Département Sciences sociales de l’environnement

Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance (PEGO)

Kontakt

Prof. Dr. Karin IngoldChef de groupe, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5676Envoyez un message
Dr. Manuel FischerChef de groupe, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5676Envoyez un message

Die Forschung im Cluster Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance (PEGO) ist inspiriert durch aktuelle Umwelt- und Gesellschaftsprobleme und umfasst Themen wie die Integration von verschiedenen Aspekten von Wassermanagement; die Gründe und Auswirkungen des Klimawandels; sowie die Umsetzung der Energiewende.

Basierend auf Politik-Prozess Theorien, institutionellen Ansätzen und Multi-Level Governance Konzepten, fokussieren wir uns hauptsächlich auf das Design von innovativen und wirkungsvollen Politiken, die Wahl von Politikinstrumenten und –massnahmen, sowie die Integration von Akteuren aus verschiedenen Entscheidungsebenen, Politiksektoren, und geographischen Einheiten.

Unser methodischer Fokus liegt auf Ansätzen zur Analyse und Modellierung sozialer Netzwerke. Daneben verbinden wir diese Ansätze mit anderen qualitativen und quantitativen Methoden wie der Diskursanalyse, der Qualitativ-Komparativen Analyse (QCA), oder der Multikriterienanalyse.

PEGO ist institutionell an den Lehrstuhl für Policy Analyse mit Schwerpunkt Umwelt an der Universität Bern gebunden.

News

Neues Lehrbuch zur Umweltpolitik in der Schweiz von Karin Ingold et al.

Karin Ingold et al. (2016) haben das Lehrbuch „Umweltpolitik der Schweiz – ein Lehrbuch“ herausgegeben. Dieses Lehrbuch bietet einerseits eine Einführung in die Policy-Analyse und andererseits werden Wesensmerkmale der Prozesse, Inhalte und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen der Schweizer Umweltpolitik dargestellt. Dazu fokussiert es stark auf die inhaltlichen Aspekte der Politik bzw. was unter dem Begriff Policy verstanden wird. Als Illustration der Umweltpolitik werden Beispiele aus verschiedenen umweltrelevanten Politikfeldern wie der Gewässerschutzpolitik oder der Klimapolitik herangezogen.

PEGO mit Spezialausgabe in Environmental Policy and Governance

PEGO hat eine Spezialausgabe mit sechs Beiträgen und Fallstudien zu grenzüberschreitendem und integriertem Wassermanagement im Environmental Policy und Governance Journal mit herausgegeben. Die Spezialausgabe fand ihren Anfang in einem Austausch mit internationalen Forschern an der EPCR Konferenz in in Bordeaux im Jahr 2013. Aus den daraus resultierenden Erkenntnissen entstand eine Spezialausgabe welche Fallstudien sowohl aus Ländern des globalen Süden wie Nordens umfasst. Die Spezialausgabe widmet sich vornehmlich den Themen collaborative Governance, Policy Integration und grenzüberschreitendem Wassermanagement. Sie ist erhältlich unter: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/eet.v26.4/issuetoc

 

 

Forschung

Fragmentierung und Subsysteme in der Schweizer Wasserpolitik

Überlappende Subsysteme
Effektive und effiziente Regulierung von grenzüberschreitenden Mikroverunreinigungen

CrossWater - Regulierung grenzüberschreitender Verunreinigungen
Politikwandel in Richtung alternativer und erneuerbarer Energie

Future Energy Policy: Die Akzeptanz alternativer Energien stärken
Politik-Foren in der Wasser- und Umweltgovernance

Politik-Foren im Bereich der Wasser- und Umweltgovernance
Lokale Strategien zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel

Strategien zur Anpassung an den Klimawandel in der Schweiz
Auswirkungen von Tele-Koppelung zwischen verschiedenen Systemen auf die Landnutzung, Ökosystemdienstleistungen und das menschliche Wohlergehen.

Management von Tele-gekoppelten Landschaften
Anpassen von kollaborativen Governance Systemen an aquatische Ökosysteme

Sozio-ökologische Netzwerke

Team

Prof. Dr. Karin IngoldChef de groupe, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5676Envoyez un message
Dr. Manuel FischerChef de groupe, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5676Envoyez un message
Dr. Simon MaagPostdoc, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 6451Envoyez un message
Laurence BrandenbergerDoctorante, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5598Envoyez un message
Mario AngstDoctorant, Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5391Envoyez un message
Lorenz KammermannPhD Student; Cluster: PEGOTel. +41 58 765 5927Envoyez un message

Universität Bern

Marlene Kammerer
Laura Herzog
Anik Glaus
Diane Porcellana
Fadri Crameri
Ruth Wiedemann

Ehemalige Mitarbeiter

Nadja Kunz
Philip Leifeld
Eva Lieberherr
Florence Metz
Alexander Widmer


Publikationen

Publikationen 2018

Misfit between physical affectedness and regulatory embeddedness: thecase of drinking water supply along the Rhine River

One open question in environmental sciences is whether effective management of natural resources depends on the fit between the bio-physical and the governance system. To address this question, we investigate water quality in transboundary rivers and ask to what extent a fit between the area covered by the physical extent of pollution and the area in which this pollution is addressed through management and policy regulation can be observed. We adopt a spatial approach and argue that the visualization of social-ecological overlap and misfit supports science and practice when taking decisions about how best to explain or address ineffectiveness and cause-effect mismatches in transboundary river management.
We focus on drinking water supply in the international river basin of the Rhine focusing on micropollutants. These persistent trace compounds have potential toxic effects on humans and ecosystems, which makes them a relevant type of pollution that needs to be taken into consideration. Based on a combination of mass flow and social network analysis, we can conclude that the Rhine River is characterized by large social-ecological overlap, but that some parts of the catchment area still lack integration.
Ingold, K.; Moser, A.; Metz, F.; Herzog, L.; Bader, H.-P.; Scheidegger, R.; Stamm, C. (2018) Misfit between physical affectedness and regulatory embeddedness: thecase of drinking water supply along the Rhine River, Global Environmental Change, 48, 136-150, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2017.11.006, Institutional Repository

Mainstreaming climate adaptation in Switzerland: how the national adaptation strategy is implemented differently across sectors

Due to few comparative studies, explanations for differences in adaptation mainstreaming between sectors remain widely unclear. The article analyzes how adaptation mainstreaming was approached during the development of the Swiss National Adaptation Strategy and to what extent adaptation objectives were mainstreamed into sectoral policies. The analysis reveals that in Switzerland, adaptation objectives are integrated more substantially into sectoral policies when they overlap with primary sectoral objectives but generally backing by organizational and procedural measures is lacking. The results suggest a similar pattern for adaptation mainstreaming as for EPI: While policy frameworks such as strategies are adopted rather easily, a move towards more binding measures that interfere with sectoral policy-making and the existing institutional structure is much more challenging. In contrast to environmental concerns, climate change impacts are expected to be considered more substantially resulting in a more substantive mainstreaming of adaptation objectives and measures on a sectoral level. As these measures might negatively affect other sectors, the main challenge of adaptation mainstreaming is to consistently address the cross-cutting nature of adaption and to establish procedures to coordinate sectoral measures in order to avoid such negative externalities.
Widmer, A. (2018) Mainstreaming climate adaptation in Switzerland: how the national adaptation strategy is implemented differently across sectors, Environmental Science and Policy, 82, 71-78, doi:10.1016/j.envsci.2018.01.007, Institutional Repository

Connectors and coordinators in natural resource governance: insights from Swiss water supply

Fragmentation across scales in natural resource governance can impede coordinated action and decrease innovation capacity. Bridging actors who connect others within governance networks helps to overcome this challenge. We analyze two bridging positions for actors in governance networks. First, periphery connectors integrate otherwise unconnected actors and provide access to new knowledge. Second, central coordinators efficiently connect actors at the center of the network and thus facilitate coordinated action. We propose a way to identify periphery connectors and central coordinators within governance networks and formulate expectations about types of actors that are likely to occupy these positions. An analysis of three actor networks in the water supply sector in Switzerland suggests that periphery coordinator positions are more likely to be occupied by organizations at higher jurisdictional levels. Central coordinator positions are more likely to be occupied by governmental actors as compared to nongovernmental actors. Thus, in addressing challenges of fragmentation, higher level governmental actors continue to play an important role, even when they delegate responsibilities to lower level and private actors.
Angst, M.; Widmer, A.; Fischer, M.; Ingold, K. (2018) Connectors and coordinators in natural resource governance: insights from Swiss water supply, Ecology and Society, 23(2), 1 (15 pp.), doi:10.5751/ES-10030-230201, Institutional Repository

Publikationen 2017

Metagovernance and policy forum outputs in Swiss environmental politics

Policy forums are lightly institutionalized and stable forms of governance networks that include administrative authorities, interest groups, and scientists. They are said to produce different types of outputs, from simple actor coordination to position papers and implementation documents, but their productivity has also been questioned. Metagovernance strategies can improve the capability of policy forums to produce outputs. To determine how different metagovernance strategies influence the capability of forums to produce joint position papers, 29 policy forums in the Swiss environmental sector are compared through a qualitative comparative analysis. Results indicate that metagovernance strategies such as state actors as forum members or majority decision rules need to be combined with small forum size or low actor heterogeneity. Furthermore, forum foundation by the state complicates the production of position papers.
Fischer, M.; Schläpfer, I. (2017) Metagovernance and policy forum outputs in Swiss environmental politics, Environmental Politics, 1-23, doi:10.1080/09644016.2017.1284981, Institutional Repository

Collaboration patterns in the German political science co-authorship network

Research on social processes in the production of scientific output suggests that the collec- tive research agenda of a discipline is influenced by its structural features, such as “invisible colleges” or “groups of collaborators” as well as academic “stars” that are embedded in, or connect, these research groups. Based on an encompassing dataset that takes into account multiple publication types including journals and chapters in edited volumes, we analyze the complete co-authorship network of all 1,339 researchers in German political science. Through the use of consensus graph clustering techniques and descriptive centrality mea- sures, we identify the ten largest research clusters, their research topics, and the most cen- tral researchers who act as bridges and connect these clusters. We also aggregate the findings at the level of research organizations and consider the inter-university co-author- ship network. The findings indicate that German political science is structured by multiple overlapping research clusters with a dominance of the subfields of international relations, comparative politics and political sociology. A small set of well-conne cted universities takes leading roles in these informal research groups.
Leifeld, P.; Wankmüller, S.; Berger, V. T. Z.; Ingold, K.; Steiner, C. (2017) Collaboration patterns in the German political science co-authorship network, PLoS One, 12(4), e0174671 (35 pp.), doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0174671, Institutional Repository

Identifying drivers of China's provincial wastewater reuse outcomes using qualitative comparative analysis

