TY - JOUR A1 - Daviter, Falk T1 - Coping, taming or solving BT - alternative approaches to the governance of wicked problems JF - Policy studies N2 - One of the truisms of policy analysis is that policy problems are rarely solved. As an ever-increasing number of policy issues are identified as an inherently ill-structured and intractable type of wicked problem, the question of what policy analysis sets out to accomplish has emerged as more central than ever. If solving wicked problems is beyond reach, research on wicked problems needs to provide a clearer understanding of the alternatives. The article identifies and explicates three distinguishable strategies of problem governance: coping, taming and solving. It shows that their intellectual premises and practical implications clearly contrast in core respects. The article argues that none of the identified strategies of problem governance is invariably more suitable for dealing with wicked problems. Rather than advocate for some universally applicable approach to the governance of wicked problems, the article asks under what conditions different ways of governing wicked problems are analytically reasonable and normatively justified. It concludes that a more systematic assessment of alternative approaches of problem governance requires a reorientation of the debate away from the conception of wicked problems as a singular type toward the more focused analysis of different dimensions of problem wickedness. KW - Wicked problems KW - complex problems KW - governance KW - problem-solving KW - policy analysis Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/01442872.2017.1384543 SN - 0144-2872 SN - 1470-1006 VL - 38 IS - 6 SP - 571 EP - 588 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Reith, Florian T1 - The seven deadly sins of quality management: trade-offs and implications for further research JF - Quality in higher education N2 - Quality management in higher education is generally discussed with reference to commendable outcomes such as success, best practice, improvement or control. This paper, though, focuses on the problems of organising quality management. It follows the narrative of the seven deadly sins, with each ‘sin’ illustrating an inherent trade-off or paradox in the implementation of internal quality management in teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Identifying the trade-offs behind these sins is essential for a better understanding of quality management as an organisational problem. KW - Quality management KW - higher education KW - governance KW - trade-offs KW - teaching KW - research Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/13538322.2019.1683943 SN - 1353-8322 SN - 1470-1081 VL - 25 IS - 3 SP - 289 EP - 303 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - THES A1 - Herold, Jana T1 - International Bureaucracies as Governance Actors BT - an assessment of national stakeholders' perspectives N2 - This study assesses and explains international bureaucracies’ performance and role as policy advisors and as expert authorities from the perspective of domestic stakeholders. International bureaucracies are the secretariats of international organizations that carry out their work including generating knowledge, providing policy advice and implementing policy programs and projects. Scholars increasingly regard them as governance actors that are able to influence global and domestic policy making. In order to explain this influence, research has mainly focused on international bureaucracies’ formal features and/or staff characteristics. The way in which they are actually perceived by their domestic stakeholders, in particular by national bureaucrats, has not been systematically studied. Yet, this is equally important, given that they represent international bureaucracies’ addressees and are actors that (potentially) make use of international bureaucracies’ policy advice, which can be seen as an indicator for international bureaucracies’ influence. Accordingly, I argue that domestic stakeholders’ assessments can likewise contribute to explaining international bureaucracies’ influence. The overarching research questions the study addresses are what are national stakeholders’ perspectives on international bureaucracies and under which conditions do they consider international bureaucracies’ policy advice? In answering these questions, I focus on three specific organizational features that the literature has considered important for international bureaucracies’ independent influence, namely international bureaucracies’ performance and their role as policy advisors and as expert authorities. These