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).
Sprechstundentermine Prof. Behnke SS 2025
April 29, 2025
Dr Silva Pimenta to Chair Panel on Intersectionality in EU Public Policy at SISP Conference in Naples
April 21, 2025
Call for papers open until May 25th. Submissions may focus on national, regional, or EU-level dynamics, as well as comparative analysis
“Cheaper in service, more expensive in retirement”
April 04, 2025
Prof. Nathalie Behnke in an interview with MDR Aktuell on the subject of civil servants and pensions.
“Warning of the chainsaw”
March 16, 2025
Prof. Dr. Nathalie Behnke in an interview for the Neue Berliner Redaktionsgesellschaft
Recently published: Behnke (2025): “Resilientes Verwaltungshandeln im föderalen deutschen Rechtsstaat”
March 13, 2025
New article by Prof. Behnke as part of the conference proceedings for the Netzwerk Bessere Rechtsetzung und Bürokratieabbau
Resilience in Politics and Administration.
March 08, 2025
Annual Conference of the DVPW section ‘Policy Analysis and Public Administration' on March 20 and 21, 2025, at the TU Darmstadt
This year’s annual conference of the section ‘Policy Analysis and Public Administration’ of the German Society of Political Science (DVPW) is hosted by Prof. Dr. Nathalie Behnke at the TU Darmstadt. In eight panels, on March 20 and 21, the current state of German research on topics around resilience policies and administrative reform from local to European level is presented and discussed on March 20 and 21 in the Residential Palace.
Resources and Success of Local Government Associations in Germany
March 08, 2025
Presentation by Prof. Behnke at the ‘Professors’ talk’ of the Deutschen Landkreistag, Tuesday, 26 February 2025 in Heidelberg
At this year’s ‚Professors‘ Talk’ of the Deutscher Landkreistag, Nathalie Behnke presented research results on the subject of resources and success of local government associations.
Humor ist … Prof. Behnke in a Talk on bureaucracy with one of the authors of ‚Die Anstalt‘, Dr. Dietrich Krauß
March 08, 2025
Event organized by the ‘Evangelische Akademie Frankfurt’ on Wednesday, 12 March 2025
In an After-Talk on the ZDF telecast ‚Die Anstalt‘, which will be broadcast on 11 March 2025, Nathalie Behnke discusses as invited guest with moderator Matthias Blöser and with the ‘Die Anstalt‘ Script Writer Dr. Friedrich Krauß on the issue of ‘Bureaucracy’. The event is organised by the Evangelische Akademie Frankfurt as a talk series under the heading of ‘Humor ist …’.
Recently Published: Nathalie Behnke (2025): “Resilienz-Ressourcen im Verwaltungshandeln”
February 01, 2025
New article by Prof. Behnke as part of the commemorative publication for Jörg Bogumil.
New research assistant in the working group: Moritz Stockmar
January 14, 2025
Moritz Stockmar took up a position as a research assistant at the department on 1 January 2025.
Exchange in the working group's secretariat
January 14, 2025
From January 19, 2025, Dorothee Harres returns as assistant to the working group’s secretariat.
recently published: Federalism and federal systems, by Nathalie Behnke and Arthur Benz
December 01, 2024
Vortrag im Rahmen der Comparative Politics & Public Policy Lecture Series an der Universität Bielefeld
November 06, 2024
Neuer Artikel: Urban sustainability commitment in Germany – attempts to nail a pudding to the wall.
November 06, 2024
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.