Ungleiche politische Repräsentation und sozialstaatlicher Wandel

In vielen entwickelten Wohlfahrtsstaaten ist ein Wandel zu einem aktivierenden Wohlfahrtsstaat zu beobachten, welcher durch einen Rückbau von dekommodifizierenden Maßnahmen bei gleichzeitigem Fokus auf eine (Re-)Kommodizifierung von Arbeitskraft charakterisiert ist. Anhand der sozialstaatlichen Entwicklung in Deutschland argumentiere ich, dass ungleiche politische Responsivität gegenüber verschiedenen sozialen Klassen als ein Faktor zum Verständnis dieses Wohlfahrtsstaatsumbaus beiträgt. Mithilfe einer empirischen Untersuchung der bedeutenden Arbeitsmarkt- und sozialpolitischen Reformen seit 1980 wird gezeigt, dass die wegweisenden politischen Entscheidungen dieses Umbaus maßgeblich den Präferenzen oberer sozialer Klassen folgten, während sozial Schlechtergestellte ihre Forderungen nur verwirklicht sahen, wenn sie mit denen der Bessergestellten übereinstimmten. Die Forderungen unterscheiden sich insbesondere in Bezug auf den Rückbau traditioneller Absicherung sowie Maßnahmen, die Aktivierung durch Sanktionen herbeiführen – „fördernde“ Aktivierungsmaßnahmen dagegen finden eine breite Zustimmung in allen gesellschaftlichen Gruppen. Die Orientierung politischer Entscheidungen an den sozial Bessergestellten führt also nicht per se zu einem sozialstaatlichen Rückbau, sondern zu einem Umbau mit komplexen Verteilungswirkungen.During the last decades, many welfare states have undergone a massive restructuring, which is characterized, despite large cross-country variations, by a common reform trajectory towards a more activating welfare state. In this paper, I argue that representational inequality along social class lines is one important factor that can advance our understanding of this welfare state shift. With an empirical examination of the important social policy and labor market reforms in Germany since the 1980s, I show that the major policy decisions corresponded with the preferences of the better off. Lower social classes, in contrast, only saw their preferences politically enacted when they were in line with those of higher social classes. Since conflicts were most intense over traditional income protection measures, whereas all groups show strong support for the expansion of social investment, this unequal responsiveness not only leads to welfare retrenchment, but rather to a recalibration with complex distributional consequences

Charged Particle Dynamics in the Field of a Slowly Rotating Compact Star

We study the dynamics of a charged particle in the field of a slowly rotating compact star in the gravitoelectromagnetic approximation to the geodesic equation . The star is assumed to be surrounded by an ideal, highly conducting plasma (taken as a magnetohydrodynamic fluid) with a stationary, axially symmetric electromagnetic field. The general relativistic Maxwell equations are solved to obtain the effects of the background spacetime on the electromagnetic field in the linearized Kerr spacetime. The equations of motion are then set up and solved numerically to incorporate the gravitational as well as the electromagnetic effects. The analysis shows that in the slow rotation approximation the frame dragging effects on the electromagnetic field are absent. However the particle is directly effected by the rotating gravitational source such that close to the star the gravitational and electromagnetic field produce contrary effects on the particle's trajectory.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures in B & W PostScript Forma

Group Representation for the Working Class? Opinion Differences among Occupational Groups in Germany

In this paper, we take up the burgeoning debate about the underrepresentation of the working class in politics. In the literature section we discuss theories of group representation and look at recent empirical studies of responsiveness that have begun to disaggregate public opinion by sociodemographic categories. Empirically, we analyze a dataset of more than 700 survey items collected in Germany between 1980 and 2012. The analysis shows that respondents within one social class are more similar to each other than to members of other classes and that class-based differences outweigh those of education, region, or gender. While opinion differences are not always large, they can reach 50 percentage points. There are frequently gaps of between 20 or 30 percentage points in support for or opposition to policy changes. Since workers’ opinions tend to differ from the opinions of those groups who are well represented in parliament, their numerical underrepresentation might bias decisions against them, as recent studies suggest.In diesem Discussion Paper greifen wir die aktuelle Debatte über die politische Unterrepräsentation der Arbeiterklasse auf. Im Literaturteil stellen wir Kernargumente der Theorien deskriptiver Repräsentation dar und verknüpfen diese mit aktuellen Studien aus der empirischen Responsivitätsforschung. Im empirischen Abschnitt analysieren wir einen von uns erstellten Datensatz mit mehr als 700 Sachfragen, die jeweils nach der Zustimmung oder Ablehnung einer vorgeschlagenen Politikänderung fragen. Die Sachfragen stammen aus Umfragen, die zwischen 1980 und 2012 erhoben wurden. Wir zeigen, dass sich die Befragten innerhalb einer sozialen Klasse in ihren Einstellungen systematisch ähnlicher sind als Befragte aus unterschiedlichen sozialen Klassen. Zudem sind Einstellungsunterschiede zwischen sozialen Klassen größer als zwischen anderen sozialen Gruppen (Bildung, Region, Geschlecht); sie betragen häufig mehr als 20 oder 30 Prozentpunkte. Da Arbeiter sich von den Gruppen unterscheiden, die zahlenmäßig stark im Parlament vertreten sind, könnte dies vermehrt zu Politikentscheidungen entgegen ihren Interessen führen.1 Introduction 2 Social class 3 Theory and literature review The theoretical case for group representation Inequality and responsiveness: Empirical studies 4 Data and methods 5 Empirical analysis 6 Conclusion Reference

