Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Communication in politics – Germany'

Diese Studie vergleicht die politische Kommunikation in Deutschland und Polen. Der Forschungsüberblick macht deutlich, dass international vergleichende Analysen, die etablierte Demokratien und Transformationsländer umfassen, relativ selten durchgeführt werden. Dabei gibt es keine Untersuchungen, die sich mit dem Vergleich der politischen Kommunikation zwischen Deutschland und Polen befassen. Mit der Untersuchung der beiden Länder wird die Dissertation die bestehende Forschungslücke schließen. Die politische Kommunikation wird in dieser Studie aus der Sicht von zwei unterschiedlichen Akteuren – Parteien und Journalisten – gezeigt. --- Kapitel 1: Es ist nicht mehr möglich, die moderne politische Kommunikation als Phänomen zu begreifen, das man auf singuläre nationale Räume beschränken könnte. Vielmehr lässt sich über nationalübergreifende Kommunikationsprozesse sprechen, die sich in den Metathemen Amerikanisierung, Globalisierung und Modernisierung wiederspiegeln. In diesem Zusammenhang ergibt sich die Frage, ob es sich um eine generalisierbare Entwicklung der politischen Kommunikation handelt. Ein Schwerpunkt des Interesses dieser Forschungsarbeit liegt deswegen bei der Frage nach den Gemeinsamkeiten und den Unterschieden in der politischen Kommunikation in beiden Ländern, die durch die Mediatisierungsprozesse beinflusst werden. Vor diesem Hindergrund stellt Kapitel 1 die wichtigsten Trends in der politischen Kommunikation dar. Im nächsten Schritt werden ausgewählte Indikatoren der Mediatisierung (u.a. Professionalisierung, Personalisierung, Negativität, Emotionalisierung), die dann im empirischen Teil getestet werden, erläutert. Gleichzeitig stellt Kapitel 1 eine Übersicht über international vergleichende Analysen, die sich der Untersuchung der politischen Kommunikation widmen, vor. Der Focus wird dann schließlich auf die Studien in Polen und Deutschland gelegt und die Relevanz der vorliegenden Analyse diskutiert. --- Kapitel 2: Die Dissertation zeigt in welchen politischen Rahmen die politische Kommunikation in Deutschland und Polen eingebettet ist. Deswegen wird im Kapitel 2 das politische System der analysierten Länder diskutiert. In diesem Zusammenhang werden drei Elemente des politischen Systems angesprochen: das Parteiensystem, das Wahlsystem und die politische Partizipation. Dadurch wird gezeigt, dass die politische Einbettung spürbare Auswirkungen hat, die den gesellschaftlichen, sozio-ökonomischen und historischen Kontext mitdefinieren. Dies lässt gleichzeitig Unterschiede zwischen einem Transformationsland (Polen) und einer etablierten Demokratie (Deutschland) aufzeigen und Gründe der wichtigsten politischen Tendenzen erklären. --- Kapitel 3: Ebenso wie die Strukturbedingungen des politischen Systems das Handeln politischer Akteure beeinflussen, so wirken die Rahmenbedingungen des Mediensystems auf das Handeln von Journalisten. Aus diesem Grunde wird im Kapitel 3 das Mediensystem in Deutschland und Polen thematisiert. Die Analyse basiert auf der Klassifikation von Hallin & Mancini (2004a). Dabei werden die von den Autoren vorgeschlagenen Indikatoren benutzt, um das Mediensystem in beiden Ländern einzuordnen. Dies ist besonders wichtig, weil die politische Kommunikation immer häufiger von medialer Umgebung abhängig ist. --- Kapitel 4: Die im Kapitel 1, 2 und 3 dargestellten Phänomene und Entwicklungen formen Kapitel 4, das Forschungshypothesen vorstellt. Die formultierten Hypothesen münden in zwei inhaltsanalytischen Untersuchungen, die die politische Kommunikation aus der Perspektive der politischen Parteien und Journalisten präsentieren. Es handelt sich dabei um zwei Fallstudien, die dann im Kapitel 6 und 7 getrennt examiniert werden. --- Kapitel 5: Im nächsten Schritt wird das Forschungsdesign und die Operationalisierung der Hypothesen erläutert. Da die Mediatisierungsprozesse besonders deutlich während der Wahlkampagnen zu ermitteln sind, wird die politische Kommunikation in Deutschland und Polen im Kontext von politischen Kampagnen dargestellt. Dies verspricht auch inhaltlich fokussiertes Material für die Untersuchung. Die erste Fallstudie untersucht die Wahlspots der Parteien und zeigt, inwiefern sich die Wahlwerbung in beiden Ländern unterscheidet. Die zweite Fallstudie bietet die Analyse der Medienberichterstattung, um festzustellen, wie die Journalisten in Deutschland und Polen die Wahlkampagnen darstellen. Die Kompläxität des Geflechtes der auf die politische Kommunikation Einfluss nehmenden Variablen macht den Einsatz komplexer Analyseverfahren erforderlich. Die Wahlspots und die Wahlkampfberichterstattung werden in der Dissertation mit der sozialwissenschaftlichen Methode der Inhaltsanalyse untersucht. Als Methode zur Erhebung sozialer Wirklichkeit ist die Inhaltsanalyse für die Untersuchung besonders geeignet. Ihre Vorteile werden in diesem Kapitel angesprochen. Darüber hinaus werden hier die Codebücher, die für die Analyse der Wahlwerbung und Medienberichterstattung vorbereitet wurden, dargestellt und die Codierungsvorgehensweise präsentiert. Schließlich werden die einzelnen Variablen besprochen und die Ergebnisse der durchgeführten Pretests geliefert. --- Kapitel 6: Im nächsten Schritt werden die Ergebnisse der empirischen Analyse der Wahlspots dargestellt. Die Studie zeigt, wie die politischen Parteien ihre Wahlspots gestalten und inwiefern die Wahlwerbung die Mediatisierungsprozesse wiederspiegelt. Im Kapitel 6 werden die Hypothesen, die im Kapitel 4 formuliert wurden, getestet. Dabei werden die Befunde im Kontext von solchen Aspekten wie u.a. Professionalisierung, Personalisierung, Negativität und Emotionalisierung dargestellt. --- Kapitel 7: Im Kapitel 7 wird die politische Kommunikation aus der Sicht der Journalisten examiniert. Die empirische Auswertung dient dazu, die im Kapitel 4 formulierten Hypothesen zu prüfen. Die Analyse vergleicht, inwiefern sich die Medien in beiden Ländern auf den Wahlkampf konzentieren und ob sie sich immer häufiger diesem Thema widmen. Darüber hinaus wird die Medienberichterstattung in den Prozessen der Mediatisierung dargestellt. Dabei wird u.a. Personalisierung und Negativität der Berichterstattung präsentiert. Es wird auch gezeigt, inwiefern die Medien ihre politische Präferenzen zeigen. --- Kapitel 8: Im letzten Kapitel werden die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung im Licht der Theorie und formulierten Hypothesen diskutiert. Dabei werden auch die Defizite der Studie und potenzielle Barrieren der vergleichenden Studien präsentiert. Kapitel 8 lenkt dann den Blick in die Zukunft und zeigt, welche Aspekte der politischen Kommunikation untersucht werden sollten. Solche internationalen Vergleiche, besonders wenn sie Transformationsländer und etablierte Demokratien umfassen, können dazu dienen, Gemeinsamkeiten in der Dreiecksbeziehung zwischen politischem System, Medien und Wählerschaft zu ermitteln, um so übergreifenden Entwicklungen auf die Spur zu kommen.

