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Abstract
Disinformation and other forms of manipulative, antidemocratic communication have emerged as a problem for Internet policy. While such operations are not limited to electoral politics, efforts to influence and disrupt elections have created significant concerns. Data-driven digital advertising has played a key role in facilitating political manipulation campaigns. Rather than stand alone incidents, manipulation operations reflect systemic issues within digital advertising markets and infrastructures. Policy responses must include approaches that consider digital advertising platforms and the strategic communications capacities they enable. At their root, these systems are designed to facilitate asymmetrical relationships of influence.

Abstract
Disinformation and other forms of manipulative, antidemocratic communication have emerged as a problem for Internet policy. While such operations are not limited to electoral politics, efforts to influence and disrupt elections have created significant concerns. Data-driven digital advertising has played a key role in facilitating political manipulation campaigns. Rather than stand alone incidents, manipulation operations reflect systemic issues within digital advertising markets and infrastructures. Policy responses must include approaches that consider digital advertising platforms and the strategic communications capacities they enable. At their root, these systems are designed to facilitate asymmetrical relationships of influence.

We compare the effect of legal and institutional competition for the design of labor institutions in an environment characterized by holdup problems in human and physical capital. We compare autarky with the two country case, assuming that capital is perfectly mobile and labor immobile. We distinguish two cases. In the first, the political system is free from capture, while in the second, we examine the case where labor captures the institutional design problem. We find that in the former case, a competition of systems reduces welfare while in the latter it improves the overall outcome.

"Das Konzept der Generation erlebt derzeit eine große Renaissance, es wird bisher aber nur selten in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte angewendet. Dies ist erstaunlich, wenn man bedenkt, dass Mannheim selbst die Bedeutung von Generationseffekten für die Dynamik der Geisteswissenschaften betont. Was diese ihm zufolge von den Naturwissenschaften unterscheidet, ist gerade deren enge Verbindung mit der 'alltägliche(n) Lebenserfahrung'. Die Fruchtbarkeit der Anwendung des Generationenbegriffes in der Wissenschaftsgeschichte soll am Beispiel der Gruppe der New York Intellectuals (NYI) verdeutlicht werden. Zu dieser 'family' (Norman Podhoretz) von Intellektuellen zählten neben verschiedenen Schriftstellern, Literatur- und Kunstkritikern, Historikern, Philosophen und Theologen auch die Soziologen Daniel Bell, Nathan Glazer und Seymour M. Lipset, die sich während des Studiums am 'City College New York' (CCNY) kennen lernten. Die These lautet, dass dieser Kreis seine gemeinsame, generationsspezifische Prägephase in der Depression und der Weltwirtschaftskrise hatte, was zunächst zu einer Radikalisierung und zu einer Beschäftigung mit sozialistischen und marxistischen Ideen führte. Die Enttäuschung über das russische Regime nach den stalinistischen Schauprozessen 1937/38 und dem Nichtangriffspakt der Sowjetunion mit dem nationalsozialistischen Deutschland führte zu einer Abwendung vom Marxismus und einer Übernahme liberaler Positionen. Der bestimmende Einfluss dieser frühen Zeit wird dadurch deutlich, dass sich schon hier die für das spätere Schaffen der Gruppe der CCNY charakteristischen Themen ausbilden." (Autorenreferat)

AbstractIMF loans during times of financial crisis often occur in conjunction with bilateral financial rescues. These bilateral bailouts are substantial in size and a central component of international cooperation during financial crises. We analyze the political economy of bilateral bailouts and study the trade-offs that potential creditor governments experience when other countries find themselves in financial distress. Creditor governments want to stabilize crisis countries by providing additional liquidity, particularly if the crisis country is economically or politically important to them, but they are constrained by domestic politics. Politicians aim to balance these countervailing pressures. They provide bailouts when their own economy is exposed to negative spillover effects and when the crisis country is important for geostrategic, military, or political reasons. Domestic economic and political constraints, on the other hand, limit their ability to bail out other countries. We test our hypotheses using an original data set on bilateral bailouts by the G7 countries to countries that experienced financial crises between 1975 and 2010. The findings of our statistical analysis support our theoretical argument and contribute to a deeper understanding of international cooperation's complex structure during financial crises.

This paper provides a historical overview of comparative political economy as an interdisciplinary field of study anchored in political science and focused on advanced capitalist states. We argue that this field of inquiry has reached an impasse and that a more sustained engagement with macroeconomics provides a way forward. Against this backdrop, we review two distinct traditions of macroeconomics - New Keynesian and Post-Keynesian macroeconomics - and discuss their relative merits as vehicles for renewing the research agenda of comparative political economy. ; Dieses Paper bietet einen historischen Überblick über die Vergleichende Politische Ökonomie als interdisziplinäres, in der Politikwissenschaft verankertes und auf die entwickelten kapitalistischen Länder bezogenes Forschungsfeld. Wir argumentieren, dass dieses Forschungsfeld in einer Sackgasse steckt und dass eine grundlegendere Auseinandersetzung mit der Makroökonomie nötig ist, um voranzukommen. Vor diesem Hintergrund wenden wir uns zwei unterschiedlichen Traditionen der Makroökonomie zu - dem Neokeynesianismus und dem Postkeynesianismus - und diskutieren, inwiefern diese als Instrumente zur Erneuerung der Forschungsagenda der Vergleichenden Politischen Ökonomie beitragen können.

