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Nation, migration, narration
(2022)
En France et en Allemagne, l’immigration est devenue dans les dernières décennies une problématique centrale. C’est dans ce contexte qu’est apparu le rap. Celui-ci connaît une popularité énorme chez les populations issues de l’immigration. Pour autant, les rappeurs ne s’en confrontent pas moins à leur identité française ou allemande.
Le but de ce travail est d’expliquer cette apparente contradiction : comment des personnes issues de l’immigration, exprimant un mal-être face à un racisme qu’ils considèrent omniprésent, peuvent-elles se sentir pleinement françaises / allemandes ?
On a divisé le travail entre les chapitres suivants : Contexte de l'étude, méthodologie et théories (I) ; Analyse des différentes formes d’identité nationale au prisme du corpus (II) ; Analyse en trois étapes chronologiques du rapport à la société dans les textes des rappeurs (III-V) ; étude de cas de Kery James en France et Samy Deluxe en Allemagne (VI).
In der vorliegenden Arbeit analysiert Maciej Chinalski den Regional Governance Ansatz und seine praktische Umsetzung in den Europäischen Grenzregionen zwischen Deutschland und Polen (Oder-Partnerschaft) sowie im Vierländereck von Österreich, Ungarn, Tschechien und Slowakei (Centrope-Region). Regional Governance gilt als eine Kooperationsform unterschiedlicher regionaler Akteure, die nach neuen Synergien suchen, um ihre Zusammenarbeit voranzutreiben. Eine Region wird dabei als Raum verstärkter Interaktionen zwischen Staat, Zivilgesellschaft und Wirtschaft verstanden.
Inhalt: Gründe für das Entstehen der Parteienfinanzierung aus dem Staatshaushalt ; Argumente für und gegen die Haushaltsfinanzierung politischer Parteien ; Finanzierung politischer Parteien in Polen nach 1989 ; Die Diskussion über das System der Finanzierung politischer Parteien in Polen ; Zusammenfassung ; Literatur
Der hohe Preis der Macht
(2004)
The thesis focuses on the inter-departmental coordination of adaptation and mitigation of demographic change in East Germany. All Eastern German States (Länder) have set up inter-departmental committees (IDCs) that are expected to deliver joint strategies to tackle demographic change. IDCs provide an organizational setting for potential positive coordination, i.e. a joint approach to problem solving that pools and utilizes the expertise of many departments in a constructive manner from the very beginning. Whether they actually achieve positive coordination is contested within the academic debate. This motivates the first research question of this thesis: Do IDCs achieve positive coordination?
Interdepartmental committees and their role in horizontal coordination within the core executive triggered interest among scholars already more than fifty years ago. However, we don’t know much about their actual importance for the inter-departmental preparation of cross-cutting policies. Until now, few studies can be found that analyzes inter-departmental committees in a comparative way trying to identify whether they achieve positive coordination and what factors shape the coordination process and output of IDCs.
Each IDC has a chair organization that is responsible for managing the interactions within the IDCs. The chair organization is important, because it organizes and structures the overall process of coordination in the IDC. Consequently, the chair of an IDC serves as the main boundary-spanner and therefore has remarkable influence by arranging meetings and the work schedule or by distributing internal roles. Interestingly, in the German context we find two organizational approaches: while some states decided to put a line department (e.g. Department of Infrastructure) in charge of managing the IDC, others rely on the State Chancelleries, i.e. the center of government.
This situation allows for comparative research design that can address the role of the State Chancellery in inter-departmental coordination of cross-cutting policies. This is relevant, because the role of the center is crucial when studying coordination within central government. The academic debate on the center of government in the German politico-administrative system is essentially divided into two camps. One camp claims that the center can improve horizontal coordination and steer cross-cutting policy-making more effectively, while the other camp points to limits to central coordination due to departmental autonomy. This debate motivates the second research question of this thesis: Does the State Chancellery as chair organization achieve positive coordination in IDCs?
The center of government and its role in the German politic-administrative system has attracted academic attention already in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a research desiderate regarding the center’s role during the inter-departmental coordination process. There are only few studies that explicitly analyze centers of government and their role in coordination of cross-cutting policies, although some single case studies have been published. This gap in the academic debate will be addressed by the answer to the second research question.