This thesis explores the implications of the Internet for democracy, re-evaluating the various claims and counter-claims that have been made for the Internet's democratic potential. Based on a framework to measure democracy that emphasises popular control and political equality, it assesses whether the Internet gives a greater and more representative share of the population the opportunity to participate in the political process by focusing on use of the Internet to contact political representatives. The analysis combines secondary analysis of population surveys with original data collected in two online surveys from more than 14,000 users of successful contact facilitation platforms in the UK (WriteToThem.com) and Germany (Abgeordnetenwatch.de) that enable sending messages to representatives. The results show that in both countries the Internet in general has only marginally increased the number of people engaged in contacting. At the same time, contact facilitation platforms as specific online applications have attracted large numbers of people who have never before contacted a representative. While all online means of contacting primarily amplify traditional participatory biases, such as for gender and education, they can at least selectively engage traditionally under-represented parts of the population, for example young people or low-income groups. The processes that shape these patterns are identified by developing a basic theory of contacting and using the similarities and differences between the findings for the two countries. It demonstrates not only that participation continues to be dominated by traditional determinants that cannot be completely overcome by technology, but also that Internet applications can shape participation patterns – if designed to appropriately adapt to the context in which they operate, which is rarely the case. This highlights the need to think carefully about how online platforms can be used, building on the – albeit limited – gains identified here, to strengthen them as a means of ensuring democratic participation.

During the past ten years, European politics experienced a rise of far right-wing parties because of intensified levels of insecurity among the public (Falasca & Grandien, 2017). These parties organize their political discourse around topics of nationalism and a strong opinion against immigration, the Euro and the European Union (Breeze, 2019; Häusler, 2018). One of these parties is the Alternative for Germany (AfD) which celebrated a major success in the federal elections in 2017 where it became the third largest party in the German Bundestag.   The present study aims to analyze the campaign posters of the AfD as one element of their strategic political communication for the 2017 election period in the context of the party’s growing popularity among German society. To accomplish that goal, the qualitative method of multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA) is applied. The MCDA analyzes written and visual content. The study seeks to identify the narratives implemented by the party and analyze them by drawing on the concept of nationalism. Furthermore, the analysis aims to identify the frames created around the main issues addressed in the party’s political agenda by discussing them in relation to the concepts of ontological security and existential anxiety by Giddens (1991) and the framing theory by Goffman (1974).   The study reveals that the AfD highlights in its political communication one main conflict: The German public versus the immigrants. The immigrants are framed as the threatening strange other whose cultural values, and religious beliefs contradict with those of the Germans who are depicted as the victims. This is achieved through the posters which seek to elicit fear and hatred towards the strange new to increase the insecurities perceived by the public. The party, on the contrary, represents itself as the savior of the German nation, its traditions, and values which they aim to maintain and protect from Muslim influence.

This thesis on the economic reconstruction of post-war West Germany traces the development of ideas about economic and socio-political publicity, and their gradual absorption by mainstream politicians, officials and the general public during the period of transition between 1945 and 1949. In those years, several German think tanks, political parties and individuals gave impulse to and then shaped the development of a viable socio-political and economic model between the extremes of laissez-faire capitalism and the collectivist planned economy.

