Thesis--Heidelberg, 1928. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur," p. 156-159.

Corruption continues to be a problem, while anti-corruption reforms have stalled. Although much work has been done on the causes and consequences of corruption they are yet to lead to significant reductions in corruption around the world. In response to such findings, I suggest disaggregating corruption and acknowledging that grand and petty corruption are not only different in terms of their level, but are substantively different in terms of their nature, causes and impact. The types of corruption have different negative effects and are remedied by different mechanisms. This dissertation makes theoretical, empirical and practical contributions to the field of comparative politics. I incorporate rational choice perspective to explain the differences between grand and petty corruption. I also develop new measures of grand and petty corruption and construct a panel dataset. The second chapter of this dissertation explains the differences between grand and petty corruption and introduces the dataset. The subsequent chapters apply the typology to the problems of democratic and economic development. In particular, I show their substantive differences in the analysis whether improvements in democratic institutions help reduce corruption or not. Grand corruption remains resilient even in more democratic countries; however, petty corruption can be almost eliminated. Then, to address the substantive differences, I employ the typology of corruption to the question whether democracy is a useful tool to reduce corruption. Next, I analyze which type of corruption is more detrimental for economic development and what can be done to ameliorate the harm. Grand corruption is more harmful, however predictability of corruption can work as a constraining factor in certain contexts. The final chapter concludes with the summary of the findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research, which include causal analysis of anti-corruption reforms given the differences in approaches to grand and petty corruption. Ultimately, knowing the nature of corruption and the contexts within which it operates is instrumental for planning the reforms and succeeding.

The main purpose of this essay is to examine the effect of budget transparency on petty and grand corruption. To highlight the differences between the two measurements of corruption, and their relationship with budget transparency, the study will also make a comparison to a broader measurement of corruption. The research question for this essay is: Does budget transparency affect grand and petty corruption differently? Regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between budget transparency and corruption. The regressions are based on cross-section data from close to a hundred countries from all regions of the world. It is widely recognised that corruption is a difficult concept to measure. However, the study does find some interesting results. The initial bivariate regressions indicate that budget transparency is associated with lower levels of both petty and grand corruption, these are however not statistically significant. When controlling for democracy the coefficient for budget transparency is statistically significant for grand corruption, but not for petty corruption. The results also indicate that budget transparency generally has a stronger negative effect on grand corruption compared to petty corruption.

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12. Abstract Costs of civil proceedings with concentration in petty cases This diploma thesis focuses on costs of civil trial proceedings. Although costs of proceedings are often perceived as a secondary topic, their reimbursement may commonly represent a very problematic issue for a party to a case. Costs of proceedings are incurred by both parties to a case or involved parties and the state. The thesis describes different principles that are applied to decision-making about reimbursement of the costs of proceedings with regard to their origin and the type of proceedings. After a general introduction to the costs of proceedings issues I pay attention to different types of costs of proceedings. In the second chapter I deal in more detail with the representation fee, which is usually the largest expense of the party to the case. Further I explain the terms of payment and reimbursement of the costs of proceedings. I also study an institute of moderation law that enables the court in certain conditions to disallow the reimbursement of the costs fully or partially. The core of my thesis is the reimbursement of the costs in petty cases. The whole chapter is devoted to the term of petty case because of controversial issues of one instance appeal and the limits of boundaries that set petty cases. Minor cases which...

The purpose of my thesis is to point out the increase of the amount of the petty cases, to analyze its reasons, to describe the development of the relevant legislation and case law and to deal with some main legal arguments related to the issue of the reimbursement of the costs of proceedings in petty cases. The reason for my research is mainly its topicality and rapid evolution in a few past years. The boom of the mass claim recovery realized by the specialized "debt companies" was the reason of the legislative amendments and led to the ground-breaking decisions of the Constitutional Court, which resulted in the repeal of the regulation No. 484/2000 Coll. The thesis is composed of the introduction, four chapters and conclusion. The introduction is focused on the reasons of my choice of the topic and on the definition of the specific kind of petty cases my thesis is related to. Chapter Two provides the general overview of the institute of reimbursement of costs of proceeings, examines the varieties of the costs of proceedings, explicates the general principles the reimbursement of costs of proceedings is based on, explores the remedies and deals with the reimbursement of costs of enforcement proceedings. Chapter Three describes the growing amount of the petty cases, analyzes its reasons and reviews...

