Jacob Christensen

Technically, I should file the story under “politics” and “Germany” but it is so genuinely stupid that “asides” seems more appropriate.

Anyway, the Bavarian Interior Minister Günther Beckstein – I’m sorry, I’ll write that again – … the Bavarian Interior Minister dr. Günther Beckstein wants the German Interior Minister dr. Wolfgang Schäuble to stop an amendment to the German Passport Act.

The problem? According to the amendment, which also includes the introduction of biometric data in passports, the academic title dr. can no longer be entered in a German passport and this has left Beckstein – sorry: dr. Beckstein – feeling a bit naked. Never mind security measures, fingerprints, the kitchen sink, dropping the dr. would do irreparable harm to German society.

Well, yes. Arriving in Sweden, Ecuador or the US and not immediately having your academic credentials acknowledged and being styled Herr Doktor is of cause a serious problem to any university teacher.

The Federal Chancellor, Angela Merkel – I’m sorry: dr. Angela Merkel – hasn’t voiced her opinion on the subject.

It’s a little more complex than that, but the case against four young men charged with preparing terrorist attacks “somewhere in Europe” ended in a legally interesting way: The jury wanted to convict all four, but the judges threw out three of the convictions. In the end, one of the accused received a seven-year prison sentence, while the other three received shorter sentences for other crimes. Østre Landsret’s summary (in Danish) is available here.

According to news reports, the legal problem was that the prosecution had built its case on circumstatial evidence and character witnesses. The accused matched the profile for modern terrorists very well as they had been radicalised in a close network of young men. On the other hand, the prosecution had problems producing evidence of links to a specific plot to carry out an attack like the ones seen in Madrid and London.

Meanwhile, the political fallout was what could be expected: The Danish People’s Party criticises the verdict as too lenient and suggests the need for tougher legislation while a spokesman for the Danish Islamic Congregration (known from its interventions in the Muhammad cartoon affair) calls the verdict a blow to Islam.

I tried the Economist’s style test and this was the result. The Economist’s style guide is here.

Svenska Dagbladet discusses an interesting development on the Swedish housing market: The risk/chance/possibility of rented housing becoming extinct in Sweden’s major cities.

First, we should note that rented housing in Sweden is governed by a Soviet bloc-like system of regulation where council housing sets the price for rented housing and rents in council housing are determined after negotiations between council housing companies and the Association of Tenants (if you rent an appartment, you are automatically a member). Rents should also follow the so-called utility value system – another element right out of the USSR.

This has had two effects: First, private entrepreneurs have stayed out of rented housing. If you want to make money as a developer, villas and condominiums have been to way to go. Second, attractive rented flats have become the object of a tusk economy – and if you first have a cheap, attractive flat, you stay there. Unless…

Unless the government decides that everybody for ideological reasons ought to own their own housing and allows local councils to sell off council housing. Between 1998 and 2002, the Social Democratic government and the right-wing local council in Stockholm were locked in a fascinating conflict, where the council sold attractive property below market value while the government furiously tried to stop the moves.

Following the 2006 elections, things are much simpler. The government and the Stockholm local council have the same composition, the government has the promotion of home-ownership as one of its primary goals, and the housing market is not just hot. It’s burning. So throwing the remaining housing on the market will be a guaranteed success – after all tentants in attractive houses will be looking forward to huge profits on their flats, and tenants in unattractive housing estates will know that the local council only wants to get rid of them.

As rent controls have effectively sidelined private landlords and as the government is abandoning subsidies for construction, the only losers are those who have to enter the housing market and those who for one reason or the other have to move to Stockholm, Gothenburg or Malmö.

But the really strange twist to the story is that the Stalinist policies introduced by the Social Democrats combined with the abolition of housing subsidies, a centre-right government and a housing boom could very well kill of rented housing in Sweden in 5-10 years’ time.

The next big question is how the abolition of rented housing goes with the demands of a flexible economy.

Oh, and Frankfurter Allgemeine questions whether owning your own house is really such a good idea.

Ingrid Robeyns discusses the tasks awaiting the new Dutch Minister of Education over at Crooked Timber. Does this sound slightly familiar?(I posted a long comment over there so any discussions are better redirected to CT).

Valen was the initiator and long-time leader of the Norwegian electoral studies.

Obituary by some of Valen’s colleagues in Bergen (in Norwegian), obituary by Oslo University (in New-Norwegian!).

Naser Kader at one point has claimed that his time as a member of the Copenhagen City Council was a complete waste of time. One reason was that the council as such is an irrelevant political organ as all real decisions are made by the Magistrate*, another that the political style in Copenhagen politics was less than constructive. To put it mildly.

Recent developments support Mr. Kader’s observation.

Political corruption is rare in Danish politics, even though there have been some high profile cases over the years: A former mayor of Aalborg had his house – and a lot of other things – refitted by local contractors – while the former mayor of the former City of Farum Peter Brixtofte was sentenced to two years in prison this week for organising a scheme including contractors and the local football club, now known as F.C. Nordsjælland.

Still, this is not Sicily – or even Germany – but Danish media have reported that the head of the Budget Office has asked police to investigate an alleged case of extortion by a member of the City Council against the construction firm NCC. The politician – who has not been named – is a Liberal and the affair has led to an angry exchange between the local Liberals and the Social Democrats under Mayor Ritt Bjerregaard.

To make a long story short, the Liberals accuse Mayor Bjerregaard of using the police to deflect attention from her own problems with realising her promise of providing cheap housing, conflicts over school budgets and dealing with the fall-out form clashes over the Youth House on Jagtvej. Ms. Bjerregaard on the other hand accuses the Liberals of cheap politicking.

Since the public does not have the details of the case available, I will only report what local commentators have said:

First, either the Social Democrats are right and the Liberals are damaged politically, or the Liberals are right and the Social Democrats damaged. In any case public regard of the local politicans is likely to suffer. (Quote: Henrik Qvortrup)

Second, something is rotten in the City of Copenhagen. (Gunnar Gjelstrup)

Some thoughts: Maybe Copenhagen would benefit from changing from the Swiss-style Magistrate style of government to a parliamentary style of government. The local framework was changed recently to make the division of tasks between the Council and the Magistrate clearer but apparently without success. On the other hand, I would have to say that Gunnar Gjelstrup in his comparison of Copenhagen and Stockholm underestimates the chaos surrounding local government in Stockholm.

*In Danish, the term Magistrate is used for the collective body of mayors or aldermen governing the larger cities.

Jan Jörmark instructs us to guide visitors to deserted places. We hear and obey (again)

UC Berkeley News, Department of Political ScienceUC Berkeley, Washington Post – obiturary, Brad deLong. Polsby’s main field was the U.S. Constitution, Congressional Studies and the Washington Post notes this:

Beyond politics, he considered himself an expert on novelist Rex Stout’s character Nero Wolfe, a 286-pound sleuth who solves crimes without leaving his apartment. Dr. Polsby’s admirers called him an occasionally caustic man — he liked piquing journalists by asking whether they had ever read a book. He also enjoyed defying social conventions, such as by not wearing shoes when entertaining.

Inspired by Karen Jespersen’s move from the Social Democrats to the Liberals, the former editor of JyskeVestkysten Mette Bock has a cronicle in today’s Politiken about political parties in an individualistic age.

Worth a read and a comment even if a fast read suggests that I don’t agree with her. I’ll get back to the subject. Later.