La présente étude est consacrée au développement spécifique du secteur ouest-allemand de la communication d'État à l'étranger, dans le contexte des initiatives menées en France entre 1958 et 1969. L'élaboration d'une doctrine de l'information conforme à la doxa démocratique de la République fédérale d'Allemagne constitue le point de référence d'une analyse où affleurent les analogies avec la République de Weimar et les continuités dans le domaine du personnel et de l'appareil institutionnel. L'accession de la communication politique à l'étranger, domaine distinct de la diplomatie culturelle, au rang d'instrument indispensable de la politique extérieure est préalablement examinée à l'aune des efforts accomplis par le chancelier Konrad Adenauer pour conquérir une marge de manoeuvre internationale dans les premières années d'existence de la République fédérale ; l'ultimatum soviétique sur Berlin, en novembre 1958, est mis en évidence comme l'élément déclencheur de l'assentiment donné par le Parlement fédéral à la mise en oeuvre de mesures renforcées dans le domaine de l'information politique à l'étranger. La concurrence avec la RDA et l'importance de la distanciation avec la notion de propagande s'établissent comme deux critères d'analyse de l'action menée en France par la diplomatie ouest-allemande en coordination avec l'Office de presse et d'information du gouvernement fédéral. À rebours de la thèse de la « retenue », souvent utilisée pour désigner l'attitude officielle ouest-allemande à l'étranger, les procédés révèlent plutôt une action tenace, le plus souvent attentive à rester discrète, et dont les présupposés contredisent les tentatives de faire table rase du passé
This dissertation explores the specific way in which West German governments have developed strategies in international public relations and it discusses more particularly their implementation in France between 1958 and 1969. A cornerstone of this study is the creation by the Federal Republic of Germany of an official information doctrine that was intended to reflect the democratic orthodoxy of the newly created state. Its analysis not only reveals the many continuities between the Weimar Republic and post-war West Germany, but it also points out the permanence of political staff and institutional structures. The rise of international public relations as an essential tool in the country’s foreign policy is first examined in the light of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer’s efforts to make the FRG regain international leeway in its early first few years. Secondly, this study demonstrates that the Soviets’ Berlin ultimatum in November 1958 led the West German Parliament to agree with the reinforcement of the country’s international public relations policy. Competition with the German Democratic Republic as well as the West German governments’ need to stay well away from propaganda are the two criteria which inform the analysis of the action carried out in France by West German diplomatic services in cooperation with the Federal Press and Information Office. Whereas West Germany’s official attitude overseas has frequently been described as “non-assertive”, this dissertation contends that it should more justly be reassessed as a form of relentless, albeit it carefully discreet, action. The way it operated went against the official claim that West Germany was doing away with its past

Political structures and the evolution of late capitalism in liberal Western democracies lend a common frame to the development of national media systems. However, whereas media policy from the post-war period to the mid-1980s was largely driven by socio-political concerns and coextensive with policy for public service television, this model has been vehemently challenged. Key factors were the convergence of erstwhile-separated industries and infrastructures, as well as the ambitions of the corporate sector and governments alike, to benefit from the economic opportunities offered by the communications revolution. By assessing the changing relationship between the role of the state, economic structures and technological innovation, this research investigates these processes in the UK and Germany. Both countries have the two key public service systems but also feature striking differences such as the antithetic political systems and democratic processes (majoritarian vs. consensus democracy). The basic assumption suggests that a genuine understanding of contemporary developments is only possible if political/economic as well as historic/sociological perspectives are incorporated into the holistic approach applied. Thereby this study gives consideration to key processes and events which have determined transitions between communications policy paradigms and regulatory regimes. Given the Anglo-Saxon tradition of regulating, key processes and events in the UK are often indicated by the appointment and report of a committee of enquiry. For the purpose of this study the most crucial of these is the Committee on Financing the BBC (1986), which first applied market-driven politics onto British broadcasting, and whose recommendations still serve as a blueprint for current communications policy-making. In Germany the KtK Report (1974) formed the basis for decisive reforms in broadcasting and communications. Apart from that, however, Germany features the characteristic of administering state interventions in as detailed a manner as possible through legislation. Of central importance are, therefore, the rulings of the Federal Constitutional Court, which continuously set decisive parameters for the development of the broadcasting system. The thesis follows two driving themes which have been identified as crucial in terms of the comparative dimension and are elaborated continuously in more detail. First, the focus is on the interdependencies between public and private sector. Second, implications and responses of the central vis-à-vis federal characteristic of state formation are investigated. In doing so, the thesis draws on vast sources of archival documents as well as exclusive material from a series of elite interviews with a purposively-selected sample of very high-level sources, including Chairmen, Director-Generals, ministers, very senior civil servants and so on. The thesis demonstrates how communications policy-making is carried out in both countries and how these processes are determined by national regulatory frameworks which are rooted within the borders of the nation state. As such the research findings have broader implications for commercial and public sector regulation.