In water-scarce regions of China, wastewater reuse is increasingly considered as a potential component of China's future water resource management strategy. Currently, the percentage of wastewater reuse varies substantially across Chinese provinces, but conditions leading to a high rate of wastewater reuse have not been elucidated clearly. In this work, we use fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the drivers of high and low percentages of wastewater reuse in water-stressed Chinese provinces in 2013. We find that among the five conditions studied (per capita water availability, urban population, access to sea, access to urban space, and access to agricultural land), a high percentage of wastewater reuse is primarily driven by water stress and access to urban green space. Consequently, policies should consider targeting provinces with these attributes where wastewater reuse is more likely to be successful. Further, our results show that there is asymmetry in the conditions that lead to high and low percentages of wastewater reuse, and that the drivers for and against reuse identified in this study are not completely analogous to those identified in previous studies. As such, the drivers for and against wastewater reuse should not be generalized without due consideration of the local context.
Jiang, D.; Fischer, M.; Huang, Z.; Kunz, N. (2017) Identifying drivers of China's provincial wastewater reuse outcomes using qualitative comparative analysis, Journal of Industrial Ecology, xx (8 pp.), doi:10.1111/jiec.12584, Institutional Repository

Information exchange under uncertainty: the case of unconventional gas development in the United Kingdom

New techniques of unconventional oil and gas extraction, such as hydraulic fracturing, challenge current political, institutional and administrative practices in how to regulate activities in the underground. Conflicts of interests between economic promotion, landscape and natural resource protection, and new trends on energy markets are further intensified by the fact that techniques of oil and gas extraction come with a considerable amount of uncertainties regarding ecological and health impacts. Information exchange is one important aspect of how political actors try to reduce uncertainties and conflicts. Based on exponential random graph models (ERGM) for network data, we analyze to what degree ideologies, public authority, existing collaboration and scientific expertise drive information exchange in hydraulic fracturing regulation in the United Kingdom. Results show that technical and political information exchange have to be disentangled, and that the former is driven by expertise and existing collaboration, the latter by ideology, public authority and existing collaboration.
Fischer, M.; Ingold, K.; Ivanova, S. (2017) Information exchange under uncertainty: the case of unconventional gas development in the United Kingdom, Land Use Policy, 67, 200-211, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2017.05.003, Institutional Repository

Politics of the precautionary principle: assessing actors' preferences in water protection policy

This paper analyzes the prospects for introducing the precautionary principle in water protection policy. In situations where a problem enters the political agenda and scientific uncertainties remain about causes or effects, political actors can justify state intervention based on the precautionary principle. It allows for public action even if risks related to the problem remain unclear. While the precautionary principle is widely applied in health and environmental policy fields all over the world, the mechanisms leading to its adoption are not fully understood. To close this gap, the paper investigates decision-makers preferences for the precautionary principle and further asks: Which factors promote political actors' preferences for precautionary policy measures? In order to answer this question we study the case of emerging micropollutants – a water quality issue that recently entered political agendas, where many uncertainties remain about sources and effects. We rely on data gathered through a standardized survey among the political elite in Switzerland, which represents one of the first countries that adopted policy measures to reduce micropollutants in water bodies, despite the uncertainties that remain. Results analyzed through a temporal network autocorrelation model reveal that actors embedded in collaborative governance arrangements have the tendency to prefer precautionary action. Certain aspects of policy design, such as problem prioritization and target group membership, also impact the prospects for introducing the precautionary principle.
Metz, F.; Ingold, K. (2017) Politics of the precautionary principle: assessing actors' preferences in water protection policy, Policy Sciences, 50(4), 721-743, doi:10.1007/s11077-017-9295-z, Institutional Repository

Co-participation in the Swiss water forum network

In polycentric governance systems, actors interact in different venues, such as forums which foster cross-sectoral interaction. This analysis centres on water forums in Switzerland and on actors with multiple forum memberships, creating interactions throughout the entire forum network. Findings show that the central actors in the entire water forum network are predominantly from the public administration sector, even though members from the private sector are most numerous. Despite an emphasis on the bottom-up and self-organizing character of polycentric governance systems in the literature, this analysis shows that public administration actors still play a crucial role as network managers and brokers.
Fischer, M.; Angst, M.; Maag, S. (2017) Co-participation in the Swiss water forum network, International Journal of Water Resources Development, xx, doi:10.1080/07900627.2017.1374929, Institutional Repository

Networks and social influence in European legislative politics

The Treaty of Lisbon strengthened the role of national parliaments in the European Union. It introduced an 'early warning system', granting parliamentary chambers the right to reject legislative proposals by the European Commission. Previous studies assumed independence between the decisions of parliaments to reject a legislative proposal. We apply recent advances in inferential network analysis and argue that parliamentary vetoes are better explained by conceptualizing parliaments' veto actions as a temporal network. Network effects can be observed along the dimension of party families. Based on a new permutation approach, we find that parliaments with similar party majorities influence each other over the course of the decision period ('social influence'), rather than basing their decisions independently on joint prior partisanship ('selection').
Malang, T.; Brandenberger, L.; Leifeld, P. (2017) Networks and social influence in European legislative politics, British Journal of Political Science, doi:10.1017/S0007123417000217, Institutional Repository

Publikationen 2016

Network dynamics in natural resource governance: a case study of Swiss landscape management

Structural characteristics of social networks have been recognized as important factors of effective natural resource governance. However, network analyses of natural resource governance most often remain static, even though governance is an inherently dynamic process. In this article, we investigate the evolution of a social network of organizational actors involved in the governance of natural resources in a regional nature park project in Switzerland. We ask how the maturation of a governance network affects bonding social capital and centralization in the network. Applying separable temporal exponential random graph modeling (STERGM), we test two hypotheses based on the risk hypothesis by Berardo and Scholz (2010) in a longitudinal setting. Results show that network dynamics clearly follow the expected trend toward generating bonding social capital but do not imply a shift toward less hierarchical and more decentralized structures over time. We investigate how these structural processes may contribute to network effectiveness over time.
Angst, M.; Hirschi, C. (2017) Network dynamics in natural resource governance: a case study of Swiss landscape management, Policy Studies Journal, 45(2), 315-336, doi:10.1111/psj.12145, Institutional Repository

Torn between state and market: private policy implementation and conflicting institutional logics

Policy implementation by private actors constitutes a "missing link" for understanding the implications of private governance. This paper proposes and assesses an institutional logics framework that combines a top-down, policy design approach with a bottom-up, implementation perspective on discretion. We argue that the conflicting institutional logics of the state and the market, in combination with differing degrees of goal ambiguity, accountability and hybridity play a crucial role for output performance. These arguments are analyzed based on a secondary analysis of seven case studies of private and hybrid policy implementation in diverging contexts. We find that aligning private output performance with public interests is at least partly a question of policy design congruence: private implementing actors tend to perform deficiently when the conflicting logics of the state and the market combine with weak accountability mechanisms.
Thomann, E.; Lieberherr, E.; Ingold, K. (2016) Torn between state and market: private policy implementation and conflicting institutional logics, Policy and Society, 35(1), 57-69, doi:10.1016/j.polsoc.2015.12.001, Institutional Repository

Drivers of collaboration in political decision making: a cross-sector perspective

Collaboration between actors in political decision-making processes is crucial from both an actor and a process perspective.Previous studies have highlighted the role of preference similarity, power, and opportunity structures as drivers of collaboration. However, these studies have focused on single policy sectors and have therefore overlooked possible differences in effects across sectors, as well as interactions between sectors. This article innovates by taking a cross-sector perspective. Applying exponential random graph models to collaboration networks covering 11 decisionmaking processes, we show that relational opportunity structures have a fairly consistent influence on collaboration, whereas the effects of social and institutional opportunity structures vary across processes. The effect of institutional opportunity structures is contingent on the importance of institutional arenas. Our hypothesis on cross-sector influences receives partial support. Opportunity structures and interactions between sectors add to preference similarity and power, which have a strong and robust influence on collaborative tie formation.
Fischer, M.; Sciarini, P. (2016) Drivers of collaboration in political decision making: a cross-sector perspective, Journal of Politics, 78(1), 63-74, doi:10.1086/683061, Institutional Repository

Drivers for and against municipal wastewater recycling: a review

The reclamation, treatment and reuse of municipal wastewater can provide important environmental benefits. In this paper, 25 studies on this topic were reviewed and it was found that there are many (>150) different drivers acting for and against wastewater recycling. To deal with the challenge of comparing studies which entailed different research designs, a framework was developed which allowed the literature to be organized into comparable study contexts. Studies were categorized according to the level of analysis (wastewater recycling scheme, city, water utility, state, country, global) and outcome investigated (development/investment in new schemes, program implementation, percentage of wastewater recycled, percentage of water demand covered by recycled water, multiple outcomes). Findings across comparable case studies were then grouped according to the type (for or against recycling) and category of driver (social, natural, technical, economic, policy or business). The utility of the framework is demonstrated by summarizing the findings from four Australian studies at the city level. The framework offers a unique approach for disentangling the broad range of potential drivers for and against water recycling and to focus on those that seem relevant in specific study contexts. It may offer a valuable starting point for building hypotheses in future work.
Kunz, N. C.; Fischer, M.; Ingold, K.; Hering, J. G. (2016) Drivers for and against municipal wastewater recycling: a review, Water Science and Technology, 73(2), 251-259, doi:10.2166/wst.2015.496, Institutional Repository

Socio-technical transitions and policy change – advocacy coalitions in Swiss energy policy

Policies and politics are an integral part of socio-technical transitions but have not received much attention in the transitions literature so far. Drawing on the advocacy coalition framework, our paper addresses this gap with a study on actors and coalitions in Swiss energy policy. Our results show that advocacy coalitions in Switzerland have largely remained stable despite the Fukushima shock. However, heterogeneity of beliefs has increased and in 2013, even a majority of actors expressed their support for the energy transition – an indication that major policy change might be ahead. It seems that in socio-technical transitions, changes in the policy issue and in the actor base also work toward policy change, next to changes in core beliefs. We make suggestions how the advocacy coalition framework can inform analysis and theory building in transition studies. We also present first ideas about the interplay of socio-technical systems and policy systems.
Markard, J.; Suter, M.; Ingold, K. (2016) Socio-technical transitions and policy change – advocacy coalitions in Swiss energy policy, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions, 18, 215-237, doi:10.1016/j.eist.2015.05.003, Institutional Repository

Structural and institutional determinants of influence reputation: a comparison of collaborative and adversarial policy networks in decision making and implementation

The central assumption in the literature on collaborative networks and policy networks is that political outcomes are affected by a variety of state and nonstate actors. Some of these actors are more powerful than others and can therefore have a considerable effect on decision making. In this article, we seek to provide a structural and institutional explanation for these power differentials in policy networks and support the explanation with empirical evidence. We use a dyadic measure of influence reputation as a proxy for power, and posit that influence reputation over the political outcome is related to vertical integration into the political system by means of formal decision-making authority, and to horizontal integration by means of being well embedded into the policy network. Hence, we argue that actors are perceived as influential because of two complementary factors: (a) their institutional roles and (b) their structural positions in the policy network. Based on temporal and cross-sectional exponential random graph models, we compare five cases about climate, telecommunications, flood prevention, and toxic chemicals politics in Switzerland and Germany. The five networks cover national and local networks at different stages of the policy cycle. The results confirm that institutional and structural drivers seem to have a crucial impact on how an actor is perceived in decision making and implementation and, therefore, their ability to significantly shape outputs and service delivery.
Ingold, K.; Leifeld, P. (2014) Structural and institutional determinants of influence reputation: a comparison of collaborative and adversarial policy networks in decision making and implementation, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 26(1), 1-18, doi:10.1093/jopart/muu043, Institutional Repository

