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Scholars have seldom tested the innovation and normalization paradigm of e-campaigning over time. Particularly outside the U.S., there is a lack of comparative analyses of candidate or party websites that deal with the concept's temporal validity and scope. The paper addresses this research gap through a longitudinal content and structural analysis of German party websites in the 2002 and 2005 National Elections. The results provide empirical evidence of a twofold development in e-campaigning that challenges past assumptions of the innovation and normalization framework. In particular, the paper proposes two theoretical revisions: First, innovation and normalization do not represent mutually exclusive opposites of a scientific controversy but rather a dynamic conceptual continuum which signifies parallel stages in the development of e-campaigning. Second, this continuum is affected by the website dimension (i.e., content or structure) as well as by the status of the political actors (i.e., parliamentary or non-parliamentary parties) being observed. Both intervening variables need to be taken into account in future research in order to accurately describe and explain the implementation of new information technologies in politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Can differences in welfare systems in industrialized countries explain the variations in consumer bankruptcy systems? This paper will attempt to address this question by examining the consumer bankruptcy/insolvency systems in Great Britain, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands and the role each plays in their respective welfare systems. This paper will examine institutional and political factors in the hopes of uncovering the nexus between welfare policies and consumer insolvency systems. It has long been suggested that domestic factors have a dramatic effect on policy development (Myles and Pierson, 1999, Giaimo 1999). In particular this paper will examine the effects of economic shocks, such as emergency medical treatment, on individual consumers in the various welfare systems in the countries examined. Two of the countries studied (Germany and the Netherlands) developed consumer insolvency systems only recently, while the other two, the United States and Great Britain, have some of the oldest consumer bankruptcy systems in the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modernization signaled the de-alignment of traditional social cleavages in advanced industrial states. Implicit in this is a homogenization of electorates according to post-material, "new politics" values. Although the impact of traditional social cleavages may have weakened, electorates are not de-aligned; the traditional social cleavages remain important divisions which structure the electorate in significant and meaningful ways. This paper focuses on the impact of religious voting relative to the other traditional social bases of politics in the United States, Germany, and Great Britain, comparing the modern electorates to the electorates of the early 1960s. Using election survey data and focusing on the social bases of conservative parties' support, the results show that while most of the social bases of electoral support have weakened, religious voting remains significant and has increased in the contexts of the United States and United Kingdom. This suggests that despite the decline in religious attendance, the traditional values shared by religious voters make them a tempting social basis of conservative parties’ voter coalitions, and that this may be occurring beyond these contexts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries use U.S. insider trading doctrine as a model, in part as a result of historical and political factors and in part because the United States is seen as a market leader--an early adopter with a well developed, disaggregated, public securities market. Yet, despite these convergent beginnings and a general agreement on the nature of the regulated conduct (i.e., prohibiting securities trading by insiders possessing material nonpublic information), operative insider trading rules in the United States (as a rule originator) have evolved to protect different interests and regulate different specific market activities than insider trading rules in other countries. Using existing insider trading law and regulation in the United States, Germany, and Japan, this paper (a) identifies the common roots and divergent evolution of insider trading doctrine in these nations, (b) articulates ways in which differences in current insider trading doctrine may be meaningful, and (c) isolates possible reasons for the existence and persistence of the observed doctrinal divergence. Divergent political, economic, and societal histories, and differences in legal systems and traditions, are at issue in the analysis. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

American studies have pointed to a dramatic increase in negativity on campaign websites. Thus far, however, it is unclear, whether this growth of virtual mudslinging reflects either a national trend due to the competitive and highly personalized voting system, or rather an international process in the ongoing professionalization of political communication. In order to explore this question, this paper compares the use of attacks on German party websites in two state elections, one national election, and one European parliamentary election with recent American evidence. The results show that online negativity has affected German e-campaigns on all levels of the political system, with patterns similar to those found in the United States. This includes the amount and frequency of the attacks as well as their differential usage by incumbents and challengers, their respective sources, and the subject dimensions of the assaults. Only with regard to the thematic context and the targets of the attacks did German and American e-campaigns vary in their style of online negativism. These findings support the notion of a global standardization effect in web campaign practices brought about by the professionalization process in politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A lot of research on legislative careers has focused on the factors contributing to a member’s election to the Bundestag. However, very little is known about parliamentarians’ careers within the Bundestag. For some members being elected to the Bundestag is not the end, but the beginning of their political career and they strive to achieve leadership positions. This paper will investigate those members of parliament and research what sets them apart from members that do not acquire leadership positions. This study is based on statistical research from all members of the Bundestag from 1994 to present and will look at a series of potential variables that enhance the selection to leadership positions. In its theoretical setting the study wishes to combine knowledge gathered from theories of recruitment and the studies of leadership careers in US institutions, i.e. the US Congress or US State legislatures. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper expands on the experimental findings of the motivated reasoning literature to numerous election studies in the U.S., Britain, and Germany. Conclusions inform both the information processing and campaign effects literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the United States has declared war on terrorism and restricted the role of criminal courts by detaining some individuals indefinitely without filing criminal charges, Germany has chosen to fight terrorism within its existing criminal justice framework. Despite the fact that the two countries have adopted different strategies to combat terrorism, the German government has repeatedly reiterated its strong commitment to cooperating with the United States. While Germany strongly questioned the efficacy and legitimacy of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it responded to 9/11 by enacting its own anti-terrorism legislation, strengthening ties between German and American law enforcement agencies, and by deploying troops to Afghanistan. However, these cooperative efforts mask an underlying tension in the transatlantic relationship. The source of that tension is the Bush Administration's decision to employ tactics that violate international treaty obligations as well as domestic law. This decision, which led to the indefinite imprisonment of foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay and the loosening of the prohibitions against the torture of prisoners, reflects a fundamental disagreement between the United States and its European allies about the rules of the game that govern the fight against terrorism. While there has been widespread debate about the wisdom of U.S. policy, opponents have not been able to identify significant concrete costs of it, beyond a decline in respect for America abroad. This paper provides tangible evidence of the costs of the U.S. terrorism policy. Critically, it shows how the actions of the American government hamstrung Germany's prosecution of two individuals suspected of providing logistical support to the 9/11 terrorists. This paper argues that the U.S. government's refusal to grant the German courts access to key witnesses in both cases undermined the ability of German prosecutors to convict these individuals. While one cannot draw a definitive conclusion about the counter-productiveness of U.S. policy from the outcome of only two cases, these cases illustrate how the American government's decision to operate at the boundaries of the law may have unanticipated consequences. These consequences possess the potential to challenge the future effectiveness of international cooperation. To set the stage for that claim, this paper first briefly reviews the sequence of key events that transpired during the prosecution of these cases. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resurgent diseases like HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria kill millions worldwide. I argue that political factors can affect the distribution of public health resources. In democracies, parties in government can protect their voters from disease by building hospitals, improving sanitation and redistributing health funds to party strongholds. I hypothesize that party leaders attempt to secure future electoral success by targeting strategically important electoral districts with public health. Districts containing populations underrepresented by the political system may be neglected. This behavior is channeled through electoral systems where majoritarian and centralized institutions further reduce the incentives to provide efficient public health. Over time, therefore, elections and politicians shape the spread of disease within democracies..x000d..x000d.To test the argument, I model the distribution of public health and disease mortality in late 19th and early 20th century United States, France and Germany. Specifically, I use constituency level political data to predict mortality rates in electoral districts across the sample period. The results indicate that political incentives determine how governments respond to the outbreak of disease. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

James Whitman's 2003 book, "Harsh Justice" is an insightful comparative study of the U.S. and French and German justice systems. Whitman hypothesized that harshness in the U.S. justice system was a result of the weakness of the state bureaucracy in America (Whitman 2003:12). This study operationalizes Whitman's state strength hypothesis in the context of U.S. federal and state prisons. Using the 2004 Survey of Inmates in State and Federal Correctional Facilities (BJS 2004), logistic regression was used to measure the probabilities of inmates receiving one of six punishments after committing one of fifteen rules violations based on whether they were federal or state inmates, controlling for punishment history. The results provide evidence that federal prisons employ harsher punishment to rule violations than state facilities, possibly driven by the visibility of national politics and political risk. In addition, the results provide evidence that policy capture has occurred with regard to "the war on drugs", that U.S. prison systems have been politicized, and that the federal system in particular is paying for it in tax dollars and inmate quality of life. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