This thesis examines the industrial architecture of Imperial Germany in the context of the wider economic and political power struggles of the Wilhelmine era. Written against the backdrop of a lively and ongoing debate on the relative 'modernity' of the Kaiserreich, the main focus falls on two separate but related movements, which campaigned to improve the character of industrial architecture for political, commercial and environmental, as well as aesthetic reasons: the 'Bund Heimatschutz', founded in 1904, and the 'Werkbund' , established three years later. Both organisations developed in opposition to historicism in late 19th century architecture and design. The reformers, who included laymen as well as architects, sought an architecture more "worthy' of the German 'Bürgertum' than the hybrid historical styles, applied to buildings regardless of function or location, which had come to characterise the German 'Gründerzeit'. The 'Heimatschutz' movement lobbied successfully for the introduction of legislation to protect the landscape from the worst ravages of urbanisation and industrial development. The thesis suggests that the general view of 'Heimatschutz' activists, as 'cultural pessimists' opposed to modernisation in all its guises, is inaccurate, and highlights the more pragmatic strand of 'Heimatschutz' thought, which influenced the design of many industrial structures in the 1900s, particularly those erected by local authorities. The bulk of the thesis, however, concentrates on the 'Werkbund'; an organisation whose members proved remarkably successful at winning commissions from Germany industry in the years before 1918. Particular stress is placed on the role played in the organisation by the politician Friedrich Naumann and his followers. It is argued that the 'Werkbund's policy of promoting 'quality' in the German workplace was an integral part of Naumann's political reform programme. The thesis describes the adoption of the 'Werkbund's progressive architecture by a number of leading manufacturing firms, and seeks an explanation in the rivalries which divided German industry at the turn of the century. It concludes with a short study of architecture, industry and municipal politics in Delmenhorst, a small town in the throes of modernisation.

The most important aspect of my thesis lies in developing a new approach to Dthe public sphere in musicology. Using definitions of a public sphere developed by political and cultural historians, my workmg definition of the public sphere e is that of a specific historical development during the Enlightenment in which a conceptual space emerged between the state and private home where texts (including musical texts) were disseminated, discourse flourished, and institutions such as the public opera house were founded.

Thesis advisor: Devin Pendas
Thesis advisor: James Cronin
Political structures, ideology, and science interact to shape public health policy in a way that is complex and still poorly understood. The German experience in the 20th century creates a unique historical opportunity for studying this interplay. This study examines the development and variation of tuberculosis control measures under the Kaiser Reich, during the Weimar Republic, in the era of Nazism, and in the post-1945 occupation zones and subsequent German states. This dissertation examines major milestones in scientific understanding, medical practice, public health policy, legislation, and regulation related to tuberculosis control under successive German states and governments will help to clarify their interaction. In the course of this turbulent German century, profound changes occurred in the scientific understanding of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis had reached epidemic proportions in Germany in the wake of the industrial revolution, spurring considerable research into its origins, treatment, and the conditions of its spread. Robert Koch's 1882 discovery of the tuberculosis bacillus launched a period of progress in diagnosis and treatment that coincided with increased political interest in public health more generally. Only with the discovery of streptomycin in 1945 did medical science begin to develop the first effective drug therapies and struggled with questions of how to integrate these into existing treatment and prevention paradigms. Here, a comparison between the East and West German experience proves particularly helpful in exploring the importance of ideology, politics, medical knowledge, as well as institutional and professional interests. Ultimately, through the case study of tuberculosis treatment and control, this dissertation examines how the interaction between various German states' ideologies, their medical traditions, and their scientific knowledge shaped Germany's public health policies and practices
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: History

Privatisation has been a key policy in the late 20th century in many countries. In West Germany, the federal government sold most of its corporate industrial shareholdings to private investors between 1949 and 1989. Unlike many other countries, West Germany did not nationalise entire industries after the Second World War. Instead, the portfolio of public enterprises and participations was mainly an inheritance from the Third Reich. The aim of the thesis is to explore the causes of privatisation and the driving and delaying forces in the privatisation process between 1949 and 1989 based on qualitative historical documents. After the sale of participations stemming from the war economy in the early 1950s, the conservative federal government of CDU and CSU and later the conservative-liberal government of CDU, CSU and FDP under the Federal Chancellors Konrad Adenauer (CDU) and Ludwig Erhard (CDU) pursued a larger scale privatisation programme by issuing people's shares between 1959 and 1965. The programme featured social elements and aimed at the property formation of employees and a wide dispersion of shares in the society. In the 1970s, public enterprises expanded under a social-liberal government of SPD and FDP, until a conservative-liberal government of CDU, CSU and FDP under Federal Chancellor Kohl (CDU) sold most of the remaining federal participations in industrial enterprises between 1984 and 1989. The total volume of privatisation as measured by revenues remained modest compared to other West European countries and strong political resistance within the government parties CDU and CSU manifested in the process. Findings indicate a high continuity of thought and policy patterns from the 1950s until the end of the 1980s while the main reasons for privatisation shifted slightly. In the 1950s and 1960s, privatisation was primarily motivated by fiscal reasons - access to equity capital proved to be limited for the growing federal enterprises. Privatisation in the 1980s was caused by re-interpretations of the economic situation due to globally changing conditions and increased international competition. Hence, it can be interpreted as a lagged response to market crisis in the 1970s. Ideological shifts of paradigm did not drive privatisation. Rather, advocates of ordoliberalism focused on other economic reforms in the 1950s and liberal ideas in the 1980s co-developed with privatisation politics. For many decades, public enterprises were not viewed as ineffcient per se as long as they were operating in competitive markets. This perception only began to change slowly in the 1980s.

