Europe´s political, social, and economic (dis-)integration: Revisiting the Elephant in times of crises. IHS Political Science Series Working Paper No. 143, October 2016

Since the outbreak of the European debt crisis, the EU has faced some of its greatest challenges to date. Discussions about the downsizing of the Eurozone, the UK exit referendum or the increasing success of EU-sceptic parties contradict the vision of an “evercloser union.” As disintegration becomes increasingly conceivable, so does our need for a conceptual understanding of the compound processes of European integration. In the present paper, European integration is understood as a bidirectional and multidimensional process. It is assumed that processes of integration and disintegration can occur simultaneously, and that their results can be measured with the help of the same indicators. Moreover, European integration is not limited to political integration: processes of integration and disintegration also proceed in the economic and social dimension. We exemplarily point out the complex relations between dynamics of integration and disintegration in its political, economic and social dimensions, and we specially focus on the causal relations between indicators of social and political integration

Europe's political, social, and economic (dis-)integration: revisiting the Elephant in times of crises

Since the outbreak of the European debt crisis, the EU has faced some of its greatest challenges to date. Discussions about the downsizing of the Eurozone, the UK exit referendum or the increasing success of EU-sceptic parties contradict the vision of an “ever-closer union.” As disintegration becomes increasingly conceivable, so does our need for a conceptual understanding of the compound processes of European integration. In the present paper, European integration is understood as a bidirectional and multidimensional process. It is assumed that processes of integration and disintegration can occur simultaneously, and that their results can be measured with the help of the same indicators. Moreover, European integration is not limited to political integration: processes of integration and disintegration also proceed in the economic and social dimension. We exemplarily point out the complex relations between dynamics of integration and disintegration in its political, economic and social dimensions, and we specially focus on the causal relations between indicators of social and political integration

The impact of European integration on constitutional policy in the German federal system

Die Studie untersucht die Auswirkungen der Einbettung des föderalen Systems in das europäische Mehrebenensystem auf die Verfassungspolitik anhand der Verhandlungen und des Ergebnisses der "Föderalismusreform I", insbesondere in den Bereichen Umweltpolitik und europapolitische Zusammenarbeit von Bund und Ländern.The paper analyzes the impact of European integration on the federal system in Germany. It focusses on the negotiations and outcomes of the "federalism reform I" (environmental policy, coordination of EU policies)

Is there a 'German school' of comparative politics? An institutional perspective

Looking at scientific research in terms of 'schools' marks an established way of evaluating larger research areas. In this paper, we deliberately use a soft concept of 'school', designed to capture possible peculiarities of the discipline of Comparative Politics in Germany, and its impact at the international level of political research. The focus of our inquiry is on three major sub-areas of comparative political studies - comparative executive politics, comparative legislative research, and comparative federalism research - which can be meaningfully subsumed under the label of institution-centred comparative political research. Moreover, we focus basically on the developments of the past decade. We find that the size of the German, or German-language, community of comparative politics has long worked to keep the pressure for German or Germany-based scholars to publish their research in English low, though the language of publication alone cannot be considered a valid indicator of either scientific excellence or parochialism. Data collected for the past decade, measuring the share of contributions by German or Germany-based scholars in the internationally leading specialist journals of the sub-areas examined, suggest that the discipline has 'opened up' and 'reached out' more recently. That said, for the time being, the German comparative politics community in the three sub-areas studied continues to be considerably stronger at the receiving end, in terms of paying reasonable attention to the theoretical and empirical developments at the international level, than at actively shaping the international debate. As in other areas, exceptions prove the rule.(VLID)460431

Scheitern Finanzdienstleistungen am Verbraucher? Eine theoretische Analyse rationalen Verbraucherverhaltens im Rahmen des Anlageberatungsprozesses

Verbraucherpolitische Maßnahmen müssen dort ansetzen, wo sich Verbraucher nicht selbst schützen können. Notwendige Bedingung für eine effektive Gestaltung verbraucherpolitischer Maßnahmen ist daher das Wissen um das tatsächliche Verhalten von Verbrauchern. Gerade im Bereich beratungsintensiver Finanzdienstleistungen, in dem der Informationsaustausch zwischen Verbraucher und Berater eine zentrale Rolle einnimmt, ist die Kenntnis der Schwächen des Informationsverhaltens von Verbrauchern essentiell. Das Paradigma der Verhaltensökonomie ist in der Lage, reales, beschränkt rationales Verbraucherverhalten und die damit einhergehenden Probleme aufzuzeigen. Das Paradigma wird daher herangezogen, um die für beratungsintensive Finanzdienstleistungen wesentlichen Konsequenzen beschränkt rationalen (Informations-)Verhaltens von Verbrauchern theoretisch zu analysieren und so Problemfelder zu identifizieren, die bei der Gestaltung verbraucherpolitischer Ansätze berücksichtigt werden sollten. Abstract Consumer policy should protect consumers where they cannot protect themselves. Therefore, the knowledge of actual consumer behavior is a necessary condition for the effective design of measures involving consumer policy. Particularly when dealing with financial services that mainly rely on advice giving and taking, it is essential to know about the weaknesses of consumers' information behavior. The paradigm of Behavioral Economics uncovers boundedly rational consumer behavior as well as the corresponding problems. It is therefore employed in this article to theoretically analyze important consequences, boundedly rational behavior has in the financial advice giving and taking context, and to thereby identify problems, which should be considered in the design of measures involving consumer policy. JEL Classifications: D00, D18, G2