Achim Hildebrandt

Routes to decriminalization: A comparative analysis of the legalization of same-sex sexual acts

In many places around the world, sexual acts between persons of the same sex have been criminalized for centuries. The process of decriminalization started as early as 1791 but has not been completed as same-sex acts remain illegal in 77 countries. This article analyses this process showing that in the course of the last two centuries it expanded in several dimensions. Geographically, legalization was for a very long time almost exclusively limited to Europe and Latin America until it became a global phenomenon in the 1980s. For 200 years, national legislators and scientific elites in advisory functions were the drivers of decriminalization. The late 20th century marks a critical turning point. Gay and lesbian movements, national and international courts, and international and supranational organizations such as the Council of Europe and the European Union came on the scene as key players in driving decriminalization. Countries that still criminalize same-sex acts are increasingly put under pressure by the international community to legalize them, which most African and Muslim countries have withstood so far. External intervention is perceived as the continuation of colonial politics, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

Die Potenziale des Bundesländervergleichs

Welche Unterschiede bestehen zwischen den Arten und Weisen, in denen die Bundeslander ihre politischen Gestaltungsspielraume nutzen, und welche Faktoren erklaren diese Variation? So lautet die Leitfragestellung des vorliegenden Bandes. Wahrend fur andere foderale Staaten wie die USA und Kanada analoge Uberblickswerke (Gray/Hanson 2004 und Dunn 2006) oder, wie fur die Schweiz, Monographien mit breiter Abdeckung (Vatter 2002) vorliegen, ist der theoriegeleitete Vergleich der Politik der Bundeslander mit kausalanalytischem Anspruch bisher nur in einzelnen Feldern oder auf einzelne Erklarungsfaktoren verengt vorgenommen worden (siehe Abschnitt 3 zum Forschungsstand), was angesichts der wichtigen Rolle der Landespolitik in Deutschland doch uberrascht. Die vorhandenen Forschungsergebnisse fur die einzelnen Felder zusammen zu tragen und die wichtigsten Lucken in den ubrigen Bereichen zu schliesen ist das Ziel, das wir mit der Herausgabe dieses Bandes verfolgen. Neben den klassischen Politikfeldern und der Staatstatigkeit auf ihnen nehmen wir dabei erganzend auch die Institutionenpolitik in den Blick, also die Gestaltung der politischen Institutionen der Lander durch die Landespolitik selbst.

Who’s in favour? Same-sex union laws in parliament

ABSTRACT The article analyses which parties support registered partnership and same-sex marriage bills in parliament in Western Europe. Existing comparative research indicates that left parties back same-sex union laws. This article shows that support is not limited to the left camp. Liberal and even Christian democratic parties have expressed above-average support as well, albeit with certain exceptions. The chief opponents of same-sex union laws are Protestant parties and the parties of the far right; in terms of numbers, however, both are largely insignificant. Far more relevant for these laws’ chances of success are the positions of the large parties at the centre and at the right of the political spectrum. The analysis reveals considerable inter-country differences in these parties’ attitudes, which can be explained to a large extent with the two-worlds-of-morality-politics distinction introduced by Engeli, Green-Pedersen and Larsen: countries in which centre and right parties continue to oppose same-sex union laws are part of the religious world, with the exception of France. The results for France indicate a need for further research.

Christianity, Islam and Modernity: Explaining Prohibitions on Homosexuality in UN Member States

This article investigates why homosexual acts are still banned in 77 countries. It extends the current state of research by focusing on the religious roots of these bans. Previous studies have analysed the influence of Islam on prohibitions of same-sex sexual acts but produced contradictory findings. Moreover, the influence of the second world religion that condemns homosexuality in its scriptures – Christianity – has largely been ignored. This article shows that countries with a Muslim tradition tend to criminalise both male and female homosexuality, while predominantly Christian societies tend to prohibit only sex between men. However, the influence of the Christian tradition depends on the modernity of a country: the more modern a Christian society, the less influence traditional Christian sexual ethics have on legislation governing same-sex sexuality. This is particularly true for countries with a Protestant tradition.