The dependent variable of this study is the chair organization of IDCs. The value of this variable is dichotomous: either an IDC is chaired by a Line department or by a State Chancellery. We are interested whether this variable has an effect on two dependent variables. First, we will analyze the coordination process, i.e. interaction among bureaucrats within the IDC. Second, the focus of this thesis will be on the coordination result, i.e. the demography strategies that are produced by the respective IDCs.
In terms of the methodological approach, this thesis applies a comparative case study design based on a most-similar-systems logic. The German Federalism is quite suitable for such designs. Since the institutional framework largely is the same across all states, individual variables and their effect can be isolated and plausibly analyzed. To further control for potential intervening variables, we will limit our case selection to states located in East Germany, because the demographic situation is most problematic in the Eastern part of Germany, i.e. there is a equal problem pressure. Consequently, we will analyze five cases: Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt (line department) and Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony (State Chancellery).
There is no grand coordination theory that is ready to be applied to our case studies. Therefore, we need to tailor our own approach. Our assumption is that the individual chair organization has an effect on the coordination process and output of IDCs, although all cases are embedded in the same institutional setting, i.e. the German politico-administrative system. Therefore, we need an analytical approach than incorporates institutionalist and agency-based arguments. Therefore, this thesis will utilize Actor-Centered Institutionalism (ACI). Broadly speaking, ACI conceptualizes actors’ behavior as influenced - but not fully determined - by institutions. Since ACI is rather abstract we need to adapt it for the purpose of this thesis. Line Departments and State Chancelleries will be modeled as distinct actors with different action orientations and capabilities to steer the coordination process. However, their action is embedded within the institutional context of governments, which we will conceptualize as being comprised of regulative (formal rules) and normative (social norms) elements.
Contemporary drought impact assessments have been constrained due to data availability, leading to an incomplete representation of impact trends. To address this, we present a novel method for the comprehensive and near-real-time monitoring of drought socio-economic impacts based on media reports. We tested its application using the case of the exceptional 2018/19 German drought. By employing text mining techniques, 4839 impact statements were identified, relating to livestock, agriculture, forestry, fires, recreation, energy and transport sectors. An accuracy of 95.6% was obtained for their automatic classification. Furthermore, high levels of performance in terms of spatial and temporal precision were found when validating our results against independent data (e.g. soil moisture, average precipitation, population interest in droughts, crop yield and forest fire statistics). The findings highlight the applicability of media data for rapidly and accurately monitoring the propagation of drought consequences over time and space. We anticipate our method to be used as a starting point for an impact-based early warning system.
In the need to reform the German labour market, the so-called ‚Hartz IV’- Act cut down subsidies for unemployed people in order to increase the pressure for searching for a new job. By law, low-paid jobs shall be introduced. However, even if this creates employment, there will be a future problem: pensions for these people will dramatically drop below the poverty line. The author argues that, in order to avoid such ‘poverty-traps’, an alternative social support system should be considered: a ‘tax transfer system’ with lowered income tax, yet complete reduction of legal exceptions on the one hand, and transfer systems combined with work incentives on the other hand.
In den vergangenen Jahren hat der im anglo-amerikanischen Rechtsraum wurzelnde Amicus Curiae, wenn auch in unterschiedlicher Ausprägung, Eingang in die Verwaltungsgerichtsbarkeiten in Deutschland und Frankreich gefunden. Dabei erweist sich die französische Verwaltungsgerichtsordnung aus rechtsvergleichender Sicht als progressiv, da das Verfahrensinstrument hier – im Gegensatz zur deutschen Rechtslage – bereits positiv-rechtlich normiert ist. Diese Fortschrittlichkeit hat sich bisher jedoch nicht merklich auf die Drittinterventionspraxis niedergeschlagen, besitzen Amicus Curiae-Stellungnahmen doch in beiden Ländern und über alle verwaltungsgerichtlichen Instanzen hinweg noch immer Seltenheitswert.
Da mithin keine Generalisierungen zur dieser Rechtspraxis erlaubt sind, kann sich eine Analyse der möglichen funktionalen Rolle derartiger Amicus Curiae-Stellungnahmen nur auf theoretische Überlegungen stützen. Danach ist eine Informationsfunktion gegenüber dem Gericht in Bezug auf Tatsachen- und Rechtsfragen klar zu bejahen. Auch dürfte der Verfahrensmechanismus ein zusätzliches – wenngleich nicht demokratisches – Legitimationspotential für gerichtliche Entscheidungen besitzen: Indem dieser gesellschaftliche Teilhabe und damit gleichzeitig die Einbettung verwaltungsgerichtlicher Verfahren in den jeweiligen sozialen Kontext ermöglicht, kann er zur Steigerung der gesellschaftlichen Akzeptanz der zunehmend unter Rechtsfertigungsdruck geratenden Richtermacht beitragen.
