Aktuelle Publikationen

This study tests if deaths caused by the COVID-19 epidemic influence levels of electoral coordination. Specifically, it tests if a higher number of epidemic deaths strengthens in-group cohesion such that it narrows the votes towards M + 1 parties; or if it weakens in-group cohesion such that it disperses the votes away from M + 1 parties. The results from a multilevel statistical analysis of close to two-thousand observations from Mexico’s 2021 general election suggest that voters struggle to coordinate around a few common options that they believe can best weather the crisis. Moreover, the results from a subsequent time-series cross-sectional analysis provide some support to the expectation that coordination decreased compared to the previous elections.

Spoken administrative language is a critical element in the relationship between citizens and the state, especially when it comes to face-to-face interactions between officials and citizens during the delivery of public services. But preceding work offers little insights on the verbal features of street-level bureaucracy. Drawing on communication studies, we argue that administrative language differs along both a relational and an informational linguistic component. To test the consequentiality of this theory, we design a factorial survey experiment with a representative sample of 1,402 German citizens. Participants evaluated audio recordings of a hypothetical service encounter where we systematically varied the language used by the official and the service decision, measuring participants’ service satisfaction as the main outcome. Based on regression analysis, we find that relational elements of administrative language improve citizen satisfaction, independent of the service outcome, but that the effect does not hold for the informational component. These findings emphasize the importance of relational communication in citizen-state interactions, which tends to be neglected in public administration theory and practice.

A vast literature has examined how perceptions of mobility shape demand for redistribution. These studies generally refer to contemporaneous tax policies demanded by those directly impacted. But social mobility is often measured as changes across generations. To account for these intergenerational effects, our analysis focuses on educational policies. We examine how social mobility at the district level explains legislative support for inclusive education policies. We first develop an electoral competition model where voters are altruistic parents, politicians are office seeking and the future economic status of the children is affected both by the degree of income mobility and by public education policies. We then analyze a newly compiled dataset of roll-call votes on California education legislation matched with electoral district levels of income mobility. In line with the model, our analysis suggests that upward mobility in a district negatively predicts legislative support for redistributive education bills.

Students from a high socioeconomic background show relatively homogeneous, high levels of educational attainment, whereas students with a low socioeconomic origin display a large variability in their educational careers. In this paper, we examine whether the varying degrees of students’ academic self-efficacy can contribute to an explanation of this variation. Focusing on Germany’s highly stratified educational system, we utilized the CILS4EU dataset to analyse the association between the academic self-efficacy of students from low and high socioeconomic backgrounds in 9th grade and their later educational aspirations and transitions. Our results show that students from non-academic families are much more likely to (a) aspire to an Abitur, (b) transition to upper secondary school, and (c) enter tertiary education if they exhibit a high level of academic self-efficacy. In contrast, academic self-efficacy shows no link to the educational aspirations and decisions of students who have at least one parent with an academic certificate.

Economic inequality constitutes a defining challenge of our time and it remains puzzling why rising levels of inequality have not led to more redistribution. In this article a novel individual-level perspective is taken, with a focus on how much legislators and citizens agree on questions of redistribution and inequality, and what causes these mismatches. The study compares legislators’ views to a representative citizen sample in Switzerland. The results show considerable disagreement between the groups with legislators being more sceptical towards redistribution and seeing inequality as fairer outcome. The mismatch is only partially explained by legislators’ higher social status. Ideology plays a fundamental role as more polarisation according to ideological lines is found among elites and their attitudes are also more rooted in their ideology. In sum, the findings point to some underexplored angles of the puzzle of why not more redistribution has been observed and thus offer a valuable addition to the existing literature.

This paper studies the determinants of support for future generations, using novel survey data for the case of Germany. I find significant, but not overwhelming support for prioritizing the needs of future generations vs. the acute needs of present-day citizens. Moreover, individual-level and contextual factors matter too. High-income and highly educated citizens are on average more supportive of the needs of future generations, the elderly and women less so. Left-wing supporters are equally more supportive of future generations, especially supporters of the Greens and those subscribing to ‘green-alternative-liberal’ values. Supporters of the right-wing populist AfD are most strongly opposed. General political trust boosts support for future generations, and economically thriving local economies are associated with higher levels of support for future generations as well.

