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Questions regarding the problem-solving capacity of the state have been long-standing. The financial crisis as well as future demographic and environmental challenges have raised the spectre of the depleted state, a state that lacks legitimacy and resources to steer social, economic and political developments. This article considers how a perspective that centres on executive politics can illuminate key debates surrounding the depleted state. It does so in three steps. First, it considers whether the earlier literature on the 'crisis of the state' of the 1970s contributes to contemporary debates. Second, it questions whether the age of 'governance' has come to the rescue, and not just of the challenges outlined by the earlier literature. Third, it discusses the contribution of executive politics to the study of the contemporary state's problem-solving capacity and draws wider implications of the age of the depleted state for executive politics.

AbstractThe literature on risk regulation often assumes a direct link between public pressure and regulatory responses. This article investigates whether the direction of regulatory response is related to public argumentation as expressed in the national print media. Three approaches are explored: national policy patterns, political panics expressed in Pavlovian politics, and policy responses shaped by universal policy paradigms. It assesses these three approaches in comparative perspective by looking at scandals in food safety regulation in Denmark, Germany and the US, looking at argumentation patterns in the national print media and using a coding system derived from grid-group cultural theory and regulatory responses. While all three countries display mostly hierarchical argumentation patterns, their actual regulatory responses point to diverse patterns.

This paper points to the centrality of the infrastructure industry in the study of regulation, in general, and the regulatory state, in particular. It progress in three steps. First, it considers the particular attributes that make infrastructure industries a unique site for the exploration of policy trajectories and the limits of statehood. Second, it discusses, in brief, cross-national and cross-sectoral experiences in regulating infrastructure industries to highlight the diversity and instability that have characterized their regulation over the past three decades. Finally, the paper takes the problem-solving capacity of the regulatory state into question in the face of inherent 'wicked issues'. In conclusion, the paper develops three scenarios for the future of the regulatory state in infrastructure industries, noting that it is likely to be one of high instability and high politics.

Über die Auswirkungen des sogenannten New Public Managements auf das Personal des öffentlichen Sektors ist bereits vieles gesagt worden. In diesem Beitrag wird in diesem Zusammenhang die "Public Service Bargain"-Perspektive verwendet, welche die Bedeutung von gegenseitigen Erwartungen und Verpflichtungen zwischen öffentlichem Personal und dem gesamten politischen System in den Mittelpunkt rückt. Aus dieser Sichtweise werden die etablierten Kernaussagen zum deutsch-britischen Reformvergleich mit dem Ergebnis überprüft, dass viele bisherige Stereotype revidiert werden müssen. Dabei geht der Beitrag in vier Schritten vor: Erstens werden die überlieferten Sichtweisen zu den deutschen und britischen Reformerfahrungen im Bereich des öffentlichen Dienstes dargestellt. Zweitens wird die Perspektive der Public Service Bargains präsentiert, bevor sich, drittens, eine vergleichende Analyse der beiden Staaten anschließt. Auf diese Ergebnisse gegründet, wird abschließend der Mehrwert dieser Perspektive erörtert, den die Public Service Bargains für das Verständnis aktuelle Reformen und künftiger Entwicklungen beitragen.

AbstractThis article argues that the public management of risk faces inherent "wicked issue" problems which are further accentuated in the context of the contemporary regulatory state. It is suggested that in order to overcome these limitations and inevitable trade‐offs, there needs to be a more conscientious effort in setting out distinct components of any public management of risk, which should be considered and discussed through the lens of distinct worldviews contrasting interpretations and solutions, as well as potential "black‐spots." It is only by acknowledging limitations of any one strategy and by considering plural solutions that there is less likelihood of disappointment when dealing with crises and disasters.

"Über die Auswirkungen des sogenannten New Public Managements auf das Personal des öffentlichen Sektors ist bereits vieles gesagt worden. In diesem Beitrag wird in diesem Zusammenhang die 'Public Service Bargain'-Perspektive verwendet, welche die Bedeutung von gegenseitigen Erwartungen und Verpflichtungen zwischen öffentlichem Personal und dem gesamten politischen System in den Mittelpunkt rückt. Aus dieser Sichtweise werden die etablierten Kernaussagen zum deutsch-britischen Reformvergleich mit dem Ergebnis überprüft, dass viele bisherige Stereotype revidiert werden müssen. Dabei geht der Beitrag in vier Schritten vor: Erstens werden die überlieferten Sichtweisen zu den deutschen und britischen Reformerfahrungen im Bereich des öffentlichen Dienstes dargestellt. Zweitens wird die Perspektive der Public Service Bargains präsentiert, bevor sich, drittens, eine vergleichende Analyse der beiden Staaten anschließt. Auf diese Ergebnisse gegründet, wird abschließend der Mehrwert dieser Perspektive erörtert, den die Public Service Bargains für das Verständnis aktuelle Reformen und künftiger Entwicklungen beitragen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku)

For the past 15 years or so, the claim of a rise of the regulatory state in Europe has been a dominant theme in public policy research. This paper critically reflects on this claim and the associated scholarship by considering four key questions. First, what is the significance of the supposed rise of the regulatory state for the state in Europe and how can this trend be explained? Second, what insights have been gained from the study of phenomena associated with the regulatory state, both in terms of EU and national levels of government as well as in terms of process and organisational understandings of policy analysis? Third, does the regulatory state represent a stable arrangement or does it suffer from its own peculiar dilemmas that fundamentally affect the nature of European states? Fourth, and finally, this article develops three scenarios-those of withering away, plodding along, and rejuvenation-for the future of the (study of the) regulatory state in Europe. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractNon‐hierarchical modes of governance, such as the 'open method of co‐ordination' (OMC), require particular prerequisites to operate effectively. This article points to three essential components of any regime, then assesses their operation in two 'real' OMCs, pensions and information society. Given the finding of defective regimes, this article argues that the observed patterns are not surprising given the high demands that non‐hierarchical governance places on participants. In addition, the context of the politics of the EU suggests that non‐hierarchical governance is inappropriate as a means of inducing policy reform.