@article{LundgrenTallbergSommereretal.2023, author = {Lundgren, Magnus and Tallberg, Jonas and Sommerer, Thomas and Squatrito, Theresa}, title = {When are international organizations responsive to policy problems?}, series = {International studies quarterly : the journal of the International Studies Association}, volume = {67}, journal = {International studies quarterly : the journal of the International Studies Association}, number = {3}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0020-8833}, doi = {10.1093/isq/sqad045}, pages = {14}, year = {2023}, abstract = {When are international organizations (IOs) responsive to the policy problems that motivated their establishment? While it is a conventional assumption that IOs exist to address transnational challenges, the question of whether and when IO policy-making is responsive to shifts in underlying problems has not been systematically explored. This study investigates the responsiveness of IOs from a large-n, comparative approach. Theoretically, we develop three alternative models of IO responsiveness, emphasizing severeness, dependence, and power differentials. Empirically, we focus on the domain of security, examining the responsiveness of eight multi-issue IOs to armed conflict between 1980 and 2015, using a novel and expansive dataset on IO policy decisions. Our findings suggest, first, that IOs are responsive to security problems and, second, that responsiveness is not primarily driven by dependence or power differentials but by problem severity. An in-depth study of the responsiveness of the UN Security Council using more granular data confirms these findings. As the first comparative study of whether and when IO policy adapts to problem severity, the article has implications for debates about IO responsiveness, performance, and legitimacy.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Janetschek2016, author = {Janetschek, Hannah}, title = {Water development programs in India}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-401337}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {279}, year = {2016}, abstract = {In the past decades, development cooperation (DC) led by conventional bi- and multilateral donors has been joined by a large number of small, private or public-private donors. This pluralism of actors raises questions as to whether or not these new donors are able to implement projects more or less effectively than their conventional counterparts. In contrast to their predecessors, the new donors have committed themselves to be more pragmatic, innovative and flexible in their development cooperation measures. However, they are also criticized for weakening the function of local civil society and have the reputation of being an intransparent and often controversial alternative to public services. With additional financial resources and their new approach to development, the new donors have been described in the literature as playing a controversial role in transforming development cooperation. This dissertation compares the effectiveness of initiatives by new and conventional donors with regard to the provision of public goods and services to the poor in the water and sanitation sector in India. India is an emerging country but it is experiencing high poverty rates and poor water supply in predominantly rural areas. It lends itself for analyzing this research theme as it is currently being confronted by a large number of actors and approaches that aim to find solutions for these challenges . In the theoretical framework of this dissertation, four governance configurations are derived from the interaction of varying actor types with regard to hierarchical and non-hierarchical steering of their interactions. These four governance configurations differ in decision-making responsibilities, accountability and delegation of tasks or direction of information flow. The assumption on actor relationships and steering is supplemented by possible alternative explanations in the empirical investigation, such as resource availability, the inheritance of structures and institutions from previous projects in a project context, gaining acceptance through beneficiaries (local legitimacy) as a door opener, and asymmetries of power in the project context. Case study evidence from seven projects reveals that the actors' relationship is important for successful project delivery. Additionally, the results show that there is a systematic difference between conventional and new donors. Projects led by conventional donors were consistently more successful, due to an actor relationship that placed the responsibility in the hands of the recipient actors and benefited from the trust and reputation of a long-term cooperation. The trust and reputation of conventional donors always went along with a back-up from federal level and trickled down as reputation also at local level implementation. Furthermore, charismatic leaders, as well as the acquired structures and institutions of predecessor projects, also proved to be a positive influencing factor for successful project implementation. Despite the mixed results of the seven case studies, central recommendations for action can be derived for the various actors involved in development cooperation. For example, new donors could fulfill a supplementary function with conventional donors by developing innovative project approaches through pilot studies and then implementing them as a supplement to the projects of conventional donors on the ground. In return, conventional donors would have to make room the new donors by integrating their approaches into already programs in order to promote donor harmonization. It is also important to identify and occupy niches for activities and to promote harmonization among donors on state and federal sides. The empirical results demonstrate the need for a harmonization strategy of different donor types in order to prevent duplication, over-experimentation and the failure of development programs. A transformation to successful and sustainable development cooperation can only be achieved through more coordination processes and national self-responsibility.