In March, Professor Nicolai Dose and Laurin Friedrich launched the interdisciplinary research project "Diversity in Local Government – Empirical Inventory and Analysis of the Influence of Diversity on State-Citizen Interaction." It is being carried out in cooperation with researchers from Ruhr University Bochum (Chair of Public Administration, Urban and Regional Policy) and TU Dortmund University (Catholic Theology with a focus on religious didactics).

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The research project, funded by the Hans Böckler Foundation, has set itself two central objectives. Firstly, the diversity of local authorities in Germany will be empirically analysed from an intersectional perspective. Secondly, the influence of the diversity identified on the interaction between administrative staff and citizens will be analysed. This should provide important new insights into the representation of social diversity in public administration. Although this is considered central for the efficiency and legitimacy of administrative action in international administrative science, little is known about the composition of administrative staff and the intersectional effect of bureaucratic representation in German municipalities.

The project will run for two years. Further information can be found on >the website of the Hans Böckler Foundation (in German).

The public hearing of the Legal Affairs Committee focussed on better legislation and reducing bureaucracy. The experts were heard on 21 February 2024 on a special report by the Federal Government and a motion by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.

Professor Dose's detailed written statement can be briefly summarised in 7 points:

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1. Reducing bureaucracy must not be the end of politics. Policy-making and problem-solving must remain possible.
2. The compliance costs of critical legislative proposals must be set against a draft law's expected social and economic benefits. However, this must not be a pretext for losing sight of minimising compliance costs.
3. Legislative objectives should be pursued as far as possible with the instrument which, ceteris paribus, promises to achieve these objectives most cost-effectively. In addition, accuracy and administrative burden are critical criteria for selecting an instrument or bundle of instruments. It is also necessary to check whether the respective conditions for the success of using the various instruments are met. Finally, work on a draft law should begin with a systematic analysis of the initial problem.
4. All opportunities to substantially reduce compliance costs through the consistent digitalisation of public administration should be exploited. In this context, the implementation of digital checks can be helpful. The integration of territorially and sectorally separate administrative units should be considered.
5. Practical checks should be carried out with the federal states responsible for implementation in the case of complex projects before regulations come into force. This is because it is essential for complex projects to ensure the smoothest possible implementation and to prevent bureaucratic obstacles from arising in the first place.
6. The Centre for Legislation, which is currently being set up, is a promising innovation. There is a good chance of generating sustainable success. The centre should be set up as quickly as possible. The planned qualification measures for employees from other departments are forward-looking. The great importance of the Centre is derived from the approach of exerting an influence to improve quality at an early stage in the formulation of draft bills in the ministries.
7. It is recommended that the Centre for Legislation draws on the indispensable legislative knowledge impregnated in law. At the same time, it should be open to innovative impulses from the social sciences (policy design studies).

You can download Professor Dose's statement (in German) >here.

Fundamental theoretical considerations on the causes for the emergence of grand corruption and an empirical application, which Professor Nicolai Dose and Lilian Fiala presented in the venerable Max Weber House in Heidelberg, were well received by the international participants.

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The conference on "Politics, Organizations and Social Responsibility: Corruption Practices and Institutional Development", which was organised by Prof. Dr Markus Pohlmann and colleagues from the Max-Weber-Institute of Sociology at Heidelberg University, was characterised by a particularly fruitful set-up: There was plenty of space available for both the presentations and the subsequent discussion. This was utilised intensively by the participants.

The approach presented by Dose and Fiala attempted to avoid the previous errors and abbreviations of attempts at explanation by providing a clear analytical framework for the explanations presented. It is characterised by a parsimonious use of independent variables. As was made clear, the case of the involvement of the German Member of Parliament Philipp Amthor with Augustus Intelligence, which was used for the first test, could be explained very well with the analytical framework presented. Subsequent cases of corruption, such as the widely known Brazilian Operação Lava Jato, were also explained by the speakers themselves, in part by drawing on some of the independent variables of the analytical framework presented. The conference also proved to be particularly fruitful and forward-looking with a view to agreed further cooperation.

Matthias Reintjes, former doctoral student at the Chair of Political Science and Public Administration, was appointed Professor of Administrative Science at the Faculty of Communication and Environment at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences with effect from 1 July 2023. With a focus on administrative modernisation and e-government, he will be teaching in particular in the Administrative Informatics degree programme in the future. We congratulate him warmly.

