Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'German federalism'

O federalismo enquanto fenômeno político denota a associação de coletividades territoriais para a obtenção de objetivos comuns. Nesse sentido, a realidade federativa evidencia dois desenvolvimentos históricos e institucionais diversos: federalismo norte-americano e federalismo germânico. Com base nessas realidades concretas, propõem-se modelos histórico-ideológicos e jurídicoinstitucionais de federalismo com a finalidade de compreender melhor esse tema, situado no âmbito da Teoria Geral do Estado. Lançou-se mão dos métodos histórico, comparativo e indutivo. No plano dos aspectos histórico-ideológicos, apresentam-se os modelos de federalismo republicano e de federalismo imperial. No plano dos aspectos jurídico-institucionais, apontam-se os modelos de federalismo dual e de federalismo de níveis cooperativos.
The federalism as a political phenomenon notice the association of the collectivities as a way of obtention of common objectives. In this sense, the federative reality reveals two distinct historical and institutional developments: northamerican federalism and german federalism. Based on these concrete realities, it proposes historical-ideological and juridical-institutional standards of federalism under the purpose of comprehending better this subject, sited on General Theory of State. It was used the historical, comparative and inductive methods. In the plans of historical-ideological aspects, it shows the standards of republican federalism and of emperor federalism. In the plans of juridical-institutional aspects, are pointed the standards of dual federalism and of cooperative federalism.

This thesis analyzes the effects of federalism on promoting gender representation in parliaments using the case of Germany. There is no country in the world where women and men are equally represented in politics. Discrepancies in representation may stem from historical, cultural, institutional, or structural facets. One little discussed possibility is that of governmental institutions, particularly, the federalist structure of government. Theoretically, federalism should encourage minorities, including women, to be elected to parliaments at a higher rate than in unitary states because it allows additional layer of access to and entry into elected office. By investigating the proportions of women in parliament at different levels of government, we can identify the effects of the federalist structure on advancing women’s representation. The German federalist system is analyzed at three different levels: the sub-national (Lander), national (the Bundestag), and supra-national (European Parliament) level to assess whether the federal structure affects the level of representation by providing a funnel effect. The thesis also analyzed the importance of voluntary gender quotas adopted by many of the political parties on mitigating the effect of federalism. The final results of federalism as it related to gender equality in parliaments were inconclusive as the effects could not be clearly separated from those of gender quotas for the case of Germany.
B.A.
Bachelors
Sciences
Political Science

The main focus of this study is on the question of why political institutions change. By extension, the study is also about explaining and predicting the direction of change. Put simply, the study postulates that political institutions will change in order to be congruent with the society.
Change is analysed within the context of two federal structures, the Federal Republic of Germany and Belgium. During the same time period from 1949 to 1993, one transformed from a unitary state into a loose federation while the decentralised federation consolidated and became central. The puzzle which the research project deals with is about this change: Why did the institutions of 1949 fail to survive?
The prevailing institutionalist logic in comparative politics would suggest that once in place, institutions would have socialised the political actors into the existing structure by providing veto points in such a way that institutions would have been reproduced over time, but this has not been the case. Furthermore, why has change come about in two opposing directions, centralising and decentralising, despite many common characteristics between the two cases?
This study is based on a theory of congruence which argues that political institutions change in order to reflect underlying societal structures. More specifically, the argument is that political institutions in federal structures change to correspond to the ethno-linguistic make-up of the country. Accordingly, the unitary state of Belgium has changed its political institutions in order to accommodate the Flemings, Walloons and Bruxellois; while Federal Germany has centralised many issues despite explicit constitutional clauses against such changes.
According to the theory of congruence, when confronted with an ethno-linguistic structure that does not match the political one, the political structure changes; not automatically, but through the pressure of public policy concerns pursued by political actors. The ethno-linguistic community is the primary collectivity for which public policy decisions are made. The choices available to political actors are constrained by the demarcations of this societal composition. Decision makers might disagree over the substance of the policies, but they share the choice of venue in the form of the ethnolinguistic 'nation'. In case of a discrepancy between the ethno-linguistic societal structure and the political structure, public policy concerns wold exert a pressure towards congruence by demarcating a social collectivity for which policies are made different from the one set up by the political institutions. Thus, if the 'nation' is bigger than the unit that marked off by political institutions, the tendency would be towards amalgamation with the other subunits of the 'nation' and centralisation. If, on the other hand, the 'nation' is smaller than the unit defined by the political institutions, there would be devolutionary pressures on the unitary institutions.
The empirical research was carried out on two policy areas, education and mass media, through a paired comparison of Flanders and Wallonia in Belgium and Baden-Wurttemberg and North Rhine Westphalia in the Federal Republic of Germany.

COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
A pesquisa sobre sistemas federais em vários países do mundo tem provado permanente relevância diante das dinâmicas envolvendo a natureza dos Estados nacionais tanto na Europa quanto na América Latina. Nesse contexto, o trabalho discute mecanismos cooperativos presentes nas dinâmicas políticas da Alemanha e do Brasil a partir dos anos de 1990, objetivando especialmente comparar os princípios constitucionais que orientam os dois modelos federalistas, o federalismo fiscal adotado nos dois países, e a composição e o papel da Câmara Alta em ambos os processos políticos federativos. Através de estudos de caso relativos aos principais conflitos federativos ocorridos nos dois países selecionados no período estudado, são identificadas tendências recentes, tensões e negociações políticas que marcam o escopo e os limites do federalismo cooperativo que predomina na Alemanha e no Brasil. Os resultados encontrados apontam para a persistência da necessidade de mecanismos cooperativos para realização do projeto federativo em ambos os países estudados, embora existam questionamentos crescentes sobre o federalismo fiscal definido no início da década de 1990, especialmente na Alemanha, o que termina estimulando conflitos entre a União e os estados, e destes entre si, e exigindo permanente disposição para negociação política.
The research on federal systems in many countries has proven to have permanent relevance, specially recently, in face of the dynamics related to the nature of nation-states in Europe as well as in Latin America. Within this context, this work discusses cooperative mechanisms in the framework of the political dynamics in Germany and Brazil from the nineties onwards. The purpose is to compare constitutional principles guiding both federative models, the fiscal federalism adopted in both countries and the composition and role of the upper chamber in both cases. Recent tendencies, tensions and political negotiations set the scope and the limits of the predominating cooperative federalism in Germany and Brazil and shall be analyzed through case studies that present the main federative conflicts. The main results point to the need of cooperative mechanisms for the fulfillment of the federative project in both countries, even though major issues about the fiscal federalism persist since the beginning of the nineties, especially in Germany. This tends to stimulate conflicts between the federal government and the states, and among subnational units, demanding a permanent willingness for political negotiations.

This thesis defines "federation" as a set of structures and techniques, by means of which the constituent members of a union are given guaranteed access to and are accommodated within the decision-procedure of the centre. Meanwhile, "federalism" is taken to signify the philosophical, or ideological prescription, or promotion, of such a union. The thesis commences by identifying the major shortcomings of the Anglo-Saxon academic literature on federation for a comparative analysis of federalism and federation in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The two main aims of the thesis are then outlined. These are first, to identify the nature of the tradition of federalism in Austria, Switzerland and Germany. The second is to illustrate, by reference to the period immediately preceding the crystallisation of the party systems of those countries, the use of federalism as a political ideology. These aims are fulfiled in Parts 2 & 3 of the thesis. By means of its systematic, comparative analysis of federalism in Austria, Switzerland and Germany from the early sixteenth century until 1850, the thesis develops a typology of federalism, which permits it to identify the six “dimensions" of a distinctive, "Germanic”, tradition of federalism. Second, the detailed analysis in the thesis of the use of federalism during the first half of the nineteenth century shows how, within existing federations, a wide range of political groupings constituting the antecedents of modern political parties availed themselves of federalism for the promotion of their political aims. Amongst the conclusions of Part 4 of the thesis is that more attention should be devoted to the study of the interaction of federalism and federation and in particular, to how federalism is utilised by politial parties, both to legitimate and to reform federations.