The goal of this study was to determine the prevalence of depression and its risk factors in patients with late-onset rheumatoid arthritis (RA) treated in German primary care practices. Longitudinal data from general practices (n=1072) throughout Germany were analyzed. Individuals initially diagnosed with RA (2009-2013) were identified, and 7301 patients were included and matched (1:1) to 7301 controls. The primary outcome measure was the initial diagnosis of depression within 5 years after the index date in patients with and without RA. Cox proportional hazards models were used to adjust for confounders. The mean age was 72.2 years (SD: 7.6 years). A total of 34.9 % of patients were men. Depression diagnoses were present in 22.0 % of the RA group and 14.3 % of the control group after a 5-year follow-up period (p < 0.001). In the multivariate regression model, RA was a strong risk factor for the development of depression (HR: 1.55, p < 0.001). There was significant interaction of RA and diagnosed inflammatory polyarthropathies (IP) (RA*IP interaction: p < 0.001). Furthermore, dementia, cancer, osteoporosis, hypertension, and diabetes were associated with a higher risk of developing depression (p values < 0.001). The risk of depression is significantly higher in patients with late-onset RA than in patients without RA for subjects treated in primary care practices in Germany. RA patients should be screened routinely for depression in order to ensure improved treatment and management.
The increasing introduction of non-native plant species may pose a threat to local biodiversity. However, the basis of successful plant invasion is not conclusively understood, especially since these plant species can adapt to the new range within a short period of time despite impoverished genetic diversity of the starting populations. In this context, DNA methylation is considered promising to explain successful adaptation mechanisms in the new habitat. DNA methylation is a heritable variation in gene expression without changing the underlying genetic information. Thus, DNA methylation is considered a so-called epigenetic mechanism, but has been studied in mainly clonally reproducing plant species or genetic model plants. An understanding of this epigenetic mechanism in the context of non-native, predominantly sexually reproducing plant species might help to expand knowledge in biodiversity research on the interaction between plants and their habitats and, based on this, may enable more precise measures in conservation biology.
For my studies, I combined chemical DNA demethylation of field-collected seed material from predominantly sexually reproducing species and rearing offsping under common climatic conditions to examine DNA methylation in an ecological-evolutionary context. The contrast of chemically treated (demethylated) plants, whose variation in DNA methylation was artificially reduced, and untreated control plants of the same species allowed me to study the impact of this mechanism on adaptive trait differentiation and local adaptation. With this experimental background, I conducted three studies examining the effect of DNA methylation in non-native species along a climatic gradient and also between climatically divergent regions.
The first study focused on adaptive trait differentiation in two invasive perennial goldenrod species, Solidago canadensis sensu latu and S. gigantea AITON, along a climate gradient of more than 1000 km in length in Central Europe. I found population differences in flowering timing, plant height, and biomass in the temporally longer-established S. canadensis, but only in the number of regrowing shoots for S. gigantea. While S. canadensis did not show any population structure, I was able to identify three genetic groups along this climatic gradient in S. gigantea. Surprisingly, demethylated plants of both species showed no change in the majority of traits studied. In the subsequent second study, I focused on the longer-established goldenrod species S. canadensis and used molecular analyses to infer spatial epigenetic and genetic population differences in the same specimens from the previous study. I found weak genetic but no epigenetic spatial variation between populations. Additionally, I was able to identify one genetic marker and one epigenetic marker putatively susceptible to selection. However, the results of this study reconfirmed that the epigenetic mechanism of DNA methylation appears to be hardly involved in adaptive processes within the new range in S. canadensis.
Finally, I conducted a third study in which I reciprocally transplanted short-lived plant species between two climatically divergent regions in Germany to investigate local adaptation at the plant family level. For this purpose, I used four plant families (Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Plantaginaceae, Solanaceae) and here I additionally compared between non-native and native plant species. Seeds were transplanted to regions with a distance of more than 600 kilometers and had either a temperate-oceanic or a temperate-continental climate. In this study, some species were found to be maladapted to their own local conditions, both in non-native and native plant species alike. In demethylated individuals of the plant species studied, DNA methylation had inconsistent but species-specific effects on survival and biomass production. The results of this study highlight that DNA methylation did not make a substantial contribution to local adaptation in the non-native as well as native species studied.