Britain and Germany are two countries that are internationally recognised for their energy efficiency policies in the area of domestic buildings. Although pursuing similar objectives, the two countries have quite different flagship policies: Germany put in place a large loan and grant scheme to finance residential energy efficiency measures in 2001, the CO2-Building Rehabilitation Programme. The UK was the first country in Europe that introduced Energy savings obligations in 1994. Since then the policy instruments in both countries experienced significant change. This thesis explores the politics of the changes that occurred, and investigates the policy processes that led to the modifications. Mainstream theories of policy change emphasise short-term crisis-like events when it comes to explaining why policies change significantly. However, more recent theoretical approaches suggest that gradual mechanisms, including accumulating external pressures and slowly developing consequences of the policies themselves, play an important role as well. In order to approach the two cases theoretically, this thesis draws on the concept of friction developed in Punctuated Equilibrium Theory and the policy feedback literature. This thesis investigates how long-term pressures, for example the perceived impact of climate change and rising energy prices, affected the evolution of the key home energy efficiency policies in Britain and Germany. Combined with assessing the impact of institutional changes and policy feedback, a comprehensive analysis of long-term policy change is carried out. A set of different methods is employed to undertake the investigation including qualitative and quantitative research methods such as semi-structured interviews with more than 25 experts followed by qualitative content analysis, complementary document analysis, and the review of data sets. The analysis provides a detailed historical case study of the key home energy efficiency policy instruments in Germany and the UK with a focus on the causal mechanisms of gradual pressures. Wider conclusions are drawn for the theories of policy change and how gradual pressures might be accounted for in those theories in a more meaningful way.

Thesis (Ph. D.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2008.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Government and Politics. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

West Germany's political culture has been intensively studied during the existence of the Federal Republic of Germany. However, most studies explore The West German Political Culture as a whole. They do not take into account that Germany is a country which consists of different regions with their own history and tradition. This paper is essentially an effort to rectify this situation by attempting to determine if there are any distinguishable political subcultures in Germany. The assumption is, that historical, phenomena are important in explaining the present political culture of West Germany. In order to determine whether the historical development of West German political culture led to different present political subcultures two approaches were used. First, a qualitative approach; that is a socio-historical library-based analysis, was used. From this analysis propositions for the present West German political subcultures were derived. They were tested with an empirical analysis of survey data from a 1975 sample of West Germans. Suggestions based on the socio-historical analysis accounting for differences in contemporary political culture only partly hold true in the empirical analysis. This paper is a preliminary examination of West German political subcultures offering suggestions and direction for future research.
Master of Arts

Der Aufsatz befasst sich mit der Frage, ob sich eine wachsende Politisierung der Ministerialbürokratie und eine zunehmende Bürokratisierung der Politik in einer Hybridisierung der Karriereverläufe von Spitzenbeamten und Exekutivpolitikern auf Bundes- und Landesebene in Deutschland nachweisen lässt.
Switches between political and administrative positions seem to be quite common in today’s politics, or at least not so unusual any longer. Nevertheless, up-to-date empirical studies on this issue are lacking. This paper investigates the presumption, that in recent years top bureaucrats have become more politicised, while at the same time more politicians stem from a bureaucratic background, by looking at the career paths of both. For this purpose, we present new empirical evidence on career patterns of top bureaucrats and executive politicians both at Federal and at Länder level. The data was collected from authorized biographies published at the websites of the Federal and Länder ministries for all Ministers, Parliamentary State Secretaries and Administrative State Secretaries who held office in June 2009.

Over the last two decades, social cohesion has become a widespread political concern. Governments across Western Europe consider how social cohesion may be at risk and propose political initiatives to safeguard cohesion. This objective is usually seen to require the active contribution of citizens who are called upon to evince responsibility for social unity. Cohesion agendas have been developed with the intention to instil this responsibility through measures of social activation. The proximity between cohesion and activation, however, has rarely been explored. While their mutual dependence tends to be considered as a given or a natural fact, this thesis seeks to show how the two orientations have been conjoined as a result of changing conceptualizations of society in political debate. In studies of such debates and of agenda-setting moments, the thesis examines the development of new concerns, concepts and political measures in France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Cohésion sociale was introduced in the context of ambiguous definitions of social exclusion that had emerged in French political discourse since the early 1980s. It was developed as a political objective that would respond to Jacques Chirac’s diagnosis of fracture sociale. Bürgergesellschaft in Germany was defined against the background of anxiety about collective immobility, social sclerosis and political apathy. In the early 2000s, it proved to be a vehicle for a turn towards activation in welfare state reform. In Britain, community cohesion was introduced in response to a spate of unrest in the English North. In its most prominent conceptualisations, it responded to the diagnosis that these and other social problems were the result of misguided multicultural objectives and behavioural deficiencies among ethnic minority populations. The thesis treats the formation of these agendas as a challenge that requires both interpretation and critique. It proposes a perspective on how society is imagined in the course of the formation of social cohesion agendas. It suggests that in particular the imaginary coincidence of disintegration and unity is characteristic of this social imaginary and provides for a sense of urgency that frequently underpins remedies of activation. The thesis concludes that where cohesion is said to be lacking, populations are selectively targeted and ethnic minority groups, welfare recipients, or the unemployed are being subjected to new demands. The critical concern of the thesis is to explore how new concerns with social unity have led to the adoption of requirements that are placed on the doorstep of those that are less able to comply.

