Die soziale Norm der Wahlbeteiligung

This article assesses the determinants of the subjective voting norm with the European Social Survey 2002/3 for 21 European democracies. The empirical procedure tests various combinations of four theoretical perspectives: (1) social integration, i.e., the extent and quality to which an individual is integrated into given social contexts, (2) social trust, i.e., the general willingness to cooperate with other individuals, (3) the support of the social system to which the norm belongs, and (4) the perception of the degree of compliance and the quality of a social norm in an individual’s context. The best explanation is offered by the model which combines social integration, the support of the social system and the perception of the degree of compliance and quality of the norm. We also examine additional causal paths of indicators of social integration through system support on the individual voting norm. The paper contributes to an improvement on existing literature through its more complex causal modelling and the placing of individual attitudes in context.     

Governance in der politischen Ökonomie — zum Stand der Debatte

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Die Qualität von demokratischen Regimen. Zur Erklärung der politischen Performanz in Italien und Indien durch Robert Putnam und Patrick Heller

Long-term processes of democratization have brought about a great number of states with democratic regimes. Therefore, political sociology has to focus in its research on the determinants of the quality of democracies. This article compares two theoretical perspectives: first, Robert Putnam’s attempt to explain the political performance in the Italian regions by the strength of their civil society and their social capital and secondly, Patrick Heller’s study about the Indian state of Kerala, which underlines much more the importance of the mobilization and organization of the lower classes and the functioning of the state apparatus. An empirical analysis of the determinants of the social development of the 15 largest Indian states and further studies in political sociology indicate a greater plausibility of Heller’s approach. Therefore, Putnam’s core concepts of social capital and civil society are reconstructed in a concluding theoretical discussion so that a connection to Heller’s theses and to other fields of research in the social sciences becomes possible.     

Zwischen nationaler Identität und Verfassungspatriotismus: Deutungsmuster der politischen Gemeinschaft in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1972–1989

Subject of this study are patterns of interpretation of the political community of the Federal Republic of Germany. This paper has to be seen as a contribution to the interpretative political culture research, whose attention does not apply to subjective attitudes but to intersubjectively recognized normative ideas of the political reality. The significance of “national”, “democratic”, “european” patterns of interpretation is examined in a quantitative-qualitative content analysis of selected debates on the political community of the Federal Republic of Germany. The analysis presents a universalistic value-commitment of the discourse of the West German community.     

Von der politischen zur sozialen Konstitutionalisierung Europas. Verfassungsgebung als Katalysator europäischer Vergesellschaftung?

The constitutionalization of the European Union represents a simultaneous and interacting process of polity building and constituency building. The EU’s social constituency is referred to as a particular constellation of public voice and resonance in the media in relation to European constitution making. This article compares constitutional claims-making in quality newspapers in France and Germany during the ratification period. It analyzes who raised their voices, what kinds of concerns and demands were put forward, which attitudes towards the EU were expressed and how particular visions of the EU were justified. A politicized and domestically focused French media sphere is contrasted with the German media that took the position of an attentive but passive observer of debates in other member states.     

Alternativen bei der Einführung von „Bologna“: Die Umstellung auf das BA/MA-System in der deutschen und der niederländischen Politikwissenschaft

The implementation of the Bologna Declaration differs considerably between participating countries. This is most true for the introduction of a two-tiered study system. The different speed of developments within the Netherlands and Germany is taken as the point of departure for a summary of some experiences with the introduction of the BA/MA-system within Dutch Political Science, in order to stimulate a broad-based discussion in Germany. The focus of the article lies on the alternative design options available, on the one hand, and concrete experiences with the implementation of these options at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, on the other     

Laudatio: Verleihung des Nachwuchsförderpreises 2002 der DVPW für die beste Dissertation an Timm Beichelt. Titel der Studie: „Demokratische Konsolidierung im post-sozialistischen Europa. Die Rolle der politischen Institutionen“ (Leske + Budrich 2001)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Partizipation in politischen Parteien. Eine empirische Analyse des Mobilisierungspotenzials politischer Parteien sowie der Struktur innerparteilicher Partizipation in Deutschland

Why do citizens become members of political parties? And why are some party members activists and others not? These guiding questions are analyzed within the context of the general incentives model proposed by Seyd and Whiteley. The basis of the empirical analyses is a survey of the German population as well as a survey of the German party members. It is shown that soft incentives can be sufficient for the decision to become a member of a political party while hard incentives are the main predictor of the decision to become active within a party. Since soft incentives had become less widespread these findings contribute to an explanation of the declining number of party members in Germany.     