À partir d’une étude systématique du droit positif des seize Länder de la République Fédérale d’Allemagne, il s’agit de montrer que l’initiative populaire ne relève pas de la démocratie dite directe ou immédiate. Contrairement à la conception communément admise, cette institution démocratique qui permet à un nombre limité de citoyens non élus de participer à l’élaboration de la loi et au contrôle des organes de l’État, s’inscrit bien dans la démocratie médiate. Par l’élaboration d’une typologie des procédures d’initiative populaire en Allemagne, il est alors possible de remettre en question la conception classique tendant à identifier l’initiative populaire au « référendum d’initiative populaire ». Cette approche est en effet réductrice, car elle ne permet pas de rendre compte de la coexistence et de la spécificité des deux types d’initiative populaire mis au jour : l’initiative populaire décisionnelle – qui peut conduire à un référendum, si le Parlement du Land n’adopte pas la demande formulée par les citoyens – et l’initiative populaire propositive – une procédure à vocation non référendaire. Pour démontrer que l’initiative populaire relève de la démocratie médiate, le recours au concept de potentiel populaire permet d’une part de souligner la spécificité théorique de l’initiative populaire par rapport au référendum qui renvoie classiquement à la notion de puissance populaire. D’autre part, cette idée de potentiel populaire permet de redonner à l’initiative populaire une unité conceptuelle, au-delà de la variété des procédures et des types d’initiative populaire, identifiés par l’analyse des droits positifs des seize États fédérés allemands. La proposition de définition du potentiel populaire combine enfin les deux éléments de définition de la démocratie médiate : tout d’abord, le potentiel populaire peut être défini comme l’ensemble des limites juridiques constitutives de l’initiative populaire, ce qui renvoie à l’idée de démocratie représentée, mise en forme et donc nécessairement limitée par le droit qui constitue dès lors le medium de la participation démocratique ; ensuite, ces limites constitutives permettent à la minorité populaire de représenter une possible volonté générale, ce qui permet de justifier la conception de l’initiative populaire, medium d’une volonté générale potentielle, comme institution de la démocratie représentative
Offering a systematic study of positive law in all sixteen Länder of the Federal Republic of Germany, this thesis intends to show that popular initiative does not partake of direct, or immediate, democracy. Contrary to what is commonly thought, this democratic institution, which allows a limited number of non-elected citizens to participate in the elaboration of the law and in the controlling of State organs, does belong squarely in the realm of mediated democracy. By establishing a typology of the different procedures of popular initiative in Germany, one may therefore question the classical conception, which tends to identify the popular initiative with a “referendum by popular initiative.” Such an approach is indeed reductive since it cannot account for the coexistence and the respective singularities of two kinds of popular initiatives: the decision-making popular initiative – which can lead to a referendum if the Parliament of the Land does not grant the citizens’ demand – and the propositive popular initiative – which is not meant to lead to a referendum. In order to demonstrate that popular initiative partakes of a mediated democracy, this thesis resorts to the concept of popular potential, which allows first to underline the theoretical specificity of the popular initiative compared to the referendum, which classically relies on the notion of popular power. Second, with the idea of popular potential, popular initiative can once again be conceived of as a unified concept, beyond the variety of existing procedures and the different kinds of popular initiative in the sixteen federated States of Germany. Finally, the proposed definition of the popular potential combines the two defining elements of mediated democracy: first, popular potential can be defined as the set of legal limits that are constitutive of the popular initiative, which harks back to the idea of a represented and formalized democracy, thus necessarily limited by the law which therefore constitutes the medium for democratic participation; and second, these constitutive limits may allow the popular minority to represent possible the general will, which justifies to conceive of popular initiative, the medium of a potential general will, as one of the institutions of representative democracy

