Towards stratarchy? European integration and the intra-party power of Austrian MEPs and delegation leaders

'Dieser Artikel untersucht die Auswirkung der EU-Mitgliedschaft auf die binnenparteiliche Macht österreichischer MEPs und Delegationsleiter. Er bietet eine erste Bewertung der österreich-spezifischen Daten der ersten systematischen und multinationalen Untersuchung der organisatorischen Anpassung sämtlicher 'relevanter' politischer Parteien Westeuropas an die europäische Integration. Die hauptsächliche Datenquelle bildet der vom Autor zwischen 2004 und 2005 durchgeführte österreichische Teil der standardisierten Umfrage eines multinationalen Projekts. Die Befunde werden weiter mittels Einsichten verdichtet, die der Autor aus mehreren für dasselbe Projekt mit österreichischen Parteieliten durchgeführten semi-strukturierten Interviews gewonnen hat (ebenfalls zwischen 2004 und 2005). Der Aufsatz befasst sich vor allem mit der Selektion von MEPs und Delegationsleitern, mit ihren politischen Karrieren vor und nach Aufnahme ihrer EU-Rolle sowie mit der Autonomie, die sie gegenüber ihren Parteien haben, wenn sie auf EU-Ebene tätig sind. In diesem Zusammenhang werden u.a. die ex ante und ex post Verantwortlichkeitsmechanismen sowie ihre Handlungsfreiheit untersucht. Der Artikel kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass MEPs und Delegationsleiter, wenn sie auf EU-Ebene tätig sind, gegenüber ihren parteilichen 'Principals' beträchtliche Autonomie genießen, diese jedoch nur selten in breitere innerparteiliche Macht umwandeln können.' (Autorenreferat)'This article examines the impact of Austrian membership of the European Union on the intra-party power of MEP5 and EP delegation leaders. It provides a preliminary evaluation of the Austrian part of the first systematic cross-national study of politically 'relevant' west European parties' organizational adaptation to European integration. The main data source is the Austrian part of that study's standardised postal questionnaire, administered by the author to selected party elites in 2004 and 2005. Those findings are complemented by insights derived from the in-depth semi-structured interviews with Austrian party elites which he conducted for the study during the same period. The paper concentrates on MEP and delegation leader selection; these actors' career paths before and after their EU-level role and on the degree of autonomy from their party which MEPs and delegation leaders enjoy when acting at the EU level. This involves considering ex ante and ex post accountability mechanisms to which they are subjected, as well as their levels of discretion. The article finds that MEPs and delegation leaders enjoy considerable autonomy from their party principals when operating at the EU-level, but few are able to convert this into broader intra-party power.' (author's abstract

Effects of Sodium Diacetrate on Corn Silage Chemical Characteristics, Preservation and Feedlot Performance of Growing Beef Steers

Whole-plant corn forage ensiled a t 65% moisture and stored in concrete stave silos for 200 days was fed in high-silage diets to growing beef steers. Approximately 84 tons of dry matter were stored in each of two silos. One silo contained forage which was untreated, while the other contained forage treated with sodium diacetate a t 1 lb. per ton of wet forage. Differences in feedlot performance of growing steers or in various chemical characteristics between untreated and sodium diacetate-treated corn silage were small and not significant (P\u3e.05). Both silages had a desirable pH (3.8) and contained over 10% lactic acid in the dry matter, indicating formation of high quality silage. Recovery of silage dry matter was 85.6% for untreated silage and 86.8% for sodium diacetate-treated silage

Death and Crippling in the Marketing of Swine

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the incidence of death and crippling and its relationship to total numbers of swine marketed, to graphically illustrate annual, seasonal, monthly, weekly and daily patterns of swine marketing, death and injury, to relate length of-haul to incidence of loss and, to study the combined effect of year, month and distance hauled on rate of loss and damage

Silage Management - The Key to Quality Corn Silage

The purpose of this decision is to review the process of making silage and re-emphasize those management decisions which if practiced will lead to making quality silage. The use of silage additives continues to be an item of consideration in today\u27s silage management program. Some of the additives under investigation at the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station will be discussed here at the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station will be discussed here at least where results are currently available. Research from other experiment stations will also be presented

Preliminary Studies with Lambs on the Utilization of Corn Silage Treated with a Biological Additive

The object of this experiment was to study the value of an experimental biological additive as an enhancer of the chemical composition and feeding value of corn silage. Growing lambs were used to measure the effect of treatment on digestibility and nitrogen retention