Bei der Entlassung von Mitarbeitern sind Interessenkonflikte vorprogrammiert. Gut begründete Positionen stehen sich bei diesen folgenreichen Personalentscheidungen oft unversöhnlich gegenüber. In den letzten Jahren waren vermehrt Kündigungen aufgrund von Bagatelldelikten in den Medien präsent. So wurde einer Kassiererin fristlos gekündigt, weil sie zwei Pfandbons unterschlagen haben sollte. Angesichts der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise, in der Banken Milliarden fehlinvestierten die Bankmanager jedoch kaum zur Rechenschaft gezogen wurden, verstärkte sich der Eindruck unbotmäßiger Härte und Ungerechtigkeit. Aber ist dieser Eindruck gerechtfertigt? Unterschiedliche Urteile der Instanzgerichte zu Bagatellkündigungen zeigen, dass im Arbeitsrecht nicht abschließend geklärt ist, wie in solchen Bagatellkündigungsfällen verfahren werden soll. Zudem stellt die Rechtskonformität einer Kündigung ohnehin kein abschließendes Kriterium dafür dar, ob sie auch aus ethischer Sicht gut ist. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist daher die Frage zu beantworten, wie Bagatellkündigungen moralisch zu bewerten sind. Ethisch relevante Aspekte werden zur Unterstützung von Personalentscheidungen in der Praxis identifiziert. Zunächst werden als Überblick die Ergebnisse einer Medienrecherche zu den Bagatellkündigungen dargestellt. Im ersten Untersuchungsschritt wird gefragt, warum eine Kündigung als Auflösung einer privaten Vertragsbeziehung rechtfertigungsbedürftig ist. An Praxisbeispielen wird dargestellt, welche Regelungen zum Kündigungsschutz bestehen und wie diese durch die Spezifika der Arbeitsbeziehung anhand ethischer Aspekte begründet werden. Bezugnehmend auf die Stakeholder-Sicht auf Wirtschaftsunternehmen und Überlegungen der Agenturtheorie wird gezeigt, dass die Beziehung im Arbeitskontext Spezifika aufweist, die übergebührliche Rechte und Pflichten begründen und auch in der psychologischen impliziten Vertragsbeziehung ihren Ausdruck finden. Es wird gezeigt, dass sich – insbesondere bei langjährigen Vertragsverhältnissen – ein prima-facie-Recht der Arbeitnehmer nicht gekündigt zu werden begründen lässt. Dieses Recht liegt im Status der Arbeitnehmer als rationalen moralfähigen Personen mit Anspruch auf Achtung ihrer Würde begründet. Aus der Personenhaftigkeit der Mitarbeiter entspringt der legitime Anspruch, rationale Gründe für Entscheidungen, welche sie betreffen, genannt zu bekommen. Es wird argumentiert, ein Arbeitgeber dürfe die Arbeitsbeziehung nur aufkündigen, wenn es hierfür objektiv gute Gründe gibt – ein grundsätzlicher Kündigungsschutz ist also nicht nur rechtlich sondern auch moralisch geboten. Daher schließt sich die Frage an, ob das Bagatelldelikt als Vertragspflichtverletzung ein guter objektiver Grund ist, welcher eine Kündigung rechtfertigt. Von Seiten der Kündigungsbefürworter wird argumentiert, das Vertrauensverhältnis sei durch die Tat zerstört. Daher wird geprüft, ob der Vertrauensverlust aufgrund des Bagatelldiebstahls ein guter Grund für die Kündigung ist. Ob das Bagatelldelikt als objektiver Grund für den Vertrauensverlust gewertet werden kann, hängt nun davon ab, ob der Mitarbeiter das Vertrauen tatsächlich missbraucht hat. Daraus folgt, dass sich die moralische Bewertung des Delikts an Prinzipien orientiert, die auch im Strafrecht gelten (Schuldprinzip, Unschuldsvermutung, Rechtsprinzips, Ultima-Ratio-Prinzip). Das Ergebnis der Untersuchung ist: Bagatelldelikte können aufgrund ihrer Spezifika anhand dieser gültigen Prinzipien schwerlich als objektiver Grund angesehen werden, der eine fristlose Kündigung ohne vorherige Abmahnung rechtfertigt. Abschließend wird gezeigt, dass auch die vermeintliche präventive Wirkung der Kündigung nicht als guter Kündigungsgrund gelten kann. Mit spezialpräventiven Gründen kann die Kündigung ebenso wenig wie mit positiver als auch negativer generalpräventiver Wirkungen begründet werden. Insbesondere stellt eine Kündigung aus generalpräventiven Zwecken eine illegitime Instrumentalisierung des Mitarbeiters als Person dar. Zwar können Kündigungen bei Bagatelldelikten durchaus nicht nur arbeitsrechtlich, sondern auch moralisch gerechtfertigt sein. Aufgrund der Spezifika der Bagatelldelikte und der Vertrauenskündigung ist die fristlose Kündigung in den meisten vorliegenden Fällen aus ethischer Sicht aber nicht akzeptabel. Hohe Anforderungen an die Objektivität des Vertrauensverlustes, der als Kündigungsgrund dienen soll, sind aufgrund der schwächeren Machtposition der Mitarbeiter notwendig und klug im Sinne der Wahrung des betrieblichen und gesellschaftlichen Friedens. Es wird daher für ein grundsätzliches Abmahnungsgebot bei Bagatelldiebstählen plädiert, welche weitergehend durch eine Wertgrenze definiert werden können. Weitere Maßnahmen, mit denen man missbräuchlichen Bagatelldeliktkündigungen vorbeugen oder auf Bagatelldelikte reagieren kann werden im Ausblick genannt. / When employees are dismissed, conflicts of interest are almost inevitable. In these cases of momentous personnel decisions, well-founded points of view are often inexpiably confronted. In recent years, dismissals due to minor offences were increasingly mediatised. A cashier for example was dismissed without previous notice, because she had supposedly embezzled two deposit receipts. Given the financial and economic crisis, where banks misplaced Billions whilst bank managers were rarely held accountable, the impression of insubordinate rigour and injustice was reinforced. But is this impression justified? Different judgments of the lower courts regarding the dismissals have shown that employment legislation does not clearly state how to proceed in cases of dismissals on grounds of petty offence. In addition and in any case, the legal conformity of a dismissal does not constitute a final criterion for whether it is good from an ethical point of view. The aim of this paper is to answer the question of how to morally evaluate dismissals on grounds of petty offence. It identifies ethically relevant aspects, which provide assistance when addressing responsible decision-making in personnel matters in practice. First, the results of a media research concerning dismissals on grounds of petty offence are displayed, in order to give the reader an overview of the different cases and the arguments of the opponents, the courts and the professionals. Then, in the first step of analyzing, the paper deals with the question of why a termination, when seen as the cancellation of a private contractual relationship, is in need of justification at all. Examples taken from practice illustrate the existing regulations concerning dismissal protection and how these are justified by the specifications of the work relationship based on ethical aspects. Also referring to the stakeholder view of business companies and the considerations of the agency dilemma, the paper shows that relationships in business contexts are specific, which justifies supererogatory rights and duties and which is also reflected in the psychological and implicit contractual relationship. The paper furthermore demonstrates that a prima facie right of employees not to be terminated can be justified, in particular in long-term contractual relationships. This right originates in the employees’ status as rational, conscious persons, with their entitlement to have their dignity respected. From the fact that they are persons emanates the legitimate claim of the employees to be told rational reasons for decisions that affect them. It is argued that an employer may terminate the employment relationship only if there are objectively good reasons for this - a fundamental protection against dismissal is therefore not only legally but also morally necessary. This leads to the question whether petty offence as a breach of contract is a good objective reason to justify a dismissal. Dismissal proponents argue that the mutual trust is destroyed by the act. It is therefore necessary to check whether the loss of mutual trust due to the petty theft is a good reason for a dismissal. Whether the petty offence can be seen as an objective reason for the loss of mutual trust now depends on whether the employee has actually abused the trust. Consequently, the moral evaluation of the offence is based on principles that also apply in criminal law (nulla poene sine culpa, presumption of innocence, legal principle, ultima ratio principle). The result of the investigation is that due to their specifications based on these valid principles, petty offences can hardly be considered an objective reason justifying a dismissal without prior warning. Finally, the paper shows that the alleged preventive effect of the dismissal cannot be a legitimate argument for a good cause of dismissal. The dismissal can neither be justified by special-preventive reasons nor by having positive and negative general preventive effects. In particular, a dismissal as means of general preventive purposes constitutes an illegitimate instrumental use of the employee as a person. Although a dismissal due to minor offences may well not only be justified legally, but also morally, the termination without notice is unacceptable from an ethical point of view in most present cases, due to the specificities of the petty offences and the lost in trust. On the grounds of respecting the peace within companies and society and because of the weaker position of employees, it is necessary and wise to stick to high exigencies towards the objectivity of the loss of trust, which will serve as grounds for dismissal. The paper therefore argues for a generalization of written warnings in cases of petty thefts, which can be further defined by a maximum amount. Other possible measures which may prevent abusive dismissals for petty offences or be a response to minor offences are dealt with in the prospect part.