}, language = {en} } @article{TuttnauerWegmann2022, author = {Tuttnauer, Or and Wegmann, Simone}, title = {Voting for Votes}, series = {American political science review}, volume = {116}, journal = {American political science review}, number = {4}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {0003-0554}, doi = {10.1017/S0003055422000338}, pages = {1357 -- 1374}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Scholars frequently expect parties to act strategically in parliament, hoping to affect their electoral fortunes. Voters assumingly assess parties by their activity and vote accordingly. However, the retrospective voting literature looks mostly at the government's outcomes, leaving the opposition understudied. We argue that, for opposition parties, legislative voting constitutes an effective vote-seeking activity as a signaling tool of their attitude toward the government. We suggest that conflictual voting behavior affects voters through two mechanisms: as a signal of opposition valence and as means of ideological differentiation from the government. We present both aggregate- and individual-level analyses, leveraging a dataset of 169 party observations from 10 democracies and linking it to the CSES survey data of 27,371 respondents. The findings provide support for the existence of both mechanisms. Parliamentary conflict on legislative votes has a general positive effect on opposition parties' electoral performance, conditional on systemic and party-specific factors.}, language = {en} } @article{SeyfriedAnsmann2018, author = {Seyfried, Markus and Ansmann, Moritz}, title = {Unfreezing higher education institutions?}, series = {Higher Education}, volume = {75}, journal = {Higher Education}, number = {6}, publisher = {Springer}, address = {Dordrecht}, issn = {0018-1560}, doi = {10.1007/s10734-017-0185-2}, pages = {1061 -- 1076}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Quality management (QM) in teaching and learning has strongly "infected" the higher education sector and spread around the world. It has almost everywhere become an integral part of higher education reforms. While existing research on QM mainly focuses on the national level from a macro-perspective, its introduction at the institutional level is only rarely analyzed. The present article addresses this research gap. Coming from the perspective of organization studies, it examines the factors that were crucial for the introduction of QM at higher education institutions in Germany. As the introduction of QM can be considered to be a process of organizational change, the article refers to Kurt Lewin's seminal concept of "unfreezing" organizations as a theoretical starting point. Methodologically, a mixed methods approach is applied by combining qualitative data derived from interviews with institutional quality managers and quantitative data gathered from a nationwide survey. The results show that the introduction of QM is initiated by either internal or external processes. Furthermore, some institutions follow a rather voluntary approach of unfreezing, while others show modes of forced unfreezing. Consequently, the way how QM was introduced has important implications for its implementation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Reiners2017, author = {Reiners, Nina}, title = {Transnational lawmaking coalitions for human rights}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {221, VI}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dribbisch2017, author = {Dribbisch, Katrin}, title = {Translating innovation}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-104719}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VIII, 217}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This doctoral thesis studies the process of innovation adoption in public administrations, addressing the research question of how an innovation is translated to a local context. The study empirically explores Design Thinking as a new problem-solving approach introduced by a federal government organisation in Singapore. With a focus on user-centeredness, collaboration and iteration Design Thinking seems to offer a new way to engage recipients and other stakeholders of public services as well as to re-think the policy design process from a user's point of view. Pioneered in the private sector, early adopters of the methodology include civil services in Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as Singapore. Hitherto, there is not much evidence on how and for which purposes Design Thinking is used in the public sector. For the purpose of this study, innovation adoption is framed in an institutionalist perspective addressing how concepts are translated to local contexts. The study rejects simplistic views of the innovation adoption process, in which an idea diffuses to another setting without adaptation. The translation perspective is fruitful because it captures the multidimensionality and 'messiness' of innovation adoption. More specifically, the overall research question addressed in this study is: How has Design Thinking been translated to the local context of the public sector organisation under investigation? And from a theoretical point of view: What can we learn from translation theory about innovation adoption processes? Moreover, there are only few empirical studies