This Working Paper of the research project FamiliesAndSocieties contains the text of the LawsAndFamilies questionnaire, plus the text of the guidance document provided to legal experts answering... Show moreThis Working Paper of the research project FamiliesAndSocieties contains the text of the LawsAndFamilies questionnaire, plus the text of the guidance document provided to legal experts answering this questionnaire. These texts are preceded by a brief introduction to the background, aims and development of this questionnaire on legal family formats for same-sex and/or different-sex couples. The majority of questions ask if – in the jurisdiction of the legal expert concerned – a specific legal consequence is attached or not to (same-sex and/or different-sex) marriage, registered partnership and/or cohabitation. And it asks since when this is so. The questions are about legal aspects of formalisation, income and troubles, parenting, migration, splitting up and death. The questionnaire is used to create The LawsAndFamilies Database – Aspects of legal family formats for same-sex and different-sex couples, www.LawsAndFamilies.eu, where from early 2017 the answers to the questionnaire provide an overview of the legal situation in more than 20 European countries. Show less
A profound structural change is municipal merger. This come about through absorption of small units or merge of units to create a new entity. Both are intended to improve efficiency by taking... Show moreA profound structural change is municipal merger. This come about through absorption of small units or merge of units to create a new entity. Both are intended to improve efficiency by taking advantage of economies of scale and scope. However, consolidation may temporarily and negatively affect other dimensions of performance. Nevertheless, experienced chief executives should mitigate the transitional challenges. This study tests the moderating effect of chief executive’s public experience on the consolidation-performance relationship. This proposition is tested using data for all the 807 city-level Japanese municipalities for the 2006-2010 period. Two dimensions of performance are studied: efficiency in operational costs, and effectiveness in revenue collection. Findings reveal that merger through municipal absorption increases efficiency in operational costs but reduces revenue expansion. Merger through creation of a new municipality reduces municipal own revenue collection. Chief executive’s past experience neither mitigate nor accelerate the effects of municipal consolidation on performance. Show less
Enlargement is often regarded as an elite-driven process, which does not or not sufficiently include the views of ordinary citizens. At the same time, support for integration has been eroding over... Show moreEnlargement is often regarded as an elite-driven process, which does not or not sufficiently include the views of ordinary citizens. At the same time, support for integration has been eroding over the last decade, contributing to a public-elite gap in preferences towards the process. This paper investigates the relationship between elite and citizens discourses by focusing on Serbia as one of the candidate countries. The case of a candidate country is interesting, as domestic elites need to obtain the support from citizens in making the EU-driven transformations, whereas citizens may be critical to some of the imposed reforms. This may push and pull both groups in the opposite directions, increasing the public-elite gap on European integration. This contribution supplements previous research, which identified discourses among citizens in Serbia, with an analysis of media content. Using vignettes for each discourse found among citizens, the contents of statements in two major Serbian newspapers have been coded. The analysis shows that all four citizen discourses are represented in media. The discourse favoring Serbia’s accession enjoys best representation in the media, reflecting views of Serbia’s political elite. In contrast, the narrative rejecting Serbia’s integration in the EU finds the least space in newspapers, while the remaining two discourses share almost an equal media representation. Most importantly, we find that approximately one fourth of media content does not fit any of the four citizen discourses. This demonstrates not only the size, but also the substance of the public-elite gap on European integration in Serbia. The public-elite gap illustrated here tilts the political debate in Serbia towards one with rather supportive expectations of enlargement and integration. At the same time, we noted that more critical views among citizens are not, or not yet, reflected in the media, while the media is reporting on issues that do not resonate with citizens’ views. A question is whether this is a sustainable route, and whether political ‘entrepreneurs’ will capitalize on these views in order to build alternative political platforms in Serbian politics or influence Serbia’s progress. Show less
This is the fifth Working Paper of the African Studies Centre Leiden about African Postal History before, during and after the First World War, in areas where there have been German Post Offices in... Show moreThis is the fifth Working Paper of the African Studies Centre Leiden about African Postal History before, during and after the First World War, in areas where there have been German Post Offices in Africa, and where Germany lost those Postal Administrations during the 1914-1919 period. The other four WPs are about Togo, Cameroon, German East Africa (later Tanganyika/Tanzania) and German Southwest Africa (later Namibia). See 'http://www.ascleiden.nl/content/ascl-working-papers' and go to 2015. Show less
An earlier version of this African Postal Heritage Paper was published as African Studies Centre Leiden Working Paper 119 / 2015: "A postal history of the First World War in Africa and its... Show moreAn earlier version of this African Postal Heritage Paper was published as African Studies Centre Leiden Working Paper 119 / 2015: "A postal history of the First World War in Africa and its aftermath - German colonies; III Deutsch Ostafrika / German East Africa", written by Ton Dietz. Show less
This paper discusses general political and economic issues in Nawuriland during and after German colonialism. The paper argues that the legacies of German colonialism are still largely seen and... Show moreThis paper discusses general political and economic issues in Nawuriland during and after German colonialism. The paper argues that the legacies of German colonialism are still largely seen and felt in Nawuriland especially in plantation projects, land and chieftaincy. Show less
Previous regulatory models for the online environment have been designed with a foundation and premise that users are fictional Homo Economicus – beings capable of optimizing all available... Show morePrevious regulatory models for the online environment have been designed with a foundation and premise that users are fictional Homo Economicus – beings capable of optimizing all available information into order to make sound decisions. Sometime these decisions will be rational and predictable. However, on other occasions users will make irrational, yet predictable mistakes; other times those errors will be unpredictably irrational. To overcome these shortcomings in rational economist models, behavioural economists like Daniel Kahneman, Amos Tversky and Richard Thaler and lawyers like Cass Sunstein have advocated using lessons from psychology to help people make better decisions. By deploying 'choice’ architecture to overcome less than rational decisions, Homo Sapiens can be 'nudged' to making better choices. Building from this foundation, our paper inquires what role big data may play in developing better regulation. For example, can insights from big data help to overcome erroneous assumptions that regulators may make about the way users rationally behave in online environments? What potential is there for harnessing ‘big data’ to provide insights into user behaviour? Can big data be used as an additional tool by lawmakers to improve regulatory settlements? Show less
