Institut für Politikwissenschaft
At the chair 'Public Administration, Public Policy' we are concerned in research and teaching with the 'mechanics' of governing, and with power exercised 'from the second row'. For 'politics in its everyday work is administration ' (Max Weber).
New Research Project: Need for Advice of the Public Administration regarding Digitalizations
May 08, 2024
The digitalization of administration is doubtlessly the largest and most wicked reform project in the public sector. Political actors across levels of government and across party affiliation uniformly aim at digitalizing the German public sector with the aim to make it more efficient and more citizen-friendly.
New Research Project: Administrative Culture and Over-Bureaucratization in Germany
May 08, 2024
Legal norms in Germany often cause excessive bureaucratic burdens for both public administrations and private norm addressees, limiting flexibilities in implementation and creating uncertainty and resistance among these groups. This study, commissioned by the Foundation for Family Business, sheds light on Germany's administrative culture as a driver for this systematic mismanagement in formulating legal norms.
Lecture series 'Natural Hazards, Vulnerability and Disasters: Interdisciplinary Perspectives' of the Institute of Geographie at the University of Vienna
April 09, 2024
Prof. Behnke gives a guest lecture in the lecture series on the topic of 'Challenges of crisis management in federal systems'
Implementation problems of legalizing cannabis in German federalism
April 09, 2024
Prof. Behnke explains in an interview with 'Süddeutsche Zeitung' that the implementation problems of the new cannabis law are due rather to time pressure than to the federal division of powers.
Konferenzbeitrag von Jonas Bernhard zur Jahrestagung des DVPW-AK Organisierte Interessen in Stuttgart
März 04, 2024
Vom 15.-16. Februar 2024 nahm Jonas Bernhard an der Jahrestagung des DVPW-Arbeitskreises Organisierte Interessen an der Universität Stuttgart teil. Im Panel „Lobbying in Legislative und Exekutive“ präsentierte er ein neues Papier zum Lobbyingerfolg der kommunalen Spitzenverbände im Deutschen Bundestag.
Kommunale Autonomie und Demokratie vor aktuellen Herausforderungen
February 27, 2024
resentation of Prof. Behnke at the 'Professorengespräch', organized by the Deutscher Landkreistag, Celle, 27 February 2024
The professors' roundtable, annually organized by the 'Deutscher Landkreistag', took place this year in the Landkreis Celle. It was dedicated to the issue of 'Local democracy between participatory options and the risk of radicalization'.
Neue Veröffentlichung: Svenja Bauer-Blaschkowski: Governance städtischer Nachhaltigkeitspolitik in Deutschland
Januar 20, 2024
Svenja Bauer-Blaschkowski hat einen Artikel über die Governance städtischer Nachhaltigkeitspolitik in Deutschland für das wissenschaftliche Online-Magazin der NRW School of Governance, regierungsforschung.de, geschrieben.
New Publication: Nathalie Behnke, Jonas Bernhard & Till Jürgens (2023): Understanding Collective Agency in the Long-Term Perspective
January 10, 2024
A Historical Comparative Case Study of Local Government Associations in Germany and the United States
Vortrag von Jonas Bernhard bei Forschungskolloquium an der Universität Stuttgart
Dezember 01, 2023
Am 30.11.2023 hat Jonas Bernhard im Rahmen des Forschungskolloquiums von Prof. Patrick Bernhagen an der Universität Stuttgart unter dem Titel „Lobbyingerfolg der kommunalen Spitzenverbände in den Ausschüssen des Deutschen Bundestages“ vorgetragen und konnte aktuelle Ergebnisse aus seinem Dissertationsprojekt präsentieren.
At the chair we investigate administrative coordination processes in policy-making and in multi-level systems. Besides comparative studies, our main focus is on administrations in the German multi-level system – from local level to Länder and federal levels up to the EU. Concomitantly, we take on a theoretical perspective of 'multi-level governance'.
Beside the federal distribution of powers and public service personnel, public finances are a major research theme in our group. These are external factors for administrative work. Also, we analyse coordination processes within and between administrations as well as across levels of government as crucial 'internal' conditions for effective administrative work. Finally, we investigate conditions and processes of local policy implementation in various policy fields.
We teach various courses in the BA- and MA programmes of the Institute of Political Science. Among those are an introductory lecture on Public Administration, introductory seminars on Public Policy as well as advanced seminars on governance, government, local administration and finances, public service and multi-level governance. On those topics, we supervise theses at BA, MA and PhD levels.