In particular, several elements of Prussia's electoral system, including the use of a three-class system, the distribution of electoral districts, and an indirect vote, guaranteed that large agricultural landowners would hold most of the power in spite of increasing industrialization. The parliament therefore consistently changed the tax code to reduce the burden on large agriculture.
Das Buch betrachtet die Charakteristika der Herbeiführung kollektiver und verbindlicher Entscheidungen im internationalen System. Untersucht werden unterschiedliche Typen, die von regionalen Zusammenschlüssen, über internationale Regime bis zu internationalen Organisationen reichen. Es werden dabei Fragen nach der Entstehung, Funktionsweise und Wirkung internationaler Institutionen gestellt. Dabei wird ein in der bisherigen Forschung kaum beachtetes Charakteristikum deutlich: Regieren in internationalen Institutionen ist durch die zunehmende Vernetzung der einzelnen Institutionen gekennzeichnet, die über die bisherige Konkurrenz, Arbeitsteilung oder Koexistenz weit hinausgeht.
The relationship between interpersonal trust and membership in voluntary associations is a persistent research finding in sociology. What is more, the notion of trust has become a central issue in current social science theorizing covering such diverse approaches as transaction costs economics or cognitive sociology. In different ways and for different purposes, these approaches address the role of voluntary organizations, although, as this paper argues, much of this thinking remains sketchy and underdeveloped. Against an empirical portrait of this relationship, the purpose of this paper is to assess such theorizing. We first set out to explicate major approaches to trust in economics, sociology and political science, using the non-profit or voluntary organization as a focal point. We then examine the various approaches in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, and, finally, identify key areas for theoretical development. In particular, we point to the social movement literature, the social psychology of trust, and recent thinking about civil society.
Die institutionelle Kinderbetreuung in Deutschland ist ein Beispiel der Steuerung sozialer Dienste zwischen „Markt und Staat“. Kinderbetreuung wird nicht nur primär aus kommunalen Mitteln finanziert, sondern auf kommunaler Ebene durch Vertreter freier und öffentlicher Träger geplant und reguliert. Diese Strukturelemente sind rechtlich in Form des Subsidiaritätsprinzips und der kommunalen Finanzierung verankert. In diesem Beitrag argumentieren wir, dass die finanzielle Abhängigkeit vom kommunalen Budget und eine undurchsichtige Bedarfsplanung wesentliche Hemmnisse für eine bedarfsgerechte Versorgung mit Kinderbetreuungsplätzen darstellen. Dem derzeitigen „Mix“ aus öffentlichen und öffentlich finanzierten Kindertageseinrichtungen stellen wir das System einer nachfrageorientierten Steuerung des Angebots gegenüber. Am Beispiel von einem „Gutscheinmodell“ stellen wir konkrete Überlegungen und Umsetzungsbeispiele eines derartigen Systems für Deutschland vor.
Parity Specific Birth Rates for West Germany: An Attempt to Combine Survey Data and Vital Statistics
(2002)
In this paper, we combine vital statistics and survey data to obtain parity specific birth rates for West Germany. Since vital statistics do not provide birth parity information, one is confined to using estimates. The robustness of these estimates is an issue, which is unfortunately only rarely addressed when fertility indicators for (West) Germany are reported. In order to check how reliable our results are, we estimate confidence intervals and compare them to results from survey data and estimations conducted by the German Statistical Office. Although our estimations show a similar trend, the magnitude of some fertility indicators differs substantially from the ones reported in other studies. However, estimations from other studies do not give a consistent picture of German fertility, either.
The performance of migrants in occupational labour markets: evidence from 'Aussiedler' in Germany
(2002)
Since the breakdown of communism, Germany has experienced a major influx of Aussiedler who are basically migrants originating from Eastern European countries. In this article, we use data from the German Socio-Economic Panel of the year 1998 to analyse the labour market performance of this group of migrants. Our key hypothesis guiding the empirical investigations is that in occupational labour markets, such as the German one, migrants are faced with specific problems when transferring their educational and vocational skills acquired in other countries. Only if they gain access to their trained occupations are they able to perform well in the labour market. Otherwise, occupational closure hinders them from receiving returns to their educational and vocational qualifications.