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After studying political and administrative sciences at the University of Duisburg-Essen and the NRW School of Governance, he completed his doctorate under Prof Dr Nicolai Dose with a thesis on the civil service law reforms of the German Länder triggered by the Federalism Reform I. Before appointed he gained already extensive teaching experience, among others at the University of Duisburg-Essen as well as at the University of Police and Public Administration NRW. His subjects have been, in addition to general political science in the areas of digital transformation of public administration, administrative modernisation as well as local policy and local administration. Following his doctorate, he worked in the field of scientific policy consulting at the Rhine Ruhr Institute for Social Research and Political Consultancy (RISP) and as an auditor and consultant for the Municipal Auditing Institute NRW (gpaNRW). 

In his future research, he wants to analyse the digital transformation of state and society. The digitisation of public administration, democracy and state-citizen interactions (e-participation/open government) will play a central role.

Professor Nicolai Dose and Laurin Friedrich were represented with a total of three different papers at the biennial International Conference on Public Policy, which took place this year in the Canadian metropolis of Toronto. One joint paper dealt with social resistance to policies in the tradition of Theodore J. Lowi.

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Laurin Friedrich, in a correspondingly specialised panel on street-level bureaucracy, explored in his contribution the question of how public servants who have frequent personal contact with citizens respond to the current trends of political polarization. In another panel, Nicolai Dose presented in a paper the results of a nationwide survey at German district courts on the implementation of e-file systems. The paper, written from the theoretical perspective of the Technology Assessment Model, is based on a study written together with Leon A. Lieblang. The experienced response to the contributions presented was pleasingly positive. Nevertheless, important suggestions were taken away from the intensive discussions and targeted comments. It became apparent how important it is to go into the panels with papers that are already very well worked through and complete as well as to face international criticism. Other panels attended were also able to provide important impulses for further work.

Sophie-Anastasia Kauffeld has received the award of the Better Regulation and Bureaucracy Reduction Network 2022 for her Master's thesis. We warmly congratulate her on this wonderful success! The Master's thesis on the topic "Problem-oriented state control of post-mortal organ donation - A systematic analysis of the Act to Strengthen the Willingness to Decide on Organ Donation", which was graded with 1.0, is in the tradition of legislative impact assessment.

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Ms Kauffeld is a graduate of the Master's programme "Political Management, Public Policy and Public Administration" and was a Master's student at the Chair of Political Science and Administrative Science.

As was emphasised in the laudation at the award ceremony, Ms Kauffeld's work makes a special contribution to research. She has convincingly succeeded in conceptually expanding the approach of problem-oriented state control by aspects of policy transfer and lesson drawing. A pronounced practical relevance results from the high problem pressure that arises from a shortage of transplantable organs. It presents both medicine and politics with almost insoluble problems. Reducing it is the goal of the analysed law on strengthening the willingness to decide on organ donation.

According to the laudatory speech, Ms Kauffeld was able to convincingly explain why the law does not promise to bring about the desired success. Skilfully and analytically strong, she succeeded in deriving measures from her study that allow a higher success to be expected than those provided for in the law on strengthening the willingness to decide on organ donation.

"A fresh pair of eyes” is the title of a new publication addressing how talent exchange programs’ contributions help public services cope with current challenges. Increasingly severe staff shortages and growing demands on public services require a new way of thinking to improve efficiency as well as the attractiveness of employers within that sector.

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The political will to meet these challenges is evident in the current coalition agreement, as is the multitude of potential initiatives. Talent exchange programs between public administration and the private sector are being considered as possible building blocks for administrative transformation: as such they are the focus of the publication presented here.

This report addresses the questions of: What is the experience with such programs so far? What is the added value and what are the obstacles? What are the conditions that allow these initiatives to effectively support administrative transformation in the future? The study examines these questions and provides an explorative analysis of the experience with talent exchange programs within Germany and internationally, based on 33 expert interviews.

It is clear that both sides can benefit. When it comes to public administration, this study shows that talent exchange programs can have a direct, positive effect in helping achieve the goals for administrative modernization as formulated in the coalition agreement. The programs enable the transfer of methods, expertise and technical knowledge; help drive cultural change in the administration; promote the formation of networks; and increase mutual understanding. Finally, talent exchange programs enhance the career development of employees and increase the attractiveness of employers.