In summary, my work showed that DNA methylation plays a negligible role in both adaptive trait variation along climatic gradients and local adaptation in non-native plant species that either exhibit a high degree of genetic variation or rely mainly on sexual reproduction with low clonal propagation. I was able to show that the adaptive success of these non-native plant species can hardly be explained by DNA methylation, but could be a possible consequence of multiple introductions, dispersal corridors and meta-population dynamics. Similarly, my results illustrate that the use of plant species that do not predominantly reproduce clonally and are not model plants is essential to characterize the effect size of epigenetic mechanisms in an ecological-evolutionary context.
Hellmanns Warnung vor einer Resozialisierung der deutschen Außenpolitik in eine traditionelle Großmachtrolle erweckt bei mir viel Sympathie. Seine Alternative finde ich moralisch ehrenhaft, aber realistisch nur innerhalb des Prozesses der europäischen Integration. Ich glaube allerdings nicht, dass das Erbe der Geschichte Deutschlands ein besonderes außenpolitisches Vorgehen erzwingt. Ebenso wenig glaube ich, dass idealistische Positionen, gleich welcher Couleur, bei der Bewahrung von Frieden realistischen überlegen sind. Der Berliner Republik haftet ein gewisser Wilhelminismus in der Außenpolitik an. Man will durch Nachholen gleich werden wie die anderen. Die Warnung vor Rissen im Bündnis und vor der Möglichkeit einer Spirale des Niedergangs der europäischen Integration im Beitrag von Hellmann teile ich. Ich würde noch weiter gehen: Auch die humanitäre Intervention bleibt Intervention. Prinzipien der Menschenrechte sind wichtig, ihre Ausgestaltung, manchmal sogar Teile ihrer Prinzipien aber strittig. Welche Kriterien gibt uns der offensive Realismus bei der Stärkung der Interventionsmöglichkeiten draußen, wenn wir dabei keine machtpolitischen Interessen vertreten sollen? Wenn wir nicht alle Übel der Welt abschaffen wollen, dann muss eine Hierarchie verfolgt werden. Die rot-grüne Koalition hat mit der Ausnahme der Irak-Entscheidung im Wesentlichen das Ziel verfolgt, den eigenen Einfluss innerhalb der westlichen Staatengemeinschaft zu steigern. Hellmanns Empfehlung lautet wohl, dort mitzumachen, wo supranationale Institutionen geschaffen werden sollen. Welches sind die Kriterien zur Messung dieser Ziele?
Leptospirosis is a worldwide emerging infectious disease caused by zoonotic bacteria of the genus Leptospira. Numerous mammals, including domestic and companion animals, can be infected by Leptospira spp., but rodents and other small mammals are considered the main reservoir. The annual number of recorded human leptospirosis cases in Germany (2001-2016) was 25-166. Field fever outbreaks in strawberry pickers, due to infection with Leptospira kirschneri serovar Grippotyphosa, were reported in 2007 and 2014. To identify the most commonly occurring Leptospira genomospecies, sequence types (STs), and their small mammal host specificity, a monitoring study was performed during 2010-2014 in four federal states of Germany. Initial screening of kidney tissues of 3,950 animals by PCR targeting the lipl32 gene revealed 435 rodents of 6 species and 89 shrews of three species positive for leptospiral DNA. PCR-based analyses resulted in the identification of the genomospecies L. kirschneri (62.7%), Leptospira interrogans (28.3%), and Leptospira borgpetersenii (9.0%), which are represented by four, one, and two STs, respectively. The average Leptospira prevalence was highest (approximate to 30%) in common voles (Microtus arvalis) and field voles (Microtus agrestis). Both species were exclusively infected with L. kirschneri. In contrast, in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) and yellow-necked mice (Apodemus flavicollis), DNA of all three genomospecies was detected, and in common shrews (Sorex araneus) DNA of L. kirschneri and L. borgpetersenii was identified. The association between individual infection status and demographic factors varied between species; infection status was always positively correlated to body weight. In conclusion, the study confirmed a broad geographical distribution of Leptospira in small mammals and suggested an important public health relevance of common and field voles as reservoirs of L. kirschneri. Furthermore, the investigations identified seasonal, habitat-related, as well as individual influences on Leptospira prevalence in small mammals that might impact public health.