Effect of Antibiotics in Adaptation of Growing Beef Calves to the Feedlot

Four medication schemes for adapting stressed feeder calves t o the feedlot were evaluated in a 110-day trial. A total of 160 Hereford, Angus and Hereford x Angus steers (544 lb.) were fed a high-corn silage diet supplemented with the following medications: (1) nonmedicated control, (2) chlortetracyclinesulfamethazine (350 mg/steer of each compound for 28 days, (3) oxytetracycline (2 g/steer) for 10 days, then 1 g/steer for 4 days) and (4) oxytetracycline (2 g/steer for 14 days). Average daily gain, dry matter consumption and feed conversion were similar (P\u3e.05) for calves in all treatments. None of the steers required additional medication during the trial

Genetically engineered charge modifications to enhance protein separation in aqueous two-phase systems

The purpose of this work was to investigate the effect of genetically engineered charge modifications on the separation behavior of proteins in aqueous two-phase extraction. The proteins used in this study included: [beta]-galactosidase, modified by the fusion of positively--or negatively--charged peptide tails to the carboxy terminus of the enzyme, and lysozyme, which has been altered by site-directed mutagenesis to replace basic amino acids with acidic ones. The effects of these charge modifications were evaluated in phase systems utilizing two different charge-based mechanisms;Protein net charge was found to be effective in systems where partitioning is driven by a salt induced interfacial potential difference. By varying the system pH, the partitioning of [beta]-galactosidase could be increased by several orders of magnitude, and although the change in partitioning of lysozyme was much smaller, its behavior could be quantitatively described by a simple thermodynamic model. The genetic modifications were less effective in altering partition behavior using this mechanism. The charged fusion tails altered partition behavior through offsetting mechanisms, masking the effect of the additional charge on [beta]-galactosidase. The point mutations had a smaller effect on lysozyme partitioning than that observed for an equivalent pH dependent charge change;Direct ionic interaction between polymers and proteins of opposite charge had an even larger effect on partition behavior. Strong interactions between [beta]-galactosidase and diethylaminoethyl-dextran resulted in the formation of protein/polymer aggregates, causing nearly 100% of the enzyme to partition to the DEAE-rich phase. The effect of the fusions was less clear, since the observed partitioning trends could not be completely explained in terms of charge effects. However, the high positive charge density of the polyarginine tails provided for a localized interaction with dextran sulfate, causing fifteen fold shifts in partition behavior even though both polymer and protein were of like charge. Similarly, lysozyme partitioned to phases containing dextran sulfate as a result of attractive polymer/protein interactions, and up to seven fold shifts in partitioning were observed as a result of the point mutations. For these cases, altering protein charge by point mutation appeared to be more effective than the fusion technique. However, the apparent advantage may be due to the low net charge of the protein (lysozyme) receiving the point mutations

Federalism and Federation in Europe: A Comparative Study of The Germanic Tradition

Merged with duplicate record 10026.1/1656 on 27.02.2017 by CS (TIS)This thesis defines "federation" as a set of structures and techniques, by means of which the constituent members of a union are given guaranteed access to and are accommodated within the decision-procedure of the centre. Meanwhile, "federalism" is taken to signify the philosophical, or ideological prescription, or promotion, of such a union. The thesis commences by identifying the major shortcomings of the Anglo-Saxon academic literature on federation for a comparative analysis of federalism and federation in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The two main aims of the thesis are then outlined. These are first, to identify the nature of the tradition of federalism in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The second is to illustrate, by reference to the period immediately preceding the crystallisation of the party systems of those countries, the use of federalism as a political ideology. These aims are fulfiled in Parts 2 & 3 of the thesis. By means of its systematic, comparative analysis of federalism in Austria, Switzerland and Germany from the early sixteenth century until 1850, the thesis develops a typology of federalism, which permits it to identify the six “dimensions" of a distinctive, "Germanic”, tradition of federalism. Second, the detailed analysis in the thesis of the use of federalism during the first half of the nineteenth century shows how, within existing federations, a wide range of political groupings constituting the antecedents of modern political parties availed themselves of federalism for the promotion of their political aims. Amongst the conclusions of Part 4 of the thesis is that more attention should be devoted to the study of the interaction of federalism and federation and in particular, to how federalism is utilised by politial parties, both to legitimate and to reform federations.University of Leicester, Dept. of Politic