Fondé à Munich en octobre 1946 suite à la réorganisation d’un proto-parti mariant rejet de l’unitarisme autoritaire et provincialisme anti-prussien, le Bayernpartei (BP) se fit après la guerre le courtier des revendications autonomistes bavaroises et le médiateur de l’hostilité populaire à l’égard des réfugiés allemands originaires d’Europe centrale et orientale. Couronné de succès lors des élections fédérales post-dictatoriales de 1949 – à l’occasion desquelles il recueillit 20,9% des voix en Bavière –, il présente la particularité d’avoir subi pendant vingt ans un déclin électoral régulier, et d’avoir totalement cessé d’être « relevant » au sens de Sartori au moment même où l’on assistait à l’échelle européenne, et même occidentale, à un nouvel essor des partis et formations régionalistes procédant du clivage centre/périphérie.Quels sont les déterminants causaux du progressif déclin du Bayernpartei ? Quels facteurs explicatifs apparaissent susceptibles de rendre compte de sa graduelle transformation en ce que Manfred Rowold estime être une simple association folklorique sans importance ? Tel est le questionnement sous-tendant le présent travail de thèse, et auquel l’auteur propose de répondre en se dégageant du rétrospectivisme monocausal, linéariste et exogénéisant dont firent preuve les (rares) politistes ayant tenté de rendre compte de l’étiolement politique passé du parti régionaliste bavarois
Founded in Munich in October 1946 after the reorganisation of a proto-party combining rejection of authoritarian unitarism and anti-Prussian provincialism, the Bavaria Party (Bayernpartei) appeared after the Second World War as the spreader of the Bavarian claims for autonomy, and as the echo box of popular hostility against German refugees from Central and Eastern Europe. After having been crowned with success at the German federal election of 1949 – on which it collected 20,9% of the votes in Bavaria –, he was affected during two decades by a steady electoral decline, so much so that it completely ceased to be “relevant” in the sense of Sartori at the very time when political scientists were witnessing at European (and even Western) level a new upsurge of regionalist parties and organisations.What are the causal determinants of the progressive decline of the Bavaria Party? What explanatory factors can be advanced to account for its gradual transformation into what Manfred Rowold considers to be a simple and irrelevant folk association? This is the question underlying the present work and to which the author proposes to respond by working on the assumption that it is necessary to break with the monocausal, linearist and exogenousing retrospectivism characterizing the analyses of the (rare) political scientists who have already attempted to explain the withering away of the Bavarian regionalist party

博士
淡江大學
歐洲研究所博士班
98
As Prof. Robert Keohane pointed out, “In 1992, the EC signed the Maastricht Treaty, establishing the European Monetary Union (EMU), and the three pillars of the EU, enabling the European Union to enter a new era. EU organizations’ new functions are changing the interests of the international community’s main actor: i.e. the nation state.” This aspect of the EU’s development deserves to be explored further. Although the EU Constitutional Treaty’s approval procedure has been locked in a stalemate, after 50 years of EU Integration, its Institutions have developed a stable operations mechanism, and the subject of whether the EU can successfully and smoothly transform from a confederation to a federation requires further observation and analysis. In addition, EU Integration trends appear similar to those of German federalism, and the question of whether German federalism has influenced EU Integration deserves to be explored further. Federalism is the basis of the dissertation’s approach, and the EU’s development trends are explored from the level of system and policy, through the distinctive features of German federalism in comparison with EU institutional operation, to review EU integration trends, in order to discover whether the EU could be following the German route in this respect. The analytical approach includes historical research, information analysis, comparative research and cause explanation, using the analysis and collation of historical materials to ensure accurate conclusions and explanation, and using comparative research to explore the distinctive features of German federalism and the EU’s institutional operations mechanism as well as to examine the similarities and differences. Using causal explanation to review the processes of European integration, we will classify and analyze the independent elements that led to the current situation, and then propose research findings. The dissertation includes nine chapters: Chapter one is the introduction, chapter two explores the distinctive features and operation of German federalism, chapter three is a review of the processes of European integration, chapter four describes EU federal trends in system integration, chapter five explores the EU’s federal trends in policy integration, chapter six compares the EU’s institutional operations mechanism with the distinctive features and operations of German federalism, chapter seven explores the German experience’s influence on EU integration trends, chapter eight contains an evaluation and outlook on the situation, and chapter nine is the conclusion. By comparing the EU’s institutional operations mechanisms with the distinctive features of German federalism, one can discover clear similarities, and from the level of system and policy one can also find the influence of German federalism on European integration. In German scholar Prof. Tanja A. Boerzel’s point of view, the EU can learn from the German experience how to improve efficiency and deal with democratic deficit. The functions and operations of EU institutions are similar in many respects to those of a working federation. These are just a few examples of how and why the EU is often perceived by observers and commentators as approximating to a federal Europe. But, it is also commonly agreed, that the EU has developed into more than an organization or confederation of states, without having become a federal entity, and few expect the EU to develop into a full-fledged federation in the sense of a true federal state.