This article studies individual-level attitudes towards long-term investment policies using novel survey data for the case of Germany. Building on a budding literature on the relationship between environmental and social policy attitudes, our first contribution to research is to show that citizens, when prompted to think about their support for long-term investment policies, support welfare state related policies such as investments in education and pensions to a greater degree than non-welfare state issues such as public infrastructure investment or renewable energy. Citizens are most supportive of using present-day redistributive policies – in our case: increasing income taxes on the rich – in order to finance long-term investment. We also find evidence that political trust is positively associated with support for long-term investment policies, but in particular investments in education and renewables. Furthermore, our analysis reveals the importance of individual political ideology. These findings have implications for public demand for tackling the long-term issues faced by society today.

Purpose
Globally, many children are exposed to violent discipline in multiple settings. Interventions to prevent violent discipline are therefore highly needed. In the present study, the feasibility of the intervention Interaction Competencies with Children – for Parents (ICC-P), an additional module of a school-based intervention for teachers, was tested. The intervention aims to prevent violent discipline by changing attitudes towards such method and fostering supportive adult-child interaction through non-violent interaction skills.

Methods
In total, 164 parents (Mage= 39.55, range = 24 70, 72.3% female) from four public secondary schools in Tanzania participated in a four-day training conducted by six trainers (Mage= 44.67, range = 40–47, 50% female). Using a One-Group Pre-Post design, we measured the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of the intervention qualitatively and quantitatively. Parents were assessed via self-administered questionnaires before and six weeks after the intervention. Trainers rated the implementation of every workshop session.

Results
Based on descriptive statistics and Classical Content Analysis, implementing trainers and participants rated ICC-P as feasible. Participants indicated a high need for such interventions and showed high acceptance. They were able to integrate core aspects of the intervention in their daily interactions with children. Using t-tests, ICC-P proved to be preliminarily effective; parents reported applying less violent discipline and holding more critical attitudes about such measures after the intervention.

Conclusion
ICC-P is feasible intervention that showed initial signs of effectiveness. We recommend combining the parents’ training module with the teachers’ module to prevent violence in multiple settings.

This article analyses the role of institutional misfit in why member states customise European Union (EU) renewable energy (RE) policies when implementing them. Institutional misfit theory posits that member states only adjust to EU policies when the adaptation pressure remains moderate and national actors’ policy preferences align. Conversely, this article tests the argument that member states manage institutional misfit by adjusting – customising – EU policies, that is, through vertical EU policy change rather than domestic change. Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis, the article compares the customisation of EU Directive 2009/28/EC in Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Surprisingly, results suggest that institutional misfit is not a necessary condition for customised implementation. Instead, when high institutional fit meets high salience, member states may issue substantively more ambitious policies than the EU requires. Conversely, when high institutional fit meets low salience, member states have no impetus to customise EU rules.

The paper deals with the European Company (SE), the first supranational company form. The focal question is its impact on the development of transnational employment relations. We show that only a minority of SEs has set up SE Works Councils and we discuss the reasons for this non-compliance. Board-level employee representation (BLER), the other form of voice, is even less common. We compare both concepts and reveal that the SE’s contribution to the development of transnational employment relations remains limited. By placing the SE in a broader perspective, we conclude that it fits the general pattern of limited progress towards ‘Europeanization’.

Personal relations and networks have long been argued to dominate African politics. Since personal power is difficult to measure, much of the literature has remained either anecdotal or has used ethnicity to approximate power distributions. This article is proposing a social network approach to the analysis of personal power in legislatures and cabinets in three cases: Ghana, Togo and Gabon. We combine survey data on parliamentary discussion networks with a new data set on cabinet appointments. We find that power accumulation in one institution correlates with power accumulation in the other in all three countries, irrespective of the level of democracy: individuals build up a unique power base to advance their careers. We also find differences between the modes of power accumulation and elite integration across our cases. Our findings could stimulate new debates on personal power, regime survival and elite reproduction across different regimes.