Foto Dose 2019

Chair for Political Sciences and Public Administration


Managing Director of the Rhine Ruhr Institute for Social Research and Policy Consulting e.V. (RISP)

Research

Research areas

  • Administrative science

  • Impact assessment

  • Governmental steering

  • Governance

  • Policy analysis

  • Political system of the Federal Republic of Germany, especially parties and federalism

  • Environmental policy

 

Current research project

Digitisation of the justice system

The obligation of the courts to massively digitise their work poses a major challenge for the judiciary. This applies in particular to electronic legal transactions and the associated introduction of an electronic file (E-File). This is a prerequisite for an efficient, effective, media-consistent and legally secure digital justice system.

The nationwide introduction of the electronic court file will change the work in German courts. Opportunities and challenges will arise in the process. However, increasing digitisation can only meet with acceptance among those involved if the changeover generates added value - for example, in terms of increased efficiency and reduced workload. Nevertheless, little research has been done into the views of (future) users: what concrete benefits are expected, what sources of information are used and what are the conditions for success for the successful introduction of the E-Filing system? These and other questions are part of the research project Change communication in the digitisation of the justice system.

The core of the project is an online-supported survey aimed at two groups of people: First, judges at pilot courts and judges at courts where the introduction of the E-File has not yet taken place are to be interviewed. Since service staff are also profoundly affected by the change, they too will be interviewed - also at pilot and other courts.

The aim of the study is to gain an overview of the experiences and expectations of employees in the justice system against the background of the introduction of the E-File. On the basis of the results of the survey, fields of action are to be identified and recommendations for action ae to be made after the evaluation and problem analysis. In this way, on the one hand, identified potentials can be promoted and development accelerated, and on the other hand, fears and obstacles can be addressed. The project is carried out in cooperation with Materna Information & Communications SE.

 

Completed research funded by third parties

The federalism reform and civil servants. Impacts of the latest reforms on German federalism.

Civil servants have been under specific pressure since the federalism reforms of 2006 and 2009 came into force. Federalism Reform I aimed to provide the German Länder with more autonomous scope and thus to allow for more federal diversity. Hence, several legislative competences were transferred exclusively to the Länder. These include the legislative competences for the civil service career law, civil servants’ pay, and pensions. In this respect, the Länder have widely made use of the new competences, leading to differing pay levels. Moreover, some Länder like Bavaria and the Länder of the northern region have modernized their civil service career law fundamentally and have established the conditions for a more frequent internal mobility. However, the diverging civil service career laws make it more difficult for civil servants to move from one Land to another: This is at least the presumption based on the literature review and initial analyses. The aim of the project is, inter alia, to test these hypotheses. Certainly, not only the civil service career laws are diverging, but also the level of civil servants’ pay goes through the same development. Considering career track A 9, the federal state Bavaria pays 13.9 per cent more than Berlin. Our hypothesis is that this is a direct consequence of the balanced budget amendment (the so-called ‘debt brake’), which was established by Federalism Reform II in 2009. The project seeks to test the hypothesis that salary is linked to the debt level in an empirical way. To strengthen our results, control variables like the governing party of a federal state will be considered as well.

An in-depth look at the diverging civil service career laws and civil servants’ pay in different Länder gives rise to additional questions. One such question is if the Länder are part of a more competitive federalism driven by the balanced budget amendment. This could ultimately force them into a competition over low salary payments, while the diverging career paths prevent internal mobility between the Länder and keep the civil servants within the Länder. Another hypothesis states that young civil servants will change into the Land that offers the best conditions for them. If this hypothesis is correct, only the Länder with low debt will be able to sufficiently raise the salary of their civil servants and hence to recruit staff with urgently needed qualifications. Then again, other Länder will lose touch. If these hypotheses are verified, regional disparities will increase dynamically. Our intention is to test the hypotheses with different methods of empirical social research (correlation analyses, online surveys, case studies, and ex ante plausibility checks).

The project was funded by the Hans-Böckler-Foundation between December 2014 and September 2016.

(Former) staff involved: Carolin Burmester, M.A. and Felix Wolfes, M.A.

Publications:

Dose, Nicolai/Reus, Iris, 2016: The effect of reformed legislative competences on Länder policy-making: determinants of fragmentation and uniformity, in: Regional & Federal Studies, Vol. 26, No. 5, 625-644.

