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W. E. B. Bu Bois's theory of history is argued to rest on the problem of the development of power & authority in races & individuals that produces cultural & civilizational achievement. Du Bois is argued to be as chauvinistic about Africans & as egocentric as Marcus Garvey, who rivaled him in his Pan-Africanism struggles in the 1920s. The elements of Africa's cultural greatness -- beginnings, the village unit, & art in sculptures & music -- that Du Bois offers as the gifts of Africa reveal his implicit criticism of modernity & industrialization. Neverthelss, he clung to the idea of progress & worked for it in his commitment to the pan-African Congress. Du Bois's enthusiasm for Kwame Nkrumah (who was to successfully lead Ghana to independence) has its roots in this youthful enthusiasm for Otto von Bismarck, who brought the Germans together as a people. H. von Rautenfeld

"Besides monitoring and threatening taxpayers with penalties, the cultivation of their attitudes towards taxation is a topic of immediate interest. The importance of tax morality, meaning taxpayers' honesty in taxation, has been confirmed in current research. However, this is nothing new. In 1927 the economist and sociologist Otto Veit published a fiscal sociological study on this very topic. Veit suggests an extensive economic approach of studying tax morality which is thoroughly based on philosophical and contemporary sociological concepts. In his approach, tax morality is an endogenous variable which depends on the behaviour of the individuals concerned. These individuals are tax legislators, tax administrators, and taxpayers. Tax morality is influenced not only by the technical design of a tax system and by law enforcement, e.g. monitoring, whistle blowing, and punishment, but also by social, political, and cultural factors. In this article, Veit and his work on tax morality are presented. Firstly, Veit will be introduced as a fiscal sociologist. Then, his approach of studying tax morality and its philosophical and sociological foundation will be explained. Finally, conformity with Schmölders' approach in the 1950s and 1960s and with very current research on tax morality will be demonstrated. It is the basic message of this article that some of Veit's ideas are of immediate relevance and worth making use of." (author's abstract)

The annual Conference of Parties (COP) of the Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place since the establishment of the Berlin Mandate in 1995. Since then the on-going climate change negotiations have produced little
progress in preventing the ultimate objective of the Framework Convention that is to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
Mainly responsible are three overarching conflicts, which have overshadowed all effort for an effective agreement so far. While the first and second conflict is within the developing and within the developed countries, the third conflict is between developing and developed countries. The latter conflict debates the question of how much and by whom emissions should be reduced in the future. The discipline of international relations provides two theoretical perspectives to predict the success of this year´s climate change negotiations. Whereas Realism perceives power to be the main reference for explaining international cooperation, constructivism puts the recognition of material as well as ideational factors in the centre of observation. If applied on the different negotiation parties, the realist perspective provides a far more pessimistic outlook for a successful agreement than constructivism.

Over the last years new incentives for professors were introduced into the German university system in order to strengthen the external motivation and the productivity of professors. At the same time a critical reflection has begun, in which the effects on internal motivation and deficiencies concerning the measurement and the overall effects on the science and higher education system were discussed. In addition to these criticisms, we will argue from an organizational perspective. From that perspective, incentives are a central aspect of power in organizations. This allows us to put incentives in a broader perspective, in which also other forms of power in higher education organizations come into light. Such forms are the power over resources, careers, and, ultimately, membership. The article argues that due to the specificities of the German university system and its organizations, the nexus between power and incentives is rather weak as compared to other systems. However, such a structure is not per se problematic. It generates a specific set of advantages and disadvantages with regard to the missions of universities in a knowledge society and some critical side-effects of a strong nexus between power and incentives can thus be avoided. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

Investigates the influence of the capitalist class in the European Union (EU) during the postwar liberal restructuring of capitalist relations & the more recent global neoliberalization of national power configurations. The European bourgeoisie is identified as the capitalist class & described as a social force whose cohesion & power derive from four principal sources: (1) a labor process built on the exploitation of human labor power; (2) a particular complex of market relations; (3) a structure of profit distribution; & (4) a particular relation to the state. These aspects are used as coordinates for framing the way in which the capitalist class has responded to postwar economic conditions. It is argued that until the 1960s, the capitalist class in the postwar period followed a corporatist policy characterized by a Fordist mode of accumulation & enforced by regional institutions. However, successive shocks of domestic & international crisis in the 1960s led to a renationalization of economic policies among EU states, a period of stagnation in integration efforts that was only halted by a neoliberal restructuring that forced competitive austerity & freed capital to circulate transnationally. Particular attention is paid to the European Round Table of Industrialists & its role as a policy-making group in the extended relaunch of European integration. 4 Tables, 39 References. D. M. Smith

Vor dem Hintergrund einer Typologie der Forschungsansätze im Bereich der Erfassung sozialer Ungleichheiten präsentieren die Verfasser die analytischen Möglichkeiten der vergleichenden Untersuchung von Leistungspotenzialen. Diese werden im Rahmen der Untersuchung sozialer Differenzierung thematisiert. Es wird hervorgehoben, dass es sich dabei nicht nur um die Analyse der vorhandenen Handlungspotenziale gesellschaftlicher Akteure handelt, sondern auch um die Diagnostizierung von Lücken, die ihre gesellschaftliche Integration erschweren, und von Konsequenzen hinsichtlich ihrer Stellung in diversen gesellschaftlichen Hierarchien. Als ein Aspekt dieses Ansatzes wird die individuelle Wertschätzung und daraus resultierende Wohlfahrtspolitiken untersucht. Die Verfasser zeigen, dass die Jugend der maßgebende Adressat solcher Politiken ist und deshalb im Mittelpunkt der Anwendung dieses Forschungsansatzes stehen soll. Es wird argumentiert, dass die Defizite innerhalb des Leistungspotenzials dieser Gruppe ein zentrales Thema der Sozialpolitik und der relevanten Forschung sein müssen. (ICF).