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<p>My dissertation, "The People's Republic of Capitalism: The Making of the New Middle Class in Post-Socialist China, 1978-Present" draws on a range of visual cultural forms - cinema, documentary, and fashion - to track the cultural dimension of the emergence of the new middle class subject in China's encounter with global capitalism. Through cultural studies methodologies and critical theoretical practices, I explore the massive reorganization of national subjectivity that has accompanied the economic reforms since 1978. How, I ask, has the middle class replaced the proletariat as the dominant subject of Chinese history? What are the competing social forces that contribute to the making of the new middle class subject, and how do they operate? By considering these questions in terms of the cultural cultivation of new sensibilities as much as identities, I trace China's changing social formations through the realm of cultural productions. This project is organized into three parts, each of which attends to a particular constellation of middle class subjectivities and ideologies. In Part I (Introduction and Chapter 1), I explore how the Chinese middle class subject is shaped by historical, political-economic, and cultural forces. I show that the new social actor is structurally dependent on the national and transnational bourgeoisie and the post-socialist party-state. In Part II (Chapters 2-5), I focus on the relationship among fashion, media, and Chinese consumer culture in the socialist and post-socialist eras. By engaging with films such as Xie Tieli's Never Forget (1964), Huang Zumo's Romance on Lushan (1980), Qi Xingjia's Red Dress is in Fashion (1984), and Jia Zhangke's The World (2004) and Useless (2007), I suggest that the representation of fashion and consumption in Chinese cinema, documentary, and new media is a privileged site for deciphering otherwise imperceptible meanings of class, ideology, and history in the formation of the Chinese middle class subject. In Part III (Chapter 6), I attend to the repressed underside of Chinese consumer culture: rubbish. This project reorients our understanding of socialist and post-socialist China, seeing them as underpinned by the contradictions emblematized in the Chinese middle class.</p> / Dissertation

