Suchergebnisse

Policy change is one of the central issues of political science, public administration, sociology, and law studies. Research on this theme dates back to the late 1950s when scholars like Herbert Simon (1957), Charles Lindblom (1959), and Thomas Kuhn (1962) postulated "that general patterns of policy development cannot only be identified but predicted" (Howlett and Cashore, 2009). Understanding and explaining policies and policy change became important with the increasing involvement of the state in more and more realms of social life: "The modern state is widely seen as an active and as a proactive state, increasingly managing, shaping, even creating its constituent population" (Pierson, 2004a). The last two decades have seen a tremendous activity in the explanation of policy change. Debates have centered on the role of ideas, actors, and institutions as competing and coordinated explanatory accounts. However, despite a plethora of studies, there is little generalization and comparability of findings. Recently, a number of scholars have attributed this inconsistency to the lack of a common understanding and operationalization of the concept of policy change – the so-called "dependent variable problem" (Cashore and Howlett, 2007). My dissertation attempts to make three major conceptual, methodological, and explanatory contributions towards solving this problem: 1) the thesis provides a theoretical framework for policy output and develops an empirical measurement for it; 2) it argues that one needs to consider entire policy portfolios rather than individual instruments for a meaningful assessment of policy change; 3) and it analyzes how the nature of the policy field affects the assessment and explanation of policy change.

Abstract:Environmental concern is a highly relevant concept in the context of environmental change and increasing demand for political regulation of environmental protection. In order to prevent climate change, loss in global biodiversity or other highly critical environmental issues, we need to understand why (and why not) citizens support environmental politics. However, there is no measure without a concept, and empirical results might be biased if they are not operationalized according to well defined (theoretical and methodological) criteria. This research endeavor focuses on historical and more recent developments of the concept of individual environmental concern. It will be demonstrated that environmental concern is not only a distinct concept excluding behavior and knowledge, but is also rather complex addressing geographical as well as temporal issues. Most recent developments suggesting a hierarchical multi-dimensional character will be discussed and examples of the most relevant empirical measures and scales will be evaluated.

Comparative policy studies face a number of methodological challenges where conceptualization of the object of comparison—policy output—is the most fundamental. On the basis of three common approaches of the study of policy output, we reconsider this widely applied concept and propose a refined measure as a function of both density (number of policy instruments) and intensity (content of policy instruments). We theoretically derive six policy‐intensity measures (objectives, scope, integration, budget, implementation, and monitoring), which are used for weighting national policy instruments on an Index of Climate Policy Activity. The article presents an empirical application of this measurement approach. Focusing on national climate policy instruments in the energy production sector in Austria, Germany, and the United Kingdom, we investigate changes in the countries' policy portfolios from 1998 to 2010. The article demonstrates that our Index of Climate Policy Activity provides a reliable and valid measurement for national policy output that can be applied for comparative analyses of policy output.

Planerische Entscheidungen auf kommunaler Ebene werden immer vielschichtiger. Ein Grund hierfür liegt darin, dass das Regelwerk komplexer geworden ist: Umfangreiche rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen des Landes-, Bundes- und des EU-Rechts müssen berücksichtigt und eingehalten werden. Damit steigt nicht nur der Arbeitsaufwand von Planungsverfahren für die Verwaltung, sondern auch von außen sind die Abläufe der Verfahren nur noch schwer nachzuvollziehen. Dieser Band zeigt auf, wie es gelingen kann, die rechtlichen Vorgaben und Abläufe bei Genehmigungen und Planungen auf kommunaler Ebene effizient einzuhalten und zugleich dem Wunsch der Bürgerschaft nach mehr Beteiligung zu entsprechen.

Landnutzungskonflikte entwickeln sich typischerweise zwischen verschiedenen Nutzergruppen. Klassische Konfliktlinien verlaufen zum Beispiel zwischen Landwirtschaft und Naturschutz, zwischen Tourismus und Energiewende, zwischen Siedlungsdruck und Erholungsraum. Und nicht selten sind mehrere dieser Bereiche und ihre Ansprüche an Land und Landschaft involviert. Die klassischen Konfliktlinien haben über die Jahre zu einem – zugespitzt formuliert – routinierten Schlagabtausch mit eingeübten Argumenten zwischen bekannten Gegnerinnen geführt. Häufig genug reden sie gar nicht miteinander – man kennt ja die Positionen und Argumente. Eine Situation, die die Lösung von Landnutzungskonflikten verlässlich verhindert