Aktuelle Publikationen

The article deals with the consequences of austerity measures at municipal level in Germany. The first part describes the institutional framework, looking at the development and structure of employment, legal peculiarities, financial conditions and their more recent developments. The second part analyses employment relations, including employers’ organizations and unions, the collective bargaining structure and recent changes to it as well as measures of privatization. Finally, some preliminary conclusions are listed. From a comparative perspective, Germany constitutes a special case, with austerity measures having been initiated and causing lasting job losses long before the financial and debt crisis.

Der Beitrag analysiert die Veränderungen der Arbeitsbeziehungen des öffentlichen Dienstes in der Bundesrepublik. Um Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede nationaler Maßnahmen deutlicher erkennen zu können, stellt er einige Vergleiche zwischen EU-Mitgliedsländern an. Zunächst behandelt der Beitrag die individuellen Folgen der Austeritätspolitiken für die Beschäftigten, welche die zentrale Ressource für die Bereitstellung von Gütern und Dienstleistungen darstellen (Kap. 2). Anschließend analysiert er die kollektiven Konsequenzen für Institutionen des Arbeitsmarktes, vor allem für Gewerkschaften (Kap. 3). Zusammenfassung und Ausblick beschließen den Beitrag (Kap. 4).

The United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) have collaborated in building a viable African Peace and Security Architecture and have worked together in a number of armed conflicts over the past decade. Examples include the peace operations in Burundi and Somalia, and the hybrid peace operation in Sudan’s Darfur region which is perhaps the most prominent illustration of this collaboration. Although the UN Security Council authorized the intervention in Libya, which was approved by leading regional organizations (the Arab League, the Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Gulf Cooperation Council), it was opposed initially by the AU although the three African states in the Security Council voted for it. Relations cooled as a result and have grown colder still as the UN snubbed the AU and its initial efforts to engage in post-conflict stabilization in Mali. While the AU sought to prove itself as a capable security provider and partner on the continent with its operation AFISMA, France’s Opération Serval and the UN’s peace operation for Mali, MINUSMA, bypassed the African Union. This article explores the underlying fault-lines between the two organizations by examining interactions between the UN and AU since the latter’s launch in 2002, but focusing on the Mali case. The fault-lines emerging from the analysis are different capabilities, risk-averse vs risk-assuming approaches to casualties, diverging geopolitics and leadership rivalry.

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Background

The face of international aid for health and development is changing. Private donors such as foundations and corporations are playing an increasingly important role, working in international development as direct operators or in partnerships with governments. This study compares maternal health programs of new development actors to traditional governmental donors. It aims to investigate what maternal health programs large governmental donors, foundations and corporate donors are conducting, and how and why they differ.

Methods

A total of 263 projects were identified and analyzed. We focus on nine categories of maternal health programs: family planning services, focus on specific diseases, focus on capacity building, use of information and communication technology (ICT), support of research initiatives, cooperation with local non-state or state partners and cooperation with non-local non-state or state partners. Data analysis was carried out using Generalized Linear Mixed-Effects Models (GLMER).

Results

Maternal health policies of public and private donors differ with regard to strategic approaches, as can be seen in their diverging positions regarding disease focus, family planning services, capacity building, and partner choice. Bilateral donors can be characterized as focusing on family planning services, specific diseases and capacity-building while disregarding research and ICT. Bilateral donors cooperate with local public authorities and with governments and NGOs from other developed countries. In contrast, corporations focus their donor activities on specific diseases, capacity-building and ICT while disregarding family planning services and research. Corporations cooperate with local and in particular with non-local non-state actors. Foundations can be characterized as focusing on family planning services and research, while disregarding specific diseases, capacity-building and ICT. Foundations cooperate less than other donors; but when they do, they cooperate in particular with non-state actors, local as well as non-local.

Conclusions

These findings should help developing coordination mechanisms that embrace the differences and similarities of the different types of donors. As donor groups specialize in different contexts, NGOs and governments working on development and health aid may target donors groups that have specialized in certain issues.

The present study extends knowledge of the performance consequences of workgroup diversity climate. Building upon Kopelman, Brief, and Guzzo's (1990) climate model of productivity, we introduce workgroup discrimination as a behavioral mediator that explains the positive effects of diversity climate on workgroup performance. In addition, we investigate group size as a moderator upon which this mediated relationship depends. We test these moderated-mediated propositions using a split-sample design and data from 248 military workgroups comprising 8,707 respondents. Findings from structural equation modeling reveal that diversity climate is consistently positively related to workgroup performance and that this relationship is mediated by discrimination. Results yield a pattern of moderated mediation, in that the indirect relationship between workgroup diversity climate (through perceptions of workgroup discrimination) and group performance was more pronounced in larger than in smaller workgroups. These results illustrate that discrimination and group size represent key factors in determining how a diversity climate is associated with group performance and, thus, have significant implications for research and practice.

Lipsky's seminal concept of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) focuses on their role as public servants. However, in the course of new modes of governance, private actors have gained an additional role as implementation agents. We explore the logic of private SLBs during the implementation of the Swiss Ordinance on Veterinary Medicinal Products (OVMP) where veterinarians are simultaneously implementing agents, policy addressees, and professionals with economic interests. We argue that, because of contradictory reference systems, it is problematic for the output performance if an actor is simultaneously the target group of a policy and its implementing agent.

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This article explores the relations between the African Union and its member states. While there are im provements on the AU level with regard to the implementation of the African Peace and Security Architecture and the building of other institutions such as the Pan-African Parliament, it becomes apparent at the same time that on the state level governments are reluctant to engage in a deepening of the continental integration. Some countries even topple the integration process or undermine their own initiatives such as the African Peer Review Mechanism. This article examines this phenomenon, and labels the identified unwillingness to change the status quo a 'culture of conservatism'. Four explanations are offered for such a 'culture of conservatism': lack of capacity, unwillingness to surrender sovereignty, national leaders' reluctance to cede power, and the greater importance of regional economic communities as compared to the AU.