Aktuelle Publikationen

Preferential trade agreements (PTAs) constitute the most rapidly growing form of trade liberalization in the global economy. In contrast to, for example, the World Trade Organization, PTAs allow for discrimination among potential partner countries. This helps explain their proliferation. But it also raises an important question: which countries are preferred partners for PTAs? On the presumption that public opinion matters—both normatively and analytically—for trade policy, we study what types of countries citizens prefer for PTAs. We focus on developing countries, as they both play an increasingly important role in the expanding global network of PTAs and also remain understudied in the literature on international cooperation and trade policy. To account for the multidimensionality of PTA partner country choice, we develop and test a theoretical framework through conjoint experiments embedded in national surveys in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Vietnam. The results show that, despite starkly divergent national contexts, citizens in all three countries opt for similar partner countries. Respondents prefer culturally similar countries, democracies, and countries that maintain high environmental and labor standards. Somewhat surprisingly, economic size and geographic distance prove less important in the choice of which countries to support as PTA partners.

Kampagnenmachern, Journalisten und der Öffentlichkeit stellt sich die Frage nach dem Potential und möglichen Gefahren der Nutzung großer Datensätze und statistischer Modelle durch politische Organisationen. Auch wenn das Thema viel Aufmerksamkeit erhält, sind konkrete Nutzungsweisen und Wirkungen datengestützter Verfahren im Wahlkampf nur sehr vage umrissen und verstanden. Vor diesem Hintergrund bietet der vorliegende Artikel einen Überblick und beginnt mit einer Darstellung der grundsätzlichen Funktion datengestützter Verfahren im Wahlkampf, skizziert unterschiedliche Ansätze zur datengestützten Wähleransprache und diskutiert die Nutzung von Daten zur Evaluation von Kampagnentätigkeit und als rhetorisches Element von Kampagnen. Darauf aufbauend zeigt der Artikel wichtige Rahmenbedingungen auf und diskutiert, wie die Wirkung entsprechender Verfahren zu messen ist. Der Artikel schließt mit Leitfragen, mit denen die Nutzung und Wirkung datengestützter Verfahren im Verlauf des Bundestagswahlkampfs 2017 untersucht und diskutiert werden kann.

We study the effects of treaty design and domestic institutional hurdles on the ratification behavior of states with respect to multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs). Specifically, we examine whether (1) strong legality mandated by a treaty such as precisely stated obligations, strong monitoring/enforcement mechanisms, and dispute resolution procedures, and (2) high domestic constitutional hurdles such as requirements for explicit legislative approval deter countries from ratifying a treaty. To test our theoretical claim, we use a new time-series-cross-sectional dataset that includes information on the ratification behavior of 162 countries with respect to 220 MEAs in 1950–2000. We find that treaties that are characterized as ‘hard’ indeed deter ratification. Furthermore, explicit legislative approval requiring supermajority also makes treaty ratification less likely.

Explaining social policy preferences has become a major topic in comparative politics with labor market risk as a key determinant of these preferences. However, one question continues to loom large: are preference divides blurred by mixed households, that is, secure labor market participants living with vulnerable partners? In this article, we build on the insider-outsider literature and show that while the household does matter, its mitigating effect is limited in scope and strongly conditional on gender. Women’s preferences depend on their partner’s labor market situation, while men’s preferences are unaffected by it. Overall, only a small minority of the population across Western Europe benefits from a “household safety net.” Our findings have important implications for understanding the politicization of insider-outsider divides.

Does extraction increase the likelihood of antistate violence in the early phases of state-building processes? Although research has focused on the impacts of war on state building, the potential “war-making effects” of extraction have largely been neglected. The article provides the first quantitative analysis of these effects in the context of colonial state building. It focuses on the “Maji Maji” rebellion (1905-1907), the most substantial incidence of anticolonial violence in Eastern Africa. Analyses based on a new historical data set confirm the correlation between extraction and resistance. More importantly, they reveal that distinct strategies of extraction produced distinct outcomes. Although the intensification of extraction in state-held areas created grievances among the population, it did not drive the rebellion. Rather, the results indicate that the expansion of extractive authority threatened the interests of local elites and provoked effective resistance. This finding provides insights into the mechanisms driving the “extraction–coercion cycle” of state building.

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dc.contributor.author: Rössel, Jörg; Schenk, Patrick; Sunderer, Georg; Müller, Hans-Peter

The study investigates the impact of media coverage of protest on issue attention in parliament (questions) in six Western European countries. Integrating several data sets on protest, media, and political agendas, we demonstrate that media coverage of protest affects parliamentary agendas: the more media attention protest on an issue receives, the more parliamentary questions on that issue are asked. The relationship, however, is mediated by the issue agenda of mass media more generally, attesting to an indirect rather than a direct effect. Additionally, the effect of media-covered protests on the general media agenda is moderated by the political system and is larger in majoritarian countries than in countries with a consensus democracy. This shows the importance of political opportunity structures for the agenda-setting impact of protest.

Faced with competitive labor markets, firms increasingly use employer branding to strategically manage their employer image with the aim of building a talented workforce. Extant research has mostly investigated the individual-level effects of employer brand attributes but has neglected whether and how engaging in employer branding as a firm-level strategy benefits workforce characteristics and, ultimately, firm performance. Integrating brand marketing theory with strategic human resource management research, we address this research gap. We develop and test a comprehensive model linking firms’ employer branding orientation with firm performance through its positive influence on brand performance as well as external recruitment (i.e., applicant pool) and internal retention (i.e., turnover intent) outcomes. The results of a multi-source (i.e., top management, human resource managers, employees) study with N=96 firms (N=16,274 participating employees) support our hypotheses. We discuss the implications of these findings for both the emerging employer branding literature and firms’ recruitment and retention practice.

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This article addresses co-governance which can be defined as a dynamic interaction between public and private actors to secure the provision of common goods. Which types of relationship between public and private actors exist? Do the forms of co-governance change over time? When is the relationship between public and private actors cooperative, when is it competitive, and when do we witness conflictual relationships? These research questions lie at the heart of this introductory article, which seeks to shed further light on the origins and impacts of the various co-governance patterns. By reviewing the body of research on this topic, we show that different relationships between public and private actors exist, and that the forms of co-governance can also change over time. While the dominant form of co-governance is cooperation, one can also observe instances of competition or even conflict between public and private actors. Most importantly, we find that both public and private actors are ready to reclaim competences in areas where they perceive the other actor to have gained too much influence. As we discuss in this article, the degree of cooperation and competition mostly depends on the existing regulatory arrangements, the congruence of goals of the different actor groups, and the institutionalization of industrial relations. These insights help us to better understand the role co-governance can play in addressing complex public problems.