Dose, Nicolai/Burmester, Carolin/Wolfes, Felix, 2016: Mobilitätschancen bei Föderalisierung, in: Der Personalrat, Heft 9/2016, 20-23.

Dose, Nicolai, 2016: Ökonomische Theorie des Föderalismus und die Föderalismusreformen. Die Bundesländer im Wettbewerb und die Beamten, in: Sommermann, Karl-Peter (Hrsg.), Öffentliche Angelegenheiten - interdisziplinär betrachtet. Forschungssymposium zu Ehren von Klaus König, Berlin, 27-48.

Dose, Nicolai/Wolfes, Felix, 2016: Die Höhe der Beamtenbesoldung in den Ländern. Der Versuch einer Erklärung: Parteiendifferenzhypothese oder Verschuldungsdruck?, in: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, Vol. 9, No. 4, 267-293.

Burmester, Carolin, 2015: Mobilität von Beamten der allgemeinen Verwaltung sowie von Lehrern und Polizisten. Vorschriftenanalyse zu den Auswirkungen der Föderalismusreform I, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Duisburger politik- und verwaltungswissenschaftliche Arbeitspapiere, Lehrstuhl für Politik- und Verwaltungswissenschaft, Nr. 2.

Dose, Nicolai, 2013: Modernisierung der staatlichen Ordnung auf dem Rücken der Beschäftigten?, in: Der Personalrat, Heft 12/2013, 490-493.

News:

"Föderalisiertes Beamtenrecht. Die gewollte Ungleichheit", dgb Beamtenmagazin vom 23.06.2016

 

Political steering of the financial crises

The world economy is facing an unprecedented crisis. In an early stage, the political agenda was dominated by offsetting the negative consequences of the crisis. Meanwhile, there are also further considerations. In the centre of attention are potential measures of political steering to prevent a repetition of such a crisis. However, most suggestions ignore political and institutional requirements necessary for the adoption and implementation of these measures. Direct consequences are proposals that are economically rational but nevertheless not realistic. Along with these comes a missed chance to influence institutional requirements in a way that will lead the proposals to success.

The project addresses all these problems. First, it analyses political and institutional conditions for successful measures regarding the regulation of financial markets. Second, it will be checked if missing institutional conditions can be established.

Within the project, the focus will be on two key areas – the European regulations of rating agencies and the efforts taken during the Basel-III negotiations to raise the equity ratio of banks.

The project concerning European regulation of rating agencies was financially supported by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung. Currently, the final report is under revision and will be published later. The Basel-III negotiations are part of a dissertation.

Former staff involved: Martin Ströder, M.A.

Publications:

Ströder, Martin, 2017: Finanzmarktentwicklung und  Finanzmarktregulierung im Schatten intensiven Wettbewerbs. Anhaltende Markt- und Steuerungsversagen durch Basel-III.
 
Dose, Nicolai/Buntrock, Oliver, 2010: Politische Steuerung der Finanzkrise. Das Beispiel der europäischen Regulierung von Ratingagenturen, Siegen.
 
 

Party member shrinkage of people’s parties

The ‘big’ people’s parties, namely SPD and CDU/CSU, are steadily losing members. Especially, the SPD as a former typical membership party has suffered a substantial loss of members for many years although lately a kind of turnaround can be observed due to the newly elected party leader Martin Schulz. However, the CDU and CSU also experience a decline in their number of members. With respect to small parties, the development is not very different, except for the Greens and the newly established AfD. Considering the dramatic loss of party members, which will be suffered especially by the traditional parties within the next decades due to an over-ageing of its membership basis, the pressure on these parties is substantial.

The research project is focused on the question of how the loss of party members can be explained. The relevant literature mentions factors such as demographic development, the erosion of social environments conducive to certain parties, political disenchantment that grows into party disenchantment, competition by social movements, and finally the reduced real possibilities of party members to participate in the party. The project aims to reveal the reasons for membership loss and to explain the relationships between them. Empirically, the project is based on systematic interviews of former SPD members and a survey of all SPD members of the Siegen-Wittgenstein region in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Former staff involved: Anne-Kathrin Fischer, B.A. 

