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Leicht verständliches Handbuch für die auf dem Land lebenden Frauen zur Bewältigung ihrer Probleme

Metropolitan Problems is the end-product of one of the most dynamic research programmes of its kind ever conceived and executed. The book, which took three years to complete, represents the culmination of a two year study that was highlighted by a conference held in toronto in 1967. In the early 1960s, the bureau of Municipal Research (in metropolitan Toronto) decided that a significant way for it to celebrate Canada's centennial would be to initiate a systematic international study of the world's metropolitan areas. The study, with the official cooperation of the United Nations, was

The thesis focuses on the inter-departmental coordination of adaptation and mitigation of demographic change in East Germany. All Eastern German States (Länder) have set up inter-departmental committees (IDCs) that are expected to deliver joint strategies to tackle demographic change. IDCs provide an organizational setting for potential positive coordination, i.e. a joint approach to problem solving that pools and utilizes the expertise of many departments in a constructive manner from the very beginning. Whether they actually achieve positive coordination is contested within the academic debate. This motivates the first research question of this thesis: Do IDCs achieve positive coordination? Interdepartmental committees and their role in horizontal coordination within the core executive triggered interest among scholars already more than fifty years ago. However, we don't know much about their actual importance for the inter-departmental preparation of cross-cutting policies. Until now, few studies can be found that analyzes inter-departmental committees in a comparative way trying to identify whether they achieve positive coordination and what factors shape the coordination process and output of IDCs. Each IDC has a chair organization that is responsible for managing the interactions within the IDCs. The chair organization is important, because it organizes and structures the overall process of coordination in the IDC. Consequently, the chair of an IDC serves as the main boundary-spanner and therefore has remarkable influence by arranging meetings and the work schedule or by distributing internal roles. Interestingly, in the German context we find two organizational approaches: while some states decided to put a line department (e.g. Department of Infrastructure) in charge of managing the IDC, others rely on the State Chancelleries, i.e. the center of government. This situation allows for comparative research design that can address the role of the State Chancellery in inter-departmental coordination of cross-cutting policies. This is relevant, because the role of the center is crucial when studying coordination within central government. The academic debate on the center of government in the German politico-administrative system is essentially divided into two camps. One camp claims that the center can improve horizontal coordination and steer cross-cutting policy-making more effectively, while the other camp points to limits to central coordination due to departmental autonomy. This debate motivates the second research question of this thesis: Does the State Chancellery as chair organization achieve positive coordination in IDCs? The center of government and its role in the German politic-administrative system has attracted academic attention already in the 1960s and 1970s. There is a research desiderate regarding the center's role during the inter-departmental coordination process. There are only few studies that explicitly analyze centers of government and their role in coordination of cross-cutting policies, although some single case studies have been published. This gap in the academic debate will be addressed by the answer to the second research question. The dependent variable of this study is the chair organization of IDCs. The value of this variable is dichotomous: either an IDC is chaired by a Line department or by a State Chancellery. We are interested whether this variable has an effect on two dependent variables. First, we will analyze the coordination process, i.e. interaction among bureaucrats within the IDC. Second, the focus of this thesis will be on the coordination result, i.e. the demography strategies that are produced by the respective IDCs. In terms of the methodological approach, this thesis applies a comparative case study design based on a most-similar-systems logic. The German Federalism is quite suitable for such designs. Since the institutional framework largely is the same across all states, individual variables and their effect can be isolated and plausibly analyzed. To further control for potential intervening variables, we will limit our case selection to states located in East Germany, because the demographic situation is most problematic in the Eastern part of Germany, i.e. there is a equal problem pressure. Consequently, we will analyze five cases: Thuringia, Saxony-Anhalt (line department) and Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony (State Chancellery). There is no grand coordination theory that is ready to be applied to our case studies. Therefore, we need to tailor our own approach. Our assumption is that the individual chair organization has an effect on the coordination process and output of IDCs, although all cases are embedded in the same institutional setting, i.e. the German politico-administrative system. Therefore, we need an analytical approach than incorporates institutionalist and agency-based arguments. Therefore, this thesis will utilize Actor-Centered Institutionalism (ACI). Broadly speaking, ACI conceptualizes actors' behavior as influenced - but not fully determined - by institutions. Since ACI is rather abstract we need to adapt it for the purpose of this thesis. Line Departments and State Chancelleries will be modeled as distinct actors with different action orientations and capabilities to steer the coordination process. However, their action is embedded within the institutional context of governments, which we will conceptualize as being comprised of regulative (formal rules) and normative (social norms) elements. ; Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit interministerieller Koordination der Demografiepolitik in ostdeutschen Ländern. Alle ostdeutschen Länder haben interministerielle Arbeitsgruppen (IMAGs) eingerichtet, die von der jeweiligen Landesregierung beauftragt wurden, ressortübergreifende Strategien zur Bewältigung der Folgen des demografischen Wandels zu erarbeiten. IMAGs bieten potentiell einen organisatorischen Rahmen für das Gelingen positiver Koordination, also der ressortübergreifenden Bearbeitung interdependenter Problemstellungen. Ob sie jedoch tatsächlich positive Koordination herbeiführen, ist innerhalb der akademischen Debatte umstritten, was die Motivation für die erste Forschungsfrage darstellt: Führen IMAGs zu positiver Koordination? IMAGs haben bereits vor fünfzig Jahren akademische Aufmerksamkeit erregt. Dennoch ist über ihren Beitrag zur Vorbereitung ressortübergreifender Programme kaum etwas bekannt. Bislang haben nur wenige Arbeiten IMAGs in vergleichender Perspektive behandelt. Somit fehlt es an Wissen zu Determinanten des Koordinationsprozesses und –ergebnisses interministerieller Arbeitsgruppen. Jeweils einer Organisation obliegt die Federführung für die jeweilige IMAG. Die federführende Einheit kann erheblichen Einfluss ausüben, da sie den Koordinationsprozess strukturiert und organisiert. Interessanterweise haben die ostdeutschen Bundesländer zwei unterschiedliche organisatorische Modelle gewählt: Entweder obliegt die Federführung der entsprechenden IMAG einem Fachministerien oder der Staatskanzlei des entsprechenden Landes. Diese Situation erlaubt ein vergleichendes Untersuchungsdesign, das die Rolle von Staatskanzleien im Prozess ressortübergreifender Politikformulierung im politisch-administrativen System Deutschlands zu untersuchen erlaubt. Die akademische Debatte im Hinblick darauf lässt sich etwas zugespitzt in zwei Lager teilen: Während das erste Lager argumentiert, die Regierungszentrale könne horizontale Koordination verbessern und zur effektiveren Steuerung ressortübergreifenden Politikformulierung beitragen, rekurriert das zweite Lager auf die Dominanz des verfassungsrechtlichen Ressortprinzip und geht von einer klaren Begrenzung der Steuerungskapazität von Regierungszentralen aus. Dies motiviert die zweite Forschungsfrage der vorliegenden Arbeit: Erreicht Federführung durch Staatskanzleien positive Koordination in IMAGs? Obwohl die Regierungszentrale schon frühzeitig Gegenstand verwaltungs- und politikwissenschaftlicher Forschung war, finden sich kaum Arbeiten, die explizit die Rolle von Staatskanzlei im Prozess der Formulierung ressortübergreifender Programme thematisieren. Die unabhängige Variable dieser Untersuchung ist die federführende Organisation einer IMAG (Staatskanzlei oder Fachministerium). Die abhängigen Variablen sind einerseits der Koordinationsprozess innerhalb von IMAGs als auch das entsprechende Koordinationsergebnis in Form ressortübergreifender Strategien zur Bewältigung des demografischen Wandels. Das Untersuchungsdesign entspricht einem most-similar-systems Ansatz. So finden sich in allen untersuchten Fällen Koalitionsregierungen, ein ähnlicher Problemdruck in Hinblick auf demografische Entwicklungen sowie ein nahezu identischer institutionelle Rahmen für Koordination. Der Einfluss der unabhängigen auf die abhängigen Variablen kann damit plausiblen isoliert werden. Die Studie untersucht IMAGs in den Ländern Thüringen, Sachsen-Anhalt (Federführung bei einem Fachministerium), Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Sachsen (Federführung bei der Staatskanzlei). Die Arbeit nutzt den akteurszentrierten Institutionalismus als analytischen Rahmen. Dieser erlaubt Koordinationsprozesse sowohl in Hinblick auf ihre institutionelle Einbettung zu untersuchen, die Rolle intentional handelnder Akteure mit unterschiedlichen Handlungsorientierungen und -möglichkeiten aus dem Blick zu verlieren.