Sechzehn Länder, sechzehn Felder: Erträge des Vergleichs

Die im vorliegenden Band versammelten Beitrage beinhalten fur die jeweiligen Politikfelder eine Fulle von spezifischen Erkenntnissen, die an dieser Stelle nicht in ihrer ganzen Breite gewurdigt und wieder aufgegriffen werden konnen. Stattdessen soll es in diesem Synthesekapitel darum gehen, die Hauptertrage des Vergleichs von sechzehn Politikfeldern (und als solchen behandelten Institutionen) in sechzehn Landern in dreierlei Hinsicht zu bundeln:

Sooner or later: the influence of public opinion and religiosity on the enactment of laws recognizing same-sex unions

ABSTRACT Starting in the 1990s, almost all Western democracies recognized same-sex partnerships within just over two decades. This study examines which factors accelerated or decelerated these legal changes. It focuses on the effects of several facets of culture: attitudes towards homosexuality in general; attitudes towards gays and lesbians as people; and religiosity. An event history analysis of 19 Western countries shows that the less tolerant people are of gays and lesbians and the greater a country’s percentage of regular attendees of religious services, the longer the time until a same-sex union law is introduced. The results provide new insights into policy effects of culture and point out the importance of distinguishing between the various elements of public opinion.

How Much of a Sea-Change? Land Policies after the Reforms of Federalism

The reforms of German federalism in 2006 and 2009 that widened the scope of Länder powers and rearranged Germanys fiscal structures were met with great expectations as well as outright hostility. This article analyses how the resulting patterns of Länder policies and their determinants differ from the period between re-unification and the 2006 reforms. It focuses on higher education and environmental law, the two areas over which initial reform attempts in 2004 had failed and where changes were especially far-reaching and debates especially emotional. If indeed a new type of federalism, and of Land-level politics in particular, has emerged, it would be most likely to manifest itself regarding these policies. Our theoretical approach contrasts expectations of intensified policy competition between the Länder with institutional, partisan and political-cultural factors working towards continued co-ordinated, incremental muddling-through. So far, our empirical analysis shows, the latter seem to dominate.

Causes and contexts of tax morale: Rational considerations, community orientations, and communist rule

In political theory, the subject of tax morale is closely linked to issues of citizenship and civic duties. Research on tax morale, however, is still rather underdeveloped in political science. In this article, we systematically compare a rational considerations approach with an approach focusing on the influence of community orientations on an individual’s tax morale. We expect that contexts varying with the existence and duration of communist rule have caused systematic differences in terms of the motivation for tax morale. Multilevel analyses based on data taken from the fourth wave of the World Values/European Values Survey (1999/2000) confirm our expectations that socialization under communist rule strengthens the relevance of community orientations in explaining an individual’s tax morale and reduces the impact of rational considerations.

Politik in den Bundesländern unter reformierten institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen

Die Leitfragestellung der ersten Auflage (Hildebrandt/Wolf 2008) des vorliegenden Werks lautete: Welche Unterschiede bestehen zwischen den Arten und Weisen, in denen die Bundeslander ihre politischen Gestaltungsspielraume nutzen, und welche Faktoren erklaren diese Variation ? Diese Frage knapp eine Dekade spater erneut zu stellen, ware schon eo ipso lohnenswert, verstehen wir doch die Handlungsregelmasigkeiten im deutschen Foderalismus und die daraus in Interaktion mit dem Kontext politischer Gestaltungsversuche resultierenden Muster nicht als in Stein gemeiselte politikwissenschaftliche Gesetze, sondern wurden auch ceteris paribus ein in mancherlei Aspekten gewandeltes Bild erwarten.

Event-History-Analyse

Die Event-History-Analyse (EHA) ist eine statistische Methode, welche auf den Wechsel von Untersuchungsobjekten von einem Zustand in einen anderen fokussiert. Ein solcher Zustandswechsel wird als Ereignis bezeichnet. Relevant ist zudem die Dauer, die ein Objekt in einem bestimmten Zustand verweilt, bis es ein Event erfahrt. In der Medizin will man beispielsweise nicht nur wissen, ob ein Patient uberlebt, sondern wie lange er uberlebt und ob eine bestimmte Therapieform seine Uberlebensdauer verlangert. Die abhangige Variable ist dort entsprechend die Dauer, die die Person uberlebt, bis ihr das Ereignis Tod, widerfahrt. Untersucht wird also der Zustandswechsel von „lebendig“ zu „tot“. Um Transitionsprozesse sinnvoll untersuchen zu konnen, mussen drei Bedingungen erfullt sein: erstens muss sich jedes Untersuchungsobjekt auf eine bestimmte Anzahl an moglichen Endzustanden zubewegen, zweitens mussen diese Zustandswechselereignisse generell zu jedem Zeitpunkt eintreten konnen und drittens geht man davon aus, dass es bestimmte zeitkonstante und/oder zeitvariable Faktoren gibt, die das Eintreten der Ereignisse beeinflussen.