Publications:

Dose, Nicolai/Fischer, Anne-Kathrin/Golla, Nathalie, 2016: Die Partei im regionalen Fokus. Mitgliederschwund, Alterungsprozesse und Mitgliederpartizipation bei der SPD – Ergebnisse zweier empirischer Studien, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden.

Dose, Nicolai, 2014: Innerparteiliche Demokratie: Der Mitgliederentscheid bei der SPD, in: Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Politik, 63. Jhrg., Heft 4, 519-527.

Dose, Nicolai, 2014: Innerparteiliche Demokratie und Mitgliederschwund – was tun?, in: Ursula Münch/Uwe Kranenpohl/Henrik Gast (Hrsg.), Parteien und Demokratie. Innerparteiliche Demokratie im Wandel, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden, 151-168.

Dose, Nicolai/Fischer, Anne-Kathrin, 2014: Dramatische Schrumpfungsprozesse der Parteien? Mitgliederverluste und die Konsequenzen, in: Eckhard Jesse/Roland Sturm (Hrsg.), Bilanz der Bundestagswahl 2013. Voraussetzungen, Ergebnisse, Folgen. Baden-Baden, 315-334.

Dose, Nicolai/Fischer, Anne-Kathrin, 2013: Mitgliederschwund und Überalterung der Parteien: Prognose der Mitgliederzahlen bis 2040, in: Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen, Heft 4/2013, 892-900.

Dose, Nicolai/Golla, Nathalie/Fischer, Anne-Kathrin, 2012: Mitgliederschwund bei der SPD. Entwicklungen und Erklärungen, Universität Duisburg-Essen, Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Lehrstuhl für Politikwissenschaft und Verwaltungswissenschaft.

Dose, Nicolai, 2012: Warum schrumpfen Mitgliederparteien?, in: Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Politik, 61. Jhrg., Heft 3, 293-302.

News:

"Warum so viele Menschen der SPD den Rücken kehren", WAZ vom 21.09.2016.

"Frust an der Basis – Was die Volksparteien falsch machen", WAZ vom 15.09.2016.

"Mehr Transparenz, mehr Mitwirkung: Forscher empfehlen der SPD Maßnahmen gegen den Mitgliederschwund" von Petra Kappe, Blog der Republik, Anstalt für andere Meinungen.

 

Joint project: PROKOM 4.0 – Competency management of skilled work in high-technology industries

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) generally form the basis of economic and social prosperity in modern Germany. However, due to large-scale technological changes, enterprises will need to adjust their work organization in the near future. Energy transition processes, demographic changes, as well as digitization and the German strategic initiative ‘Industry 4.0’ are merely some keywords that indicate the requirement of setting up new and complex standards of the work environment.

However, this cannot be done by applying a single standard to all. Company-specific concepts are needed that will allow the SMEs to meet those challenges in a timely manner. In this context, competency management has a key function: Enterprises will only tap their full innovation potential if their labour force adjusts to the growing requirements. This will also encompass stimulating work environments and concepts of modern competency development. In a broader context, competency management has to enhance innovation and competitiveness in Germany.

PROKOM 4.0 is a research project of various partners within the scope of the BMBF Research Programme: ‘Work Study – Development of Competencies-Innovation-Capabilities in a modern working environment’. It aims to test and develop concepts for the management of competencies in SMEs. This is being implemented with the close involvement of firms and companies. Thus, there will be a focus on new requirements of skilled work.

This joint research project involves four research institutions (University of Duisburg-Essen, University of Flensburg, Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau, and TAT Technik Arbeit Transfer GmbH), one provider of further education (Berufsfortbildungswerk of DGB), and two companies (celano GmbH, multiwatt® Energiesysteme GmbH). Several companies (especially SMEs) participate in the implementation process of this project. Most of these companies belong to the sectors of energy industry, IT, and automotive suppliers. Four regions will be in charge in terms of the realization process – the region of Flensburg, the region of Berlin-Brandenburg, the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region, and the region of Münsterland. The Rhine Ruhr Institute for Social Research and Policy Consulting e.V. (RISP), attached to the University of Duisburg-Essen, is in charge of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region and is coordinating the joint project.

Period: January 2015 until December 2017

Chairing: Project manager being the Chair of Political Science and Public Administration: Dr. Hans Uske