Aktuelle Publikationen

Shifts in competencies between levels of government fundamentally changed public policymaking not only in France – with its two ‘Actes’ of decentralization – but also in a similar vein in Germany and England. The effects of these reforms, however, have so far remained largely understudied. This analysis traces national decentralization strategies and compares their impacts on public service performance in person-related services. The results of the empirical case studies are astonishing, as the often considered unique French case seems to share substantial features with its neighbors: Local government performance is largely determined by the properties of the policy area under consideration the potential to reap synergies between relevant actors at place and the capacity to built up professional expertise at the local level turn out to be decisive factors for the ‘success’ of decentralization as a multi-level governance strategy.

In this paper, we present a method based on the CMP data to identify parties' ideological signals. Although our approach uses the same data as others, our method is different in that we distinguish the methods for the directional and proximity models which have long been relevant for the theoretical literature. We apply our method for all German Bundestag parties between 1949 and 2005. One problem with policy preferences is that various – and sometimes only slightly deviating – approaches lead to rather different results. Thus, we test our method in terms of its robustness using the Jackknife method. We also show confidence intervals around policy positions.

In stable democratic countries the redistribution of power is institutionalized. Yet, there are periods of increased political uncertainty: During electoral campaigns there is uncertainty about who will win the election. And in multiparty parliamentary systems the uncertainty over who will actually govern usually continues throughout the coalition formation process. This article tries to contribute to answering the question whether and how financial markets react to such political uncertainty. Using a standard econometric tool, a GARCH (1,1) model, I find evidence for reactions of the AEX (Amsterdam Exchange Index) on periods of political uncertainty in the Netherlands. There is strong evidence that the political uncertainty during electoral campaigns is reflected in increased volatility of the AEX. The reactions during the coalition formation period seem to depend on the degree of uncertainty about the expected government coalition. The evidence for reactions on the ideological positions of government is mixed: Participation of left parties in governments seems to increase volatility, but the mean returns are not negatively affected in recent elections.

Resource-rich countries have tended to be autocratic and also have tended to use their resource wealth badly. The neoconservative agenda of promoting democratization in resource-rich countries thus offers the hopeful prospect of a better use of their economic opportunities. This paper examines whether the effect of democracy on economic performance is distinctive in resource-rich societies. We show that a priori the sign of the effect is ambiguous: Resource rents could either enhance or undermine the economic consequences of democracy. We therefore investigate the issue empirically. We first build a new dataset on country-specific resource rents, annually for the period 1970–2001. Using a global panel dataset, we find that in developing countries the combination of high natural resource rents and open democratic systems has been growth-reducing. Checks and balances offset this adverse effect. Thus, resource-rich economies need a distinctive form of democracy with particularly strong checks and balances. Unfortunately, this is rare: Checks and balances are public goods and so are liable to be undersupplied in new democracies. Over time they are eroded by resource rents.

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As Selb lA deeper look at the proportionality-turnout nexus. Comparative Political Studies. forthcoming) observes. the standard measure of (posterior) competitiveness in elections used in plurality contests, namely the difference between the winner and the second place finisher. has no "self-evident counterpart in multi-member PR districts". Following lines similar to Taagepera and Grofman [2003. Mapping the indices of seats-votes disproportionality and inter-election volatility. Party Politics 9. 659-677] we identifY six properties that any index of competition should satisfY and then offer a new measure that satisfies all six properties which is applicable to virtually any electoral rule. We then apply our new and more fully general index of political competition to data from PR elections in Switzerland to see the extent to which the index of competition is correlated with levels of voter turnout.

State budgets are flexible: In the same year, some budget categories dramatically rise or fall, whereas others closely follow the previous year’s appropriation. Public policy scholars label a budget that contains mainly small scale changes interspersed with dramatic fluctuations as punctuated. This research seeks to identify the determinants of these punctuated budgets in the American states. What causes both incremental and large scale budgetary change? We argue that a governor’s agenda setting and veto powers increase the extent to which state budgets are punctuated. First, institutionally strong governors can dominate budgetary agendas but are subject to heightened information costs. Second, strong governors can also block legislative alternatives, but thereby induce transactions costs that hinder fiscal policy adjustments. The article analyzes these institutional constraints at the American state level using maximum likelihood estimation on panel data from 1983 to 1999. We make two contributions to the study of American public policy. First, we offer a broad empirical analysis of the causes of punctuated change. Second, we present a method by which to measure punctuated distributions over time. This method can be applied to other areas of public policy research.

Civil war is the most prevalent form of large-scale violence and is massively destructive to life, society, and the economy. The prevention of civil war is therefore a key priority for international attention. We present an empirical analysis of what makes countries prone to civil war. Using a global panel data set we examine different determinants of civil war for the period 1960–2004. We find little evidence that motivation can account for civil war risk but we suggest that there is evidence to support our feasibility hypothesis: that where a rebellion is financially and militarily feasible it will occur.

This paper shows that differences in educational outcomes within and between Asia and Latin America are caused in part by the type of agricultural production system. It is argued that, in contrast to states organized around family farming, countries exhibiting plantation-style agriculture tend to neglect broadly based educational policies. Plantation owners may have curtailed educational expansion to impede political mobilization of rural workers in order to secure a cheap supply of hired labour and monopolize the political arena. Results of panel data analysis as well as OLS cross-sectional regressions show that the export of crops grown on large landholdings substantially decreases secondary education attainment levels and governments’ investments in secondary schooling. Simultaneously, these same exports are associated with higher tertiary education levels. The quantitative analysis is complemented by historical evidence of agrarian elites attempting to hinder the development of mass schooling in many countries.

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dc.contributor.author: Seifert, Hartmut

Today, HR scholars widely acknowledge that realising HRM requires the involvement of all managers and that the personal motivation of line managers plays an important role in their successful involvement. Yet, previous research has neglected to study how line managers rate the importance of particular HR duties and how the importance assigned to HR duties varies across managers. Based on a survey of 1,500 Danish managers, we find that motivating others is considered the most important HR duty whereas team building , handling conflicts and coaching are considered the least important HR duties. Female top managers in the public sector exhibit the greatest interest in HR whereas men at lower managerial levels in the private sector give lowest priority to HR work. We conclude with possible explanations for the observed differences in a Danish context and beyond and provide suggestions for facilitating managerial involvement in HRM. In doing so we are well aware that the Scandinavian model of HRM in general and the Danish implementation in particular may represent a unique frame for the results.