Gender equality and women empowerment are two of the most up-to-date concerns on the international arena today. Several methods are being adopted with the aim to allow women’s equal social, economic and political participation. Entrepreneurship has been highlighted as a useful tool to foster women’s empowerment and hence the promotion of entrepreneurship has become a prominent approach in modern development efforts.   In Uganda, women constitute the majority of the informal labour force and are widely engaged in micro-business activities. Thus, this ethnographically inspired research aimed to assess if entrepreneurship can contribute to increased social power among female entrepreneurs in urban and suburban Kampala, Uganda. To do this, John Friedmann’s (Dis)empowerment model has been used as the main frame of interpretation. To fit into the context of women, it has been complemented with a gender analysis in order to identify the structural inequalities that may constrain the empowering impact of entrepreneurship.   This research was carried out as a field study in Kampala City and in three Kampala suburbs: Kyaliwajjala, Kireka and Kinawataka. It was financed by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and was conducted during nine weeks in September-November 2014. In total, 45 interviews were carried out with local business women as well as with local representatives and stakeholders in women entrepreneurship and women empowerment.   The conclusions drawn from this study is that entrepreneurship has contributed to increased social power among the women participating in this research, but that traditional gender norms and structures can constrain the empowering process. Greater economic responsibilities have not eased women’s obligations in the domestic sphere and thus created a double burden.