The Asymmetry of European Integration - or why the EU cannot be a Social Market Economy

Judge-made law has played a crucial role in the process of European integration. In the vertical dimension, it has greatly reduced the range of autonomous policy choices in the member states, and it has helped to expand the reach of European competences. At the same time, however, Integration through Law does have a liberalizing and deregulatory impact on the socio-economic regimes of EU member states. This effect is generally compatible with the status quo in Liberal Market Economies, but it tends to undermine the institutions and policy legacies of Continental and Scandinavian Social Market Economies. Given the high consensus requirements of European legislation, this structural asymmetry cannot be corrected through political action at the European level.social policy; integration theory; law; competences; Europeanization; Europeanization

No exit from the joint decision trap? Can German federalism reform itself?

The unique institutions that make up Germany's unitary federal state, long considered part of the country's post-war success story, are now generally perceived as a joint-decision trap impeding effective policy responses to new economic and demographic challenges at both levels of government. Nevertheless, a high-powered bicameral Commission set up in the fall of 2003 failed to reach agreement on constitutional reforms. The paper analyzes the misguided procedural and substantive choices that led to this failure, and it discusses the possibility of asymmetric constitutional solutions that might enhance the capacity for autonomous action at both levels. -- Die im internationalen Vergleich einmaligen Institutionen des unitarischen Bundesstaats erschienen lange as Element der deutschen Erfolgsgeschichte in der Nachkriegszeit. Heute erscheinen sie jedoch als Politikverflechtungsfalle, welche die Politik in Bund und Ländern an der Bewältigung der neuen ökonomischen und demographischen Herausforderungen hindert. Trotzdem gelang es einer im Herbst 2003 eingesetzten und politisch potent besetzten gemeinsamen Kommission von Bundestag und Bundesrat nicht, sich auf eine Verfassungsreform zu einigen. Der Text analysiert die prozeduralen und sachlichen Fehlentscheidungen, die das Scheitern erklären, und er erörtert die Möglichkeit asymmetrischer Lösungen, die den Spielraum für autonomes politisches Handeln auf beiden staatlichen Ebenen erweitern könnten.

Institutions in comparative policy research

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Charge Fluctuation in Heavy Ion Collisions

Charge fluctuations observed in early fixed-target proton-proton experiments are consistent with string models. In central heavy ion events the picture can change in two ways: strings can interact and find new ways to hadronize or they can be effectively inactivated to lose their dynamical role as ordering mechanism. Widely different charge fluctuations can be expected. The dispersion of the charges in a central rapidity box is an advantageous measure. In an explicit Dual-Parton-Model calculation using the DPMJET code and a randomized modification to simulated charge equilibrium, various energies and different nuclear sizes were considered. Local fluctuations were found to be a serious problem. However, for large enough detection regions charged particle fluctuations can provide a clear signal reflecting the basic dynamics of central heavy ion processes.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, Talk given at the Symposium on Multiparticle Dynamics, Alushta, Ukraine, Sept. 200

Survey- and fishery-derived estimates of Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) biomass: implications for strategies to reduce interactions between groundfish fisheries and Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus)

Survey- and fishery-derived biomass estimates have indicated that the harvest indices for Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) within a portion of Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus) critical habitat in February and March 2001 were five to 16 times greater than the annual rate for the entire Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands stock. A bottom trawl survey yielded a cod biomass estimate of 49,032 metric tons (t) for the entire area surveyed, of which less than half (23,329 t) was located within the area used primarily by the commercial fishery, which caught 11,631 t of Pacific cod. Leslie depletion analyses of fishery data yielded biomass estimates of approximately 14,500 t (95% confidence intervals of approximately 9,000–25,000 t), which are within the 95% confidence interval on the fished area survey estimate (12,846–33,812 t). These data indicate that Leslie analyses may be useful in estimating local fish biomass and harvest indices for certain marine fisheries that are well constrained spatially and relatively short in duration (weeks). In addition, fishery effects on prey availability within the time and space scales relevant to foraging sea lions may be much greater than the effects indicated by annual harvest rates estimated from stock assessments averaged across the range of the target spe