598 research outputs found
Removing conceptual blinders: Under what conditions does the âdemocratic deficitâ affect institutional design decisions?
This paper pursues two objectives, one theoretical the other empirical. First, by keeping separate two grand strands in the EU studies literature, one on the design and reform of EU institutions and the other on the EUâs âdemocratic deficitâ, EU scholars are foreclosing the opportunity to address a hitherto unanswered question: When and under what conditions does the âdemocratic deficitâ â as it is perceived by political elites in the member states â carry institutional design implications? Does the âdemocratic deficitâ really matter to political elites, and if this is the case, how does it matter? Will it inform political elitesâ preferences and choices for institutional design and change? By conceptualising the âdemocratic deficitâ as a value of the independent variable, we are guided to ask when and under what conditions it informs decisions for institutional design and reform. This paper will develop a set of propositions linking political elitesâ perceptions about a âdemocratic deficitâ and their institutional design preferences. Secondly, to test the plausibility of these propositions, they will be subjected to empirical scrutiny. The paper shows that the creation and empowerment of the European Parliament can be accounted for by applying the propositions elaborated in this paper. Hence, a question that has puzzled students of European integration since the inception of the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) â why national governments have successively bestowed the European Parliament (EP) with powers (supervisory, budgetary, and legislative) â can only be answered by exploring the conditions under which the âdemocratic deficitâ â as perceived by political elites â will carry institutional design implications.constitution building; democracy; ideas; legitimacy; non-majoritarian institutions; treaty reform; European Parliament
A Collaborative Lecture in Information Retrieval for Students at Universities in Germany and Switzerland
K3, work in progress, is an acronym for Kollaboration (collaboration), Kommunikation (communication), and Kompetenz (competence). K3 provides a platform in the context of knowledge management to support collaborative knowledge production in learning environments. The underlying hypothesis states that collaborative discourse conciliates information as well as communication competence in learning contexts. The collaborative, communicative paradigm of K3 is implemented by asynchronous communication tools as a means of constructivist learning methodology. In this paper we will describe a K3 course. The lecture was organized and carried out at two places in two different countries (Germany and Switzerland) with students from different universities in the context of Library and
Information Science. The paper informs about the management of the lecture and about the problems we had to run the lecture at two places. The circumstances in coordinating the presentations, the exercises, the examinations and evaluation, and the time schedule are presented. The conclusions of the lecturers and the results of a questionnaire for the students are explained in detail
The LIOn's share: How the Liberal International Order Contributes to its Own Legitimacy Crisis. Harvard CES Open Forum Series2019-2020
The liberal international order (LIO) is experiencing a legitimacy crisis in its Western heartland. What causes this crisis? Existing approaches focus on the LIOâs unequal allocation of wealth and values that produces losers and thus breeds dissatisfaction. Yet, why this dissatisfaction translates into a delegitimation of the order rather than a contestation over policies remains unaccounted for. Complementing the cultural and economic backlash hypotheses, this paper advances an institutionalist explanationfor the current crisis of the LIO, which accounts for the growing resistance to the LIO with a political backlash hypothesis. Our argument is that the institutional characteristics of the LIOâs political order trigger self-undermining processes by inciting opposition that cannot be politically accommodated and is thus bound to turn into polity contestation. In particular, we hold that IOsâ predominantly technocratic legitimation rationale on the one hand, and their increasing political authority with distributional effects on the other, create a democracy gap. It implies that avenues to absorb opposition through input channels are largely missing and thus incite the erosion of the LIOâs general acceptance. We illustrate the plausibility of this argument with evidence from the European Union (EU) as well as the international regimes on trade and human rights
Why the European Parliament has a better gender balance than national parliaments
Across Europe there is a wide variation in the percentage of female representatives in national parliaments, with the gender balance typically skewed toward male representatives. But what can the European Parliament tell us about mechanisms for ensuring a better gender balance? Jessica Fortin-Rittberger and Berthold Rittberger write that there is a clear âgender gapâ between the European Parliament and national parliaments, with the European Parliament consistently containing a higher percentage of female representatives than national parliaments overall. The exact reasons for this are unclear, however, and may relate to the candidate recruitment procedures employed by political parties
The Hypertext Internet Connection: E-mail, Online Search, Gopher
In this paper we show how to handle and organize the large amount of information accessible through the Internet or other public communication networks in a hypertext environment. The C(K)onstance-Hypertext-System (KHS) uses typed units to indicate the differences and the content and structure of information, comprising text, forms, images pointers to external information. We show how to imbed Internet services, which usual require rather different interaction styles, such as point-to-point communication (e-mail query formulation (online databases) or browsing (Gopher) into the uniform interaction model of the KHS. The integration of Internet services in an open hypertext environment produces value-adding effects which are also discussed. (DIPF/Orig.