Informelle transgouvernementale Koordinationsnetzwerke der Ministerialbürokratie der EU-Mitgliedstaaten bei einer Regierungskonferenz

We investigate the informal bilateral transgovernmental relations between equivalent ministries of EU member states during the preparation of the Intergovernmental Conference 1996. Starting point of this analysis is the hypothesis of a growing importance of transnational and transgovernmental relations as a cause and a result of European integration. Whereas these proclaimed tendencies have been extensively researched with regard to economic interdependencies and transnational relations of societal actors, networks of the administrative and bureaucratic elites have been rather neglected. Applying diverse concepts of network analysis, we identify the hitherto latent informal network structures of the governments. The overall configuration can be described as a mixture of a centre-periphery structure and cohesive blocks. The gradual center-periphery structure consists of a “triumvirate” of the powerful member states (Germany — France — Great Britain) and smaller states, and is characterized by a clear north-south dimension. The costs of informal coordination are mainly borne by the large member states as well as by “brokers” (Austria, BeNeLux, Finland, Sweden).     

Demokratisierung und Freiheitsstreben: Die Perspektive der Humanentwicklung

Much of the literature on democratic transitions presumes that mass attitudes are important for the consolidation of democracies but not for the process of democratization. We challenge this premise on the basis of human development theory. From the perspective of this theory, democratization is an emancipative achievement that should be fuelled by broader emancipative forces among the population. Using the Values Surveys we measure these emancipative forces by people’s liberty aspirations, showing that mass liberty aspirations have a causal effect on a society’s democratic development. No other factor, not GDP/capita and not social capital, can explain away the effect of liberty aspirations on democratization. We conclude that human development theory illuminates emancipative forces in democratization that have so far been neglected.     

Die Bekämpfung der Unsicherheit: Politikerkarrieren und Karrierepolitik in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Political Careers differ from other professional careers in several regards, but most significantly in the peculiar degree of insecurity they impose. This insecurity is due to the democratic accountability to voters, which includes the possibility of electoral defeat and deprofessionalization. Therefore a continuous career is rendered much more difficult than in other occupations. This calls for specific strategies of access to and staying in political positions, which may be subsumed under the rubric of “career politics”. This article deals with political careers in the Federal Republic of Germany and the elements of individual career politics that may be reconstructed from these careers. The analysis is based on a dataset comprising the political biographics of all 1948 German state legislators with the date being taken from the official legislative handbooks. The features that are most interesting here are the succession and the cumulation of different political offices. Four strategies of career politics can be distinguished: a local politics, a party politics, an interest group, and a fourth strategy, that proceeds via staff positions. In analyzing these strategies the article wants to contribute to a better understanding of the relationship between political careers and career politics.     

Was erklärt politische Patronage in den Ländern Westeuropas? Defizite des politischen Wettbewerbs oder historisch-formative Phasen der Massendemokratisierung

Every major paradigm in the social sciences since the 1950s has offered its own explanation for the varying incidence of party patronage and political clientelism in modern democracies. Today the two main contenders are (RC-based) positive political economy and historical institutionalism. Positive political economy emphasizes the crucial importance of effective political competition as a control device against the ever present temptation for politicians to use ‘improper political practices’ like patronage or clientelism. Historical institutionalism highlights the importance of formative moments in the history of democratic mass mobilization and party formation. The article argues that both approaches suffer from considerable weaknesses. The article proposes a modified historical-institutionalist explanation, which emphasizes the importance of state formation rather than party formation and which explains varying degrees and different forms of political patronage in Europe with different paths of modern state-building.     

Interministerielle Netzwerke: Formale und informelle Koordinationsstrukturen bei der Vorbereitung der deutschen Verhandlungspositionen zur Regierungskonferenz 1996

How do German ministries manage the preparation of national negotiation positions for EU intergovernmental conference? After a survey of the debate on organizational deficits of the interministerial coordination in Germany, we are consulting decision- and organization-theoretic approaches in IR. Drawing on organizational economics we concretise and supplement these older frameworks. We conceive the management of a governmental organization as a specific aggregation of heterogeneous preferences and information. Applying social network analysis we take into account formal as well as informal aspects of coordination channels. The objective of this article is to make visible the complex structures and processes that constitute foreign policy making, and to provide a preliminary assessment of its efficiency.     

Die Zentralisierung der Staatstätigkeit in einer Referendumsdemokratie: Evidenz aus der Schweiz

Previous theoretical and empirical research has shown that policymakers have incentives to centralize government activities in order to weaken the competitive pressure of fiscal federalism. We argue that referendums reduce the possibilities for collusion among representatives and the ability of higher level policy-makers to attract additional responsibilities. Empirical results from panel data for Swiss cantons between 1980 to 1998 support this hypothesis. The centralization of government activity, measured by budgetary outcomes, is significantly reduced by a fiscal referendum. This holds in the case of public revenue and its components, but also for public expenditure, in particular public education spending.     

Gegen alle Theorie? Die Konsolidierung der Demokratie in Ostmitteleuropa

Ohne Zusammenfassung