Since the beginning of the 21st century, spotted fever rickettsioses are known as emerging diseases worldwide. Rickettsiae are obligately intracellular bacteria transmitted by arthropod vectors. The ecology of Rickettsia species has not been investigated in detail, but small mammals are considered to play a role as reservoirs. Aim of this study was to monitor rickettsiae in wild small mammals over a period of five years in four federal states of Germany. Initial screening of ear pinna tissues of 3939 animals by Pan-Rick real-time PCR targeting the citrate synthase (gltA) gene revealed 296 rodents of seven species and 19 shrews of two species positive for rickettsial DNA. Outer membrane protein gene (ompB, ompAIV) PCRs based typing resulted in the identification of three species: Rickettsia helvetica (90.9%) was found as the dominantly occurring species in the four investigated federal states, but Rickettsia felis (7.8%) and Rickettsia raoultii (1.3%) were also detected. The prevalence of Rickettsia spp. in rodents of the genus Apodemus was found to be higher (approximately 14%) than in all other rodent and shrew species at all investigated sites. General linear mixed model analyses indicated that heavier (older) individuals of yellow-necked mice and male common voles seem to contain more often rickettsial DNA than younger ones. Furthermore, rodents generally collected in forests in summer and autumn more often carried rickettsial DNA. In conclusion, this study indicated a high prevalence of R. helvetica in small mammal populations and suggests an age-dependent increase of the DNA prevalence in some of the species and in animals originating from forest habitats. The finding of R. helvetica and R. felis DNA in multiple small mammal species may indicate frequent trans-species transmission by feeding of vectors on different species. Further investigations should target the reason for the discrepancy between the high rickettsial DNA prevalence in rodents and the so far almost absence of clinical apparent human infections.
This article expands our current knowledge about ministerial selection in coalition governments and analyses why ministerial candidates succeed in acquiring a cabinet position after general elections. It argues that political parties bargain over potential office-holders during government-formation processes, selecting future cabinet ministers from an emerging bargaining pool'. The article draws upon a new dataset comprising all ministrable candidates discussed by political parties during eight government-formation processes in Germany between 1983 and 2009. The conditional logit regression analysis reveals that temporal dynamics, such as the day she enters the pool, have a significant effect on her success in achieving a cabinet position. Other determinants of ministerial selection discussed in the existing literature, such as party and parliamentary expertise, are less relevant for achieving ministerial office. The article concludes that scholarship on ministerial selection requires a stronger emphasis for its endogenous nature in government-formation as well as the relevance of temporal dynamics in such processes.
This article expands our current knowledge about ministerial selection in coalition governments and analyses why ministerial candidates succeed in acquiring a cabinet position after general elections. It argues that political parties bargain over potential office-holders during government-formation processes, selecting future cabinet ministers from an emerging bargaining pool'. The article draws upon a new dataset comprising all ministrable candidates discussed by political parties during eight government-formation processes in Germany between 1983 and 2009. The conditional logit regression analysis reveals that temporal dynamics, such as the day she enters the pool, have a significant effect on her success in achieving a cabinet position. Other determinants of ministerial selection discussed in the existing literature, such as party and parliamentary expertise, are less relevant for achieving ministerial office. The article concludes that scholarship on ministerial selection requires a stronger emphasis for its endogenous nature in government-formation as well as the relevance of temporal dynamics in such processes.
The chapter begins with a brief historical overview of Germany’s transition in the twentieth and twenty-first century from a transit and emigration country to one of immigration. The next part of this chapter looks at the challenges and problems facing German immigration policy within a multi-level federal system. Finally, the chapter gives an analysis of some of the trends in German migration policy since the refugee crisis in 2015, such as changes in the party system and in the concepts underlying migration policies to better manage, control and limit immigration to Germany.
The German Ostpolitik of the Red-Green government between 1998 and 2005 focused particularly on the autocratic Russia. It mostly ignored the other – democratic – states in Central and Eastern Europe. Since this policy failed to improve the stability in the region, a policy change is necessary. Regional stability can only be based on the equal cooperation of democratic states. Germany should therefore intensify her support for the democratic forces in the region and integrate her policy into a common Ostpolitik within the EU.