Recruitment procedures shape the gender composition of party lists in European Parliament elections
Different countries select their Members of the European Parliament in different manners, with Britain opting for a party list system based on regional (in the case of England) and national constituencies (in the cases of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). The European Parliament has better gender representation than most legislatures, however as Jessica Fortin-Rittberger, Berthold Rittberger, and Sarah Dingler argue, the recruitment procedures used by parties shape the gender composition of the lists that prospective MEPs appear on
Explaining post-communist founding elections results through initial state capacity
While a consensus is emerging about the importance of state building and state capacity for democratization in both post-communist and developing countries, comparatively few explicit attempts have been made to provide empirical support for the relationship between the two concepts. Even more problematic is to find an explicit causal mechanism linking high state capacity with democracy. State capacity can be understood as the capability of the state to penetrate society, regulate social relations, extract resources, and appropriate or use resources in determined ways. In other words, strong states have high capabilities to complete these tasks, while weak states struggle to compete with private actors over extraction and appropriation of resources. But what makes strong states more likely to be democratic and, in turn, weak states less likely to be democratic? This article explores whether or not state capacity correlates with the outcomes of founding elections, that is, the first open elections in post-communist countries. In other words, do voters in states with higher initial capacity also tend to âthrow the communist rascals outâ in the founding elections? (author's abstract
Building application dependent hypertexts
The Konstanz Hypertext System offers a domain-specific developmental environment for the construction of large hypertexts. Through its flexibility, the structuring means employed in the Konstanz Hypertext System offers an instrument which permits one to respond directly to the demands relevant to specific applications in the construction of hypertexts. Especially the integration of information obtained from external resources is emphasized. After a discussion of the information sources which can be connected to the KHS a short introduction to the hypertext model of the KHS is provided. The role of structuring means in the integration of external information is pointed out. The scope of possible applications and the flexibility of the system are demonstrated by the following three comprehensive examples: resource discovery of online databases, management of electronic mail and the compilation of an issue of an electronic journal. (DIPF/Orig.
The Berlin puzzle: Why European solidarity prevailed in the adoption of the Corona recovery fund
In light of the German government's long-held preference against EU-wide fiscal burden-sharing, a hallmark of the Euro crisis, its support for an EU-wide debt-instrument during the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a dramatic policy U-turn. To make sense of the âBerlin puzzleâ, we develop a theoretical mechanism that explores why an initially reluctant German government heeded to the call for transnational fiscal solidarity: First, to avoid a âcommon badâ of a large-scale economic contraction, proposals for an EU-wide fiscal response became a political imperative. Second, the successful framing of the crisis as ânobody's faultâ rendered the call for European solidarity as the dominant standard of legitimacy to which all governments subscribed. Third, governments whose preferences were not aligned with this standard faced mounting normative pressure and isolation. As a result, governments changed their positions, but not their preferences. We probe this mechanism by carrying out a process-tracing analysis of the German government's fiscal policy U-turn in the crucial months preceding the adoption of the Next Generation EU (NGEU) recovery plan in July 2020. The paper contributes to the growing literature on fiscal burden-sharing in the EU by demonstrating when and how member states can change their stance on transnational fiscal burden-sharing
Ontologiebasierter ForschungsfĂŒhrer fĂŒr die Bildungsforschung
Dieser Beitrag beschreibt das Vorhaben, Semantic Web-Technologien fĂŒr den Aufbau eines ontologiebasierten ForschungsfĂŒhrers einzusetzen. Heterogene, verteilte Datenquellen des Informationszentrums Bildung sollen auf diese Weise semantisch integriert, angereichert und ĂŒber entsprechende Recherchemöglichkeiten zugĂ€nglich gemacht werden. Die einzelnen Schritte zur Umsetzung des geplanten Projekts werden vorgestellt, wobei insbesondere auf zu erwartende Mehrwerte gegenĂŒber der aktuellen Datenquellennutzung eingegangen wird. (DIPF/Autor).This paper elaborates on the objective to use semantic web technologies for the implementation of an ontology based research guide. It aims at a semantic integration and enrichment of heterogeneous, distributed data sources of the Information Center for Education, thus making them accessible through appropriate retrieval functionalities. The individual steps of the planned project are presented with a particular focus on the added value that can be expected in comparison with the current use of the data sources. (DIPF/Author)
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