Research News

The Allocation of Tasks in the Organizations of German Federal State Ministries: A Case Study of Immigration and Integration Policy

Daniel Schamburek

This work is based on Daniel Schamburek's doctoral thesis. Using immigration and integration policy between 1990 and ca. 2015 as a case study, this book demonstrates that German regional (Länder) governments vary greatly in the way they allocate policy jurisdictions to ministers and in the way they are organized below the ministerial level. German federal states have significant competences not only in the implementation of federal immigration and integration legislation, but also in setting their own priorities. State minister presidents and the government parties may create new ministries in salient policy areas, or allocate specific jurisdictions to particular ministries and ministers. This work seeks to chart and explain cross-state and diachronic variations in these patterns. Empirically, the allocations of policy jurisdictions in the areas of immigration and integration policies can, for example, be located in ministries of social affairs; justice; the interior; or in specific ministries for integration. They can be attached to the head of government's office - or there may be no ministry with responsibility for immigration and integration at all. In the latter case, governments may appoint a commissioner for immigrant affairs. Responsibilities may be dispersed across a number of ministries or concentrated in a single one. Within departmental hierarchies, policy responsibilities may be located at a relatively high level of, say, a directorate or lower levels such groups or units. Not only do such organizational decisions affect policy co-ordination, they may affect the content of policy depending on the minister's main departmental responsibility (e.g., interior versus justice) and ideological orientation (e.g., conservative versus Green party). Based on a wealth of qualitative and quantitative evidence and a framework derived from actor-centred new institutionalism, Daniel Schamburek shows that such organizational decisions are patterned by the attention paid to the relevant policy areas in a particular state and at a particular point in time, the ideological orientations of the government parties and ministers and institutional factors. He concludes that organizational decisions of this type are strongly influenced by political rather than path-dependent or functional imperatives.

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Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies

Along with Shane Martin (University of Leicester) and Kaare W. Strøm (University of Southern California, San Diego), Thomas Saalfeld is one of the three editors of the new Oxford Handbook of Legislative Studies. This major new review of the state of the art of legislative studies will be published in the summer of 2014 by Oxford University Press. In the volume, 47 leading experts discuss major theoretical paradigms and methodological approaches to the study of legislatures. In addition, they deal with core themes such as representation and legislative careers, the internal organization of legislatures, the role of parties within legislatures and the role of legislatures in policy making and accountability. Last but not least, a number of contributions explore the emergence of parliaments in historical and contemporary contexts, including new democracies and transnational institutions.

For further information follow the link to the online catalogue of Oxford University Press 

New major research project on the representation of citizens of immigrant origin in Europe (PATHWAYS)

PATHWAYS is a comparative research project on the political representation of citizens of immigrant origin in seven European democracies. It is funded by the British ESRC, the Dutch NWO, the French ANR and the German DFG under the Open Research Area (ORA) scheme. The principal investigators are Dr. Manlio Cinalli (Sciences Po Paris), Dr. Laura Morales (University of Leicester), Professor Thomas Saalfeld (University of Bamberg) and Professor Jean Tillie (University of Amsterdam). The three-year project will start in May 2014 and is going to be coordinated from the University of Bamberg. Further information will follow soon on a specific project website.

For more information, please follow this link

Second ECPR Summer School on Parliaments in Lisbon, 2012

Following the success of the first ever ECPR Summer School on Parliaments at the University of Bamberg (August 2010), the Second ECPR Summer School in Lisbon will build on the experience of the first Summer School and will seek to provide a mechanism for young scholars of national, regional and/or trans-national parliaments to enhance their theoretical and analytical toolkit as well as receiving feedback on their particular research agenda. In addition the programme will provide an opportunity for participants to network with each other and with more senior, well established, legislative scholars. Directors are Dr. Ana Belchior (University of Lisbon), Dr. Shane Martin (Dublin City University) and Professor Thomas Saalfeld (University of Bamberg).

more Information under: www.parliaments2012.eu

Parliamentary Voting Behaviour in the German Bundestag

Parlamentarisches Abstimmungsverhalten im Deutschen Bundestag

This joint research project will be funded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation from 1 May 2012 until 30 April 2014. It will be directed by three principal investigators: Professor Stefanie Bailer (ETH Zurich) Professor Thomas Saalfeld (University of Bamberg) and Dr. Ulrich Sieberer (University of Konstanz). Researchers will include Dipl.-Pol. Henning Bergmann. A project summary in English will be published in due course.

Project Summary in German

Bestehende Studien zu Parteien und Fraktionen haben einen reichen Komplex an Theorien und empirischem Wissen zu parlamentarischem Verhalten  und der Rolle der Fraktionen in parlamentarischen Regierungssystemen errichtet. Dieser Fülle an fundierten Theorien stehen jedoch wenige und unzureichende empirische Befunde über das individuelle Verhalten der Parlamentarier gegenüber. Im Speziellen fehlen empirische Studien zur Erklärung von fraktionskonformem oder von der Fraktionslinie abweichendem Verhalten. Die Hauptursache dieser Forschungslücke zum Deutschen Bundestag lässt sich in erster Linie durch das Fehlen einer umfassenden Datensammlung zu parlamentarischem Verhalten erklären. Namentliche Abstimmungen im Bundestag sind zwar verfügbar, jedoch fehlt eine tiefgreifende Analyse von parlamentarischem Verhalten, die auf einem Datensatz basiert, der  Abstimmungsdaten mit Kontextfaktoren und Abgeordnetenmerkmalen verknüpft. Die Schaffung einer solchen relationalen Datenbank über den gesamten Zeitraum des Bundestags (1949-2013) soll der bestehenden Forschungslücke Abhilfe leisten, indem sie Erklärung zu Abstimmungsverhalten durch individuelle, fraktionsspezifische und kontextspezifische Faktoren ermöglicht und auch künftiges Forschungsinteresse am Bundestag sichert.

In diesem Forschungsprojekt soll das Abstimmungsverhalten der Parlamentarier zunächst empirisch dokumentiert werden. Im Anschluss sollen Variationen im Abstimmungsverhalten erklärt werden, wobei sowohl individuelle als auch institutionelle Faktoren berücksichtigt werden. Auf der institutionellen Ebene verfolgt das Projekt vor allem die Klärung der Frage des Effekts des deutschen Mischwahlsystems auf das Verhalten des Parlamentariers. Theoretisch erwartete und kürzlich belegte Verhaltensunterschiede zwischen den Listen- und den Wahlkreisabgeordneten sollen für den gesamten Zeitraum sowie für verschiedene Kontextbedingungen, wie Regierungs- oder Oppositionsstatus der Fraktion, geklärt werden.  Auf der individuellen Ebene sollen die Effekte der persönlichen Merkmale der Parlamentarier, wie deren Stellung in der Fraktion, dessen weitere Karriereambitionen und Seniorität, untersucht werden. Die zentrale Innovationsleistung des Projekts besteht in der Verknüpfung dieser Analyseebenen, welche durch die Gesamterhebung der Abstimmungsdaten ermöglicht wird.