of organisations adopting Design Thinking and most of them focus on private organisations. We know very little about how Design Thinking is embedded in public sector organisations. This study therefore provides further empirical evidence of how Design Thinking is used in a public sector organisation, especially with regards to its application to policy work which has so far been under-researched. An exploratory single case study approach was chosen to provide an in-depth analysis of the innovation adoption process. Based on a purposive, theory-driven sampling approach, a Singaporean Ministry was selected because it represented an organisational setting in which Design Thinking had been embedded for several years, making it a relevant case with regard to the research question. Following a qualitative research design, 28 semi-structured interviews (45-100 minutes) with employees and managers were conducted. The interview data was triangulated with observations and documents, collected during a field research research stay in Singapore. The empirical study of innovation adoption in a single organisation focused on the intra-organisational perspective, with the aim to capture the variations of translation that occur during the adoption process. In so doing, this study opened the black box often assumed in implementation studies. Second, this research advances translation studies not only by showing variance, but also by deriving explanatory factors. The main differences in the translation of Design Thinking occurred between service delivery and policy divisions, as well as between the first adopter and the rest of the organisation. For the intra-organisational translation of Design Thinking in the Singaporean Ministry the following five factors played a role: task type, mode of adoption, type of expertise, sequence of adoption, and the adoption of similar practices.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Nasery2019, author = {Nasery, Mustafa}, title = {The success and failure of civil service reforms in Afghanistan}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44473}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-444738}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 258}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The Government will create a motivated, merit-based, performance-driven, and professional civil service that is resistant to temptations of corruption and which provides efficient, effective and transparent public services that do not force customers to pay bribes. — (GoIRA, 2006, p. 106) We were in a black hole! We had an empty glass and had nothing from our side to fill it with! Thus, we accepted anything anybody offered; that is how our glass was filled; that is how we reformed our civil service. — (Former Advisor to IARCSC, personal communication, August 2015) How and under what conditions were the post-Taleban Civil Service Reforms of Afghanistan initiated? What were the main components of the reforms? What were their objectives and to which extent were they achieved? Who were the leading domestic and foreign actors involved in the process? Finally, what specific factors influenced the success and failure Afghanistan's Civil Service Reforms since 2002? Guided by such fundamental questions, this research studies the wicked process of reforming the Afghan civil service in an environment where a variety of contextual, programmatic, and external factors affected the design and implementation of reforms that were entirely funded and technically assisted by the international community. Focusing on the core components of reforms—recruitment, remuneration, and appraisal of civil servants—the qualitative study provides a detailed picture of the pre-reform civil service and its major human resources developments in the past. Following discussions on the content and purposes of the main reform programs, it will then analyze the extent of changes in policies and practices by examining the outputs and effects of these reforms. Moreover, the study defines the specific factors that led the reforms toward a situation where most of the intended objectives remain unachieved. Doing so, it explores and explains how an overwhelming influence of international actors with conflicting interests, large-scale corruption, political interference, networks of patronage, institutionalized nepotism, culturally accepted cronyism and widespread ethnic favoritism created a very complex environment and prevented the reforms from transforming Afghanistan's patrimonial civil service into a professional civil service, which is driven by performance and merit.}, language = {en} } @article{DuitLimSommerer2023, author = {Duit, Andreas and Lim, Sijeong and Sommerer, Thomas}, title = {The state and the environment}, series = {Politics \& policy}, volume = {51}, journal = {Politics \& policy}, number = {6}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Hoboken, NJ}, issn = {1555-5623}, doi = {10.1111/polp.12561}, pages = {1046 -- 1068}, year = {2023}, abstract = {The limitations and possibilities of the state in solving societal problems are perennial issues in the political and policy sciences and increasingly so in studies of environmental politics. With the aim of better understanding the role of the state in addressing environmental degradation through policy making, this article investigates the nexus between the environmental policy outputs and the environmental performance. Drawing on three theoretical perspectives on the state and market nexus in the environmental dilemma, we identify five distinct pathways. We then examine the extent to which these pathways are manifested in the real world. Our empirical investigation covers up to 37 countries for the period 1970-2010. While we see no global pattern of linkages between policy outputs and performance, our exploratory analysis finds evidence of policy effects, which suggest that the state can, under certain circumstances, improve the environment through policy making.