Integrating biodiversity: a longitudinal and cross-sectoral analysis of Swiss politics

Policy Sciences - The effective conservation and promotion of biodiversity requires its integration into a wide range of sectoral policies. For this to happen, the issue must receive attention...     

Unabhaengige Regulierungsinstanzen als parallele Institutionen ‐ Die Auseinandersetzung um die Entbuendelungsverpflichtung auf der letzten Meile in der Schweizer Telekommunikationspolitik

Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Auswirkungen der Einsetzung unabhängiger Regulierungsinstanzen auf den politischen Entscheidungsprozess. Im Lichte der Literatur über institutionelle Redundanz interpretiert der Artikel dabei unabhängige Regulierungsinstanzen als Parallelinstitutionen zum traditionellen Gesetzgebungsprozess. Wenn sowohl eine unabhängige Regulatorin als auch die Institutionen des klassischen Gesetzgebungsprozess in einem Politikbereich entscheiden können, können Reformkreise einen der beiden Instanzenwege frei wählen und haben nach einer Niederlage noch einen zweite Chance in einem weiteren Verfahren. Die daraus entstehenden Interaktionen werden anhand des Konflikts um die letzte Meile in der Schweizer Telekommunikationspolitik mit einem einfachen spieltheoretischen Modell analysiert. Wie der Beitrag zeigt, bringt die Einführung paralleler Entscheidungsinstanzen Vorteile für Reformkreise, allerdings nur unter der Annahme, dass die beiden Instanzenwege unabhängig voneinander entscheiden. Andernfalls spielt die Reihenfolge der Anrufung einzelner Instanzen eine zentrale Rolle. Dabei haben jedoch wiederum die Reformkräfte einen Startvorteil: Sie können die Reihenfolge der anzurufenden Instanzenwege wählen und so die für sie erfolgsversprechendste Kombination wählen. Weiter zeigt der Beitrag auf der empirischen Ebene, dass die Kombination vieler paralleler Entscheidungsverfahren mit starken Vetopunkten innerhalb dieser Instanzenwege die Unsicherheit über den Verfahrensausgang über lange Zeit andauern lassen kann.     

Power and Conflict in the Swiss Political Elite: An Aggregation of Existing Network Analyses

Since Kriesi's (1980) pioneering work no study has attempted to provide an overall picture of power configuration among the Swiss political elite. To fill this gap we aggregate recent network analyses carried out in various policy domains. Based on meta-hypotheses regarding the likely effects of the contextual changes that have taken place during the last thirty years, we compare the structure of the Swiss political elite existing in the 1970s to that of the last decade with respect to reputational power, collaboration and conflict. Our results suggest that important transformations have indeed occurred. Thus, both political parties and some specific state bodies could increase their power, whereas most interest groups have lost some. While the internationalization of politics has overall had the expected effects with respect to the power structure and to conflict among political parties, it did not lead to the hypothesized, new conflict among interest groups.     

The Human Price of Reparations

Post-1918 Germany was gripped by severe foof shortages that devastated the health of urban children in particular. German politicans and officials became increasingly convinced that a state of near famine and the accompanying scourges of social and political disorder could not be adequately addressed given the demands placed on public finances and the wider economy by the reparations regime. While the British reacted by counselling a moderation of the reparations regime, the French accused Germany of instrumentalizing domestic crisis to undermine reparations and thereby compromise the Versailles Settlement. French sanctions culminated in an invasion of the Ruhr District in January 1923, which served to create a devastating famine in the region and to intensify popular antipathy in Germany to the reparations regime. The article concludes by considering briefly links between the perceived perfidy of reparations and the subsequent resonance of Nazi ideology and policy.     

Leveraging Administrative Data to Better Serve Children and Families

The challenge of complex social issues drives the need for data systems that can connect information across multiple service delivery systems. Integrated data systems provide significant value for needs assessment, program planning, policy decision making, and collective impact evaluation across a range of social issues. This case study describes a mature county‐based integrated data system. The case study has three aims: (1) to highlight the value of integrated data systems to research, (2) to outline common challenges that such initiatives face, and (3) to present several ongoing considerations for the field that could inform policy recommendations to facilitate the use of integrated data. The authors present examples from the experience of developing this integrated data system, including involvement in the design and evaluation of the first county‐level social impact bond. The case study highlights the benefits and limitations of integrated data use in research and the potential to advance evidence‐based social decision making.     

‘Let's Talk Cash’: Cantons' Interests and the Reform of Swiss Federalism

In 2004 the Swiss people accepted a new equalization scheme and a new distribution of competences between the federal state and the cantons. It was argued that the reform was successful because of the capacity of veto-players to overcome their interests and adopt a ‘problem-solving’ interaction mode. We propose a different interpretation and argue that distributive issues and the accommodation of actors' interests crucially mattered. We identify three mechanisms that contribute to a successful reform, i.e. package-deals, side-payments and the downsizing of the reform. Our in-depth, mainly qualitative study of both the content of the reform and related decision-making process supports the pertinence of these strategies for the explanation of the successful reform of Swiss federalism.     

Price and income convergence and the dynamic Penn effect in Central and Eastern Europe

Economic Change and Restructuring - The dynamic Penn effect denotes a close relationship between relative income and price levels over time. This paper examines whether the effect is present in the...