Suchergebnisse

This paper analyses the role of bank-related constraints in explaining the sharp slowdown in bank lending to non-financial corporations in Germany during the recent financial crisis. We use a panel approach based on a unique data set which matches the individual responses of the banks participating in the Eurosystem's Bank Lending Survey with the corresponding micro data on loan quantities and prices. Our main finding is that bank-related supply and demand-side indicators were both important in explaining the slowdown of bank lending during the crisis years. The results suggest that the dampening impact of the bank-related restrictions was strongest from the third quarter of 2009 to the first quarter of 2010. Over this short period, more than one-third of the explained negative loan development was due to the restrictive adjustments of purely bank-related factors, such as the costs related to the bank's capital, market financing conditions and the bank's liquidity position.

Anhand einer ländervergleichenden quantitativen Inhaltsanalyse untersuchen die Verfasser die dominanten Muster der Thematisierung von Krisenerscheinungen in führenden Zeitungen in den USA, der Schweiz und in Großbritannien. Sie zeigen, dass erst in der zweiten Hälfte 2007 die Medien damit anfingen, über die weltweiten sozialen und ökonomischen Implikationen dessen zu berichten, was ursprünglich als Krise auf dem Immobilienmarkt der USA dargestellt gewesen ist. Später sind einzelne Aspekte der Krisenkonsequenzen in Europa zum Thema der Berichterstattung, jedoch nur als isolierte personenbezogene Fakten, geworden. Anfang 2008 ist die Krise als globales Phänomen zum Gegenstand von Zeitungspublikationen geworden. Seit der 2. Hälfte 2008 ist neben der Darstellung von diversen Aspekten der Krisenentwicklung das Thema der notwendigen politischen Regulierung des wirtschaftlichen Geschehens dominant geworden. (ICB)

We provide an overview of public support for the European car industry during the past decade. First, we identify the most relevant instruments of public support, and review their economic assessment. The European Commission increasingly recognizes the role of economic analysis in controlling public aid to the car industry, although the degree of economic assessment varies across di erent instruments of public support and individual state aid cases. Moreover, the state aid legislative framework is open to derogations and interpretations. In particular, the Temporary Framework, approved by the Commission to tackle the last nancial and economic crisis de facto implied a relaxation of the state aid rules and foresaw no formal control of individual state aids. Second, we aim to estimate the amount of public support for European car manufacturers. Three factors complicate the overall quanti cation of public support for each instrument: (i) the Commission does not scrutinize, and hence does not quantify all public support measures; (ii) the available information depends on whether the state aid is granted to individual companies or in the form of general schemes; and (iii) the available information depends on whether the aid is granted in the form of a grant, soft loan or guarantee. Our lower bound estimate of state aid suggests that the aid declined over the pre-crisis period, but peaked at €1.2 billion as a response to the last fi nancial and economic crisis in 2009. Perhaps even more strikingly, this state aid was combined with an unprecedented amount of public support granted through scrapping schemes of at least €4.0 billion, and loans from the European Investment Bank of €2.8 billion, or an equivalent of €400 million of ""aid element"". In conclusion, the existence of multiple public support instruments at different levels may create coordination problems and a lack of transparency, in spite of the Commission's efforts. The lack of transparency in turn poses a challenge for the quanti cation of state aid and non-state aid support to any industry or sector. This paper provides a first step towards informing the policy debate on the effects of public support to the car sector, and also stimulates the academic interest in the subject of state aid, and - more generally - public transfers to companies.

Gunther Hellman's (2004, spring) analysis of German foreign policy is justifiably critical, though the diagnosed crisis of foreign policy is not so much due to power political resocialization as resocialization of the national state. German politics appear to be characterized by a lack of conception & ad hoc problem management that are often influenced by ongoing domestic politics, where even German interests are general & without prioritization. This is problematic when Germany seeks to reach beyond a cooperative role to gain & exert influence. Although few nations followed Germany's post-war transformation to a post-national & post-modern state, there seems to be a revival of the national state throughout Europe. Although power political aspects are observable in Germany's current policies, there is a crisis of trust in German politics rather than a crisis of foreign policy. This national state resocialization requires European as well as German efforts to maintain the balance of nationalistic elements through advancing Europeanization. L. Kehl

This article inquires into the role of reconciliation in the context of political transitions. It argues that reconciliation can be understood first and foremost as a discursive device which has gained hegemony in numerous transitions around the globe. Building on the discourse theory developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe, the article suggests understanding political transitions as situations of severe social crisis in which hegemonic discourses are destabilized and new social ideals have to be articulated to re-order society and make collective action possible. In such a situation, reconciliation functions as an empty signifier, that is a vague but powerful social ideal which helps to unite a polarized political landscape in its name and thus to overcome the political crisis at least temporarily. Guided by these theoretical reflections, the second part of the article offers two discourse analyses which examine the articulation of reconciliation discourse in Spain and South Africa. Adapted from the source document.