}, language = {en} } @article{DavydchykMehlhausenPriesmeyerTkocz2017, author = {Davydchyk, Maria and Mehlhausen, Thomas and Priesmeyer-Tkocz, Weronika}, title = {The price of success, the benefit of setbacks}, series = {Futures : the journal of policy, planning and futures studies}, volume = {97}, journal = {Futures : the journal of policy, planning and futures studies}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0016-3287}, doi = {10.1016/j.futures.2017.06.004}, pages = {35 -- 46}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This article explores the various futures of relations between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine. After distilling two major drivers we construct a future compass in order to conceive of four futures of relations between the EU and Ukraine. Our scenarios aim to challenge deep-rooted assumptions on the EU's neighbourhood with Ukraine: How will the politico-economic challenges in the European countries influence the EU's approach towards the East? Will more EU engagement in Ukraine contribute to enduring peace? Does peace always come with stability? Which prospects does the idea of Intermarium have? Are the pivotal transformation players in Ukraine indeed oligarchs or rather small- and medium-sized entrepreneurs? After presenting our scenarios, we propose indicators to know in the years to come, along which path future relations do develop. By unearthing surprising developments we hope to provoke innovative thoughts on Eastern Europe in times of post truth societies, confrontation between states and hybrid warfare.}, language = {en} } @article{Kaya2019, author = {Kaya, Muzaffer}, title = {The potentials and challenges of left populism in Turkey}, series = {British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies}, volume = {46}, journal = {British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies}, number = {5}, publisher = {Routledge, Taylor \& Francis Group}, address = {Abingdon}, issn = {1353-0194}, doi = {10.1080/13530194.2019.1634398}, pages = {797 -- 812}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In spring 2015, Turkey witnessed the unexpected rise of the HDP, founded by the Kurdish Liberation Movement together with the Turkish radical left, against President Erdoğan's authoritarian rule. In this article, I will employ contemporary literature on left populism to explain the HDP's rise as an alternative left hegemonic project against the neoliberal authoritarianism that Erdoğan represents. After discussing the historical context from which the HDP emerged and grew, I will evaluate its discourse and strategies based on a conceptualization of left-wing populism. Lastly, I will discuss the challenges that the HDP confronted after the June 2015 elections and the differences between the Turkish and Western European contexts for a left-wing populist strategy.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schiller2016, author = {Schiller, Christof}, title = {The Politics of Welfare State Transformation in Germany}, series = {Routledge-EUI studies in the political economy of welfare ; 17}, journal = {Routledge-EUI studies in the political economy of welfare ; 17}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, isbn = {978-1-315-62390-0}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {273}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @article{FleischerBezesJamesetal.2022, author = {Fleischer, Julia and Bezes, Philippe and James, Oliver and Yesilkagit, Kutsal}, title = {The politics of government reorganization in Western Europe}, series = {Governance : an international journal of policy and administration and institutions}, volume = {36}, journal = {Governance : an international journal of policy and administration and institutions}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {0952-1895}, doi = {10.1111/gove.12670}, pages = {255 -- 274}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The reorganization of governments is crucial for parties to express their policy preferences once they reach office. Yet these activities are not confined to the direct aftermath of general elections or to wide-ranging structural reforms. Instead, governments reorganize and adjust their machinery of government all the time. This paper aims to assess these structural choices with a particular focus at the core of the state, comparing four Western European democracies (Germany, France, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom) from 1980 to 2013. Our empirical analysis shows that stronger shifts in cabinets' ideological profiles in the short- and long-term as well as the units' proximity to political executives yield significant effects. In contrast, Conservative governments, commonly regarded as key promoters of reorganizing governments, are not significant for the likelihood of structural change. We discuss the effects of this politics of government reorganization for different research debates assessing the inner workings of governments.