You Make Us Do What We Want! The Usage of External Actors and Policy Conditionality in the European Neighborhood

In academic and public debates, external actors have been considered to promote their rules most effectively in third countries in cases of high and asymmetric interdependence. Hence, high interdependence of European Neighborhood Countries (ENC) with Russia has been discussed as a major constraint to EU rule transfer. The case of migration policies, however, represents an odd one out: high degrees of interdependence of the ENC and Russia are coupled with compliance with EU rules, whereas lower degrees of interdependence correlate with shallow and selective compliance. The paper investigates the de facto impact of Russia and the EU on the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) in this highly interdependent policy field and argues for a change in perspective: adopting a stronger bottom-up perspective on power-based approaches of external governance cannot only account for varying compliance records, but also shows how domestic actors can use multiple external opportunity structures to promote their own agenda.immigration policy; neighbourhood policy; Russia

The usage of external actors and policy conditionality in the European Neighborhood

1\. Introduction 6 2\. Pieces that Do Not Fit: Interdependence, Russia and ENP-Compliance 7 2.1 External Governance and the Bleak Prospect of Neighborhood Europeanization 7 2.2 Interdependence, Regimes, and Compliance Patterns in the CNC 8 3\. The Missing Link: Interdependence is What You Make of it 12 4\. Comparing Compliance Processes in the Southern Caucasus 15 4.1 From Emerging to Full Compliance: Migration Policies in Armenia 16 4.2 From Inertia to Selective Compliance: Migration Policies in Georgia 22 5\. Conclusion 26In academic and public debates, external actors have been considered to promote their rules most effectively in third countries in cases of high and asymmetric interdependence. Hence, high interdependence of European Neighborhood Countries (ENC) with Russia has been discussed as a major constraint to EU rule transfer. The case of migration policies, however, represents an odd one out: high degrees of interdependence of the ENC and Russia are coupled with compliance with EU rules, whereas lower degrees of interdependence correlate with shallow and selective compliance. The paper investigates the de facto impact of Russia and the EU on the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) in this highly interdependent policy field and argues for a change in perspective: adopting a stronger bottom-up perspective on power-based approaches of external governance cannot only account for varying compliance records, but also shows how domestic actors can use multiple external opportunity structures to promote their own agenda

Institutional constraints to political budget cycles in the enlarged EU

This paper revisits Political Budget Cycles (PBCs) in the enlarged European Union (EU). Based on a panel of 25 current EU member states from 1996 to 2012, we show that governments frequently fiscally stimulate the economy prior to elections; a phenomenon that is seemingly not only an 'Eastern problem' of the EU's new members, as has been suggested in the literature. We argue that fiscal institutions are apt to reduce the extent of opportunistic fiscal behaviour both in these younger democracies as well as in other EU member states that lack a strong press to hold governments accountable. Yet, we conclude that in order to eradicate PBCs in the enlarged EU, a powerful press remains key

Varieties of Social Orders: The political and economic fundamentals of hybrid (in)stability in the post-Soviet space

This paper takes the seminal work of Douglass North, John Wallis and Barry Weingast on varieties of social orders as a starting point to introduce a refined typology of limited access orders (LAOs) that integrates the political and economic fundamentals of hybrid (in)stability. We find that LAOs do not necessarily constrain access in the political and economic sphere to the same extent. Some combine relative economic openness with strictly limited political competition, while others constrain access to economic resources but allow for a considerable degree of political opening. This latter type proves to be the most instable type of LAO. The different strategies used by dominant elites to maintain stability in various types of LAOs provide insights into how open access institutions interact with limited access institutions in hybrid regimes. While we develop our typology for six post-Soviet countries from the third wave of democratization that function as LAOs, our typology may be applied to other hybrid regimes as well

30 Years of Schengen: Internal blessing, external curse?

We take stock of the Schengen Agreement that celebrated its 30th birthday on June 14th, 2015. We argue that the abolition of internal border controls in most European Union member states is rightly considered a blessing to EU citizens. Internally, the Agreement facilitates social and economic interactions without impeding the security of EU citizens. Externally, the Schengen Agreement has also helped to spread liberal norms and promote EU policies across EU borders, whenever Schengen borders prove permeable enough to allow for legal migration or if the relaxation of Schengen visa requirements is used as a carrot to trigger reforms in EU candidate and neighboring countries. The recent humanitarian crisis at the EU borders reveals that the Schengen system still lacks an appropriate joint asylum policy to counterbalance the loss of internal border controls. This weakness may undermine one of the main achievements of European integration. This Policy Brief revisits the accomplishments of 30 years of Schengen. We first ask how Schengen has affected member states and their citizens and which effects it has exerted on non-Schengen states outside of the EU's borders. We subsequently elaborate on appropriate reforms of a communitarized asylum policy that is needed to safeguard the accomplishments of the Schengen Agreement in the future