SUMMARYAn extended editorial essay examines the nature of the basic needs debate, providing a context for the discussion taken up in subsequent articles. Particular and distracting attention is usually paid in that debate to national "count‐cost‐supply" exercises—assessing physical deficits and social targets and establishing the capacity to supply and ensure service delivery. But the emphasis should be rather on the systematic study of class and other political demands and their implications for 'basic needs' project formulation and implementation. The complexity and contingency of the linkages between needs should re‐focus the debate on the critical process of exclusion and the structure of demands for minima. The concern with basic needs is more than a new fashionable slogan but might be more effective if access to political and administrative institutions was at the top of its agenda and the rallying cry became 'essential guarantees'.RESUMENExigencias políticas y garantías fundamentales: EditorialEn este extenso ensayo editorial se examina el carácter del debate sobre las necesidades básicas que ofrece un ámbito para el estudio que se hace en artículos posteriores. Se suele prestar especial atención en dicho debate, que sólo sirve para distraer a los ejercicios nacionales sobre "numero‐costo‐efectivos" evaluándose los deficits fisicos y los objetivos sociales y estableciéndose la capacidad para proveer y garantizar la entrega de servicios. Pero debiera más bien ponerse de relieve el estudio sistemático de las exigencias de clases y otros tipos politicos y sus reper‐cusiones para formular y ejecutar proyectos sobre "necesidades básicas".La complejidad y contingencias de los vínculos entre las necesidades debieran permitir un reenfoque del debate sobre el proceso critico de la esclusión y la estructura de las demandas de mínimos. La preocupación con las necesidades básicas es algo más que un nuevo tema de moda pero podria ser más eficaz si en cabeza de su orden del día se colocase el acceso a las instituciones administrativas y politicas y el grito solidario fuera "las garantías fundamentales".RESUMEExigences politiques et garanties essentielles: éditorialCe long éditorial examine la nature du débat sur les besoins fondamentaux, fournit un contexte pour la discussion entamée dans les articles suivants. Dans ce débat il est en général prêté à tort une attention particulière aux exercices nationaux "compte‐coût‐fourniture", évaluant les déficits physiques et les objectifs sociaux et établissant la capacité à fournir et à assurer la prestation de services. Mais l'accent devrait plutôt porter sur l'étude systématique des exigences politiques de classes et autres et leurs implications pour la formulation et la mise en oeuvre de projets de "besoins fondamentaux". La complexité et la contingence des liens entre les besoins devraient ré‐orienter le débat sur le processus critique de l'exclusion et de la structure des demandes pour un minimum. L'intérêt porté aux besoins fondamentaux est plus qu'un slogan à la mode, mais serait peut‐être plus efficace si l'accès aux instititutions politiques et administratives était en tête de ses priorités et si le cri de ralliement devenait "garantie essentielle".

SOME OF THE FEATURES OF THE ORDINARY LANGUAGE METHOD IN PHILOSOPHY HAVE SURVIVED IN RECENT POLITICAL THEORY. THE METHOD'S DRAWBACK IS ITS CONCEPTUAL CONSERVATISM, WHICH MAY GO UNNOTICED WHEN IT IS EMPLOYED RATHER THAN DISCUSSED. PENNOCK'S RECENT ARGUMENTS ABOUT LIBERTY ARE SHOWN TO RELY ON THE METHOD AT CRUCIAL POINTS, IN SUCH A WAY AS TO GIVE UNJUSTIFIED SUPPORT TO THE CONCEPT OF NEGATIVE LIBERTY. MORE SURPRISINGLY, THERE IS COMMON GROUND BETWEEN THE ORDINARY LANGUAGE METHOD AND EMPIRICAL DEMOCRATIC THEORY. RECENT ATTEMPTS TO SHOW THE IDEOLOGICAL NATURE OF SUCH THEORY ARE CRITICIZED IN THE LIGHT OF FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT THE ILLOCUTIONARY FORCE ATTACHING TO THE CONCEPT OF DEMOCRACY. FINALLY, AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE ORDINARY LANGUAGE METHOD OF ENQUIRY IS SKETCHED.

The question of being 'Roman': Examining ancient history more closely
Professor for Ancient History at the University of Zurich, provides an intriguing and instructive analysis of the question of being 'Roman' in his most recent ancient history focus. My history research project analyses the dynamics of different identities in the Roman Empire from around 50-150 AD. This project seeks to understand the often-paradoxical dynamics of different identities in a multicultural empire and to stimulate a discussion about hidden aspects of social interactions that we still need to understand correctly. Although the Roman era is entirely different to our times, some critical questions relate to today's world, where social and political distinction mechanisms also lead to open or concealed conflicts.

Studies that examine whether voters make informed decisions on direct legislation and whether direct legislation enhances civic engagement presume a basic awareness of ballot propositions, yet little is known about why some ballot propositions are more widely known than others. Despite the fact that research on awareness of ballot propositions and political awareness focus on individual factors, the political environment plays a vital role. This study seeks to advance our understanding of environmental factors in explaining awareness of ballot propositions. Using data on California ballot elections between the years 1956 and 2000, I find that the political environment has a substantial effect on voter awareness. Specifically, I find that the electoral cycle, media coverage, campaign spending, voter fatigue, the number of days before an election, and issues that concern morality, civil liberties, and civil rights contribute to ballot proposition awareness.