}, language = {en} } @article{RockstroemKotzeMilutinovićetal.2024, author = {Rockstr{\"o}m, Johan and Kotz{\´e}, Louis and Milutinović, Svetlana and Biermann, Frank and Brovkin, Victor and Donges, Jonathan and Ebbesson, Jonas and French, Duncan and Gupta, Joyeeta and Kim, Rakhyun and Lenton, Timothy and Lenzi, Dominic and Nakicenovic, Nebojsa and Neumann, Barbara and Schuppert, Fabian and Winkelmann, Ricarda and Bosselmann, Klaus and Folke, Carl and Lucht, Wolfgang and Schlosberg, David and Richardson, Katherine and Steffen, Will}, title = {The planetary commons}, series = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, volume = {121}, journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America}, number = {5}, publisher = {National Academy of Sciences}, address = {Washington, DC}, issn = {1091-6490}, doi = {10.1073/pnas.2301531121}, pages = {10}, year = {2024}, abstract = {The Anthropocene signifies the start of a no- analogue tra­jectory of the Earth system that is fundamentally different from the Holocene. This new trajectory is characterized by rising risks of triggering irreversible and unmanageable shifts in Earth system functioning. We urgently need a new global approach to safeguard critical Earth system regulating functions more effectively and comprehensively. The global commons framework is the closest example of an existing approach with the aim of governing biophysical systems on Earth upon which the world collectively depends. Derived during stable Holocene conditions, the global commons framework must now evolve in the light of new Anthropocene dynamics. This requires a fundamental shift from a focus only on governing shared resources beyond national jurisdiction, to one that secures critical functions of the Earth system irrespective of national boundaries. We propose a new framework—the planetary commons—which differs from the global commons frame­work by including not only globally shared geographic regions but also critical biophysical systems that regulate the resilience and state, and therefore livability, on Earth. The new planetary commons should articulate and create comprehensive stewardship obligations through Earth system governance aimed at restoring and strengthening planetary resilience and justice.}, language = {en} } @misc{OPUS4-40766, title = {The future of local government in Europe}, series = {Modernisierung des {\"o}ffentlichen Sektors}, journal = {Modernisierung des {\"o}ffentlichen Sektors}, editor = {Schwab, Christian and Bouckaert, Geert and Kuhlmann, Sabine}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407661}, pages = {129}, year = {2017}, abstract = {kein abstract vorhanden}, language = {en} } @article{DanielsenFleischer2022, author = {Danielsen, Ole Andreas and Fleischer, Julia}, title = {The effects of political design and organizational dynamics on structural disaggregation and integration in Norway 1947-2019}, series = {Governance : an international journal of policy and administration}, volume = {36}, journal = {Governance : an international journal of policy and administration}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley-Blackwell}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {1468-0491}, doi = {10.1111/gove.12669}, pages = {299 -- 320}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In countries with long-standing agency traditions, the creation of new agencies rarely comes as a large-scale reform but rather as one structural choice of many possible, most notably a ministerial division. In order to make sense of these choices, the article discusses the role of political design-focusing on the role of political motivations, such as ideological turnover, replacement risks and ideological stands toward administrative efficiency-and organizational dynamics-focusing on the role of administrative legacies and existing organizational palettes. The article utilizes data on organizational creations in the Norwegian central state between 1947 and 2019, in order to explore how political design and organizational dynamics help us understand the creation of agencies relative to ministry divisions over time. We find that political motives matter a great deal for the structural choices made by consecutive Norwegian governments, but that structural path dependencies may also be at play.}, language = {en} } @misc{Ceballos2020, type = {Master Thesis}, author = {Ceballos, Juan Camilo}, title = {The effect of political finance on corruption risk in Colombia}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-48758}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-487586}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 95}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Conventional wisdom holds that large sums of money poured into election campaigns are the gateway to corruption. Allegations of the corrupting influence of money in politics and policy are widespread on the national level. Yet, little empirical evidence has advanced the understanding of such a link on the local level, coupled with blurred corruption measures. This master's thesis tests the effect of campaign finance on public procurement corruption risks in Colombian municipalities, focusing on donations, small donations, and financial disclosure. To that end, I seized publicly disclosed contribution-level data from the 2015 municipal elections and a novel index of institutionalized public procurement corruption risks based upon contract-level data from the near population of local governments. The analysis shows that donations are negatively associated with overall corruption risk, yet they affect specific corruption risks differently. By contrast, small donations seem to correlate positively with direct awarding for a sub-sample of medium-sized municipalities, whereas in their large-sized counterparts the effect of the former on institutionalized corruption is adverse. Finally, financial misreporting is positively linked with market competition restrictions and direct awarding. In the conclusion, I discuss the implications of these findings for future research and outline a series of policy recommendations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jantz2015, author = {Jantz, Bastian}, title = {The dynamics of accountability in public sector reforms}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-78131}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {182}, year = {2015}, abstract = {This PhD thesis is essentially a collection of six sequential articles on dynamics of accountability in the reformed employment and welfare administration in different countries. The first article examines how recent changes in the governance of employment services in three European countries (Denmark, Germany and Norway) have influenced accountability relationships from a very wide-ranging perspective. It starts from the overall assumption in the literature that accountability relationships are becoming more numerous and complex, and that these changes may lead to multiple accountability disorder. The article explores these assumptions by analyzing the different actors involved and the information requested in the new governance arrangements in all three countries. It concludes that the considerable changes in organizational arrangements and more managerial information demanded and provided have led to more shared forms of accountability. Nevertheless, a clear development towards less political or administrative accountability could not be observed. The second article analyzes how the structure and development of reform processes affect accountability relationships and via what mechanisms. It is distinguished between an instrumental perspective and an institutional perspective and each of these perspectives takes a different view on the link between reforms and concrete action and results. By taking the welfare reforms in Norway and Germany as an example, it is shown that the reform outcomes in both countries are the result of a complex process of powering, puzzling and institutional constraints where different situational interpretations of problems, interests and administrative legacies had to be balanced. Accountability thus results not from a single process of environmental necessity or strategic choice, but from a dynamic interplay between different actors and institutional spheres. The third article then covers a specific instrument of public sector reforms, i.e. the increasing use of performance management. The article discusses the challenges and ambiguities between performance management and different forms of accountability based on the cases of the reformed welfare administration in Norway and Germany. The findings are that the introduction of performance management creates new accountability structures which influence service delivery, but not necessarily in the direction expected by reform agents. Observed unintended consequences include target fixation, the displacement of political accountability and the predominance of control aspects of accountability. The fourth article analyzes the accountability implications of the increasingly marketized models of welfare governance. It has often been argued that relocating powers and discretion to private contractors involve a trade-off between democratic accountability and efficiency. However, there is limited empirical evidence of how contracting out shapes accountability or is shaped by alternative democratic or administrative forms of accountability. Along these lines the article examines employment service accountability in the era of contracting out in Germany, Denmark and Great Britain. It is found that market accountability instruments are complementary instruments, not substitutes. The findings highlight the importance of administrative and political instruments in legitimizing marketized service provision and shed light on the processes that lead to the development of a hybrid accountability model. The fifth and sixth articles focus on the diagonal accountability relationships between public agencies, supreme audit institutions (SAI) and parental ministry or parliament. The fifth article examines the evolving role of SAIs in Denmark, Germany and Norway focusing particularly on their contribution to public accountability and their ambivalent relationship with some aspects of public sector reform in the welfare sector. The article analyzes how SAIs assess New Public Management inspired reforms in the welfare sector in the three countries. The analysis shows that all three SAIs have taken on an evaluative role when judging New Public Management instruments. At the same time their emphasis on legality and compliance can be at odds with some of the operating principles introduced by New Public Management reforms. The sixth article focuses on the auditing activities of the German SAI in the field of labor market administration as a single in-depth case study. The purpose is to analyze how SAIs gain impact in diagonal accountability settings. The results show that the direct relationship between auditor and auditee based on cooperation and trust is of outstanding importance for SAIs to give effect to their recommendations. However, if an SAI has to rely on actors of diagonal accountability, it is in a vulnerable position as it might lose control over the interpretation of its results.