Proefschrift--Universiteit Nijmegen, 2004.
Mention parallèle de titre ou de responsabilité : Politieke communicatie en communicatiepolitiek in Indonesië : een studie over media, verantwoordelijkheid en verantwoording. Textes en anglais, résumé en néerlandais. Bibliogr. p. 128-140.

Die Studie schließt an die Debatte in der vergleichenden politikwissenschaftlichen Verwaltungsforschung an, die sich mit der Rolle interner Beratungsakteure in Regierungsorganisationen beschäftigt. Ziel dieser Studie ist es, die Mechanismen zu erklären, durch die interne Beratungsakteure die ihnen zugeschriebene Bedeutung im exekutiven Entscheidungsprozess erlangen. Dabei werden jene Organisationseinheiten untersucht, die proaktiv an exekutiven Entscheidungsprozessen mitwirken und mit ihrer Beratung politischer Akteure in Konkurrenz zur Ministerialverwaltung stehen können. Die Einflussmechanismen dieser Akteure in der exekutiven Entscheidungsfindung werden als Formen einer "Institutionenpolitik" aufgefasst, bei der Akteure die institutionellen Bedingungen von Politikformulierungsprozessen bzw. die "Spielregeln exekutiver Entscheidungsfindung" verändern, um ihre eigene Position bzw. die ihres "Klienten" zu stärken. Das theoretische Argument dieser Arbeit folgt der neo-institutionalistischen Wende in der Organisationstheorie und definiert Institutionenpolitik als graduelle Institutionalisierungsprozesse zwischen Institutionen und organisationalen Akteuren, wobei einem weiten Institutionenbegriff folgend die Objekte solcher Veränderungsprozesse durch regulative, normative und kognitive Säulen gekennzeichnet sind. In Anwendung des "power-distributional approach" lassen sich graduelle Institutionalisierungsprozesse durch institutionenbezogene Charakteristika erklären, d.h. die Beschaffenheit der Objekte von Institutionenpolitik, insbesondere die Interpretationsfreiheit ihrer Anwendung, sowie die Restriktionen des institutionellen Kontexts. Zudem lässt sich Institutionenpolitik durch akteursbezogene Charakteristika erklären, d.h. den Ambitionen der Akteure sich als "potentielle institutionelle Agenten" zu engagieren. Diese beiden Erklärungsdimensionen drücken sich in vier idealtypischen Mechanismen von Institutionenpolitik aus: Sedimentation, Ersetzung, Drift, und Konversion, die mit vier Agententypen korrespondieren. Die Studie untersucht die institutionenpolitischen Ambitionen der Akteure explorativ, die Relevanz des institutionellen Kontexts wird mithilfe von Erwartungshypothesen zu den Effekten von vier Merkmalen analysiert, die in der bestehenden Debatte als relevant gelten: (1) die Parteienzusammensetzung der Regierung, (2) die Strukturprinzipien von Kabinettsentscheidungen, (3) die Verwaltungstradition sowie (4) die formale Politisierung der Ministerialverwaltung. Die Studie folgt einem "most similar systems design" und führt qualitative Fallstudien zur Rolle interner Beratungseinheiten im Zentrum deutscher und britischer Regierungsorganisationen, d.h. der Regierungszentrale und dem Finanzministerium, über einen längeren Zeitraum durch (1969/1970-2005). Es werden jeweils drei Zeitperioden pro Untersuchungsland betrachtet, die britischen Fallstudien analysieren die Beratungsakteure im Cabinet Office, Prime Minister's Office und dem Finanzministerium unter den Premierministern Heath (1970-74), Thatcher (1979-87) und Blair (1997-2005). Die deutschen Fallstudien untersuchen die Beratungsakteure im Bundeskanzleramt und dem Bundesfinanzministerium unter den Bundeskanzlern Brandt (1969-74), Kohl (1982-1987) und Schröder (1998-2005). Für die empirische Untersuchung wurden die Ergebnisse einer Dokumentenanalyse mit den Erkenntnissen aus 75 semi-strukturierten Experteninterviews trianguliert. Die vergleichende Analyse zeigt unterschiedliche Muster von Institutionenpolitik. Die deutschen Beratungsakteure agieren anfänglich in Ersetzung, später vornehmlich in Sedimentation sowie Drift, d.h. ihre institutionenpolitischen Aktivitäten widmen sich nach anfänglicher Ersetzung bestehender institutioneller Grundlagen zunehmend der Addition neuer Elemente sowie der deliberativen Nicht-Entscheidung zur Anpassung existierender institutioneller Grundlagen an Umweltveränderungen. Die britischen Beratungsakteure sind zumeist in Ersetzung sowie Konversion engagiert, trotz gelegentlicher Sedimentation, d.h. einer direkten Ersetzung bestehender institutioneller Grundlagen durch neue Spielregeln exekutiver Entscheidungsfindung sowie einer bewussten Umwandlung und Neuausrichtung existierender institutionellen Grundlagen, gelegentlich auch eine Addition neuer Elemente zu bestehenden Regeln. Die institutionen- und akteursspezifischen Charakteristika sind für diese Muster von Institutionenpolitik erklärungsrelevant. Erstens weist die Studie nach, dass der institutionelle Kontext die institutionenpolitischen Aktivitäten in Deutschland beschränkt und in Großbritannien begünstigt. Zweitens ist die Interpretationsfreiheit der Anwendung institutionenpolitischer Objekte bedeutsam, wie sich anhand der institutionenpolitischen Ambitionen der Akteure im Zeitverlauf und im Ländervergleich zeigt und somit drittens bestätigt, dass diese Interessen der Akteure an Institutionenwandel die Mechanismen von Institutionenpolitik beeinflussen. Die Arbeit schließt mit der Erkenntnis, dass die Rolle interner Beratungseinheiten in der exekutiven Politikformulierung nicht nur aus ihren inhaltlichen, parteistrategischen oder medial-beratenden Funktionen für politische Akteure in Regierungsämtern folgt, sondern insbesondere aus ihren institutionenpolitischen Aktivitäten, deren Resultate die institutionellen Restriktionen aller Akteure in exekutiven Entscheidungsprozessen beeinflussen – und somit auch ihre eigene Rolle in diesen Prozessen.
This study follows the debate in comparative public administration research on the role of advisory arrangements in central governments. The aim of this study is to explain the mechanisms by which these actors gain their alleged role in government decision-making. Hence, it analyses advisory arrangements that are proactively involved in executive decision-making and may compete with the permanent bureaucracy by offering policy advice to political executives. The study argues that these advisory arrangements influence government policy-making by "institutional politics", i.e. by shaping the institutional underpinnings to govern or rather the "rules of the executive game" in order to strengthen their own position or that of their clients. The theoretical argument of this study follows the neo-institutionalist turn in organization theory and defines institutional politics as gradual institutionalization processes between institutions and organizational actors. It applies a broader definition of institutions as sets of regulative, normative and cognitive pillars. Following the "power-distributional approach" such gradual institutionalization processes are influenced by structure-oriented characteristics, i.e. the nature of the objects of institutional politics, in particular the freedom of interpretation in their application, as well as the distinct constraints of the institutional context. In addition, institutional politics are influenced by agency-oriented characteristics, i.e. the ambitions of actors to act as "would-be change agents". These two explanatory dimensions result in four ideal-typical mechanisms of institutional politics: layering, displacement, drift, and conversion, which correspond to four ideal-types of would-be change agents. The study examines the ambitions of advisory arrangements in institutional politics in an exploratory manner, the relevance of the institutional context is analyzed via expectation hypotheses on the effects of four institutional context features that are regarded as relevant in the scholarly debate: (1) the party composition of governments, (2) the structuring principles in cabinet, (3) the administrative tradition, and (4) the formal politicization of the ministerial bureaucracy. The study follows a "most similar systems design" and conducts qualitative case studies on the role of advisory arrangements at the center of German and British governments, i.e. the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Finance, for a longer period (1969/1970-2005). Three time periods are scrutinized per country; the British case studies examine the role of advisory arrangements at the Cabinet Office, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Ministry of Finance under Prime Ministers Heath (1970-74), Thatcher (1979-87) and Blair (1997-2005). The German case studies study the role of advisory arrangements at the Federal Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance during the Brandt government (1969-74), the Kohl government (1982-1987) and the Schröder government (1998-2005). For the empirical analysis, the results of a document analysis and the findings of 75 semi-structured expert interviews have been triangulated. The comparative analysis reveals different patterns of institutional politics. The German advisory arrangements engaged initially in displacement but turned soon towards layering and drift, i.e. after an initial displacement of the pre-existing institutional underpinnings to govern they laid increasingly new elements onto existing ones and took the non-deliberative decision to neglect the adaption of existing rules of the executive game towards changing environmental demands. The British advisory arrangements were mostly involved in displacement and conversion, despite occasional layering, i.e. they displaced the pre-existing institutional underpinnings to govern with new rules of the executive game and transformed and realigned them, sometimes also layering new elements onto pre-existing ones. The structure- and agency-oriented characteristics explain these patterns of institutional politics. First, the study shows that the institutional context limits the institutional politics in Germany and facilitates the institutional politics in the UK. Second, the freedom of interpreting the application of institutional targets is relevant and could be observed via the different ambitions of advisory arrangements across countries and over time, confirming, third, that the interests of such would-be change agents are likewise important to understand the patterns of institutional politics. The study concludes that the role of advisory arrangements in government policy-making rests not only upon their policy-related, party-political or media-advisory role for political executives, but especially upon their activities in institutional politics, resulting in distinct institutional constraints on all actors in government policy-making – including their own role in these processes.