three features are studied separately in three independent articles, which are presented in Part II of this article-based dissertation. To answer the research questions, I draw on novel data from a global survey among ministry officials of 121 countries. The survey captures ministry officials’ assessments of international bureaucracies’ features and their behavior with respect to international bureaucracies’ policy advice. The overall sample comprises the bureaucracies of nine global and nine regional international organizations in eight thematic areas in the policy fields of agriculture and finance. The overall finding of this study is that international bureaucracies’ performance and their role as policy advisors and expert authorities as perceived by ministry officials are highly context-specific and relational. These features vary not only across international bureaucracies but much more intra-organizationally across the different thematic areas that an international bureaucracy addresses, i.e. across different thematic contexts. As far as to the relational nature of international bureaucracies’ features, the study generally finds strong variation across the assessments by ministry officials from different countries and across thematic areas. Hence, the findings highlight that it is likewise important to study international bureaucracies via the perspective of their stakeholders and to take account of the different thematic areas and contexts in which international bureaucracies operate. The study contributes to current research on international bureaucracies in various ways. First, it directly surveys one important type of domestic stakeholders, namely national ministry officials, as to how they evaluate certain aspects of international bureaucracies instead of deriving them from their structural features, policy documents or assessments by their staff. Furthermore, the study empirically tests a range of theoretical hypotheses derived from the literature on international bureaucracies’ influence, as well as related literature. Second, the study advances methods of assessing international bureaucracies through a large-N, cross-national expert survey among ministry officials. A survey of this type of stakeholder and of this scope is – to my knowledge – unprecedented. Yet, as argued above, their perspectives are equally important for assessing and explaining international bureaucracies’ influence. Third, the study adapts common theories of international bureaucracies’ policy influence and expert authority to the assessments by ministry officials. In so doing, it tests hypotheses that are rooted in both rationalist and constructivist accounts and combines perspectives on international bureaucracies from both International Relations and Public Administration. Empirically supporting and challenging these hypotheses further complements the theoretical understanding of the determinants of international bureaucracies’ influence among national bureaucracies from both rationalist and constructivist perspectives. Overall, this study advances our understanding of international bureaucracies by systematically taking into account ministry officials’ perspectives in order to determine under which conditions international bureaucracies are perceived to perform well and are able to have an effect as policy advisors and expert authorities among national bureaucracies. Thereby, the study helps to specify to what extent international bureaucracies – as global governance actors – are able to permeate domestic governance via ministry officials and, thus, contribute to the question of why some international bureaucracies play a greater role and are ultimately able to have more influence than others. KW - international bureaucracies KW - international organizations KW - governance KW - expert authority KW - policy advice KW - national ministries KW - internationale Verwaltungen KW - internationale Organisationen KW - Governance KW - Expertenautorität KW - Politikempfehlungen KW - nationale Ministerien Y1 - 2019 ER - TY - THES A1 - Janetschek, Hannah T1 - Water development programs in India T1 - Entwicklungszusammenarbeit im Wassersektor Indiens BT - governance processes and effectiveness BT - Governanceprozesse und Effektivität N2 - 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. N2 - In der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit (EZ) wurden in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten herkömmliche bi- und multilaterale EZ-Geber durch eine Vielzahl kleinerer, privater oder privat-öffentlicher Geber ergänzt. Es stellt sich nun die Frage nach der Effektivität