Daniel Schmidt – författare

This book summarises and critiques Extinction Rebellion (XR) as a social movement organisation, engaging with key issues surrounding its analysis, strategy and tactics. The authors suggest that XR have an underdeveloped and apolitical view of the kind of change necessary to address climate change, and that while this enables the building of broad movements, it is also an obstacle to achieving the systemic change that they are aiming for. The book analyses different forms of protest and the role of civil disobedience in their respective success or failure; democratic demands and practices; and activist engagement with the political economy of climate change. It engages with a range of theoretical perspectives that address law-breaking in protest and participatory forms of democracy including liberal political theory; anarchism and forms of historical materialism, and will be of interest to students and scholars across politics, international relations, sociology, policy studies and geography, as well as those interested in climate change politics and activism.

This book summarises and critiques Extinction Rebellion (XR) as a social movement organisation, engaging with key issues surrounding its analysis, strategy and tactics. The authors suggest that XR have an underdeveloped and apolitical view of the kind of change necessary to address climate change, and that while this enables the building of broad movements, it is also an obstacle to achieving the systemic change that they are aiming for. The book analyses different forms of protest and the role of civil disobedience in their respective success or failure; democratic demands and practices; and activist engagement with the political economy of climate change. It engages with a range of theoretical perspectives that address law-breaking in protest and participatory forms of democracy including liberal political theory; anarchism and forms of historical materialism, and will be of interest to students and scholars across politics, international relations, sociology, policy studies and geography, as well as those interested in climate change politics and activism.

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Politics - Region: Russia, grade: 1.0, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, language: English, abstract: In times of global political cataclysms, where the old Washington-led Western liberal order is stumbling - with nationalism and protectionism on the rise and old alliances being challenged - a new kind of super heavy Sino-Russian diplomatic 'double star system' is apparently rising in the east since 2001. Thus, I dedicated this paper to the examination of the quality of contemporary Sino- Russian relations. The hypothesis is, that if Sino-Russian relations live up to the high level that is reiterated by their respective officials and state sponsored media, it needs to be observable that such is thoroughly beneficial for both sides core and long-term interests. Therefore, I have come up with a two-tracked approach. First, I will quantitatively analyze (i) their voting behaviors at the UNSC and UNGA; (ii) the development and composition of their bilateral trade levels; and (iii) the two state s comparative classical indicators of strength i.e. population size, GDP levels, and defense spending levels. Second, I will qualitatively analyze how Sino-Russian relations unfold within the context of (i) the military-security focused SCO; (ii) the regional economic agenda of the two concepts of EAEU and SREB; and (iii) the multilateral global order aspirations of the BRICS and their recent process of institutionalization via the NDB and CRA. My research implicates that the relationship has already passed its point closest to equilibrium, with Russia becoming increasingly marginalized since. Hence this thesis argues that, albeit there are areas of matching interests, the indicators point towards a questionable long-term durability of the Sino-Russian relationship.

Die amtliche Statistik etablierte sich im 19. Jahrhundert als essentielle Wissenstechnik moderner Staatlichkeit: Einerseits konstitutierte sie das Regierungs-Objekt, die "Bevölkerung", über die sie andererseits ein umfangreiches Regierungs-Wissen bereit stellte. Mit der statistischen Erfassung und Präsentation wurden die politischen Probleme der Armut, der Delinquenz und der Krankheit als Massenphänomene erkennbar, die eine rational abgesicherte gouvernementalistische Intervention erreichten. Zugleich mussten die Statistiker aber auch die individualistischen und politischen Grenzen ihres Zugriffs auf das Leben der Menschen erkennen.

Antidiskriminierungspädagogik ist eine relativ junge Strategie, die sich zum einen für einen respektvollen Umgang mit Vielfalt einsetzt und zum anderen ein entschiedenes Eintreten gegen Diskriminierung und Herabwürdigung befördert. Das Konzept will junge Menschen befähigen mit Differenzen umgehen zu lernen, die aus sozialen Unterschieden resultieren und über die gesellschaftlichen Bedingungen, die die Konstruktion dieser Differenzen ergeben, aufklären. Der Band bietet Pädagoginnen und Pädagogen praxisorientiertes und umfassendes Werkzeug, um im beruflichen Handeln Ausgrenzung und Exklusion zu thematisieren und gegen diese vorzugehen.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Topic: Globalization, Political Economics, grade: 1,0, University of Twente (Political Institute ), course: European Economic Governance, language: English, abstract: Unemployment is a problem for every member state in the EU, even though the numbers of unemployed people vary from country to country. Especially for the countries which are grouped into the continental system (France or Germany) the problem is severe. On the other hand other countries have improved their markets and now have less unemployment than in the 1980th, for example Great Britain or Spain.However, in every country one group is seen as especially problematic and those are the low skilled workers. Persons without good education or professional training run a high risk of becoming unemployed. Compared to academics in Germany their number unemployment is four times as high in this group. This is partly due to the fact that the global competition has become stronger during the last years. Since the wages in other countries are lower this leads to cheaper production cost for the companies in those places. Especially for labour intensive industries this is a problem, and those industries normally provide the jobs for low skill workers. Thus all countries have taken measures to integrate this group better into the world market. The leading question for this paper is why Great Britain has been more successful in integrating this group in the work market than for example Germany. One program that will be introduced is an earned income tax. This means that low skill workers become additional money, for the case that they have a job that pays only little money. With this program the British government motivated people to take jobs, even though the hourly wage is not high. This program worked well and got extended in April 2003. In the end of the paper the question will get discussed if the earned income tax would even be an option for the whole of Europe. Since companies act on a worldwide market, some employment problems extend the boarders of nation states. In order to answer this question, the actual politics in this field of the EU will shortly be described. Social policy was historically never one of the most harmonized fields. But with the Maastricht and especially with the Lisbon strategy member states agreed to certain measures in this field. The question is how far this arrangement go, and whether or not an earned income tax is realistic in the near future for low skill workers.