Qualitative comparative analysis and the study of policy processes

Given the increasing popularity of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) for the study of public policy and policy processes, this article offers a review of two key issues: multiple configurational causality and temporality. On the one hand, the study of multiple configurational causal relations allows researchers to deal with the extremely complex set of elements that interact in policy processes. However, this task poses the challenge of balancing deductive and inductive logics in a research design. On the other hand, policy process theories often involve temporal arguments, but QCA does not easily deal with dynamic elements. This article discusses these challenges and proposes several ways to address them. It thereby illustrates the advantages and limitations of QCA for students of policy processes.
Fischer, M.; Maggetti, M. (2016) Qualitative comparative analysis and the study of policy processes, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 1-17, doi:10.1080/13876988.2016.1149281, Institutional Repository
Leifeld, P. (2016) Policy debates as dynamic networks. German pension politics and privatization discourse, 354 p, Institutional Repository

Administration et réseaux d'action publique

Au cœur d’un environnement en transformation profonde et rapide, l’administration contemporaine ne cesse de se réinventer depuis plus de trente ans. Les nombreux programmes de réformes, nécessaires pour la plupart d’entre eux, n’ont cependant pas toujours abouti aux résultats escomptés. Parmi les causes essentielles : une vision par trop technocratique du changement, qui ne laisse pas aux acteurs de terrain la possibilité de s’exprimer suffisamment et de s’impliquer concrètement. Or l’administration publique n’existe véritablement que par les acteurs qui la composent. À tous les niveaux de la hiérarchie politico-administrative, ces femmes et ces hommes donnent vie aux projets menés, s’enthousiasment ou se résignent face aux objectifs à atteindre, coproduisent l’action publique avec les bénéficiaires, en utilisant leur marge de manœuvre à l’intérieur d’un cadre légal qui demeure souvent contraignant. À travers des contributions originales d’auteurs renommés, cet ouvrage apporte des éclairages novateurs, tout en puisant dans les classiques de la sociologie des organisations, pour comprendre l’administration du XXIe siècle. Vue par ses acteurs, responsables politiques, hauts fonctionnaires, " bureaucrates de guichet " ou simplement professionnels, l’administration contemporaine apparaît sous un jour nouveau permettant de mieux comprendre les dynamiques qui la traversent et les enjeux au cœur de son développement.
Varone, F.; Ingold, K. M.; Fischer, M. (2016) Administration et réseaux d'action publique, In: Giauque, D.; Emery, Y. (Eds.), L'acteur et la bureaucratie au XXle siècle, 115-140, Institutional Repository

Dealing with bad guys: actor- and process-level determinants of the “devil shift” in policy making

Policy actors tend to misinterpret and distrust opponents in policy processes. This phenomenon, known as the “devil shift”, consists of the following two dimensions: actors perceive opponents as more powerful and as more evil than they really are. Analysing nine policy processes in Switzerland, this article highlights the drivers of the devil shift at two levels. On the actor level, interest groups, political parties and powerful actors suffer more from the devil shift than state actors and powerless actors. On the process level, the devil shift is stronger in policy processes dealing with socio-economic issues as compared with other issues. Finally, and in line with previous studies, there is less empirical evidence of the power dimension of the devil shift phenomenon than of its evilness dimension.
Fischer, M.; Ingold, K.; Sciarini, P.; Varone, F. (2016) Dealing with bad guys: actor- and process-level determinants of the “devil shift” in policy making, Journal of Public Policy, 36(2), 309-334, doi:10.1017/S0143814X15000021, Institutional Repository

Do direct-democratic procedures lead to higher acceptance than political representation? Experimental survey evidence from Germany

Are direct-democratic decisions more acceptable to voters than decisions arrived at through representative procedures? We conduct an experimental online vignette study with a German sample to investigate how voters' acceptance of a political decision depends on the process through which it is reached. For a set of different issues, we investigate how acceptance varies depending on whether the decision is the result of a direct-democratic institution, a party in a representative democracy, or an expert committee. Our results show that for important issues, direct democracy generates greater acceptance; this finding holds particularly for those voters who do not agree with a collectively chosen outcome. However, if the topic is of limited importance to the voters, acceptance does not differ between the mechanisms. Our results imply that a combination of representative democracy and direct democracy, conditional on the distribution of issue importance among the electorate, may be optimal with regard to acceptance of political decisions.
Towfigh, E. V.; Goerg, S. J.; Glöckner, A.; Leifeld, P.; Llorente-Saguer, A.; Bade, S.; Kurschilgen, C. (2016) Do direct-democratic procedures lead to higher acceptance than political representation? Experimental survey evidence from Germany, Public Choice, 167, 47-65, doi:10.1007/s11127-016-0330-y, Institutional Repository

Studying policy advocacy through social network analysis

Social Network Analysis (SNA) conceptualizes a policy-making process as a network of actors. It can assess if an interest group (IGs) occupies a leading central position within this policy network, if it belongs to various ad hoc coalitions or if it plays a brokering role between different stakeholders. Such network variables are crucial to capture how IGs mobilize and gain access to policymakers, and to explain their goal achievements and potential policy influence as well. This article reviews recent studies applying the methodological tools of SNA. It then proposes an innovative research design to investigate how IGs seek to influence the course of a policy-making process across many institutional venues.
Varone, F.; Ingold, K.; Jourdain, C. (2016) Studying policy advocacy through social network analysis, European Political Science Review, 1-15, doi:10.1057/eps.2016.16, Institutional Repository

Navigating the range of statistical tools for inferential network analysis

The last decade has seen substantial advances in statistical techniques for the analysis of network data, as well as a major increase in the frequency with which these tools are used. These techniques are designed to accomplish the same broad goal, statistically valid inference in the presence of highly interdependent relationships, but important differences remain between them. We review three approaches commonly used for inferential network analysis—the quadratic assignment procedure, exponential random graph models, and latent space network models—highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the techniques relative to one another. An illustrative example using climate change policy network data shows that all three network models outperform standard logit estimates on multiple criteria. This article introduces political scientists to a class of network techniques beyond simple descriptive measures of network structure, and it helps researchers choose which model to use in their own research.
Cranmer, S. J.; Leifeld, P.; McClurg, S. D.; Rolfe, M. (2017) Navigating the range of statistical tools for inferential network analysis, American Journal of Political Science, 61(1), 237-251, doi:10.1111/ajps.12263, Institutional Repository

Water management across borders, scales and sectors: recent developments and future challenges in water policy analysis

Integrated water resource management (IWRM) is widely accepted and has been implemented though international, national and regional water management guidelines. Nonetheless, concrete implementation of IWRM gives rise to new questions for policy analysis. Scholars interested in water regulation, the design of effective and efficient policy instruments, and structures of participative and multi-level policy processes face challenges regarding research design, concepts and empirical approaches. This special issue integrates research about regional, national and transboundary policy perspectives on water management in seven countries, four continents and two transnational water bodies. From the six articles presented in this special issue, we learn more about how to define integration, to think about borders and scales and to theoretically and empirically study collaborative management in water policy analysis.
Ingold, K.; Fischer, M.; de Boer, C.; Mollinga, P. P. (2016) Water management across borders, scales and sectors: recent developments and future challenges in water policy analysis, Environmental Policy and Governance, 26(4), 223-228, doi:10.1002/eet.1713, Institutional Repository

In the Eye of the Beholder: network location and sustainability perception in flood prevention

The aim of this paper is to investigate how sustainability perceptions are emergent properties of collaborative networks in flood governance in Switzerland. In recent decades, the impact of global warming and multiple stresses on water regimes has influenced the design of new approaches to flood risk management, especially in Western Europe. The use of non-structural measures such as planning tools and watershed campaigns indicates a change from technocratic to more integrated flood governance perspectives. Flood governance is increasingly influenced by the principle of sustainability, understood as stronger horizontal integration of its social, economic and environmental dimensions. The paper examines the integration of sustainability in the design of flood prevention and policies, suggesting that integration relates to participating actors’ perceptions of sustainability and that these perceptions are reflected in network structures. Focusing on four regional case studies, we use survey data and social network analysis to investigate how actors relate to each other and how they rank sustainability indicators. Results show that sustainability perceptions differ strongly across cases, and tend to be more balanced (assigning equal importance to environmental, economic and social indicators) within and sometimes even across actor types and sectors. We find that while actors in central network positions tend to have more balanced sustainability perceptions, context- and project-specific factors impact sustainability perceptions even more.
Balsiger, J.; Ingold, K. (2016) In the Eye of the Beholder: network location and sustainability perception in flood prevention, Environmental Policy and Governance, 26(4), 242-256, doi:10.1002/eet.1715, Institutional Repository

Policy diffusion in the context of international river basin management

This paper deals with policy diffusion across countries in the context of collaborative river basin management. Borrowing from the literature on policy diffusion and ‘smart strategies’ of small European Union member states, we argue that policy diffusion is fostered by structural and agency-related factors. We illustrate our theoretical ideas with a case study on the new Swiss policy on micropollutants in surface waters. Based on a rich set of documents and interviews with key actors, we show that the integration of Switzerland into formal and informal transnational networks fosters the diffusion of its micropollutants policy to other Rhine riparian countries. In addition, we analyse agency-related factors favouring policy diffusion in river basins, such as a country's pioneer role, its expertise, the fact that its policy is in line with general policy goals in other countries and the political acceptance of the policy at home. Our analysis suggests that policy diffusion can be an important phenomenon in integrated water resources management.
Metz, F.; Fischer, M. (2016) Policy diffusion in the context of international river basin management, Environmental Policy and Governance, 26(4), 257-277, doi:10.1002/eet.1716, Institutional Repository

Umweltpolitik der Schweiz. Ein Lehrbuch

Dieses Lehrbuch verfolgt inhaltlich zwei Hauptziele: Erstens bietet es eine Einführung in die Policy-Analyse, und zweitens werden Wesensmerkmale der Prozesse, Inhalte und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen der Schweizer Umweltpolitik dargestellt. Dazu fokussiert es stark auf die inhaltlichen Aspekte der Politik bzw. was unter dem Begriff Policy verstanden wird. Als Illustration der Umweltpolitik werden Beispiele aus verschiedenen umweltrelevanten Politikfeldern wie der Gewässerschutzpolitik oder der Klimapolitik herangezogen. Diese Betrachtungen werden ergänzt durch einen Überblick über neuere Steuerungsansätze wie Governance oder die Umweltpolitikintegration.
Das Ziel dieses Lehrbuches besteht einerseits darin, Studierenden technischer Hoch- und Fachhochschulen, für welche politikwissenschaftliche Ansätze nicht zum Kerngebiet ihres Studiums gehören, das politikwissenschaftliche Denken und Analysieren näherzubringen sowie Besonderheiten des Themenbereiches Umwelt aufzuzeigen. Andererseits eignet sich das Lehrbuch für Studierende der Politikwissenschaft, welche eine umweltbezogene Vertiefung wünschen. So dient dieses Buch als ideales Werkzeug für den Unterricht in der Policy-Analyse im Allgemeinen und der Umweltpolitik und Nachhaltigkeit im Spezifischen.
Dank der Vielfalt der diskutierten Ansätze und Themen, der systematischen Aufarbeitung einzelner Prozesse und einem Überblick über die umfangreiche Literatur zur Schweizer Umweltpolitik stellt dieses Lehrbuch nicht zuletzt auch für Fachleute aus Verwaltung und Praxis sowie generell für Umweltinteressierte ein nützliches Arbeitsmittel dar.
Ingold, K.; Lieberherr, E.; Schläpfer, I.; Steinmann, K.; Zimmermann, W. (2016) Umweltpolitik der Schweiz. Ein Lehrbuch, 337 p, Institutional Repository