dieser neuen Geber im Vergleich zu den bisherigen. Die neuen Geber setzen ebenfalls EZ-Maßnahmen um und haben sich einem Mehr an Pragmatismus, Innovation und Flexibilität verschrieben. Sie stehen jedoch auch in der Kritik, die Funktion der lokalen Zivilgesellschaft zu schwächen und in fragilen Kontexten eine intransparente und oft umstrittene Alternative zur staatlichen Daseinsvorsorge darzustellen. Das transformative Potential dieser neuen Geber durch zusätzliche EZ-Gelder und für bessere Entwicklung ist in der Literatur umstritten. In der vorliegenden Dissertation erfolgt ein Vergleich der neuen und herkömmlichen Geber hinsichtlich ihrer Effektivität in der Erbringung von öffentlichen Gütern und Dienstleistungen im Wasser- und Abwasserbereich in Indien. Indien bietet sich als Länderkontext für die Untersuchung dieser Forschungsfrage insbesondere an, da es sich als Schwellenland mit gegenwärtig immer noch sehr hoher Armut und schlechter Wasserversorgung in vorwiegend ländlichen Gebieten einer Vielzahl von Akteuren und Ansätzen zur Lösung dieser Herausforderungen gegenüber sieht. Im theoretischen Rahmen der Dissertation werden aus dem Zusammenspiel von Akteurstypen und hierarchischer und nicht-hierarchischer Steuerung, vier Governance-Typen entwickelt. Diese vier Steuerungsmodi unterscheiden sich hinsichtlich der Entscheidungsfindung, Rechenschaftslegung und Delegierung von Aufgaben bzw. Richtung des Informationsflusses. Diese Governance-Typen werden in der empirischen Untersuchung um mögliche alternative Erklärungen ergänzt wie Ressourcenverfügbarkeit, Bedeutung von vorhergehenden Projekten in einem Projektkontext, lokale Legitimität als Türöffner und Machtasymmetrien im Projektkontext. Die empirische Analyse von sieben Fällen macht deutlich, dass die Akteursbeziehung eine notwendige Bedingung für erfolgreiche und eigenständige Projektumsetzung in der EZ ist. Darüber hinaus belegen die Ergebnisse, dass es einen systematischen Unterschied zwischen herkömmlichen und neuen Gebern gibt. Die Projekte der herkömmlichen Geber waren durchweg erfolgreicher und wiesen alle eine Akteursinteraktion auf, die die Verantwortung in die Hände des EZ-Empfängers legte und darüber hinaus von Vertrauen und Reputation einer langjährigen Zusammenarbeit profitierten. Der Erfolg der herkömmlichen Geber basierte vorwiegend auf der Rückendeckung der lokalen Umsetzung durch die nationale Ebene. Neben charismatischen Führungsfiguren stellten sich auch übernommene Strukturen und Akteure von Vorgängerprojekten als positive Einflussfaktoren für eine erfolgreiche Projektumsetzung heraus. Aus den Erfolgen und Misserfolgen der sieben hier untersuchten Fälle lassen sich zentrale Handlungsempfehlungen für die unterschiedlichen Akteure der EZ-Umsetzung ableiten. So könnten neue Geber eine Ergänzungsfunktion zu herkömmlichen Gebern erfüllen, indem sie durch Pilotstudien innovative Projektansätze entwickeln und diese dann als Ergänzung zu den Projekten herkömmlicher Geber vor Ort umsetzen. Herkömmliche Geber müssten im Gegenzug in ihren Programmen Raum für die Integration der Ansätze von neuen Gebern schaffen, um so eine Geberharmonisierung zu fördern. Auf staatlicher und bundesstaatlicher Nehmerseite gilt es ebenfalls, Nischen für Aktivitäten zu identifizieren und zu besetzen und die Harmonisierung unter den Gebern zu fördern. Die empirischen Ergebnisse belegen die Notwendigkeit einer Harmonisierungsstrategie von unterschiedlichen Gebertypen, um vor Ort Duplikation, Experimente und Misserfolge von EZ-Programmen zu verhindern. Eine Transformation zu einer erfolgreichen und nachhaltigen EZ kann nur durch mehr Koordinationsprozesse und nationale Eigenverantwortung erreicht werden. KW - governance KW - aid effectiveness KW - water development aid KW - development aid India KW - donor harmonization KW - actor interplay KW - new donors KW - conventional donors KW - donor reputation KW - governance KW - Wirksamkeit der Entwicklungszusammenarbeit KW - Wasserentwicklungszusammenarbeit KW - Entwicklungszusammenarbeit mit Indien KW - Geberharmonisierung KW - Akteursinteraktion KW - neue Geber KW - herkömmliche Geber KW - Reputation der Geber Y1 - 2016 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-401337 ER - TY - THES A1 - Nasery, Mustafa T1 - The success and failure of civil service reforms in Afghanistan T1 - Erfolg und Misserfolg der Reformen im öffentlichen Dienst Afghanistans BT - a critical study of reforms in a fragile and conflict-affected state BT - eine kritische Studie der Reformen in einem fragilen und konfliktbeladenen Staat N2 - 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. N2 - Die Regierung wird einen