Parametric excitation of plasma waves by gravitational radiation

We consider the parametric excitation of a Langmuir wave and an electromagnetic wave by gravitational radiation, in a thin plasma on a Minkowski background. We calculate the coupling coefficients starting from a kinetic description, and the growth rate of the instability is found. The Manley-Rowe relations are fulfilled only in the limit of a cold plasma. As a consequence, it is generally difficult to view the process quantum mechanically, i.e. as the decay of a graviton into a photon and a plasmon. Finally we discuss the relevance of our investigation to realistic physical situations.Comment: 5 pages, REVTe

Ab initio screening methodology applied to the search for new permanent magnetic materials

In this paper a computational high-throughput screening (HTS) approach to the search for alternative permanent magnetic materials is presented. Systems considered for a start are binary intermetallic compounds composed of rare-earth (RE) and transition metal (TM) elements. With the tight-binding-linear muffin-tin-orbital-atomic-sphere-approximation (TBLMTO-ASA) method of density functional theory (DFT) a variety of RE–TM intermetallic phases is investigated and their magnetic properties are obtained at rather low computational costs. Next, interstitial elements such as boron, carbon and nitrogen in these phases are considered. For promising candidate phases with high and stable spontaneous ferromagnetic polarization, the calculated local magnetic moments and exchange coupling parameters, as obtained from TB-LMTO-ASA calculations, are then used for Monte Carlo simulations to identify candidates with sufficiently high Curie temperatures (Tc). Finally, magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants (K1) of the most promising candidate phases are calculated with accurate, potential-shape-unrestricted DFT calculations using the Vienna ab initio simulation package. The computational HTS procedure is illustrated by results for a selection of hard-magnetic RE–TM phases like RETM5, RE2TM17 and RE2TM14B

Specificity protein 2 (Sp2) is essential for mouse development and autonomous proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts

Background: The zinc finger protein Sp2 (specificity protein 2) is a member of the glutamine-rich Sp family of transcription factors. Despite its close similarity to Sp1, Sp3 and Sp4, Sp2 does not bind to DNA or activate transcription when expressed in mammalian cell lines. The expression pattern and the biological relevance of Sp2 in the mouse are unknown. Methodology/Principal Findings: Whole-mount in situ hybridization of mouse embryos between E7.5 and E9.5 revealed abundant expression in most embryonic and extra-embryonic tissues. In order to unravel the biological relevance of Sp2, we have targeted the Sp2 gene by a tri-loxP strategy. Constitutive Sp2null and conditional Sp2cko knockout alleles were obtained by crossings with appropriate Cre recombinase expressing mice. Constitutive disruption of the mouse Sp2 gene (Sp2null) resulted in severe growth retardation and lethality before E9.5. Mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEFs) derived from Sp2null embryos at E9.5 failed to grow. Cre-mediated ablation of Sp2 in Sp2cko/cko MEFs obtained from E13.5 strongly impaired cell proliferation. Conclusions/Significance: Our results demonstrate that Sp2 is essential for early mouse development and autonomous proliferation of MEFs in culture. Comparison of the Sp2 knockout phenotype with th

Human RTEL1 associates with Poldip3 to facilitate responses to replication stress and R-loop resolution

International audienc

Biodiversity, drug discovery, and the future of global health:Introducing the biodiversity to biomedicine consortium, a call to action

First paragraph: Looking to nature for medicine is nothing new – we have been doing it for tens of thousands of years and although modern pharmaceutical science has come a long way from those ancient roots, nature is and will always be an important source of useful compounds and inspiration. Dismissing nature in this regard is a huge mistake as evolution is the greatest problem solver and the myriad compounds produced by the immense variety of species we share the planet with have been honed by three billion years of trial and error. However, with every bit of habitat that disappears under the plough or concrete we impoverish nature and deprive ourselves of potential medicines.Additional co-authors: Uttam Babu Shrestha, Milica Pešić, Alexander Kagansk

GRIPS - Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy

We propose to perform a continuously scanning all-sky survey from 200 keV to 80 MeV achieving a sensitivity which is better by a factor of 40 or more compared to the previous missions in this energy range. The Gamma-Ray Imaging, Polarimetry and Spectroscopy (GRIPS) mission addresses fundamental questions in ESA's Cosmic Vision plan. Among the major themes of the strategic plan, GRIPS has its focus on the evolving, violent Universe, exploring a unique energy window. We propose to investigate $\gamma$-ray bursts and blazars, the mechanisms behind supernova explosions, nucleosynthesis and spallation, the enigmatic origin of positrons in our Galaxy, and the nature of radiation processes and particle acceleration in extreme cosmic sources including pulsars and magnetars. The natural energy scale for these non-thermal processes is of the order of MeV. Although they can be partially and indirectly studied using other methods, only the proposed GRIPS measurements will provide direct access to their primary photons. GRIPS will be a driver for the study of transient sources in the era of neutrino and gravitational wave observatories such as IceCUBE and LISA, establishing a new type of diagnostics in relativistic and nuclear astrophysics. This will support extrapolations to investigate star formation, galaxy evolution, and black hole formation at high redshifts.Comment: to appear in Exp. Astron., special vol. on M3-Call of ESA's Cosmic Vision 2010; 25 p., 25 figs; see also www.grips-mission.e