Authored by Prof. Dr Nicolai Dose, Managing Director of RISP, together with Dr Nils Beier, Sophie Evers, Dr Carolin Höhlein-Wortmann and Marvin Herter of Accenture, the study was published on regierungsforschung.de, the website of the NRW School of Governance.

The study (in German) can be accessed here.

Congratulations to our team member Laurin Friedrich for winning the Best Paper Award for the paper "Exploring the Communicative Features of Public Service Encounters: How Administrative Language Affects Citizen Perceptions" at this year's conference of the International Research Society for Public Management (IRSPM) from 19 to 22 April 2022.

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Together with his co-author Steffen Eckhard, Professor of Public Administration and Public Policy at Zeppelin University Friedrichshafen, Laurin Friedrich was awarded the Christopher Pollitt Prize for the best conference paper. The paper uses a multi-method approach to investigate the influence of verbal administrative communication on citizens' perceptions of contacts with public authorities.

Based on explorative interviews, the authors first develop a theoretical concept for systematising and measuring spoken administrative language. In a second step, this concept is empirically tested using an audiovisual vignette experiment. The results show that administrative staff exert a decisive influence on citizen satisfaction with public services through their communication behaviour. The award committee based its decision on the innovativeness and originality of the contribution and emphasised that the authors contribute important new findings to the current state of research in administrative science, which are also highly relevant for administrative practice.

Professor Dose spoke at an expert hearing on 14 Oct. 2020 in the plenary chamber of the Saxon Parliament on the contents of the Third Act Amending the Saxon Regulatory Control Council Act. He emphasized the successful work of the Saxon Standards Control Council and pleaded for the Council to be located at the State Chancellery in order to give it as much weight as possible.

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Furthermore, he supported the retention of the right to review legal ordinances. However, he did not want this to be limited to ordinances dealt with by the state government. In the sense of a bureaucracy brake with a "one in, one out" rule, all statutory instruments should be included in the right of review. In his view, the same applies to the repeal of regulations in order to keep an overview of the development of bureaucratic burdens. The creation of a right of initiative for the inclusion of existing regulations was also supported, because existing regulations in particular could result in a considerable compliance cost. Finally, Professor Dose suggested systematically using the compliance cost as well as other criteria such as cost efficiency or the predicted effectiveness of a measure for the comparative evaluation of different legislative variants.

The electronic court file (e-file) in the justice system is becoming increasingly important. In Germany by 2026, court files must be kept digitally. Against this background it is all the more surprising that so far little is known about the attitudes and experiences of (future) users.

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A study that has now been published (in German) changes this: Together with the cooperation partner Materna Information & Communications SE and supported by the German Association of Judges, Prof. Dr. Nicolai Dose and Leon A. Lieblang conducted a survey in all German federal states. Judges and service staff at district courts were surveyed. They work both at courts where the e-file has not yet been introduced and at courts where the e-file is already being tested. More than 650 people took part in the survey.

The extensive results point in different directions. Users are convinced of the future of the e-file and rate the benefits as high. Their interest in the e-file is pronounced. The expected fears of non-users are less pronounced in practice.

However, non-users are more sceptical than users, not all their expectations are fulfilled, and the e-file leads to new processes in cooperation. The study shows in recommendations for action how a successful introduction can nevertheless be supported.

The study can be downloaded here.

"Planning and Governance in the Context of Socio-environmental Challenges" was the title of the first digital Brazilian-German workshop, which took place on 24 and 25 June 2020. It was organized by the Chair of Political and Administrative Science as part of a joint project funded by the DAAD and the Brazilian funding organization FAPESP.

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Scientists from five universities on three continents took part in the project. In addition to the team of the Chair, which was represented with three lectures, speakers included Professors Vanessa Elias de Oliveira and Klaus Frey from the Federal University of the Region ABC, São Paulo, Professor Petro Roberto Jacobi from the University of São Paulo, Professor Karsten Zimmermann from the TU Dortmund University and Dr Pedro Henrique Campello Torres from the University of California, Santa Barbara. In a total of twelve lectures and intensive discussions, questions of climate change in federal states as well as the autonomy of environmental policy making and problems of implementing immission control law were addressed. Other topics were coordination in networks and the special challenges of planning in turbulent environments.

