Suchergebnisse

Der Band liefert einen breiten Überblick zum Wandel kommunaler Aufgabenwahrnehmung. Im Fokus stehen aktuelle Kommunalisierungs- und Regionalisierungsreformen sowie damit verbundene Gebietsreformen im nationalen wie internationalen Kontext. Analysen und Bilanzen der Reformprozesse werden sowohl aus der Perspektive verschiedener Wissenschaftsdisziplinen (Politik- und Verwaltungswissenschaft, Rechtswissenschaft, Betriebswirtschaft) als auch aus Sicht von Praktikern und Entscheidungsträgern vorgestellt.

Abolishing the 5-percent threshold clause for municipal elections in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia in 1999 was driven by a weighting between the norms of an equality of votes and equality of chances on the one hand, the need for the councils to be able to perform on the other. The effects on the composition and working capacities of the municipal councils were considerable: The number of fractions, groupings and individual members in the municipal parliaments of the large cities increased; in the smaller municipalities this fragmenting effect is smoothened by a "natural threshold". The increase in the number of groupings and fractions caused a considerable negative impact on parliamentary working capacities. This manifests in longer debates, instable majorities and redundant discussions due to disturbances in the division of work between committees and the council plenum. Hence, a moderate threshold of 2.5 percent should be (re-)established which does not affect the equality of votes and chances in the smaller municipalities, but will facilitate the working conditions in the councils of larger cities. Adapted from the source document.

This article evaluates the results and impacts of administrative modernization in Germany after more than 10 years of New Public Management experience, concentrating on the most advanced level of public sector reform: local authorities. Drawing on a broad empirical basis, the authors pursue the following questions: Do "Weber‐ ian" administrative structures and processes continue to characterize the German public sector, or have the reforms left behind lasting traces of a managerial administration? Are local authorities performing better today, and if so, can this be attributed to the New Public Management modernization? The presented results show that no paradigm shift from the "Weberian" bureaucracy to New Public Management has occurred so far. Performance improvements notwithstanding, the new mix of steering instruments causes numerous unintended consequences, causing "Weberian" administration to reemerge.

This contribution investigates the exogenous and endogenous determinants of local government debts in Germany. The municipality cannot influence exogenous factors, whereas endogenous factors are largely driven by the local political competition and exhibit their effects mainly in the local context. Triangulation of different methods is used to reach robust results, encompassing both quantitative research methods and qualitative methods like case studies and interviews. The analysis can thus show, that the local debts are not only explained by socioeconomic, demographic, and income factors, but that political-institutional factors like the local constitutional law, the mayor's party affiliation and the size of the local council are also relevant. In addition, the case studies lend support to the hypothesis that consensus arrangements in the municipality lead to a better financial situation. Adapted from the source document.