TY - JOUR A1 - Kuhlmann, Sabine A1 - Bogumil, Jörg T1 - Administrative Reforms in the Multilevel System BT - Reshuffling Tasks and Territories JF - Public Administration in Germany N2 - The chapter analyses recent reforms in the multilevel system of the Länder, specifically territorial, functional and structural reforms, which represent three of the most crucial and closely interconnected reform trajectories at the subnational level. It sheds light on the variety of reform approaches pursued in the different Länder and also highlights some factors that account for these differences. The transfer of state functions to local governments is addressed as well as the restructuring of Länder administrations (e.g. abolishment of the meso level of the Länder administration and of single-purpose state agencies) and the rescaling of territorial boundaries at county and municipal levels, including a brief review of the recently failed (territorial) reforms in Eastern Germany. Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-3-030-53696-1 SN - 978-3-030-53697-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53697-8_16 SP - 271 EP - 289 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kuhlmann, Sabine A1 - Veit, Sylvia T1 - The Federal Ministerial Bureaucracy, the Legislative Process and Better Regulation JF - Public Administration in Germany N2 - Over the last decades, Better Regulation has become a major reform topic at the federal and—in some cases—also at the Länder level. Although the debate about improving regulatory quality and reducing unnecessary burdens created by bureaucracy and red tape date back to the 1960s and 1970s, the introduction by law in 2006 of a new independent institutionalised body for regulatory control at the federal level of government has brought a new quality to the discourse and practice of Better Regulation in Germany. This chapter introduces the basic features of the legislative process at the federal level in Germany, addresses the issue of Better Regulation and outlines the role of the National Regulatory Control Council (Nationaler Normenkontrollrat—NKR) as a ‘watchdog’ for compliance costs, red tape and regulatory impacts. Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-3-030-53696-1 SN - 978-3-030-53697-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53697-8_20 SP - 357 EP - 373 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kuhlmann, Sabine A1 - Proeller, Isabella A1 - Schiemanke, Dieter A1 - Ziekow, Jan T1 - German Public Administration BT - Background and Key Issues JF - Public Administration in Germany N2 - The international community of public administration and administrative sciences shows a great interest in the basic features of the German administrative system. The German public administration with its formative decentralisation (called: administrative federalism) is regarded as a prime example of multilevel governance and strong local self-government. Furthermore, over the past decades, the traditional profile of the German administrative system has significantly been reshaped and remoulded through reforms, processes of modernisation and the transformation process in East Germany. Studies on the German administrative system should focus especially on key institutional features of public administration; changing relationships between public administration, society and the private sector; administrative reforms at different levels of the federal system; and new challenges and modernisation approaches, such as digitalisation, open government and better regulation. Y1 - 2021 SN - 978-3-030-53696-1 SN - 978-3-030-53697-8 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53697-8_1 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Palgrave Macmillan CY - Cham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marienfeldt, Justine A1 - Kühler, Jakob A1 - Kuhlmann, Sabine A1 - Proeller, Isabella T1 - Kommunale Verwaltungsdigitalisierung im föderalen Kontext T1 - Local government digitalization in a federal context BT - ein europäischer Ländervergleich BT - a European country comparison JF - der moderne staat – Zeitschrift für Public Policy, Recht und Management N2 - Dieser Beitrag vergleicht die kommunale Verwaltungsdigitalisierung in Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (DACH-Länder) als Vertreter der kontinentaleuropäisch-föderalen Verwaltungstradition bei zugleich unterschiedlichen Digitalisierungsansätzen und -fortschritten. Basierend auf Interviews mit 22 Expert*innen und Beobachtungen in je einer Kommune pro Land sowie Dokumenten-, Literatur- und Sekundärdatenanalysen untersucht die Studie, wie Verwaltungsdigitalisierung im Mehrebenensystem organisiert ist und welche Rolle dabei das Verwaltungsprofil spielt sowie welche Innovationsschwerpunkte die Kommunen im Hinblick auf die Leistungserbringung und die internen Prozesse setzen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass der hohe Grad lokaler Autonomie den Kommunen ermöglicht, eigene Akzente in der Verwaltungsdigitalisierung zu setzen. Zugleich wirken die stark verflochtenen komplexen Entscheidungsstrukturen und hohen Koordinationsbedarfe in verwaltungsföderalen Systemen, die in Deutschland am stärksten, in Österreich etwas schwächer und in der Schweiz am geringsten ausgeprägt sind, als Digitalisierungshemmnisse. Ferner weisen die Befunde auf eine unitarisierende Wirkung der Verwaltungsdigitalisierung als Reformbereich hin. Insgesamt trägt die Studie zu einem besseren Verständnis dafür bei, welche Problematik die Verwaltungsdigitalisierung für föderal-dezentrale Verwaltungsmodelle mit sich bringt. N2 - This article compares the digitalization of local government in Germany, Austria and Switzerland (DACH countries) as representatives of the continental European federal administrative tradition, but with different approaches to and progress in digitalization. Based on interviews with 22 experts and observations in one municipality per country as well as document, literature and secondary data analyses, the study examines how administrative digitalization is organized in the multi-level system and what role the administrative profile plays in this, as well as what innovation priorities the municipalities set with regard to service provision and internal processes. The results show that the high degree of local autonomy enables the municipalities to set their own innovation priorities. Simultaneously, the highly intertwined complex decision-making structures and need for coordination in federal administrative systems, which are most pronounced in Germany, somewhat weaker in Austria and least pronounced in Switzerland, act as barriers to digitalization. Furthermore, the findings point to a unitarizing effect of administrative digitalization as an area of reform. Overall, the study contributes to a better understanding of the problems that administrative digitalization poses for federal-decentralized administrative systems. KW - digitalization KW - administrative reform KW - local government KW - DACH countries KW - comparative case study KW - Digitalisierung KW - Verwaltungsreform KW - Kommunen KW - DACH-Länder KW - Vergleich Y1 - 2024 UR - https://www.wiso-net.de/document/DMS__98bb1422067fd8d5bd11f47f8f2651fab936d2ce U6 - https://doi.org/10.3224/dms.v17i1.03 SN - 1865-7192 SN - 2196-1395 VL - 17 IS - 1 SP - 35 EP - 59 PB - Verlag Barbara Budrich CY - Leverkusen-Opladen ER -