motivierten, leistungsbasierten, leistungsorientierten und professionellen öffentlichen Dienst schaffen, der den Versuchungen der Korruption widersteht und effiziente, effektive und transparente öffentliche Dienstlesitungen anbietet, die Kundinnen und Kunden nicht dazu zwingt, Bestechungsgelder zu zahlen. — (GoIRA, 2006, p. 106) Wir waren in einem schwarzen Loch! Wir hatten ein leeres Glas und unsererseits nichts, um es zu füllen! Deshalb haben wir alles angenommen, was uns jemand anbot; so wurde unser Glas gefüllt; so haben wir unseren öffentlichen Dienst reformiert. — (Früherer Berater der IARCSC, persönliches Interview, August 2015) Wie und unter welchen Umständen wurden die Reformen des öffentlichen Dienstes in Afghanistan nach Ende der Taliban Zeit initiiert? Was waren die Ziele der Reformen und in welchem Maß wurden sie erreicht? Wer waren die führenden in- und ausländischen Akteure, die am Prozess beteiligt waren? Welche spezifischen Faktoren haben den Erfolg und Misserfolg der Reform des öffentlichen Dienstes Afghanistans seit 2002 beeinflusst? Diesen grundlegenden Fragen folgend, zeichnet diese Forschungsarbeit den verhängnisvollen Prozess der Reform des afghanischen öffentlichen Dienstes in einem Umfeld nach, in dem eine Vielzahl kontextueller, programmatischer und externer Faktoren die Ausgestaltung und Umsetzung der Reformen beeinflussten, die ausschließlich von internationalen Gemeinschaft finanziert und technisch unterstützt wurden. Die qualitative Untersuchung konzentriert sich auf drei Komponenten der Reform – Einstellung, Vergütung und Bewertung der Beamtinnen und Beamten – und liefert ein detailliertes Bild über den öffentlichen Dienst vor der Reform und der Hauptentwicklungen im Personalwesen in der Vergangenheit. Nach einer Diskussion über Inhalt und Zweck der wichtigsten Reformprogramme, zeigt die Studie das Ausmaß der Veränderungen in Politik und Praxis auf, indem sie die Ergebnisse und Auswirkungen der Reformen untersucht. Darüber hinaus definiert die Studie spezifische Faktoren, die dazu geführt haben, dass die meisten der angestrebten Reformziele nicht erreicht wurden. Dabei untersucht und erklärt sie, wie ein überwältigender Einfluss der internationalen Akteure mit widersprüchlichen Interessen zusammenwirkte mit großangelegter Korruption, politischer Einflussnahme, Netzwerken von Klientelismus, institutionalisiertem Nepotismus, kulturell akzeptierter Vetternwirtschaft und weit verbreiteter ethnischer Patronage. Dieses sehr komplexe Umfeld verhinderte grundlegende Reformen und die Transformation eines patrimonialen öffentlichen Dienstes in einen professionellen, leistungsorientierten öffentlichen Dienst in Afghanistan. KW - public administration KW - civil service reform KW - public administration reform KW - fragile and conflict-affected states KW - governance KW - international cooperation KW - Verwaltung KW - Reform des Öffentlichen Dienstes KW - Verwaltungsreform KW - fragile und konfliktbeladene Staaten KW - Governance KW - internationale Zusammenarbeit Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-444738 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Heinzel, Mirko Noa A1 - Liese, Andrea T1 - Expert authority and support for COVID-19 measures in Germany and the UK BT - a survey experiment JF - West European politics N2 - During COVID-19, various public institutions tried to shape citizens’ behaviour to slow the spread of the pandemic. How did their authority affect citizens’ support of public measures taken to combat the spread of COVID-19? The article makes two contributions. First, it presents a novel conceptualisation of authority as a source heuristic. Second, it analyses the authority of four types of public institutions (health ministries, universities, public health agencies, the WHO) in two countries (Germany and the UK), drawing on novel data from a survey experiment conducted in May 2020. On average, institutional endorsements seem to have mattered little. However, there is an observable polarisation effect where citizens who ascribe much expertise to public institutions support COVID-19 measures more than the control group. Furthermore, those who ascribe little expertise support them less than the control group. Finally, neither perception of biases nor exposure to institutions in public debates seems consistently to affect their authority. KW - COVID-19 KW - expertise KW - authority KW - survey experiment KW - institutions KW - crises KW - governance Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2021.1873630 SN - 0140-2382 SN - 1743-9655 SP - 1258 EP - 1282 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Abingdon ER -