Drivers for policy agreement in nascent subsystems: an application of the advocacy coalition framework to fracking policy in Switzerland and the UK

The study of public policy deals with subsystems in which actors cooperate or compete to turn their beliefs into policy solutions. Yet, most studies concern mature subsystems in which the main actors and their allies and enemies can easily be identified. This paper tackles the challenge of studying nascent subsystems, in which actors have begun to engage in politics but are uncertain about other actors’ beliefs. Actors therefore find it relatively difficult to identify their allies and opponents. Focusing on the Advocacy Coalition Framework, we examine three main ways in which actors might agree to support the same policy design before they decide whether or not to form long-term relationships within advocacy coalitions: they see the issue through the same lenses, they follow leaders, or they know each other from earlier cooperation. We use the case of fracking policy in Switzerland and the UK as a key example, in which actors have begun to agree with each other, but where final policy outputs were not yet defined, and long-term relationships not yet observable. We find that, when dealing with new issues, actors strongly rely on former contacts rather than shared ideologies or leadership.
Ingold, K.; Fischer, M.; Cairney, P. (2016) Drivers for policy agreement in nascent subsystems: an application of the advocacy coalition framework to fracking policy in Switzerland and the UK, Policy Studies Journal, 45(3), 442-463, doi:10.1111/psj.12173, Institutional Repository

Institutions and policy networks in Europe

This chapter reviews the European literature on institutions and policy networks. Institutions provide actors with opportunities and constraints for negotiation and cooperation and thus influence the structure of policy networks. The chapter first presents studies on the influence of country- and sector-level institutions on the structure of policy networks. The respective literature deals with the influence of consensual democracy versus majoritarian democracy, corporatist systems of interest intermediation, multiple levels of governance, degrees of European Union integration, processes of liberalization and democratization, and policy-process-specific venues on policy networks. The chapter then discusses the positions and roles of state actors in policy networks. Due to their formal decision-making power, state actors are either networking targets or play a key role in terms of network integration, brokerage, or network management. The review concludes with a short discussion of commonalities and directions for future research.
Fischer, M. (2016) Institutions and policy networks in Europe, In: Victor, J. N.; Lubell, M.; Montgomery, A. (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Political Networks, 28 pp., doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190228217.013.36, Institutional Repository

How to create and preserve social capital in climate adaptation policies: a network approach

The processes and impacts of climate change require adaptation through what can be described as horizontal and vertical structures of actors' integration. In climate adaptation and natural resource management literature, this structural component is often related to social capital, which is defined in various ways but usually refers to a public good that is built and fostered within a network of social relations. While hypotheses about social capital in networks are well studied in network literature, here, I argue that they should be reflected and tested in the particular context of climate change adaptation policy. I ask: how do communities affected by climate change and the broad range of actors involved in the design of climate adaptation policies build social relationships? And, how do they manage to maintain those relations over time?
To answer these questions, climate adaptation policies in six Swiss mountain regions are investigated via social network analysis. Hypotheses about the creation and preservation of weak versus strong ties under the particular setting of Swiss federalism and climate-affected local communities are tested. Results confirm that the creation of weak ties, such as one-way information transfer, can lead to the establishment of mutual collaboration relations over time. Such mutual and reciprocal relations can then more easily be activated by local communities to produce both short-term responses and long-term solutions to climate change impacts.
Ingold, K. (2017) How to create and preserve social capital in climate adaptation policies: a network approach, Ecological Economics, 131, 414-424, doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2016.08.033, Institutional Repository

Discourse network analysis: policy debates as dynamic networks

Political discourse is the verbal interaction among political actors, who make normative claims about policies conditional on each other, rendering discourse a dynamic network phenomenon. The structure and dynamics of policy debates can be analyzed by combining content and dynamic network analysis. After annotating statements of actors in text sources, networks can be created from these structured data, such as congruence or conflict networks at the actor or concept level, affiliation networks of actors and concept stances, and longitudinal versions of these networks. The resulting network data reveal important properties, such as the structure of advocacy coalitions or discourse coalitions; polarization and consensus formation; and underlying endogenous processes like popularity, reciprocity, or social balance. The advantage of discourse network analysis over survey-based policy network research is that policy processes can be analyzed from a longitudinal perspective. Inferential techniques for understanding the micro-level processes governing political discourse are being developed.
Leifeld, P. (2017) Discourse network analysis: policy debates as dynamic networks, In: Victor, J. N.; Montgomery, A. H.; Lubell, M. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of political networks, 28, doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190228217.013.25, Institutional Repository

Defending the status quo across venues and coalitions: evidence from California interest groups

This study investigates the conditions under which pro-status quo groups increase their advocacy success during an entire policymaking process. It scrutinises whether pro-status quo defenders who are involved in multiple institutional venues and who join many coalitions of interest groups are able to achieve their policy preferences. A case study focussing on the regulation of stem cell research in California traces the policymaking process and the related advocacy activities of interest groups in legislative, administrative, judicial and direct democratic venues. The empirical results, which are based on a formal social network analysis, reveal that very few groups are multivenue players and members of several coalitions. In addition, occupying a central network position is insufficient for the pro-status quo groups to improve their advocacy success.
Varone, F.; Ingold, K.; Jourdain, C. (2017) Defending the status quo across venues and coalitions: evidence from California interest groups, Journal of Public Policy, 37(1), 1-26, doi:10.1017/S0143814X16000179, Institutional Repository

Fracking in the UK and Switzerland: why differences in policymaking systems don’t always produce different outputs and outcomes

We address a key puzzle in policy studies: why don't major differences in political systems and policy produce major differences in policy processes, outputs, and outcomes? We show why key aspects of fracking policy are similar in the UK and Switzerland despite the UK majoritarian government being 'all out for shale' and Switzerland’s consensus democracy favouring moratoriums. We use the 'advocacy coalition framework' and new survey data to show why differences in UK and Swiss processes are subtle. In both cases, actors cooperate and compete with each other by sharing information within and across coalitions.
Cairney, P.; Fischer, M.; Ingold, K. (2018) Fracking in the UK and Switzerland: why differences in policymaking systems don’t always produce different outputs and outcomes, Policy & Politics, 46(1), 125-147, doi:10.1332/030557316X14793989976783, Institutional Repository

Policy debates on hydraulic fracturing. Comparing coalition politics in North America and Western Europe

This edited volume compares seven countries in North America and Europe on the highly topical issue of oil and gas development that uses hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” The comparative analysis is based on the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and guided by two questions: First, in each country, what are current coalitions and the related policy output? Second, based on the current situation, what are the chances for future policy change? This book is the first to use a social science approach to analyze hydraulic fracturing debates and the first application of the ACF that is deliberately comparative. The contributions in this book advance our understanding about the formation of coalitions and development of public policy in the context of different forms of government and economically recoverable natural resources.
Weible, C. M.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (2016) Policy debates on hydraulic fracturing. Comparing coalition politics in North America and Western Europe, 276 p, Institutional Repository
Weible, C. M.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (2016) Introduction, In: Weible,C., C.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (Eds.), Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing. Comparing coalition politics in North America and Western Europe, 1-27, Institutional Repository
Cairney, P.; Fischer, M.; Ingold, K. (2016) Hydraulic fracturing policy in the United Kingdom: coalition, cooperation, and opposition in the face of uncertainty, In: Weible,C., C.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (Eds.), Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing. Comparing coalition politics in North America and Western Europe, 81-113, Institutional Repository

Belief conflicts and coalition structures driving sub-national policy responses: the case of Swiss regulation of unconventional gas development

Although there are no immediate projects of unconventional gas exploitation using hydraulic fracturing in Switzerland, the issue is on the political agenda. In federalist Switzerland, sub-national entities (cantons) are responsible for attributing the respective concessions to private companies according to the usual regulatory procedure of mineral and gas extraction. Yet, policy change has happened to different degrees in different cantons, including moratoriums and planned bans of hydraulic fracturing techniques. This chapter compares the three cantons of Neuchâtel, Bern and Vaud, where slightly differing regulations are currently in place. Based on the empirical analysis of coalitions, their beliefs and preferences, as well as political and technical information exchange among them, we aim to understand the current policy outputs in the respective cantons, as well as the potential for future policy change. The analysis is based on a written survey among approximately 90 collective actors in the three cantons.
Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (2016) Belief conflicts and coalition structures driving sub-national policy responses: the case of Swiss regulation of unconventional gas development, In: Weible, C. M.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (Eds.), Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing. Comparing Coalition Politics in North America and Western Europe, 201-237, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-59574-4_8, Institutional Repository
Ingold, K.; Fischer, M.; Heikkila, T.; Weible, C. M. (2016) Assessments and aspirations, In: Weible, C.; Heikkila, T.; Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (Eds.), Policy Debates on Hydraulic Fracturing. Comparing coalition politics in North America and Western Europe, 239-264, Institutional Repository

Publikationen 2015

Co-authorship networks in Swiss political research

Co-authorship is an important indicator of scientific collaboration. Co-authorship networks are composed of sub-communities, and researchers can gain visibility by connecting these insulated subgroups. This article presents a comprehensive co-authorship network analysis of Swiss political science. Three levels are addressed: disciplinary cohesion and structure at large, communities, and the integrative capacity of individual researchers. The results suggest that collaboration exists across geographical and language borders even though different regions focus on complementary publication strategies. The subfield of public policy and administration has the highest integrative capacity. Co-authorship is a function of several factors, most importantly being in the same subfield. At the individual level, the analysis identifies researchers who belong to the "inner circle" of Swiss political science and who link different communities. In contrast to previous research, the analysis is based on the full set of publications of all political researchers employed in Switzerland in 2013, including past publications.
Leifeld, P.; Ingold, K. (2016) Co-authorship networks in Swiss political research, Swiss Political Science Review, 22(2), 264-287, doi:10.1111/spsr.12193, Institutional Repository

Institutions and coalitions in policy processes: a cross-sectoral comparison

Actors with joint beliefs in a decision-making process form coalitions in order to translate their goals into policy. Yet, coalitions are not formed in an institutional void, but rather institutions confer opportunities and constraints to actors. This paper studies the institutional conditions under which either coalition structures with a dominant coalition or with competing coalitions emerge. It takes into account three conditions, i.e. the degree of federalism of a project, its degree of Europeanisation and the openness of the pre-parliamentary phase of the decision-making process. The cross-sectoral comparison includes the 11 most important decision-making processes in Switzerland between 2001 and 2006 with a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Results suggest that Europeanisation or an open pre-parliamentary phase lead to a dominant coalition, whereas only a specific combination of all three conditions is able to explain a structure with competing coalitions.
Fischer, M. (2015) Institutions and coalitions in policy processes: a cross-sectoral comparison, Journal of Public Policy, 35(2), 245-268, doi:10.1017/S0143814X14000166, Institutional Repository

