TY - JOUR A1 - Weiß, Norman T1 - Origin and Further Development JF - The Council of Europe Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-0-19-967252-3 SP - 3 EP - 22 PB - Oxford University Press CY - Oxford ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dörfler, Thomas A1 - Holzinger, Katharina A1 - Biesenbender, Jan T1 - Constitutional Dynamics in the European Union BT - Success, Failure, and Stability of Institutional Treaty Revisions JF - International Journal of Public Administration N2 - Despite high institutional hurdles for constitutional change, one observes surprisingly many EU treaty revisions. This article takes up the questions of what determines whether a treaty provision is successfully changed and why provisions are renegotiated at subsequent Intergovernmental Conferences. The article presents an institutionalist theory explaining success and renegotiation and tests the theory using all core institutional provisions by means of Qualitative Comparative Analysis. The causal analysis shows that low conflict potential of an issue is sufficient for successfully changing the treaties. Furthermore, high conflict potential of an issue and its fundamental change are sufficient for it to be renegotiated. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/01900692.2017.1295267 SN - 0190-0692 SN - 1532-4265 VL - 40 IS - 14 SP - 1237 EP - 1249 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - Philadelphia ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Fuhr, Harald A1 - Hickmann, Thomas A1 - Kern, Kristine T1 - The role of cities in multi-level climate governance BT - local climate policies and the 1.5 degrees C target JF - Current opinion in environmental sustainability N2 - The past two decades have witnessed widespread scholarly interest in the role of cities in climate policy-making. This research has considerably improved our understanding of the local level in the global response to climate change. The present article synthesizes the literature on local climate policies with respect to the 1.5 degrees C target. While most studies have focused on pioneering cities and networks, we contend that the broader impacts of local climate actions and their relationship to regional, national, and international policy frameworks have not been studied in enough detail. Against this backdrop, we introduce the concept of upscaling and contend that local climate initiatives must go hand in hand with higher-level policies and be better integrated into the multi-level governance system. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.10.006 SN - 1877-3435 SN - 1877-3443 VL - 30 SP - 1 EP - 6 PB - Elsevier CY - Oxford ER - 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 - Borgnäs, Kajsa T1 - Indicators as ‘circular argumentation constructs’? BT - an input–output analysis of the variable structure of five environmental sustainability country rankings JF - Environment, Development and Sustainability N2 - This paper is concerned with the normative underpinnings of popular sustainability indicators and country rankings. Attempts to quantify national sustainability in the form of composite indicators and rankings have increased rapidly over past decades. However, questions regarding validity and interpretability remain. This article combines theoretical and statistical tools to explore how input variables in five popular sustainability indicators can be related to different theoretical paradigms: weak and strong sustainability. It is shown that differences in theoretical interpretations affect input variable selection, which in turn affects indicator output. This points towards the risk of indicators becoming a sort of ‘circular argumentation construct’. The article argues that sustainability indicators and country rankings must be treated as theoretical just as much as statistical instruments. It is proposed that making underlying normative assumptions explicit, and making input variable selection more clear in a theoretical sense, can enhance indicator validity and usability for policy makers and researchers alike. KW - Sustainability indicators KW - Rankings KW - Weak and strong sustainability KW - Measurement theory KW - Circular argumentation Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-016-9764-0 SN - 1387-585X SN - 1573-2975 VL - 19 SP - 769 EP - 790 PB - Springer CY - Dordrecht ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Ganghof, Steffen A1 - Eppner, Sebastian T1 - Patterns of accountability and representation BT - Why the executive-parties dimension cannot explain democratic performance JF - Politics N2 - Arend Lijphart uses an average of five standardized variables – the executive-parties dimension (EPD) – to describe patterns of democracy and explain differences in democracies’ performance. The article suggests ways to improve the descriptive part of the project. It argues that the EPD maps different approaches to achieving accountability and representation, rather than differences in consensus. This re-conceptualization leads to a more coherent and valid measurement. It is also argued that more systematic adjustments are needed for differences in constitutional structures (presidentialism and bicameralism). The article presents data on a revised EPD and its components for 36 democracies in the period from 1981 to 2010. As to the explanatory part of the project, we contend that the EPD often hinders adequate causal analysis rather than facilitating it. We show this by re-analysing democracies’ performance with respect to turnout and capital punishment. KW - bicameralism KW - consensus democracy KW - death penalty KW - democratic performance KW - effective district magnitude KW - executive-parties dimension KW - turnout Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/0263395717710566 SN - 0263-3957 SN - 1467-9256 VL - 39 IS - 1 SP - 113 EP - 130 PB - Sage Publ. CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kuhlmann, Sabine A1 - Seyfried, Markus A1 - Brajnik, Irena Baclija T1 - Mayors and administrative reforms JF - Political Leaders and Changing Local Democracy N2 - In recent decades, a wave of administrative reforms has changed local governance in many European countries. However, our knowledge about differences as well as similarities between the countries, driving forces, impacts, perceptions, and evaluation of these reforms is still limited. In the chapter, the authors give an overview about mayors’ perceptions and evaluations of two major reform trajectories: (a) re-organisation of local service delivery and (b) internal administrative/managerial reforms. Furthermore, differences between (groups of) countries as well as similarities among them are shown in these two fields of administrative reform. Finally, the authors tried to identify explanatory factors for specific perceptions of administrative reforms at the local level. KW - New public management KW - Local administrative systems KW - Administrative reform KW - Public-private partnerships Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-3-319-67410-0 SN - 978-3-319-67409-4 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67410-0_13 SP - 387 EP - 409 PB - Palgrave CY - Basingstoke ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Esguerra, Alejandro A1 - Beck, Silke A1 - Lidskog, Rolf T1 - Stakeholder Engagement in the Making BT - IPBES Legitimization Politics JF - Global environmental politics N2 - A growing number of expert organizations aim to provide knowledge for global environmental policy-making. Recently, there have also been explicit calls for stakeholder engagement at the global level to make scientific knowledge relevant and usable on the ground. The newly established Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is one of the first international expert organizations to have systematically developed a strategy for stakeholder engagement in its own right. In this article, we analyze the emergence of this strategy. Employing the concept politics of legitimation, we examine how and for what reasons stakeholder engagement was introduced, justified, and finally endorsed, as well as its effects. The article explores the process of institutionalizing stakeholder engagement, as well as reconstructing the contestation of the operative norms (membership, tasks, and accountability) regulating the rules for this engagement. We conclude by discussing the broader importance of the findings for IPBES, as well as for international expert organizations in general. Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1162/GLEP_a_00390 SN - 1526-3800 SN - 1536-0091 VL - 17 SP - 59 EP - 76 PB - MIT Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - GEN A1 - Grossi, Giuseppe A1 - Reichard, Christoph A1 - Thomasson, Anna A1 - Vakkuri, Jarmo T1 - Editorial T2 - Public money & management : integrating theory and practice in public management Y1 - 2017 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1080/09540962.2017.1344007 SN - 0954-0962 SN - 1467-9302 VL - 37 SP - 379 EP - 386 PB - Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group CY - Abingdon ER - TY - BOOK ED - Esguerra, Alejandro ED - Helmerich, Nicole ED - Risse, Thomas T1 - Sustainability Politics and Limited Statehood BT - Contesting the New Modes of Governance Y1 - 2017 SN - 978-3-319-39870-9 SN - 978-3-319-39871-6 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39871-6 PB - Springer CY - Cham ER -