}, language = {en} } @book{Tragl2005, author = {Tragl, Stefanie}, title = {The Development of Polish Telecommunications Administration (1989 - 2003)}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-3607}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2005}, abstract = {The development of the Polish telecommunications administration in the years 1989/90 to 2003 is marked by the processes of liberalisation and privatisation the telecommunications sector underwent during that period. The gradual liberalisation of the Polish telecommunications sector started as early as 1992. In the beginning, national strategies were pursued. The most important of these was the creation of a bipolar market structure in the local area networks. In the second half of the 1990ies the approaching EU membership accelerated the process of liberalisation and consequently the development of a framework of regulations. EU standards are more directed towards setting out a legal framework for regulation than prescribing concrete details of administrative organisation. Nevertheless, the independent regulatory agencies typical for Western Europe served as a model for the introduction of a new regulatory body responsible for the telecommunications sector in Poland. The growing influence of EU legislation changed telecommunications policy as well as administrative practices. There has been a shift of responsibilities from the ministry to the regulatory agency, but the question remains, if the agency gained enough power to fulfil its regulatory function. In the following the legislative framework created by the EU in telecommunications policy will be described and the model of independent regulatory agencies, as it is typical for most EU countries, will be introduced. Some categories for the analysis of the Polish regulatory system will be deduced from the discussion on the regulations of telecommunication in the established EU-Nations (see B{\"o}llhoff 2002 and 2003, Thatcher 2002a and 2002b, Thatcher/Stone Sweet 2002). Subsequently the basic features of Polish telecommunication policies in the 1990ies and its effects on the telecommunications sector will be outlined. In the third chapter the development of organisational structures on the ministerial level and within the regulatory agency will be examined. In the forth chapter I will look at the distribution of power and the coordination of the various authorities responsible for telecommunication regulations. The focus of this chapter is on the Polish regulatory agency and its relationships with the ministry, with the anti-monopoly office and with the Broadcasting and Television Council. In a conclusion, the main findings will be summed up.}, language = {en} } @article{FitziMele2017, author = {Fitzi, Gregor and Mele, Vincenzo}, title = {The corrosion of character}, series = {Journal of Classical Sociology}, volume = {17}, journal = {Journal of Classical Sociology}, number = {2}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {London}, issn = {1468-795X}, doi = {10.1177/1468795X17693436}, pages = {143 -- 155}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The topic of this imaginary dialogue between Georg Simmel and Max Weber is the relation between work - in the sense of labour - and personality. Its aim is to show that the thinking of these 'founding fathers' of sociology can furnish valuable insight into the current issue of the corrosion of character in contemporary post-Fordist society. The concept of work still represents one of the major factors determining modern individuals' ability (or inability) to formulate personal, stable identities that enable them to become fully socialized. Both Simmel and Weber make reference to a common theoretical background that views the human being as a creature with originally rational potential, who is faced with the task of becoming a personality by means of consciously chosen life behaviour: This is evident in the parallelism between Simmel's interest in the concept of 'style of life' (Der Stil des Lebens) and Weber's research on the 'life conduct' (Lebensf{\"u}hrung) that arose in Western rationalistic culture.}, language = {en} } @book{OPUS4-42120, title = {The anthropocene debate and political science}, series = {Routledge research in global environmental governance}, journal = {Routledge research in global environmental governance}, editor = {Hickmann, Thomas and Partzsch, Lena and Pattberg, Philipp H. and Weiland, Sabine}, publisher = {Routledge}, address = {London}, isbn = {978-0-8153-8614-8}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {260}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Anthropocene has become an environmental buzzword. It denotes a new geological epoch that is human?dominated. As mounting scientific evidence reveals, humankind has fundamentally altered atmospheric, geological, hydrological, biospheric, and other Earth system processes to an extent that the risk of an irreversible system change emerges. Human societies must therefore change direction and navigate away from critical tipping points in the various ecosystems of our planet. This hypothesis has kicked off a debate not only on the geoscientific definition of the Anthropocene era, but increasingly also in the social sciences. However, the specific contribution of the social sciences disciplines and in particular that of political science still needs to be fully established. This edited volume analyzes, from a political science perspective, the wider social dynamics underlying the ecological and geological changes, as well as their implications for governance and politics in the Anthropocene. The focus is on two questions: (1) What is the contribution of political science to the Anthropocene debate, e.g. in terms of identified problems, answers, and solutions? (2) What are the conceptual and practical implications of the Anthropocene debate for the discipline of political science? Overall, this book contributes to the Anthropocene debate by providing novel theoretical and conceptual accounts of the Anthropocene, engaging with contemporary politics and policy-making in the Anthropocene, and offering a critical reflection on the Anthropocene debate as such. The volume will be of great interest to students and scholars of political science, global environmental politics and governance, and sustainable development.}, language = {en} }