Collaboration patterns, external shocks and uncertainty: Swiss nuclear energy politics before and after Fukushima

Energy shocks like the Fukushima accident can have important political consequences. This article examines their impact on collaboration patterns between collective actors in policy processes. It argues that external shocks create both behavioral uncertainty, meaning that actors do not know about other actors' preferences, and policy uncertainty on the choice and consequences of policy instruments. The context of uncertainty interacts with classical drivers of actor collaboration in policy processes. The analysis is based on a dataset comprising interview and survey data on political actors in two subsequent policy processes in Switzerland and Exponential Random Graph Models for network data. Results first show that under uncertainty, collaboration of actors in policy processes is less based on similar preferences than in stable contexts, but trust and knowledge of other actors are more important. Second, under uncertainty, scientific actors are not preferred collaboration partners.
Fischer, M. (2015) Collaboration patterns, external shocks and uncertainty: Swiss nuclear energy politics before and after Fukushima, Energy Policy, 86, 520-528, doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2015.08.007, Institutional Repository

Why do some water utilities recycle more than others? A qualitative comparative analysis in New South Wales, Australia

Although the recycling of municipal wastewater can play an important role in water supply security and ecosystem protection, the percentage of wastewater recycled is generally low and strikingly variable. Previous research has employed detailed case studies to examine the factors that contribute to recycling success but usually lacks a comparative perspective across cases. In this study, 25 water utilities in New South Wales, Australia, were compared using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). This research method applies binary logic and set theory to identify the minimal combinations of conditions that are necessary and/or sufficient for an outcome to occur within the set of cases analyzed. The influence of six factors (rainfall, population density, coastal or inland location, proximity to users; cost recovery and revenue for water supply services) was examined for two outcomes, agricultural use and "heavy" (i.e., commercial/municipal/industrial) use. Each outcome was explained by two different pathways, illustrating that different combinations of conditions are associated with the same outcome. Generally, while economic factors are crucial for heavy use, factors relating to water stress and geographical proximity matter most for agricultural reuse. These results suggest that policies to promote wastewater reuse may be most effective if they target uses that are most feasible for utilities and correspond to the local context. This work also makes a methodological contribution through illustrating the potential utility of fsQCA for understanding the complex drivers of performance in water recycling.
Kunz, N. C.; Fischer, M.; Ingold, K.; Hering, J. G. (2015) Why do some water utilities recycle more than others? A qualitative comparative analysis in New South Wales, Australia, Environmental Science and Technology, 49(14), 8287-8296, doi:10.1021/acs.est.5b01827, Institutional Repository

Policy forums: Why do they exist and what are they used for?

Policy forums are issue-based intermediary organizations where diverse types of political and societal actors repeatedly interact. Policy forums are important elements of modern governance systems as they allow actors to learn, negotiate, or build trust. They can vary in composition, size, membership logic, and other distinct features. This article lays the foundation of a theory of policy forums based on three interrelated elements: First, it discusses conditions for the formation of a forum and describes the logic of these organizations as one of an asymmetric multipartite exchange. Second, it enumerates the potential set of goals and motivations of participating actors that are fed into this exchange. Third, it proposes eight different dimensions on which policy forums differ and which affect the exchange mechanisms among actors. We claim that empirical work on policy forums should systematically take these elements into account and propose elements of a research agenda.
Fischer, M.; Leifeld, P. (2015) Policy forums: Why do they exist and what are they used for?, Planta, 48(3), 363-382, doi:10.1007/s11077-015-9224-y, Institutional Repository

Political decision-making in Switzerland: the consensus model under pressure

The Swiss consensus democracy model has been – and remains – under pressure. While being a non-EU member, Switzerland is heavily influenced by European integration and exemplifies some of the crucial changes at work on the continent. Based on a rich collection of data covering the 11 most important Swiss decision-making processes in recent years, this book highlights these changes and related variations across policy domains. It examines Europeanization as a major driving factor in the strengthening of bureaucratic policy-making, and charts the decline of corporatist policy-making and reinforcement of partisan politics as a result of institutional reforms, mediatization, higher polarization among social partners and the rise of a populist right wing party. Switzerland has moved away from the ideal-type of consensus. Coalitions have become more unstable and policy outputs less predictable, yet this may be good news in terms of innovation.
Sciarini, P.; Fischer, M.; Traber, D. (2015) Political decision-making in Switzerland: the consensus model under pressure, 291 p, doi:10.1057/9781137508607, Institutional Repository

Identifizierung von Koalitionen in Politikprozessen illustriert anhand der Schweizer Klimapolitik. Zwei strukturelle Ansätze

Soziale Beziehungen und die daraus entstehenden Netzwerke sind eine Konstante der Menschheitsgeschichte, die sozialen wie auch politischen Wandel ermöglicht. So ist der »Arabische Frühling« ohne die Berücksichtigung von Zusammenschlüssen sozialer Einheiten nicht vorstellbar. Die relationale Wissenschaft legt ihren Fokus auf solche Beziehungsstrukturen. »Knoten und Kanten III« zeigt theoretische und methodische Zugänge der Netzwerkanalyse in politischen sowie in historischen Forschungsfeldern. Die Beiträge beleuchten beispielsweise Anwendungen in der Altertumsforschung, neuzeitliche Gläubiger- und Schuldner-Beziehungen, Unterstützungsnetzwerke von Juden im Dritten Reich sowie interne Vernetzungen von Parteien und Koalitionen.
Ingold, K. (2015) Identifizierung von Koalitionen in Politikprozessen illustriert anhand der Schweizer Klimapolitik. Zwei strukturelle Ansätze, In: Gamper, M.; Reschke, L.; Düring, M. (Eds.), Knoten und Kanten III – Soziale Netzwerkanalyse in Geschichts- und Politikforschung, 373-398, Institutional Repository

Is the Swiss Constitution really constitutional? Testing the “veil of ignorance” hypothesis over time

In this chapter, we suggest an empirical analysis of the power distribution outlined in the current Swiss constitution. We furthermore concentrate on the historical evolution of the constitutional text. We compare three points in time: the original Federal constitution of 1874, its complete revision in 1999, and finally the text in force in 2011.
Ingold, K.; Varone, F. (2015) Is the Swiss Constitution really constitutional? Testing the “veil of ignorance” hypothesis over time, In: Imbeau, L.; Jacob, S. (Eds.), Behind a Veil of Ignorance? Power and Uncertainty in Constitutional Design, 187-202, Institutional Repository

Unpacking reputational power: actors' attributes and relations

The reputational measure for assessing power of political actors has been used for decades in studies on policy networks and political decision-making. The basic idea behind reputational power is that actors involved in some political system or decision-making process do have the best idea about their fellows' power. There has been, however, no systematic examination of the micro-foundations of reputational power, i.e. of why actors consider other actors as powerful. The paper fills this gap by studying the impact of attribute-related and relations-related effects that influence the attribution of power from actor i to actor j. Facing considerable insecurity, we argue that informants rely on cues when they judge actors' power. We estimate Exponantial Random Graph Models, relying on a unique data-set of network of reputation attribution in the 11 most important decision-making processes in Swiss politics between 2001 and 2006. Results show that informants mostly rely on the category that the actor to be judged belongs to, as well as on relational cues. Actors that collaborate attribute systematically more power to each other than actors not collaborating.
Fischer, M.; Sciarini, P. (2013) Unpacking reputational power: actors' attributes and relations, 17 p, Institutional Repository

The networks of political entrepreneurs: A case study of Swiss climate policy

Foreword, Marie-Louise von Bergmann-Winberg; Unpacking the theoretical boxes of political entrepreneurship, Evangelia Petridou, Inga Narbutaité Aflaki and Lee Miles; The networks of political entrepreneurs: a case study of Swiss climate policy, Karin Ingold and Dimitris Christopoulos; Policy entrepreneurs meeting mediators - a conceptual extension, Elin Wihlborg; City planners as political entrepreneurs: do they exist? Can they exist?, Dimitri Ioannides; Setting the policy agenda: a policy entrepreneurial perspective on urban development in the Netherlands, Simon Verduijn; The role of policy entrepreneurs in regional governance processes, Michael Böcher; Political entrepreneurs and institutional change: governability, liberal political culture, and the 1992 electoral reform in Israel, Assaf Meydani; Policy entrepreneurs and morality politics: learning from failure and success, Michael Mintrom; Regional autonomy and political entrepreneurship, Pär M. Olausson; Political entrepreneurship as painful choices: an examination of Swedish (post)-neutrality security policy, Lee Miles; How do entrepreneurs make national security policy? A case study of the G.W. Bush administration, Charles-Philippe David; Innovators for the public - how norm and social entrepreneurs fulfill the promises of democracy, Lena Partzsch; The opportunity structures of Cambodian French institutional entrepreneurs: a study of returnees’ contributions to transformative change, Gea D.M. Wijers; Political entrepreneurship redux: looking to the future, Inga Narbutaité Aflaki, Evangelia Petridou and Lee Miles.
Ingold, K.; Christopoulos, D. (2015) The networks of political entrepreneurs: A case study of Swiss climate policy, In: Narbutaité Aflaki, I.; Petridou, E.; Miles, L. (Eds.), Entrepreneurship in the Polis - Understanding Political Entrepreneurship, 17-30, Institutional Repository

Dealing with bad guys: actor- and process-level determinants of the “devil shift” in policy making

Policy actors tend to misinterpret and distrust opponents in policy processes. This phenomenon, known as the “devil shift”, consists of the following two dimensions: actors perceive opponents as more powerful and as more evil than they really are. Analysing nine policy processes in Switzerland, this article highlights the drivers of the devil shift at two levels. On the actor level, interest groups, political parties and powerful actors suffer more from the devil shift than state actors and powerless actors. On the process level, the devil shift is stronger in policy processes dealing with socio-economic issues as compared with other issues. Finally, and in line with previous studies, there is less empirical evidence of the power dimension of the devil shift phenomenon than of its evilness dimension.
Fischer, M.; Ingold, K.; Sciarini, P.; Varone, F. (2016) Dealing with bad guys: actor- and process-level determinants of the “devil shift” in policy making, Journal of Public Policy, 36(2), 309-334, doi:10.1017/S0143814X15000021, Institutional Repository

In search of political influence: outside lobbying behaviour and media coverage of social movements, interest groups and political parties in six Western European countries

Outside lobbying is a key strategy for social movements, interest groups and political parties for mobilising public opinion through the media in order to pressure policymakers and influence the policymaking process. Relying on semi-structured interviews and newspaper content analysis in six Western European countries, this article examines the use of four outside lobbying strategies – media-related activities, informing (about) the public, mobilisation and protest – and the amount of media coverage they attract. While some strategies are systematically less pursued than others, we find variation in their relative share across institutional contexts and actor types. Given that most of these differences are not accurately mirrored in the media, we conclude that media coverage is only loosely connected to outside lobbying behaviour, and that the media respond differently to a given strategy when used by different actors. Thus, the ability of different outside lobbying strategies to generate media coverage critically depends on who makes use of them.
Tresch, A.; Fischer, M. (2015) In search of political influence: outside lobbying behaviour and media coverage of social movements, interest groups and political parties in six Western European countries, International Political Science Review, 36(4), 355-372, doi:10.1177/0192512113505627, Institutional Repository