The study examines the contribution of the Greens to the changing nature of West Germany's local politics in the 1980s. The changes correspond broadly to the politicisation and parliamentarisation of a sphere of government traditionally perceived as being "unpolitical". Building upon theories of the New Politics, it is suggested that the varying pace of socio-economic change across the Federal Republic underlies the nonuniform development of its local party systems. The party systems of localities which have witnessed rapid social and economic change are found to be more susceptible to the emergence of a New Politics dimension than those of communities in which change has occurred less rapidly. The thesis continues by addressing aspects of the Greens' role in the development of local party systems across the Federal Republic. Despite the fact that marked differences in the Greens' approach to local political participation are registered in communities of varying socio-economic types, it is argued that the Greens are largely responsible for the introduction of a "New Local Politics" dimension into West Germany's local party systems. In a comprehensive study of the Greens' role in the Mainz party system, the conflicting styles and practices of the Greens and the established political parties in the city are depicted. The failure of the Green Party to form an alliance with the SPD in the city council is attributed to the cleavage between the Greens' New Politics and the SPD's Old Politics approaches. A detailed analysis of the parliamentary initiatives introduced by the four parties represented in the Mainz council between 1984 and 1987 also supports the contention that a New Politics dimension exists in the city's party system. This dimension is identified as representing a significant source of conflict during the period of analysis.