The European Union (or the European Community) challenges both academic scholarship and political leadership by presenting a phenomenon that is rather unique in the international milieux. The integration of the twelve member states of the European Union questions the fundamental assumption of international politics, namely, the nation-state as the primary entity in the international system. This dissertation purports to expand our understanding of international integration by comparing the federal and national integration of Germany with that of the European Union By comparing and contrasting integration theories such as functionalism, neofunctionalism and federalism with intergovernmentalism the dissertation attempts to shed some light on the future course of the European Union. Such an exercise is conducted by examining German integration which began in early nineteenth century. German unification in the nineteenth century started with the building of a customs union which was the forerunner to regional confederal arrangements and finally the Bismarckian federation of 1871. The integration of the member states of the European Union closely resembles the patterns of German unification Furthermore, a close examination of the German federal system reveals that intergovernmentalism is not antithetical to federalism. The German federal system as designed by the 1949 federal constitution is characterized as intergovernmental federalism. An implication of this for international integration theory is that the differences between supranationalism--as espoused by functionalist, neofunctionalist and federalist theorists--and nationalism (as advocated by intergovernmentalists) can be bridged by emphasizing that intergovernmentalism can coexist with federalism and that they are not mutually exclusive categories. Thus, by delving into comparative politics scholarship on German federalism, this dissertation attempts to find a common ground for drawing parallels and to learn some lessons for international relations theory as it applies to the institutions and processes of the European Union
acase@tulane.edu

The purpose of this thesis is to acquaint the reader with the processes and the results of the recent reforms of federalism in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. It is remarkable that in spite of their historical, geographical and cultural proximity show these federal countries substantive differences in the institutional framework as well as in the execution of the reform procedures. This thesis considers also the potential possibility to (partly) apply the knowledge and experience of these reforms within the EU framework. Despite difficult comparison of the EU with the federal countries there are certain identical elements and processes, may it be the execution of the shared competences or reallocation of the public finances. In order to better understand these deliberations and due to the modest Czech literature on federalism and federations the thesis provides also historical perspective as well as broader theoretical background.

The presented thesis examines the process of adoption of new constitutional rule - debt brake - into german Grundgesetz. Germany attempts to establish the debt brake not only on European level, but also recommends other EU states to accept it. The goal of this thesis is to descripe and evaluate the process which has led up to acceptance of the debt brake as one of potential solutions to stop the excessively growing indebtedness and which has been by far influenced by the work of II. commision for federalism reform. The thessis strives to answer the questions if there was political, expert and social agreement on the issue, how does it influence budget sovereignty of the federal lands and if it really can be an effective instrument in the effort for stopping of indebtness increase, alternatively if it brings any effect even before it came into force, for example in the form of preparing of the budgets for 2016 and 2020 respectivelly. One part of the thesis is dedicated to Swiss debt brake, which served as a model for the german one, especially in terms of it's functionality. Even though it is complicated to evaluate the debt brake before it came into force, the results of the thesis showed for example the problematic nature of the relation between debt brake in the Grundgesetz and individual...

Staatliche Innovationsförderung erklärt Firmen, besonders kleinere Unternehmen, die Hindernissen zur Innovationstätigkeitgegenüberstehen, zu unterstützen. Frühere Studien haben gezeigt, dass staatliche Programme diese Ziele nicht erreichen. Aber in der Vergangenheit wurde hierbei selten die Differenzierung unterschiedlicher politischer Ebenen analysiert. Dieses Projekt analysiert deshalb die unterschiedlichen Eigenschaften von geförderten Firmen, die entweder von der regionalen, der nationalen oder der europäischen Ebene unterstützt wurden und verknüpft dies mit der theoretischen Literatur und Erkenntnissen zu Föderalismus. Die Evaluation nutzt dabei zuerst Daten des Mannheimer Innovation Panel für die Untersuchung in Deutschland und später Daten der Community Innovation Survey für die Untersuchung in Europa. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die drei verschiedenen Ebenen der Förderung Unternehmen mit unterschiedlichen Charakteristika erreichen. Die regionale Ebene in föderalen und semiföderalen Ländern erreicht dabei KMU als Unternehmen mit Problemen bei der Innovationstätigkeit signifikant besser als andere Ebenen dies tun. Aber die Effektivität der staatlichen Innovationsförderung ist nach der Analyse sehr zweifelhaft. Deshalb muss seitens der Politik ein Zielkonflikt zwischen einer größeren Vielfalt an geförderten Firmen und höherer Effektivität der Förderung berücksichtigt werden.