In contrast to West Germany, where marriage and childbirth have been strongly coupled, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) displayed high rates of non-marital childbearing. Researchers attributed this pattern to “misguided” GDR family policies that encouraged women to remain unmarried after childbirth. With German unification, East Germany’s legal and political institutions — including family policies — were replaced by those of West Germany. Against this background, it was widely expected that east German non-marital birth rates would soon fall to west German levels. After unification, however, they increased even further.
This article argues that the enormous east-west differences in non-marital childbearing in the 1990s can be attributed to differences in women’s work orientation. Despite unfavourable labour market constraints and social policies that encourage women’s withdrawal from the labour force after childbirth, east German women, compared with their west German counterparts, are still more likely to be in full-time employment, and to re-enter the labour force sooner after childbirth. Our empirical investigation, drawing on data from the German 1997 micro-census, reveals a strong effect of women’s education and employment on marriage in west Germany, whereas in east Germany the probability of living in a marital union is hardly correlated at all with women’s employment characteristics. We conclude that a generally strong female work orientation and the wide availability of public day care facilities are the most important factors weakening the economic incentives for east German women to get married at childbirth.
This paper investigates the role of women’s education in the transition to the second child using data from the 1997 German micro-census. We begin our analysis with a simple model, which shows a positive effect of woman’s education on the transition rate to the second child for West German women. We argue that this effect is most likely confounded by various factors. Firstly, we assume that there is a time-squeeze effect, which increases the transition rate to the second child for more highly educated women. Secondly, titled as the partner hypothesis, we argue that more highly educated women often live with more highly educated partners who have the earning potential to afford a large family. Thirdly, titled as the selection hypothesis, we argue that the positive effect of women’s education can be attributed to a selection effect, i.e. familyoriented college graduates are more likely to select themselves into the group of women
at risk of second birth. The empirical investigations particularly support the second and third hypotheses. After controlling for the partner’s characteristics and including unobserved heterogeneity factors, the positive effect of female education becomes strongly negative.
Global Civil Society 2002
(2002)
Global Civil Society 2002, the second in this annual landmark series, edited by Helmut Anheier, Marlies Glasius and Mary Kaldor from the London School of Economics, will continue to engage in fundamental and topical debates about global civil society, giving more explicit attention this year to the role of civil society in different political and cultural contexts around the world, with contributions from noted scholars including Abdullahi An-Na'im and Saskia Sassen. The book will contain a chronology of the global civil society events of 2001, new information on parallel global civil society summits, and updates on last year's topics. Its unique table programme will map and measure processes of globalisation and the thickening international rule of law, and provide new information on international non-governmental organizations and their leaders, on norms and values people hold all over the world, and on their participation in global civil society through activism, giving or volunteering.
Theories of European integration have traditionally been inwardoriented and presented difficulties in coping with the issue of whether the EU constitutes only a single case. Theoretically oriented research on enlargement offers the possibility of helping us to arrive at generalizable knowledge. However, traditional dichotomies of scientific discourse tend to favour the mutual ignorance of empirical facts and prevent the establishment of better theories and cumulative knowledge.
Das Buch betrachtet die Charakteristika der Herbeiführung kollektiver und verbindlicher Entscheidungen im internationalen System. Untersucht werden unterschiedliche Typen, die von regionalen Zusammenschlüssen, über internationale Regime bis zu internationalen Organisationen reichen. Es werden dabei Fragen nach der Entstehung, Funktionsweise und Wirkung internationaler Institutionen gestellt. Dabei wird ein in der bisherigen Forschung kaum beachtetes Charakteristikum deutlich: Regieren in internationalen Institutionen ist durch die zunehmende Vernetzung der einzelnen Institutionen gekennzeichnet, die über die bisherige Konkurrenz, Arbeitsteilung oder Koexistenz weit hinausgeht.
Ist der Verlauf der europäischen Integration nur von materiellen Interessen bestimmt oder spielen auch Ideen eine Rolle? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage wird zunächst eine konstruktivistische Theorie der Bildung staatlicher Präferenzen entwickelt. Der zweite Teil bietet eine methodisch reflektierte, systematisch vergleichende Untersuchung europapolitischer Vorstellungen ("Verfassungsideen") in Deutschland, Frankreich und Großbritannien seit 1950. Der dritte Teil analysiert ihre politische Wirksamkeit anhand der Verhandlungen zum Amsterdamer Vertrag. Ergebnis ist, daß in Bereichen, wo objektive Interessenlagen unklar sind, Ideen auch in zwischenstaatlichen Verfassungskonferenzen eine wesentliche Rolle spielen.