Suchergebnisse

Aufgrund der Eigentümlichkeiten des deutschen Regierungssystems gehen viele politikwissenschaftliche Studien von der Blockadethese aus. Die Blockadethese gründet in der Annahme gegebener Präferenzen und stabiler institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen und führt auf der analytischen Ebene zu am Rationalwahlansatz orientierten Interaktionsanalysen, die politische Entscheidungen von der Veränderung gesellschaftlicher Probleme, Präferenzen und institutioneller Rahmenbedingungen isoliert betrachten. Interaktionsorientierte Analysen fokussieren auf die Erklärung von inkrementellen Policy-Wandel. Anhand der innovativen Rentenreform von Bundesarbeitsminister Walter Riester wird vorgeschlagen, Rückkoppelungseffekte von Policies auf das Handeln politischer Akteure zu betrachten, und Politik damit dynamisch zu betrachten. Theoretisch wird dies mit dem Bedarf an sozialintegrativer Wirkungen von Policies begründet. Die Hauptthese des Beitrages ist, dass Sequenzorientierung es der Policy-Forschung ermöglichen würde, endogene Ursachen für innovativen Policy-Wandel zu identifizieren.

Proceeding from an historical-analytical reconstruction, which takes not only political interests, ideologies and government support into account but also the history of labor relations, the paper investigates the role and function of collective bargaining in the Dutch welfare state. It is argued that, in the Netherlands, the sequence in which industrial relations become institutionalized and the experiences that both sides of industry have had with the institutions governing industrial relations have crucially influenced the development of social policy based on collective agreement. Industrial social policy has grown up in the Netherlands under specific conditions, which casts doubts on the possibility of making a one-to-one correlation with Germany, though it does not rule out practical policy lessons. The conclusion for comparative welfare state research is that when viewing policies of social cutbacks it should break away from its static focus on analyzing the political behavior of the actors involved and systematically include industrial relations in its frame of reference.

The financialization of sovereign debt management has received attention in comparative political economy studies. While previous studies have highlighted the cross-national commonality of this process and the congruence of interests between finance and governments, the analysis of the role of finance and state agency in domestic reform processes is still under-exposed. By analysing the financialization of government debt management in the two early adopter countries, New Zealand and Ireland, this study seeks to close this gap. The study shows that differences in the structure of financial markets and the civil service systems resulted in different policymaking processes through which Treasury civil servants brought financial economics into the reforms. In New Zealand, economists had an in-house position within the Treasury and were able to frame the decision-making process (ideational explanation), while in Ireland, finance successfully lobbied senior civil servants who sponsored these efforts (interest explanation). With this finding, this article reveals the multiple channels that lead to sovereign debt management financialization.

Abstract
This study of the reform of the German Bourse Law in 1908 argues that the "self-undermining negative policy feedback effects" of the initial Bourse Law of 1896 on the market for Imperial and state bonds explain why exchange regulation was liberalized although the dominant political forces, the Conservatives and the Clericals, were opposed to bourses and capital markets. Based on an original assessment of primary documents, the study uses the method of explaining-outcome process tracing to show that the initial Bourse Law caused losses to the Imperial government and the large banks; this induced both actors to remove the prohibition of speculation. Because the German Empire can be viewed as a kind of laboratory for (first) treatment effects on financial market regulation of the sovereign debt market, this study contains lessons for understanding the relationship between states and financial markets in general.

This study analyses the decision-making processes that led to the introduction of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (a public pension reserve and investment fund), as well as the KiwiSaver Scheme, which is New Zealand's first soft-compulsory private pension scheme. Why and how are governments engaged in the development of funded pensions? These are the questions this study addresses. In analyzing the finance-pension nexus in New Zealand, this article adopts a state-centric approach. It argues that pension funding reforms are shaped by state officials who pursue their own motives because policymakers frame funded pensions as an instrument for achieving broader fiscal, economic and financial policy outcomes. Because New Zealand is a typical case of a state-centric explanation, a study of its pension funding reforms helps in finding causal links between finance and pensions.

AbstractThis study analyses the decision‐making processes that led to the introduction of the New Zealand Superannuation Fund (a public pension reserve and investment fund), as well as the KiwiSaver Scheme, which is New Zealand's first soft‐compulsory private pension scheme. Why and how are governments engaged in the development of funded pensions? These are the questions this study addresses. In analyzing the finance‐pension nexus in New Zealand, this article adopts a state‐centric approach. It argues that pension funding reforms are shaped by state officials who pursue their own motives because policymakers frame funded pensions as an instrument for achieving broader fiscal, economic and financial policy outcomes. Because New Zealand is a typical case of a state‐centric explanation, a study of its pension funding reforms helps in finding causal links between finance and pensions.

Dieser Artikel vergleicht in einer historisch-institutionalistischen Perspektive die Entstehung der kollektiven, dualen Berufsausbildung in Deutschland und Österreich. Er zeigt, dass in beiden Ländern die Gewerbepolitik für die Kollektivierung der Berufsausbildung von Bedeutung war. Die Arbeitsbeziehungen und die Sozialpartnerschaft beeinflussten die Entstehung des dualen Systems jedoch auf unterschiedliche Art und Weise. Während in Deutschland die wirtschaftliche Integration der Gewerkschaften, also die Tarifpolitik, die Kollektivierung der Ausbildung vorantrieb, war es in Österreich ihre politische Integration, sprich die sozialpartnerschaftlich orientierte Gewerbe- und Sozialstaatspolitik. Es sind somit zwei unterschiedliche Kausalketten, die in diesen beiden Ländern zum gleichen Ergebnis, nämlich zur Institutionalisierung einer dualen Berufsausbildung, führten. Die Studie wendet die Methode der Kontext-kontrastierenden Fallstudie an und hat der Strategie der typischen Fälle folgend zwei Repräsentanten des kollektiven Systems ausgewählt. Das Ziel dieser Studie ist die Analyse komplexer Kausalität und weniger die Spezifizierung kausaler Effekte. Den Untersuchungszeitraum der Studie bildet die Periode zwischen 1849/1897 und 1938. ; This article compares the development of the collective skill formation systems in Germany and Austria from an historical-institutionalist perspective. It highlights that in both countries craft policy decisively impacted on the collectivisation of vocational training while industrial relations and social partnership exhibited different effects. Whereas in Germany the economic integration of trade unions, hence, collective bargaining, prompted collective skill formation, in Austria it was the impact of unions' political integration, hence, craft and social policies, which were oriented to social partners. Consequently, in those two countries two different causal chains led to the same result, namely, the emergence of a dual apprenticeship system. The study applies the method of contrasting contexts and Austria and Germany were selected as cases because both countries are typical cases for collective skill formation systems. The objective of the article is rather to analyze complex causality than to specify causal effects. The period of investigation is from 1849/1897 to 1938.

This article argues that a within-case analysis of the causes and patterns of the institutionalisation of rating in the German financial system offers fresh insights into change in the major socioeconomic institutions of advanced capitalism. Using the method of systematic process analysis, the article explores the expansion of credit rating in the German banking system from three perspectives: historical (power), sociological (diffusion) and behavioural institutionalism (prospect theory). It demonstrates that the proliferation of credit rating resulted from a change of preference on the part of large banks. With Germany as a least likely case for successfully implementing rating, the study's main lesson is that institutional analysis may benefit from incorporating behavioural institutionalism into the analysis of preference change because this cites economic motivations as causes of preference shifts and institutional changes. Adapted from the source document.