Institutionalisation without internalisation. The cultural dimension of French-German conflicts on European Central Bank independence

When accepting the Maastricht treaty, the members of the Euro-zone agreed on the establishment of a very independent European Central Bank (ECB). Over the years, however, French political leaders systematically brought forward proposals undermining the ECB’s independence, much to the dismay of their German counterparts. This pattern of political disagreement on central bank independence has again surfaced during the current sovereign debt crisis, and has contributed to the discord amongst the Euro-zone members on the causes and proper solutions to the problems. This article conducts tests of various factors generally expected to influence the preference for central bank independence. It shows that economic explanations are unable to account for the persistent differences amongst European member-states on this issue. In contrast, national differences in political and economic culture and especially a nation’s score on the dimension Power Distance—its acceptance of centralisation of power in political leaders or institutions—does show a correlation with the different levels of internalisation of the norm of central bank independence. These findings show that institutionalisation of economic norms does not imply their internalisation by the political and the economic elite. In the broader context of current European politics, this may mean that even if European leaders will be able to come up with a common institutional answer to the current crisis, more profound convergence of their underlying economic and political cultures is needed for the successful and sustainable implementation of these solutions.     

Temporal myopia in sustainable behavior under uncertainty

Consumers in today's world are confronted with the alarming consequences of unsustainable behavior such as pollution and resource degradation. In addition, they are facing increases in uncertainty due to external events such as economic crises and terror attacks. These two problems are central to consumers' lives, occur on a global scale, and have significant impact on the world's political, economic, environmental, and social landscapes. Contributing to research on persuasion and pro-social behavior, we show in four studies, conducted online, in the lab, and in the field, that these two problems are interconnected. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrate that uncertainty leads to lower levels of sustainable behavior in comparison to certainty. Study 2 reveals in addition that this is due to the display of higher levels of temporal discounting under uncertainty (i.e., adopting a more immediate orientation). Finally, Studies 3 and 4 show that emphasizing the immediate benefits of sustainability during uncertainty reverses the negative effect and leads consumers to act more sustainably. Overall, these findings provide valuable implications for policy makers and responsible marketers.     

ABC: The Pathway to Comparison of the Costs of Integrated Care

In recent years, health care demand has become increasingly complicated and care has had to be integrated. The main reasons for this are a rising number of chronically ill patients and ageing of populations. Integrated health care is processual so there are continuous changes in care delivery; it incorporates many co–ordinating and co–operative activities which can produce uncertain outcomes; and activities are directed at delivering tailor–made care so there are no standardized or generalized outcomes. These characteristics mean that it is difficult to determine and compare the costs of different integrated care structures. This article argues that using Activity Based Costing (ABC) and integrated care pathways provides the best information possible for decision–making by health care managers, insurers, care suppliers and governments.     

Open‐access communism

As the West loses its political credibility, the search has opened for alternatives to neo‐liberal parliamentary democracies, failing on their own scale of good governance. Several contemporary critical thinkers, such as Alain Badiou, turn towards a communist horizon. In this paper, we want to explore the idea of commons in contemporary Internet‐based groups, as a quest for contemporary appearances of communism in the Badiouian sense. From wiki formats to the hacktivism of Anonymous, there are various Internet‐based initiatives that are built on a philosophy of open access to all, regardless of their identity, and a horizontal, rhizomatic organisation. We think that the organisational features of these initiatives make them suitable to carry out a struggle for new, more democratic political alternatives.     

A Real Case Application of Game Theoretical Concepts in a Complex Decision-Making Process: Case Study ERTMS

Group Decision and Negotiation - Engineering systems are complex, amongst others due to the interdependencies between actor and technical aspects. This complexity has consequences for the way of...