Exceptional or just well connected? Political entrepreneurs and brokers in policy making

Policy brokers and policy entrepreneurs are assumed to have a decisive impact on policy outcomes. Their access to social and political resources is contingent on their influence on other agents. In social network analysis (SNA), entrepreneurs are often closely associated with brokers, because both are agents presumed to benefit from bridging structural holes; for example, gaining advantage through occupying a strategic position in relational space. Our aim here is twofold. First, to conceptually and operationally differentiate policy brokers from policy entrepreneurs premised on assumptions in the policy-process literature; and second, via SNA, to use the output of core algorithms in a cross-sectional analysis of political brokerage and political entrepreneurship. We attempt to simplify the use of graph algebra in answering questions relevant to policy analysis by placing each algorithm within its theoretical context. In the methodology employed, we first identify actors and graph their relations of influence within a specific policy event; then we select the most central actors; and compare their rank in a series of statistics that capture different aspects of their network advantage. We examine betweenness centrality, positive and negative Bonacich power, Burt's effective size and constraint and honest brokerage as paradigmatic. We employ two case studies to demonstrate the advantages and limitations of each algorithm for differentiating between brokers and entrepreneurs: one on Swiss climate policy and one on EU competition and transport policy.
Christopoulos, D.; Ingold, K. (2015) Exceptional or just well connected? Political entrepreneurs and brokers in policy making, European Political Science Review, 7(3), 475-498, doi:10.1017/S1755773914000277, Institutional Repository

Publikationen 2014

Sciarini, P.; Tresch, A.; Fischer, M. (2014) Europeanization in Parliament and in the Press, Swiss Political Science Review, 20(2), 232-238, doi:10.1111/spsr.12101, Institutional Repository
Fischer, M.; Sciarini, P. (2014) The europeanization of Swiss decision-making processes, Swiss Political Science Review, 20(2), 239-245, doi:10.1111/spsr.12102, Institutional Repository

Climate change in Switzerland: a review of physical, institutional, and political aspects

Climate change is clearly discernible in observed climate records in Switzerland. It impacts on natural systems, ecosystems, and economic sectors such as agriculture, tourism, and energy, and it affects Swiss livelihood in various ways. The observed and projected changes call for a response from the political system, which in Switzerland is characterized by federalism and direct democratic instruments. Swiss climate science embraces natural and social sciences and builds on institutionalized links between researchers, public, and private stakeholders. In this article, we review the physical, institutional, and political aspects of climate change in Switzerland. We show how the current state of Swiss climate science and policy developed over the past 20 years in the context of international developments and national responses. Specific to Switzerland is its topographic setting with mountain regions and lowlands on both sides of the Alpine ridge, which makes climate change clearly apparent and for some aspects (tourist sector, hydropower, and extreme events) highly relevant and better perceivable (e.g., retreating glaciers). Not surprisingly the Alpine region is of central interest in Swiss climate change studies.
Brönnimann, S.; Appenzeller, C.; Croci-Maspoli, M.; Fuhrer, J.; Grosjean, M.; Hohmann, R.; Ingold, K.; Knutti, R.; Liniger, M. A.; Raible, C. C.; Röthlisberger, R.; Schär, C.; Scherrer, S. C.; Strassmann, K.; Thalmann, P. (2014) Climate change in Switzerland: a review of physical, institutional, and political aspects, Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, 5(4), 461-481, doi:10.1002/wcc.280, Institutional Repository

Science in policy-making: neutral experts or strategic policy-makers?

Although many policy process and diffusion theories follow the premise that scientific and technological knowledge plays a crucial role in a wide variety of policy fields, very few empirically assess the impact that institutional and process-relevant factors may have on the position of science within a process. The present study addresses the question of what role science plays in policy processes. To answer this, we apply the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) and investigate three complementary assumptions using a qualitative comparison of four cases: the ACF claims that scientific experts can take very different positions in the policy process, depending on how conflictive or consensus-oriented the relations among actors and coalitions are within a so-called policy subsystem. Put differently, the type of subsystem impacts on the position of science within the process. The results show that subsystem-specific factors impact upon whether scientific representatives act at the periphery of a process or as policy brokers seeking feasible policy solutions.
Ingold, K.; Gschwend, M. (2014) Science in policy-making: neutral experts or strategic policy-makers?, Western European Politics, 37(5), 993-1018, doi:10.1080/01402382.2014.920983, Institutional Repository

Policy change in comparative contexts. Applying the advocacy coalition framework outside of Western Europe and North America

The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) is one of the most frequently applied theories of the policy process. Most applications have been in Western Europe and North America. This article provides an overview of the ACF, summarizes existing applications outside of Western Europe and North America, and introduces the special issue that features applications of the ACF in the Philippines, China, India, and Kenya. This article concludes with an argument for the continued application of the ACF outside of Western Europe and North America and a research agenda for overcoming challenges in using the ACF in comparative public policy research.
Henry, A. D.; Ingold, K.; Nohrstedt, D.; Weible, C. M. (2014) Policy change in comparative contexts. Applying the advocacy coalition framework outside of Western Europe and North America, Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis, 16(4), 299-312, doi:10.1080/13876988.2014.941200, Institutional Repository

Sustainable wastewater management: is it possible to regulate micropollution in the future by learning from the Past? A policy analysis

This paper applies a policy analysis approach to the question of how to effectively regulate micropollution in a sustainable manner. Micropollution is a complex policy problem characterized by a huge number and diversity of chemical substances, as well as various entry paths into the aquatic environment. It challenges traditional water quality management by calling for new technologies in wastewater treatment and behavioral changes in industry, agriculture and civil society. In light of such challenges, the question arises as to how to regulate such a complex phenomenon to ensure water quality is maintained in the future? What can we learn from past experiences in water quality regulation? To answer these questions, policy analysis strongly focuses on the design and choice of policy instruments and the mix of such measures. In this paper, we review instruments commonly used in past water quality regulation. We evaluate their ability to respond to the characteristics of a more recent water quality problem, i.e., micropollution, in a sustainable way. This way, we develop a new framework that integrates both the problem dimension (i.e., causes and effects of a problem) as well as the sustainability dimension (e.g., long-term, cross-sectoral and multi-level) to assess which policy instruments are best suited to regulate micropollution. We thus conclude that sustainability criteria help to identify an appropriate instrument mix of end-of-pipe and source-directed measures to reduce aquatic micropollution.
Metz, F.; Ingold, K. (2014) Sustainable wastewater management: is it possible to regulate micropollution in the future by learning from the Past? A policy analysis, Sustainability, 6(4), 1992-2012, doi:10.3390/su6041992, Institutional Repository

How involved are they really? A comparative network analysis of the institutional drivers of local actor inclusion

Different socio-economic and environmental drivers lead local communities in mountain regions to adapt land use practices and engage in protection policies. The political system also has to develop new approaches to adapt to those drivers. Local actors are the target group of those policy approaches, and the question arises of if and how much those actors are consulted or even integrated into the design of local land use and protection policies. This article addresses this question by comparing seven different case studies in Swiss mountain regions. Through a formal social network analysis, the inclusion of local actors in collaborative policy networks is investigated and compared to the involvement of other stakeholders representing the next higher sub-national or national decisional levels. Results show that there is a significant difference (1) in how local actors are embedded compared to other stakeholders; and (2) between top-down versus bottom-up designed policy processes.
Ingold, K. (2014) How involved are they really? A comparative network analysis of the institutional drivers of local actor inclusion, Land Use Policy, 39, 376-387, doi:10.1016/j.landusepol.2014.01.013, Institutional Repository

Coalition structures and policy change in a consensus democracy

This paper studies the relation between coalition structures in policy processes and policy change. While different factors such as policy images, learning processes, external events, or venue shopping are important to explain policy change, coalition structures within policy processes are often neglected. However, policy change happens as a result of negotiations and coordination among coalitions within policy processes. The paper analyzes how conflict, collaboration, and power relations among coalitions of actors influence policy change in an institutional context of a consensus democracy. Empirically, I rely on a Qualitative Comparative Analysis to conduct a cross-sector comparison of the 11 most important policy processes in Switzerland between 2001 and 2006. Coalition structures with low conflict and strong collaboration among coalitions as well as structures with dominant coalitions and weak collaboration both facilitate major policy change. Competing coalitions that are separated by strong conflict but still collaborate strongly produce policy outputs that are close to the status quo.
Fischer, M. (2014) Coalition structures and policy change in a consensus democracy, Policy Studies Journal, 42(3), 344-366, doi:10.1111/psj.12064, Institutional Repository

'Let's talk cash': Cantons' interests and the reform of Swiss federalism

In 2004 the Swiss people accepted a new equalization scheme and a new distribution of competences between the federal state and the cantons. It was argued that the reform was successful because of the capacity of veto-players to overcome their interests and adopt a 'problem-solving' interaction mode. We propose a different interpretation and argue that distributive issues and the accommodation of actors' interests crucially mattered. We identify three mechanisms that contribute to a successful reform, i.e. package-deals, side-payments and the downsizing of the reform. Our in-depth, mainly qualitative study of both the content of the reform and related decision-making process supports the pertinence of these strategies for the explanation of the successful reform of Swiss federalism.
Cappelletti, F.; Fischer, M.; Sciarini, P. (2014) 'Let's talk cash': Cantons' interests and the reform of Swiss federalism, Regional and Federal Studies, 24(1), 1-20, doi:10.1080/13597566.2013.808627, Institutional Repository

Publikationen 2013

Europeanization and the inclusive strategies of executive actors

In Europeanized policy domains, executive actors are considered especially powerful because they are directly responsible for international negotiations. However, in order to avoid failing in the ratification process, they are also highly dependent on the support of domestic, non-state actors. We argue that in Europeanized decision-making processes, state actors are not passively lobbied, but actively seek collaboration with – and support from – domestic actors. We apply stochastic actor-based modelling for network dynamics to collaboration data on two successive bilateral agreements on the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the European Union (EU). Results confirm our hypotheses that state actors are not passively lobbied, but actively look for collaboration with other actors, and especially with potential veto players and euro-sceptical actors from both the conservative Right and the Left.
Fischer, M.; Sciarini, P. (2013) Europeanization and the inclusive strategies of executive actors, Journal of European Public Policy, 20(10), 1482-1498, doi:10.1080/13501763.2013.781800, Institutional Repository

Where does political polarization come from? Locating polarization within the U.S. climate change debate

How do we understand political polarization within the U.S. climate change debate? This article unpacks the different components of the debate to determine the source of the political divide that is so noted in the mainstream media and academic literatures. Through analysis of the content of congressional hearings on the issue of climate change, we are able to explain political polarization of the issue more fully. In particular, our results show that, contrary to representations in the mainstream media, there is increasing consensus over the science of the issue. Discussions of the type of policy instrument and the economic implications of regulating carbon dioxide emissions, however, continue to polarize opinion. This article concludes by exploring how these findings help us understand more recent political events around climate change.
Fisher, D. R.; Waggle, J.; Leifeld, P. (2013) Where does political polarization come from? Locating polarization within the U.S. climate change debate, American Behavioral Scientist, 57(1), 70-92, doi:10.1177/0002764212463360, Institutional Repository