You Make Us Do What We Want! The Usage of External Actors and Policy Conditionality in the European Neighborhood

In academic and public debates, external actors have been considered to promote their rules most effectively in third countries in cases of high and asymmetric interdependence. Hence, high interdependence of European Neighborhood Countries (ENC) with Russia has been discussed as a major constraint to EU rule transfer. The case of migration policies, however, represents an odd one out: high degrees of interdependence of the ENC and Russia are coupled with compliance with EU rules, whereas lower degrees of interdependence correlate with shallow and selective compliance. The paper investigates the de facto impact of Russia and the EU on the implementation of the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) in this highly interdependent policy field and argues for a change in perspective: adopting a stronger bottom-up perspective on power-based approaches of external governance cannot only account for varying compliance records, but also shows how domestic actors can use multiple external opportunity structures to promote their own agenda

Bedeutung der Rekonstruktion von Verstehenselementen für das lernstufengerechte Unterrichten

Das Orchestrieren von Lernendenbeiträgen in heterogenen Lernsettings ist unbestritten eine anspruchsvolle Aufgabe, insbesondere wenn Voneinander- Lernen ermöglicht werden soll (Häsel-Weide & Nührenbörger, 2013). Im Zentrum der Anforderungen an Lehrkräfte werden vielfach Diagnose und Intervention gesehen (vgl. Melzer et al., 2015). Während produktive Praktiken des Diagnostizierens und Förderns von mathematischem Vorwissen in Unterrichtsvideostudien empirisch rekonstruiert werden konnten, gelingt bislang nur wenigen Sekundarstufen-Lehrkräften die Zusammenführung unterschiedlicher Lernstufen in Unterrichtsgesprächen des Voneinander-Lernens (Prediger & Buró, 2021). In dem Projekt Mathe sicher können inklusiv werden Möglichkeiten der Professionalisierung untersucht. Dieser Beitrag arbeitet heraus, dass eine ausführliche Auseinandersetzung mit der didaktischen Struktur eines Lerngegenstandes eine notwendige Voraussetzung für das Diagnostizieren und eine darauf abgestimmte Intervention darstellt

Persistence of tumor-infiltrating CD8 T cells is tumor-dependent but antigen-independent

How tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) that are tumor-specific but functionally tolerant persist in the antigen-expressing tumor tissue is largely unknown. We have previously developed a modified TRansgenic Adenocarcinoma of the Mouse Prostate (TRAMP) model where prostate cancer cells express the T-cell epitope SIYRYYGL (SIY) recognized by CD8 T cells expressing the 2C T-cell receptor (TCR) (referred to as TRP-SIY mice). In TRP-SIY mice, activated 2C T cells rapidly become tolerant following infiltration into the prostate tumor. In this study, we show that tolerant 2C T cells persist in the prostate tumor of TRP-SIY mice by proliferating slowly in a tumor-dependent, but antigen-, interleukin (IL)-7- and IL-15-independent manner. We also show that disappearance of 2C T cells from the lymphoid organs of TRP-SIY mice are due to antigen-induced T-cell contraction rather than altered trafficking or generalized T-cell depletion in the mice. Finally, we show that clonal T cells unreactive to SIY are equally capable of persisting in the prostate tumor. These findings suggest that while functional tolerance of TILs is induced by antigen, persistence of tolerant TILs in the tumor tissue is mediated by a novel mechanism: slow proliferation independent of antigen and homeostatic cytokines. These results also allow CD8 T-cell survival in the tumor environment to be compared with T-cell survival in chronic infection

Carl Wernicke of the Wernicke area: a historical review

The Wernicke area, also known as Brodmann area 22, is located in the posterior segment of the superior temporal gyrus in the dominant hemisphere. Carl Wernicke, a German neurologist, described this area in 1874. The life story of Carl Wernicke, a 19th-century medical genius, remains an inspiration for all neuroscientists even a hundred years later. We outline Wernicke's life story and academic achievements in neurosurgery, neurology, and psychiatry. We explore his remarkable ability to turn his many setbacks into steps forward, his controversial foray into psychiatry, and his wide-ranging set of contributions, including his work on external ventricular drainage for hydrocephalus and encephalopathy; his description of the eponymous Wernicke area; and his field-defining work on aphasia. This historical review attempts to bring to life a seminal figure in the neurosciences, providing an insight into his visionary thought process