The thesis examines the relationship between politics and Shakespeare performance in eastern Germany before, during, and after reunification in 1990. Distancing itself from the assumption that performance acts as a directly influential political tool, it situates theatre practitioners and institutions within their economic, political, and cultural contexts. By analysing a wide range of case studies from Berlin as well as more peripheral towns and cities, I argue that German Shakespeare performance’s capacity for political intervention, both before and after reunification, was limited by theatre practitioners’ reliance on public funding, their close relationships with governmental authority, and an underlying distrust of the people (Volk). Ultimately, East German theatre practitioners proved useful to the 1989 protest movement precisely because they occupied a unique position at the interface of dissidence and state power. I begin by situating my study within the tradition of reading Hamlet as an allegory for the German struggle between Geist (intellect) and Macht (power). Each following chapter examines Shakespeare productions between 1980 and 2000 from a different perspective. Chapter 2 considers the impact of public funding on theatre practice in the GDR, and theatre’s struggle for economic survival following reunification. Chapter 3 examines theatre’s shifting relationships with political authority by investigating East German censorship practices, theatre practitioners’ involvement with the 1989 protest movement, and attempts to connect Shakespeare performance with politics in reunified Germany. Chapter 4 analyses competing theatre aesthetics in relation to their function, methodology, and intended audience, examining how these translated into theatre practice. The thesis concludes by considering Shakespeare’s role in memorialising East German theatre practice.

Studies of political culture have often focused on the impact of political institutions on political culture in a society. The scientific community has accepted the position that institutions shape beliefs and attitudes among the citizens towards the system they live in. This study tests this hypothesis by using survey data collected during the fall of 1990 in the United States, Great Britain, Italy, West, and East Germany.

Defence date: 21 February 2022
Examining Board: Professor Ann Thomson (European University Institute) ; Professor Giorgio Riello (European University Institute) ; Professor Johanna Ilmakunnas (Åbo Akademi University) ; Associate Professor Samantha Matthews (University of Bristol)
Few materials have preserved so much of the visualisation and friendship-practice of the cult of friendship as the album amicorum (friendship album). The albums earned their name from their role in the practice of friendship, remembrance, networking, and the creation of social communities and identities, and above all the visualisation of the same. This thesis examines the social function of images in friendship albums in the latter part of the centuries-long practice of the genre. It focuses on the years between the end of the Seven Year's War and the period before the German Revolution (1763–1830s), a time period when the album practice became particularly pronounced in the material culture of friendship. The sources for this study are c. 7000 individual entries, from 282 German albums in three collections; the city archive (Stadtarchiv) in Göttingen (180 albums), the city library (Stadtbibliothek) in Nuremberg (67 albums) and the city museums (Städtische Museen) in Jena (35 albums). The aim of the thesis is to identify the shared visual literacy within album communities and explore how and in what way images have been employed to create, maintain and display friendships and social belonging. By analysing common themes, motifs and artistic techniques, the thesis discusses how artistic and thematic choices had the potential to visualise shared emotional ideals and visual literacy, social belonging and aspects of individual relationships and social identity. In addition to materiality, the chapters are divided by theme within which the social aspect of the album images are explored: nature and imagery relating to the natural landscape as a mediator of friendship and belonging; student circles, masculinity and depictions of memberships; the visualisation of the cult of friendship and the complexity of the friendship concept; and remembrance, friendship and the inclusion of mourning iconography.

The thesis examines the reasons why the German National Assembly of 1919 chose proportional representation to elect officials to the German Reichstag. Sources include the series Quellen zur Geschichte des Parlamentarismus and die politische Parteien, the "Hajo Holborn Papers", and the Reich Ministry of Interior debates concerning the institutional draft. The thesis traces the arguments for proportional representation, its use throughout Europe before 1914, and voting reform in Germany during World War I. The thesis surveys the German provisional government's adoption of proportional representation, emphasizing the constitutional drafts of Hugo Preuss and the role of the provisional government. Finally, the thesis scrutinizes the National Assembly debates, concluding that most of its members had already decided to follow the provisional government's course and accept proportional representation.

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The Federal Republic of Germany has arisen to take a leadership position in the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. This quasi depression has highlighted the economic interdependence of the Eurozone member states and has exposed the fundamental weakness of the lack of a political union between members to coordinate a timely fiscal response. This thesis examines why the Federal Republic of Germany became the cornerstone for Eurozone monetary stability; how the country contributed and what it has sacrificed thus far towards the crisis; and surveys what Germany must do in the future to ensure European financial stability. Germanys current commitment to the continent is examined here through the treaties that economically linked the European nations and formed the foundation for the Eurozone. In addition, the weaknesses of periphery member states that contributed to the crisis and the substantial sovereign economic bailouts and recovery packages that have been enacted by the Troika are analyzed. The thesis then examines the three options that are available to the Eurozone: to continue to muddle through the crisis, to enact substantial reforms, or to splinter and break-up the Union. The results support the choice for greater political integration and the need for the issuance of Eurobonds.