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 2,0, University of Twente (Political Institute ), language: English, abstract: 1. IntroductionThe European Union (EU) has been a very heterogeneous building since the start. The difficult task is forming a party system which fits the different national parties in coalitions that are able to produce results. With the now 25 members this seems even more problematic, since the states of Eastern Europe have a tradition that differs significantly from the countries in Northern and Western Europe. It is, therefore, necessary to prove if party cohesion on the European level exists. If members of European Parliament (EP) would only vote on national interest, party coalitions would not serve their purpose. There needs to be cohesion towards the coalition in order to establish real European elections instead of second order national elections. In order to achieve this it is also necessary to be able to have a public opinion that can be organized into majorities (Beetham/Lord, 2001:77).The questions, therefore, remain if the EU is able to establish even more members in its middle. It might be the case that new members would decline the party cohesion even further and that would make It even more difficult to establish true European elections. In this paper, special emphasis will be on the role of Turkey and the adoptability into the party system. The leading hypotheses will be that the cleavages lines which are important for Turkish voters are too different in order to adopt to leading European ideas. A sup-question is also if the Eastern European countries have yet performed this step. The paper will start with a normative frame that points out how an ideal democracy could work on the European level. Because of shortage of space this can not be discussed in total depth, but the presented ideas will serve as a framework. After the theoretical part, the focus will be on the European system as it works today. Special emphasis will be on the party coalitions and their impact on the voting behaviour of members of parliament (MEP). It is essential to describe why national parties have agreed to work together and what political solutions they prefer. Since there are seven coalitions in the EP today, not all can be fully analysed. Therefore, the two biggest groups (EVP-ED and SPE) will mainly be the focus, since they hold over 60% of the seats.The next part will analyse the Turkish system and what kind of issues are deciding for Turkish voters. The history of democracy will be the starting point of this analysis before the present situation will be the focus. The conclusion will, therefore, be based on the question if Turkey’s party system can adapt to the EU, and, thus, the entry of Turkey into the EU is feasible taking these conditions into account.

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Politics - Region: Africa, grade: 1,7, University of Tubingen (Politikwissenschaftliches Institut), language: English, abstract: The Millennium Development goals (MDGs) were set in 2000 as an ambitious goal to improve the situation in developing countries in fields such as education, reducing poverty or improving the health situation for the poor. Those goals shall be achieved until the year 2015, which means that halve of the time between the settings of the goals and the supposed reaching of those has passed. Thus it is time to ask how successful the tries have been until now, and if it is still realistic to achieve those goals. This paper will place special emphasis on Africa and especially Sub-Sahara Africa. In this region the smallest progress can be seen, and in certain areas no success as all can be witnessed. The main question, which will be answered in this paper, is therefore: “What are the problems that prevent the countries in Sub-Sahara Africa to achieve the Millennium Development goals?” In the first section of the paper the Millennium Declaration, which was signed in September 2000, will be introduced, and the growing international acceptation of those goals will be mentioned. (Qureshi, 2004)After that the present situation will be described. When all developing countries are seen together, the data suggest that improvement has taken place and that the implemented strategies have been at least partly successful. But this is a very limited view, as there are different categories of developing countries. The situation in the two biggest countries of the world China and India has improved significantly, and Asia in general has made some progress, especially the regions East and South-East Asia show significant improvement during the last years. The next section will analyse the poor performance of African countries and why this is the case. Two major possible explanations will be given. On the one hand it could be the fault of the giving countries, since they are not investing enough money in Africa. On the other hand not only the giving countries have to be analysed when looking at the failures of the last decade, also the situation in the African countries themselves has to be monitored. The last part of the main paper will look at possible new strategies, which could be used in order to improve the situation in Sub-Sahara Africa.

Essay from the year 2000 in the subject Economics - Foreign Trade Theory, Trade Policy, , language: English, abstract:

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2007 in the subject Politics - Topic: European Union, grade: 1,0, University of Twente (Political Institute ), language: English, abstract: [...] Nonetheless, important changes happened on the club level. On the 6th of April 2001 Energie Cottbus was the first club in the Bundesliga that played with 11 non-German players (Kicker, 8th April 2001). This extreme case shows that significant changes have taken place after the ruling. Clubs require more players from other countries, and competition for the superstars of sport has become enormous. The aim of this paper is to identify the changes, which have come up for soccer due to the Bosman case. Therefore the main question will be the following: How did the Bosman-case affect the European football leagues, and especially the top-five leagues (England, Italy, Spain, Germany and France)? In order to answer this question many different dimension have to be taken into consideration, since the Bosman case revolutionized football in more than one way. Thus aspects, which have to be mentioned here, include the changed number of foreign football players in the European leagues, the new transfer system, the new competitiveness situation as well as the financial development of the clubs. Sub-questions, which need to be answered in order to support the main questions, are: What is the historical relation between the EU law and sport law? What exactly is the content of the Bosman case? Which additional sport cases where decided by the ECJ after the Bosman ruling? How did the clubs react to the changed rules? Where the players able to benefit from the Bosman ruling, and if so how exactly? Has the competitive balance situation changed after Bosman? Are there also other reasons that can explain a changed situation?In the first part the question about the exact relation between the EU and the sport law will be answered. Sport still enjoys a certain freedom and can implement rules and laws, which are limited to the field of sport, but the EU is driving back this freedom. Thus measures and statements, which were taken by EU officials, will be examined, in order to show why the Bosman case was possible. [...]