Mapping the ideological networks of American climate politics

How do we understand national climate change politics in the United States? Using a methodological innovation in network analysis, this paper analyzes discussions about the issue within the US Congress. Through this analysis, the ideological relationships among speakers providing Congressional testimony on the issue of climate change are mapped. For the first time, issue stances of actors are systematically aggregated in order to measure coalitions and consensus among political actors in American climate politics in a relational way. Our findings show how consensus formed around the economic implications of regulating greenhouse gases and the policy instrument that should do the regulating. The paper is separated into three sections. First, we review the ways scholars have looked at climate change policymaking in the United States, paying particular attention to those who have looked at the issue within the US Congress. Next, we present analysis of statements made during Congressional hearings on climate change over a four-year period. Our analysis demonstrates how a polarized ideological actor space in the 109th Congress transforms into a more consensual actor landscape in the 110th Congress, which is significantly less guided by partisan differences. This paper concludes by discussing how these findings help us understand shifting positions within American climate politics and the implications of these findings.
Fisher, D. R.; Leifeld, P.; Iwaki, Y. (2013) Mapping the ideological networks of American climate politics, Climatic Change, 116, 523-545, doi:10.1007/s10584-012-0512-7, Institutional Repository

Drivers of collaboration to mitigate climate change: an illustration of Swiss climate policy over 15 years

Climate change mitigation policy is driven by scientific knowledge and involves actors from the international, national and local decision-making levels. This multi-level and cross-sectoral context requires collaborative management when designing mitigation solutions over time and space. But collaboration in general policymaking settings, and particularly in the complex domain of climate mitigation, is not an easy task. This paper addresses the question of what drives collaboration among collective actors involved in climate mitigation policy. We wish to investigate whether common beliefs or power structures influence collaboration among actors. We adopt a longitudinal approach to grasp differences between the early and more advanced stages of mitigation policy design. We use survey data to investigate actors’ collaboration, beliefs and power, and apply a Stochastic Actor-oriented Model for network dynamics to three subsequent networks in Swiss climate policy between 1995 and 2012. Results show that common beliefs among actors, as well as formal power structures, have a higher impact on collaboration relations than perceived power structures. Furthermore, those effects hold true for decision-making about initial mitigation strategies, but less so for the implementation of those measures.
Ingold, K.; Fischer, M. (2014) Drivers of collaboration to mitigate climate change: an illustration of Swiss climate policy over 15 years, Global Environmental Change, 24(1), 88-98, doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2013.11.021, Institutional Repository

A social network-based approach to assess de facto independence of regulatory agencies

This article uses a policy network perspective to assess the independence of regulatory agencies (RAs) in liberalized public utility sectors. We focus on the de facto independence of RAs from elected politicians, regulatees and other co-regulators. We go further than previous studies, which only undertook a general analysis of the de jure independence of RAs from political authorities. Specifically, we apply a social network analysis (SNA), which concentrates on the attributes and relational profiles of all actors involved in new regulatory arrangements. The concept of de facto independence is applied to the Swiss telecommunications sector in order to provide initial empirical insights. Results clearly show that SNA indicators are an appropriate tool to identify the de facto independence of RAs and can improve knowledge about the issues arising from the emergence of the ‘regulatory State’.
Ingold, K.; Varone, F.; Stokman, F. (2013) A social network-based approach to assess de facto independence of regulatory agencies, Journal of European Public Policy, 20(10), 1464-1481, doi:10.1080/13501763.2013.804280, Institutional Repository

Reconceptualizing major policy change in the advocacy coalition framework: a discourse network analysis of German pension politics

How does major policy change come about? This article identifies and rectifies weaknesses in the conceptualization of innovative policy change in the Advocacy Coalition Framework. In a case study of policy belief change preceding an innovative reform in the German subsystem of old-age security, important new aspects of major policy change are carved out. In particular, the analysis traces a transition from one single hegemonic advocacy coalition to another stable coalition, with a transition phase between the two equilibria. The transition phase is characterized (i) by a bipolarization of policy beliefs in the subsystem and (ii) by state actors with shifting coalition memberships due to policy learning across coalitions or due to executive turnover. Apparently, there are subsystems with specific characteristics (presumably redistributive rather than regulative subsystems) in which one hegemonic coalition is the default, or the “normal state.” In these subsystems, polarization and shifting coalition memberships seem to interact to produce coalition turnover and major policy change. The case study is based on discourse network analysis, a combination of qualitative content analysis and social network analysis, which provides an intertemporal measurement of advocacy coalition realignment at the level of policy beliefs in a subsystem.
Leifeld, P. (2013) Reconceptualizing major policy change in the advocacy coalition framework: a discourse network analysis of German pension politics, Policy Studies Journal, 41(1), 169-198, doi:10.1111/psj.12007, Institutional Repository

texreg: conversion of statistical model output in R to LaTeX and HTML Tables

A recurrent task in applied statistics is the (mostly manual) preparation of model output for inclusion in LATEX, Microsoft Word, or HTML documents – usually with more than one model presented in a single table along with several goodness-of-fit statistics. However, statistical models in R have diverse object structures and summary methods, which makes this process cumbersome. This article first develops a set of guidelines for converting statistical model output to LATEX and HTML tables, then assesses to what extent existing packages meet these requirements, and finally presents the texreg package as a solution that meets all of the criteria set out in the beginning. After providing various usage examples, a blueprint for writing custom model extensions is proposed.
Leifeld, P. (2013) texreg: conversion of statistical model output in R to LaTeX and HTML Tables, Journal of Statistical Software, 55(8), 1-24, doi:10.18637/jss.v055.i08, Institutional Repository

Organisationsformen im Vergleich. Leistungsfähigkeit der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft in Zürich, Berlin und Leeds

Die Debatte, ob private oder öffentliche Organisationsformen leistungsfähiger sind, beschäftigt weite Kreise in Wissenschaft und Praxis. Anhand von Fallbeispielen der Wasserver- und -entsorgung in den Städten Zürich, Berlin und Leeds zeigt dieser Artikel, wie und warum unterschiedliche Organisationsformen bezüglich Effektivität, Effizienz, Partizipation und Rechenschaftspflicht besser oder schlechter abschneiden.
Lieberherr, E. (2013) Organisationsformen im Vergleich. Leistungsfähigkeit der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft in Zürich, Berlin und Leeds, Aqua & Gas, 93(2), 48-52, Institutional Repository

Stakeholder analysis combined with social network analysis provides fine-grained insights into water infrastructure planning processes

Environmental policy and decision-making are characterized by complex interactions between different actors and sectors. As a rule, a stakeholder analysis is performed to understand those involved, but it has been criticized for lacking quality and consistency. This lack is remedied here by a formal social network analysis that investigates collaborative and multi-level governance settings in a rigorous way. We examine the added value of combining both elements. Our case study examines infrastructure planning in the Swiss water sector. Water supply and wastewater infrastructures are planned far into the future, usually on the basis of projections of past boundary conditions. They affect many actors, including the population, and are expensive. In view of increasing future dynamics and climate change, a more participatory and long-term planning approach is required. Our specific aims are to investigate fragmentation in water infrastructure planning, to understand how actors from different decision levels and sectors are represented, and which interests they follow. We conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with local stakeholders, but also cantonal and national actors. The network analysis confirmed our hypothesis of strong fragmentation: we found little collaboration between the water supply and wastewater sector (confirming horizontal fragmentation), and few ties between local, cantonal, and national actors (confirming vertical fragmentation). Infrastructure planning is clearly dominated by engineers and local authorities. Little importance is placed on longer-term strategic objectives and integrated catchment planning, but this was perceived as more important in a second analysis going beyond typical questions of stakeholder analysis. We conclude that linking a stakeholder analysis, comprising rarely asked questions, with a rigorous social network analysis is very fruitful and generates complementary results. This combination gave us deeper insight into the socio-political-engineering world of water infrastructure planning that is of vital importance to our well-being.
Lienert, J.; Schnetzer, F.; Ingold, K. (2013) Stakeholder analysis combined with social network analysis provides fine-grained insights into water infrastructure planning processes, Journal of Environmental Management, 125, 134-148, doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2013.03.052, Institutional Repository

Having your cake and eating it, too: can regulatory agencies be both independent and accountable?

Independent regulatory agencies (IRAs) were created in various sectors and on different governmental levels to implement liberalization policies. This paper investigates the link between IRAs' independence, which is said to promote regulatory credibility and the use of technical expertise, and their accountability, which is related to the need for controlling and legitimizing independent regulators. The literature on the regulatory state anticipates a positive relation between the independence and accountability of IRAs, but systematic empirical evidence is still lacking. To tackle this question, this paper measures and compares the independence and the accountability of IRAs in three differentially liberalized sectors in Switzerland (telecommunications, electricity and railways). With the application of Social Network Analysis, this piece of research shows that IRAs can be de facto independent and accountable at the same time, but the two features do not necessarily co-evolve in the same direction.
Maggetti, M.; Ingold, K.; Varone, F. (2013) Having your cake and eating it, too: can regulatory agencies be both independent and accountable?, Swiss Political Science Review, 19(1), 1-25, doi:10.1111/spsr.12015, Institutional Repository

Addressing micropollution by linking problem characteristics to policy instruments

What characterizes micropollution as a policy problem and which policy instruments are adequate to regulate micropollution, given the specific problem features? In this article, problem characteristics of micropollution are systematically analyzed and linked to potential policy solutions. The findings show that micropollution is a particularly complex policy problem with many remaining uncertainties. Because of the varied sources and entry paths into the aquatic environment, a mixture of appropriate policy instruments is needed. Linking problem characteristics to policy instruments helps to identify an appropriate policy mix. The analysis therefore systematically contrasts the characteristics of micropollution with policy instruments of water pollution control. This way, an overview is provided about what characterizes micropollution as a policy problem and which policy instruments are best suited to regulate it. The results show that end-of-pipe solutions are adequate to mitigate pollution from multiple sources up to a certain level, but further source-directed regulatory or economic instruments are needed to eliminate particularly toxic or persistent substances. Additionally, research is necessary to control concentration levels in waters and to identify concentration limits for pollutants. The paper demonstrates that the nature of the policy problem matters for pre-selecting appropriate policy instruments. It concludes that focusing policy analysts' attention on the policy problem can generate further insights into the impact of the issue at stake on policy choice.
Metz, F. (2013) Addressing micropollution by linking problem characteristics to policy instruments, 38 p, Institutional Repository

Coping with creeping catastrophes: National political systems and the challenge of slow-moving policy problems

