Erzählungen des Kindes‐ und Erwachsenenschutzes: Eine Anwendung und Erweiterung des Narrative Policy Frameworks

The Child and Adult Protection Authorities (KESB) have been the subject of controversial discussion since their establishment in 2013. The reform of the Guardianship Law provided for an institutional shift away from local guardianship authorities to regional specialist authorities. This article uses the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) to examine the history of today’s controversy, simultaneously proposing an analytic strengthening of said framework. Previous NPF studies summarize policy actors into opponents and proponents. As a result, we do not know whether different actors use different narratives. We therefore separate the expert from the MP discourse. The analysis shows that the experts' arguments for a new institutional arrangement and a person‐oriented narrative dominated, which put the fundamental rights of the persons affected by guardianship measures up front. The study contributes to the understanding of the current controversy, in which a person‐oriented narrative seems to be dominant again, directed against the new authorities.     

EU referendums in context: What can we learn from the Swiss case?

The rising number of referendums on EU matters, such as the Brexit and the Catalonian independence votes, highlight the increasing importance of referendums as a problem‐solving mechanism in the EU. We argue that the Swiss case provides essential insights into understanding the dynamics behind referendums, which are often lacking when referendums are called for in the EU. Referendums in EU member states on EU matters differ substantially from those in the Swiss context. Nevertheless, proponents of more direct democratic decision‐making regularly cite the Swiss example. Our systematic analysis of why referendums are called, how they unfold and their effects in the EU and Switzerland reveals that the EU polity lacks the crucial conditions that embed direct democracy within the wider political and institutional system. The comparative perspective offers fundamental insights into the preconditions required for direct democracy to function and its limitations in the EU.     

Senkt New Public Management die Verwaltungsausgaben in den Schweizer Kantonen? Eine empirische Analyse über zwei Dekaden

In light of the growing public spending in many regions of the world, this study scrutinizes relevant determinants of core public administration expenditure at the cantonal level in Switzerland, focusing particularly on New Public Management (NPM) reforms. The empirical study comprises all 26 cantons in the period from 1993 through 2014 and uses both cross‐sectional and longitudinal analytical methods. In addition to NPM, we control for various variables related to political parties, institutions, socioeconomics and culture. The results show no clear relationship between NPM reforms and expenditure, although such reforms were often intended to cut costs. Our explanation for this finding is that NPM as a concept is rather inconsistent. Various control variables are either positively or negatively related with expenditure. All in all, our findings suggest that public expenditure is still mostly determined by politics and can only be influenced by administrative reforms within certain narrow limits.     

Weber, Wilson, and Hegel: Theories of Modern Bureaucracy

Convergence between Woodrow Wilson's and Max Weber's thought, as well as their differences with regard to the politics–administration dichotomy, can be ascribed to the Hegelian tradition of public administrative theory. On the one hand, Wilson was strongly influenced by Georg W. F. Hegel. On the other hand, there is an empirical connection between Hegel and Weber. Both shared a consciousness of the German bureaucratic tradition based on Hegel's Philosophy of Right . These insights have important methodological and theoretical implications for the contemporary comparative study of public administration.     

Effect of hair care and hair cosmetics on the concentrations of fatty acid ethyl esters in hair as markers of chronically elevated alcohol consumption

Fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) can be used as alcohol markers in hair. It was investigated in this study whether this diagnostic method is disturbed by hair care and hair cosmetics. Traces of ethyl myristate, ethyl palmitate, ethyl oleate and ethyl stearate were detected in all of 49 frequently applied hair care products by headspace solid phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The highest concentration was 0.003% in a hair wax. From experiments with separated hair samples of alcoholics as well as from the evaluation of the FAEE concentrations and the data about hair care of 75 volunteers (alcoholics, social drinkers and teetotalers) follows that usual shampooing, permanent wave, dyeing, bleaching or shading are of minor importance as compared to the drinking amount and other individual features. However, false positive results were found after daily treatment with a hair lotion containing 62.5% ethanol, with a deodorant and with a hair spray. As an explanation, it is assumed that FAEE are formed in the sebum glands also after regular topical application of products with a higher ethanol content.     

Die Koordination von Raumplanung und Verkehrspolitik in urbanen Räumen der Schweiz: Determinanten der politischen Geographie,der politischen Kultur oder der institutionellen Struktur?

Der Beitrag befasst sich mit den exogenen Bestimmungsfaktoren der Koordination raumwirksamer Politiken anhand der vier Agglomerationen von Basel, Bern, Lausanne und Genf. Ein Vergleich von entsprechenden Outcomes zeigt markante Unterschiede zwischen den vier Städten. Nach einer kurzen Kritik der Binnenorientierung gängiger Governance-Ansätze werden die drei exogenen Erklärungsansätze der politischen Geographie, des Institutionalismus und der politischen Kultur in vier Thesen beschrieben. Deren Exploration weist die Wichtigkeit von Kontextvariablen bei der Untersuchung von Ressourcen-Regimen aus. So ist eine Abhängigkeit der inhaltlichen Koordination von soziokulturellen, geographischen und historischen Faktoren auszumachen. Dagegen ist der Zusammenhang mit der Einschätzung der institutionalisierten Koordination nicht eindeutig, was die Vermutung nahelegt, dass im Falle der prozeduralen Koordination die endogenen Faktoren stärkere Erklärungskraft besitzen und die Regime Analysis mithin das geeignetere Mittel zu ihrer Untersuchung darstellt.     

Pfadabhängigkeit in der Mehrebenensteuerung: Das Beispiel Palliative Care

Wir argumentieren, dass das Pfadabhängigkeitskonzept des historischen Institutionalismus ein geeigneter Ansatz zur Integration des Top‐down‐ und des Bottom‐up‐Ansatzes der Mehrebenenvollzugsforschung darstellt. Unser Testfall ist die Umsetzung der Nationalen Strategie Palliative Care in den Kantonen. Mittels deskriptiver quantitativer Nachzeichnung und dreier Fallstudien wird die Pfadabhängigkeitshypothese untersucht, dass sich die Palliativversorgung in den Kantonen entlang von Pfaden entwickelt, die durch spezialisierte stationäre Einrichtungen vorgegeben werden, und dass es dem Bund kaum gelingt, diese anhand der Nationalen Strategie Palliative Care zu durchbrechen. Die Empirie bestätigt die Annahme des historischen Institutionalismus, dass positive Rückkopplungen zu Pfadabhängigkeiten führen und dadurch eine Anpassung der Institutionen an die sich wandelnde Umwelt erschwert wird, wobei sich in den Fallstudien unterschiedliche Formen positiver Rückkoppelung mit unterschiedlichen Wirkmechanismen äussern. Spezialisierte stationäre Einrichtungen können als jene Institutionen gewertet werden, die die Entwicklungspfade der Palliative Care und somit das Versorgungsarrangement in den Kantonen prägen. In Bezug auf den Einfluss des Bundes hingegen lässt sich kein allgemeingültiges Fazit ziehen. Vielmehr zeigen die Fallstudien die unterschiedliche Bedeutung kantonaler Pfade, die durch die drei Formen positiver Rückkoppelung theoretisiert werden können.