All in all, a positive conclusion could be drawn despite the corona-related limitations. On the one hand, the spatial separation hindered a more intensive exchange, on the other hand, the circle of participants* could be enlarged digitally slightly beyond the circle of those for whom travel means are available. The workshop was the starting point for further bilaterally organised joint work; it will be continued with a follow-up workshop at the end of October 2020.

The whole team of the chair congratulates our team member Dr Daniela Strüngmann on the Rector's award for the best dissertation in 2020. The thesis with the title "Acceptance of Public Administration by the Citizens" is about the systematic analysis of the explanatory factors of attitude and behaviour of citizens towards public administration.

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The most important result of her methodologically and content-wise groundbreaking work is that the evaluation of the administration must not be reduced to its negative image. It also becomes clear that attitudes towards the administration can influence election decisions and political attitudes. This result underlines the fact that administrations need, among other things, the necessary equipment in order to have a positive effect on society. Stressed and under-resourced public administration employees have a hard time contributing to the acceptance of administration.

With the federalism reform of 2006, the German Länder gained legislative power for their civil servants. This did not only lead to a substantial difference of pay levels but also to fragmented and differently attractive civil service regulation.

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In the following, requests to move to another state are faced by differing problems in the different areas of the civil service. They are partly caused by the fragmented regulation and partly by an informal agreement between the Länder. By making use of an online survey among human resource managers in the different areas of public administration and 32 case studies of intended and implemented changes of civil servants to another state, motivations for and hindrances to moving to another state are systematically captured and analysed. Both obstructive and conducive factors explaining mobility could be disclosed. Moreover, the authors put forward some reform proposals.

We are pleased that Professor Vanessa Elias de Oliveira of the Federal University of the Region ABC, São Paulo, Brazil, together with the team of the Chair of Political Science and Administrative Sciences, is conducting research on variants of vertical federalism.

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Professor de Oliveira is a visiting researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in the first quarter of 2020. Her research areas encompass federalism including the intergovernmental relations of sub-national entities, the impact of jurisprudence on public policies, and the role of public administration in the implementation of public policies.

The joint research is dedicated specifically to Brazilian and German federalism. Although both systems are generally considered to belong to the same category of a federal political system, there are clear differences in the broader institutional setting. The common goal is to identify these differences and their effects on the respective political process and the problem-solving capacity.

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An analysis of the explanatory factors of attitude and behaviour by Daniela Strüngmann

In her recently published volume, Daniela Strüngmann develops an integrative legitimacy model with which she explains the acceptance of public administration by citizens.

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Using a multi-method approach, she derives a typology of acceptance types from empirical research and examines influencing factors such as contacts with authorities, attitudes in the social environment or media reports and their interaction. It becomes apparent that the evaluation of the administration cannot be reduced to its negative image. Moreover, it becomes clear that attitudes towards administration can also influence election decisions and political attitudes.

The book (in German) can be hier ordered here.

On 15 June, Dr Höhlein was honoured with the University Award 2018 for the best dissertation in the field of social sciences at the Dies Academicus in the best weather and with live music.

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Her thesis deals with the use of antibiotics in fattening livestock and the associated problem of resistance development. In 2011, Germany implemented a minimisation concept to solve the problem, which is based on the experiences of the Netherlands and Denmark, as these countries have been particularly successful in curbing antibiotic use. In 2007, for example, the Netherlands was still the country with the highest rates of antibiotic use in veterinary medicine across Europe," explains Höhlein. Denmark, on the other hand, was the first European country to develop measures that led to low use rates in farm animals as early as 20 years ago.

Dr Höhlein systematically compared the measures of the three countries and conducted more than 30 interviews for her study with veterinarians, representatives of pharmaceutical companies, political actors and representatives at ministerial level in the countries in question.

In fact, the amount of antibiotics dispensed in Germany fell by 56.5 percent to 742 tonnes from 2011 to 2016. The minimisation concept is successful, but it also has weak points: Recording is costly. Livestock farmers are under pressure to demonstrate improvements. "There is a danger that treatment will be shortened or not carried out at all - to the detriment of the animals and the development of further resistances", Höhlein fears. Moreover, there is no guarantee that all the information is correct. It is clear that animal health aspects must be taken into account more strongly than before in the development of further policies.

The excellent work of the graduate, who now works for an international strategy consultancy, has been published under the title "Staatliche Steuerung des veterinärmedizinischen Antibiotikaeinsatzes" by Springer VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.