German and American politicians draw on diverse, yet culturally shared concepts of representation. By utilizing sociological and anthropological approaches, these concepts can be studied and interpreted in their distinct contexts. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the years that spanned 1933-1944, legislators spoke out against Nazi anti-Semitism. These lawmakers observed in the reports of violence against Jews a potentially larger threat to such civic liberties as unfettered speech, religion and assembly. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The major focus of this investigation is to examine how feminist voices did or did not impact ART-debates and related policy outcomes in Germany and in three U.S. states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will compare and analyze the responses by the German press to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq in the larger context of the relations between Germany and the United States and international politics in general. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I apply network text analysis to focus group transcripts I conducted in Sweden, Germany and the US to explore the differences in public discourse on the welfare state in these three countries. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines comparative jurisprudence and minority rights through the broader lens Aquinas' ethics enunciated in the Summa Theologiae. In the notion of the first principles, basic moral precepts are self-evident. While some of these are accessible only to the educated, the most basic are accessible to all human beings. Among those accessible to all is "to dwell in society" (I, II, 94, 2). All that pertains to this inclination also belongs to natural law: among these things is the need to shun ignorance and to avoid offending those among whom one has to live. In this vein, I assert that legal or institutional discrimination constitutes a violation of natural law. Toward this end, I proceed in a graduated manner, working through each of the three country cases, paying special attention to the explicit content, as well as the legal implications, of the various jurisprudence. The guide in the conduct of this study is Alexander George's method of structured, focused comparison. First, why compare the three countries? South Africa, Germany, and the United States are all federal systems. They all have supreme courts of constitutional review, that also possess the power to render void aspects of legislation. They have also all in the past ten years been compelled to confront questions either related to homosexual rights of private conduct or the right to civil union/marriage access, or both. The consideration of this issue occurs at multiple levels of government in the case of the United States. At the federal judicial level, the Supreme Court has considered the issue of homosexual conduct, and ruled in Lawrence v. Texas (2003) that its prior decision, in Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), which sustained a Georgia sodomy statute, be overruled. At the federal legislative level, in 1996 the Congress and the President signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) into law, which prohibited the federal government from granting legal recognition to either same-sex or polygamous unions. It also provided that no state could be compelled to acknowledge (under the full faith and credit clause) a same-sex union performed in another state. For this reason, brief consideration of various state-level legal regulations, including the recent spate of marriage amendments and the Massachusetts decision to permit same-sex marriage, ought to be considered. However, they should not be considered on the same level that is afforded to Bowers, Lawrence, or the DOMA. In Germany, two seminal cases will be considered, depicting Germany's evolving body of jurisprudence and legal guidelines. In the 1957 Homosexuality case (6 BVerfGE 389), the Court ruled, as the US Supreme Court did in Bowers, the criminalizing of homosexual conduct did not constitute a violation of the Basic Law. Similar to the passage of the DOMA (which has thus far been rejected for review by the US Supreme Court), the German Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 1979 in 53 BVerfGE 224 that marital union consists of one man and one woman (and that only this form of union was accorded protection under the marriage article (6. 1) in the German Basic Law. However, the Court subsequently ruled in 1990 in 82 BVerfGE 6 that lawmakers were free to grant legal recognition to same-sex couples, so long as this recognition occurred within the boundaries defined by Article 6. In 105 BVerfGE 313 (2002), the Civil Partnership case, the Court ruled that the law in question was, indeed, such a permissible means, not violating the spirit, intent or content of the "special protection" granted the marriage institution under the terms of Article 6. In South Africa, in CCT 11/98, National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality and another v. Minister of Justice, the Constitutional Court ruled that the inclusion of sodomy as a common law offense was unconstitutional... ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the discussion about the interplay of trade and conflict and provides a detailed examination of trade patterns from 1931 to the end of World War II. Based upon a novel data set, I am able to establish that trade volumes rose before and during the war for all major European powers and the U.S., casting serious doubt both on the view that increased trade has pacifying effects and the widespread---yet still unproven---notion that trade levels fall during large-scale wars. In addition, I argue that an aggressor state's trade follows a unique pattern and test this view with monthly data on Nazi Germany's imports and exports. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a cross-national Q-survey prepared and conducted by the author to identify the differences in public discourse on the welfare state in Sweden, Germany and the USA. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares and contrasts the abortion decisions of the United States and the German Supreme Courts. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A compartive case study that uses Elite Theory to explain the differences between US and German health care policy. The paper provides an illuminating concise overview of the evolution of each system then transitions to an analysis that carefully use ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are Green Parties locations of power for women in terms of political interests and party participation? I compare the success of Germany's Green Party to that of the U.S. Green Party in improving access to political participation. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This experimental study used data from two universities in Germany and the United States and analyzes the impact of different picture sequences on the evaluation of politicians. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study shows that massive shifts within national budgets occur and considers four sources of these shifts: institutional constraints, attention, partisan preferences, and veto players. The theory is tested via time-series data of four democracies. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]