The present article is an analysis of the ongoing crisis in Pakistan, involving an increasingly fragile state in which violence is of growing importance. If the country is unable to put a hold on this decline, Pakistan will on medium term grow into a country more threatening than Afghanistan. Apart from its domestic situation, chronic problems such as deformation and functional weakness of a large part of the federal and governmental system are mentioned, its political elites and large scale land-holding. Furthermore the sources of violence (interconfessional and interethnical) and radicalization and jihadic transformation of local cultures. O. van Zilj

In the spring 2004 issue of We1tTrends, Gunther Hellmann sparked a debate on Germany's foreign policy. He argued that Germany's international behaviour is dominated by a Realpolitik policy generally referred to as "normalization." For Hellmann, this transformation indicates one of the "deepest crisis of Germany's foreign policy" ever. The first two parts of the debate were published in the Summer & Fall editions (no. 43 & 44) of WeltTrends, which featured contributions of German International Relations scholars as well as foreign policy-makers (Members of Parliament). In this edition, experts from abroad join the debate on Germany's current foreign policy. Adapted from the source document.

Articles from the last three years' issues of English, American, & German periodicals in the field of security policy are reviewed with respect to themes regarding war in the 21st century. Key issues across all these journals included who would be the principal players in the 21st century, war strategies, & the role of "classic" means & institutions of security in the age of "cyberwar." Two tendencies were apparent throughout the review. First, Africa & Latin America were largely excluded from security policy discussions. Second, there was a marked difference in the American vs European debate regarding security issues. Whereas power politics & preservation of position dominated consideration of the players & means in the US articles, European articles focused on measures for prevention of conflict & crisis management from a US-critical perspective. This difference in perception may present its own potential for conflict with respect to development of transatlantic relationships. L. Kehl

Although large numbers of new publications on foreign policy analysis continue to appear, this field is currently undergoing a conceptual crisis. In this article, I seek to establish why this relatively applied field of research still has no solid theoretical foundation 25 years after the landmark success of Graham T. Allison's "Essence of Decision." One reason for the intellectual stalemate is the disproportional importance of policy advice, often written in an essayistic way, in the German-speaking world. Researchers have become independent & occasionally influential actors in the political game, but this orientation has also made foreign policy analysis a prisoner of "bureaucratic politics." Another reason why there is still no substantial theory of foreign policy is because no convincing answers to the weaknesses of Allison's models have been found. The article offers a cursory literature review of decision-theoretic contributions & discusses how this branch of IR research could profit from neo-institutionalist findings. Adapted from the source document.

European politicians' main approach to handling the Euro crisis was through intergovernmental means, and, as a consequence, the EU's indirect channel of representation has gained in importance. Against this background, this article investigates the role European issues played in the 2013 German federal election campaign. Were European issues neglected or even deliberately de-politicized? Or did the parties offer voters distinct alternatives on European issues? Based on a content analysis of three newspapers, the results do not indicate that an active de-politicization of European issues took place; rather, they show that politicians discussed European issues even during the crucial phase of the election campaign and that they were able to effectively communicate their different positions on various European issues. Governing parties were found to be particularly aware of European issues, with their European policy positions significantly more likely to be found in the analyzed newspapers than the positions of opposition parties. Adapted from the source document.

The continuing and deepening Euro crisis arose in the context of the international financial crisis. Recession and stagnation amplify and prolong the economic crisis and reveal the EU's political problems. Welt Trends published articles by Heiner Flassbeck and Hartmut Else Hans, analyze the macroeconomic failures of the euro crisis. They criticize the development of low wages, an excessive export development, lack of demand, unreasonable debts, bad debts of the creditors and false austerity. Although their arguments go to the heart of the crisis processes, root cause analysis remain too little complex and its implications shot unsatisfactory. Adapted from the source document.