Missing the Popular Vote: Pitfalls in US Democracy and Reform Proposals

Abstract Only a few years ago, it was a widespread belief that globalisation would trigger processes of democratisation worldwide. However, even old and established democracies such as the United States have recently revealed serious weaknesses. This article shows that the US election system is heavily distorted and recommends profound and transparent Electoral College reforms in the election of US presidents. Furthermore, the article highlights the implications the challenges facing American democracy have for Europe

Hohe und weiter steigende Ungleichheit in den USA: Politisch nicht gewollt und doch geduldet?

Die Betrachtung der Gini-Koeffizienten sowohl vor als auch nach Umverteilung zeigt, dass die Verteilung der persönlichen Einkommen in den USA zwischen 1947 und 2020 ungleicher geworden ist. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die möglichen Konzepte, die den Zielvorgaben für die Einkommensverteilung zugrunde liegen, und argumentiert auf der Grundlage der empirischen Ergebnisse, dass weder klare Wahl- oder Parteizyklen in den Daten der Einkommensverteilung in den USA zu erkennen sind, noch dass die Verteilung ein stationäres Gleichgewicht besitzt. Vielmehr ist ein ungebrochener zyklischer Aufwärtstrend der Ungleichheit zu beobachten, der erheblich zur Spaltung der US-Gesellschaft beiträgt.Looking at both the Gini coefficients ex-ante as well as at the Gini coefficients ex-post reveals that the distribution of personal incomes has become more unequal in the USA in the periods between 1947 and 2020. This paper investigates the possible underlying concepts of income distribution targets and argues, based on empirical findings, that neither clear electoral/partisan cycles nor station-arity (equilibrium) in the figures of income distribution of the USA can be detected. Instead, one observes an unbroken cyclical upward trend in inequality, which contributes significantly to the fission in the US society and economy. Surprisingly, as measured by the results produced by US presidents on the national level since 1947, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party have made similar contributions to lowering the inequality

Structural resemblances and comparisons of the relative pharmacological properties of imatinib and nilotinib

Although assessments of indices of drug similarity are becoming increasingly important, such comparisons are frequently qualitative and involve subjective preconceptions. In this study two tyrosine kinase inhibitors are compared on the basis of structural similarity, target selectivity and general biological activity in patients. The benchmark compound imatinib, is a BCR-ABL1 kinase inhibitor used as front-line treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), where most newly-diagnosed chronic phase patients achieve excellent, durable responses. However, some patients do not tolerate imatinib and others may develop secondary resistance, as a consequence of the emergence of imatinib-resistant, mutant forms of BCR-ABL1. Nilotinib is a novel compound used to treat CML, discovered in a medicinal chemistry programme where the imatinib structure was re-engineered, based upon an understanding of the crystallographic binding mode of imatinib. Whereas structure-activity relationships were followed to optimise potency and selectivity towards BCR-ABL1, as well as biopharmaceutical properties, there was no such constraint on off-target activities. This resulted in significant structural differences between imatinib and nilotinib, which areis reflected in the marked differences between the drugs in terms ofin their preclinical pharmacology and side-effect profiles in imatinib-resistant and –intolerant patients, who show a lack of cross-intolerance between the two compounds