The book discusses how to tackle long-term social and ecological problems by using different environmental governance approaches to creating sustainable development. It explores opportunities and requirements for the governance of long-term problems, and examines how to achieve a lasting transformation. When investments are made to mitigate climate change or preserve biodiversity, future generations can reap benefits from the efforts of the present generation. However, long-term social-ecological change towards sustainable development is disrupted by the fact that the costs and benefits of action are seen by different generations. With a global focus that includes case studies from Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America, this book attempts to address the difficulty of developing and implementing effective long-term governance solutions. The authors examine what distinguishes long-term problems from other policy problems, what governance responses are available and used, and how different governance mechanisms, namely economic incentives, participation, as well as knowledge and learning, help to address them. Combining the perspectives on the different governance approaches and featuring cases studies on national, regional and global issues, Long-Term Governance for Social-Ecological Change will be of interest to policy-makers, students and scholars of global environmental governance, development, sustainability, politics, economics, law and sociology.
Schneider, V.; Leifeld, P.; Malang, T. (2013) Coping with creeping catastrophes: National political systems and the challenge of slow-moving policy problems, In: Siebenhüner, B.; Arnold, M.; Eisenack, K.; Jacob, K. (Eds.), Long-Term Governance of Social-Ecological Change, 221-238, doi:10.4324/9780203556160, Institutional Repository

Publikationen 2012

Fischer, M. (2012) Entscheidungsstrukturen in der Schweizer Politik zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts, 379 p, Institutional Repository

Dominance or challenge? An explanation of power structures among coalitions in Swiss decision-making processes

This paper studies the conditions under which a given power distribution among coalitions of collective actors in political decision-making processes emerge. The distribution of power among actors is one of the basic dimensions of politics and is important because of its influence on the output of the decision-making processes. The paper distinguishes between ideal-types of power structures with a dominant coalition ("dominance") and structures with distributed power among several coalitions ("challenge"). It takes into account four conditions supposed to interact with each other, i.e. the degree of federalism of a policy project, its degree of Europeanization, its policy type (i.e. direct vs. indirect coercion), and the openness of the pre-parliamentary phase of the decision-making process. In order to assess the importance of these conditions, I compare the 11 most important decision-making processes in Switzerland between 2001 and 2006 by a Fuzzy-Set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA). Results suggest that Europeanization or an open pre-parliamentary phase lead to a power structure of dominance, whereas only a specific combination of all four conditions is able to explain power structures of challenge. I argue that this is good news for the integration capacity of the Swiss political system.
Fischer, M. (2012) Dominance or challenge? An explanation of power structures among coalitions in Swiss decision-making processes, 39 p, Institutional Repository
Hering, J. G.; Ingold, K. M. (2012) Water resources management: what should be integrated?, Science, 336(6086), 1234-1235, doi:10.1126/science.1218230, Institutional Repository

Treating policy brokers seriously: evidence from the climate policy

The advocacy coalition framework (ACF) pays special attention to "so-called" policy brokers when explaining policy change. However, this prominent policy approach neither clearly defines who the policy brokers are nor identifies under which institutional rules they have an influence on policy processes and outputs. This article thus formulates two theoretical hypotheses that complement the ACF and then proceeds to undertake the first empirical testing of these hypotheses within the Swiss climate policy (1990-2008). The empirical results show that, in the case under investigation, the strategic interest-based behavior of two policy brokers (i.e., one public administration and one political party), as well as two institutionalized veto points (i.e., optional referendum and parliamentary committee), are crucial factors explaining policy brokers' influence on policy process and change.
Ingold, K.; Varone, F. (2012) Treating policy brokers seriously: evidence from the climate policy, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 22(2), 319-346, doi:10.1093/jopart/mur035, Institutional Repository

Information exchange in policy networks

Information exchange in policy networks is usually attributed to preference similarity, influence reputation, social trust, and institutional actor roles. We suggest that political opportunity structures and transaction costs play another crucial role and estimate a rich statistical network model on tie formation in the German toxic chemicals policy domain. The results indicate that the effect of preference similarity is absorbed by institutional, relational, and social opportunity structures. Political actors choose contacts who minimize transaction costs while maximizing outreach and information. We also find that different types of information exchange operate in complementary, but not necessarily congruent, ways.
Leifeld, P.; Schneider, V. (2012) Information exchange in policy networks, American Journal of Political Science, 56(3), 731-744, doi:10.1111/j.1540-5907.2011.00580.x, Institutional Repository

Political discourse networks and the conflict over software patents in Europe

In 2005, the European Parliament rejected the directive ‘on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions’, which had been drafted and supported by the European Commission, the Council and well-organised industrial interests, with an overwhelming majority. In this unusual case, a coalition of opponents of software patents prevailed over a strong industry-led coalition. In this article, an explanation is developed based on political discourse showing that two stable and distinct discourse coalitions can be identified and measured over time. The apparently weak coalition of software patent opponents shows typical properties of a hegemonic discourse coalition. It presents itself as being more coherent, employs a better-integrated set of frames and dominates key economic arguments, while the proponents of software patents are not as well-organised. This configuration of the discourse gave leeway for an alternative course of political action by the European Parliament. The notion of discourse coalitions and related structural features of the discourse are operationalised by drawing on social network analysis. More specifically, discourse network analysis is introduced as a new methodology for the study of policy debates. The approach is capable of measuring empirical discourses both statically and in a longitudinal way, and is compatible with the policy network approach.
Leifeld, P.; Haunss, S. (2012) Political discourse networks and the conflict over software patents in Europe, European Journal of Political Research, 51(3), 382-409, doi:10.1111/j.1475-6765.2011.02003.x, Institutional Repository

Towards legitimate water governance? The partially privatized Berlin waterworks

This article addresses how and to what extent a governance mode can legitimately provide public services. A single case study of the partially privatized Berlin Waterworks is used to analyse the level of input and output legitimacy as well as potential trade-offs between the criteria emerging in a public– private partnership (PPP) in the water supply and sanitation sectors. While the Berlin Waterworks as a PPP leads to a lower level of resource protection and public acceptance, it leads to a higher level of efficiency and profitability than under the previous public model.
Lieberherr, E.; Klinke, A.; Finger, M. (2012) Towards legitimate water governance? The partially privatized Berlin waterworks, Public Management Review, 14(7), 923-946, doi:10.1080/14719037.2011.650056, Institutional Repository

Impacts of market liberalization on regulatory network: a longitudinal analysis of the Swiss telecommunications sector

This article looks at the reconfiguration of the regulatory actors' network, as induced by the liberalization and reregulation processes in utility sectors. It investigates the changes in governance structures and patterns of collaborative ties between actors resulting from these processes. Applying stochastic actor-oriented modeling (SAOM) to data on the liberalization of the Swiss telecommunications sector over two decades, we test whether and to what extent structural changes driven by liberalization and reregulation express themselves through network effects, that is, through changing patterns of interactions between political authorities, regulators, regulatees, and interest groups. Our empirical tests highlight a rearrangement of the regulatory network and a reorganization of relational patterns around new actors, such as the sector-specific regulatory agency, coregulators, and new operators.
Fischer, M.; Ingold, K.; Sciarini, P.; Varone, F. (2012) Impacts of market liberalization on regulatory network: a longitudinal analysis of the Swiss telecommunications sector, Policy Studies Journal, 40(3), 435-457, doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.2012.00460.x, Institutional Repository

Masterarbeit (Themen)

PEGO sucht Studierende, die ihre Master- oder Bachelor-Arbeit in einem der folgenden Themenbereiche absolvieren möchten:

  • Umsetzung Sustainable Development Goal 6 (Wasser) in der Schweiz: Nachhaltigkeitsziele, so genannte Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) wurden von der UNO im Jahr 2015 verabschiedet. Elf der siebzehn Ziele betreffen die Umwelt. Ein Ziel (SDG 6) fokussiert auf den nachhaltigen Umgang mit Wasser. SDG 6 Wasser ist somit ein facettenreiches und breites Thema und wird in der Schweiz von verschiedenen Ämtern (BAFU, BLV, DEZA) national umgesetzt. Zudem sind auch weitere Organisationen, wie NGOs, die Wissenschaft oder private Akteure in dessen Umsetzung involviert. Die ausgeschriebene Masterarbeit soll einerseits diese breite Landschaft von öffentlichen und privaten Akteuren aufzeigen, wenn es um die nationale Umsetzung des SDG 6 geht. Des Weiteren soll evaluiert werden, wie sich Mechanismen des Evidenz-basierten Entscheidens dabei etablieren: ist es die Wissenschaft, welche mehr zu sagen haben möchte, wenn es um die politische Umsetzung von Wasser-relevanten Themen geht und sich so in die Politik einbringt? Oder sind es Politiker und Behörden welche technisches Wissen bei akademischen Institutionen abholen? Mit der Beantwortung dieser Fragen soll klargestellt werden, wie sich die SDG 6 in der Schweiz umsetzen liessen und wie wissenschaftliches Wissen in die Politik einfliesst. 

  • Politikprozesse im Bereich Nachhaltige Energie in Dänemark und Deutschland: Die Masterarbeit soll die Entwicklung von Politikmassnahmen und Regulierungen im Bereich der nachhaltigen Energie in Dänemark (Wind) und/oder Deutschland (Photovoltaik) und die damit verbundenen Politikprozesse untersuchen. Die Studie sollte eine längerfristige Perspektive einnehmen und wird daher mindestens zwei Jahrzehnte und mehrere, aufeinanderfolgende Politikprozesse behandeln, die Arbeit wird auf vorhandener Literatur und der Analyse von Dokumenten (sowie möglichen Experteninterviews) basieren.
  • Formelle und informelle Netzwerke in der Regulierung der Abwasser-Infrastruktur in Indien: Das Ziel des grösseren Eawag Projekts ist es, die Abwasserpolitik und –Institutionen in indischen Staaten zu evaluieren. Die/der StudentenIn wird eine Stakeholder- und Netzwerkanalyse der Regulierung von Abwasserstandorten in zwei indischen Staaten durchzuführen. Dies beinhaltet die Identifizierung der wichtigen Akteure in der Regulierung kleinerer Abwassersysteme, die Visualisierung und Analyse deren Netzwerke, und den Vergleich zwischen der formellen und informellen Verantwortlichkeitsstrukturen. Der/die angehende MasterstudentIn wird rund zwei Monate im Feld verbringen und muss der Eawag einen Projektbericht abgeben.
  • Die Anwendung von Pestiziden in tropischen Ländern: Diese Masterarbeit ist in ein grosses und interdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt zu Pestizidanwendung und –Regulierung in Costa Rica und Uganda integriert. Nach dem institutionellen Ressourcen Regime soll der/die MA Studierende Lücken in der Reglementierung sowie dem institutionellen Arrangement identifizieren, welche die Pestizidanwendung umgeben und adressieren. Eines der beiden Länder darf gewählt werden. Diese Arbeit beinhaltet auch Feldarbeit in einem der beiden Länder. Reise- und Unterkunftskosten sind vom Projekt übernommen.
  • Praktischer Umweltschutz auf Gemeindeebene: In Zusammenarbeit mit der Organisation PUSCH schreibt der Lehrstuhl PEGO der Universität Bern eine Masterarbeit zu Netzwerken von Akteuren auf Gemeindeebene aus. Auf lokaler Ebene existieren viele Organisationen, welche für Projekte der Biodiversität, der Energieversorgung, oder des Entsorgungswesens mit einer oder mehreren Gemeinden zusammenarbeiten. In diesem Zusammenhang stellt sich die Frage: wer nimmt an solchen Projekten teil? Wer ist gut integriert und wer wird aussen vor gelassen?