The federal government : a model employer or a work in progress? : perspectives from 25 years of the Merit Principles Survey : a report to the President and the Congress of the United States /

"September 2008"

TRANSPARÊNCIA PÚBLICA E PARLAMENTO ELETRÔNICO: A reforma do Poder Judiciário no portal do Senado Federal 2000-2004

A Constituição de 1988 e leis subsequentes determinam que o Estado preste informações aos cidadãos e favoreça a sua participação nas questões públicas trata-se do princípio legal da Transparência Administrativa, que compreende os seguintes subprincípios: (1) Informação; (2) Motivação e, o mais importante, (3) Participação e interatividade cidadãs. O alto investimento na Comunicação Estatal e os avanços tecnológicos, por si sós, não garantem a prática da transparência pública ou da democratização da informação. Sob uma perspectiva multidisciplinar, esta pesquisa discutiu o princípio legal de Transparência Administrativa, comparativamente à Teoria da Comunicação, com o objetivo de propor um conceito de Comunicação Estatal que, de fato, corresponda aos ideais e à ética necessários à Comunicação Pública. Para o desenvolvimento deste estudo foi investigada a relação da comunicação com o grau de transparência alcançado no portal do Senado Federal. O estudo analisou a tramitação da reforma do Poder Judiciário no período de 2000 a 2004, tendo em vista os três subprincípios legais da Transparência Pública. A análise contemplou, no portal do Senado, o trabalho jornalístico e a disponibilização on-line de textos digitais referentes a documentos originais, tais como atas públicas e notas taquigráficas. A metodologia, de enfoques quantitativo e qualitativo, teve como instrumento principal a Nova Retórica, para análise de matérias jornalísticas e textos documentais. Para averiguação da interatividade conceito que fundamenta o ideal de justiça , foram estabelecidos critérios analíticos a partir da intersecção entre os conceitos de transparência e E-parliaments. Constatou-se que o portal do Senado, no referente à reforma da Justiça, alcançou graus de transparência, atendendo mais aos subprincípios da informação e da motivação em detrimento aos da participação e interatividade cidadãs.(AU)

Modernisation in small steps? Comparing the organisational reforms of the British Conservative Party and the German CDU

Research on political parties has long identified “environmental” pressures upon parties to undertake organisational and programmatic reforms – this applies in particular to “catch-all” parties or Volksparteien. Changed social and media structures, the decline of organisations traditionally associated with the parties, and the growth in alternative possibilities of political participation create significant organisational – as well as programmatic – challenges. This paper compares the German CDU and the British Conservatives in two respects: in particular it focuses on their organisational responses to the election defeats they suffered at the end of the 1990s, examining those reforms which took place and consider whether these match the expectations of organisational reforms anticipated by proponents of the “cartel party thesis”. While in both cases there are similarities, but (in particular in the German case) it is important not to understate the extent of internal party resistance to reform, and thus the difficulties with which aspiring party reformers are confronted. This conclusion suggests, more broadly, that in reality the process of party change is more than an almost automatic, isomorphic, and inevitable response to a changing environment. Rather it is punctuated, messy, and often contingent on events and agents.

Does German foreign direct investment lead to job losses at home?

This paper provides firm-level evidence on the labour demand effects of outward investments using a panel of multinationals (MNEs) based in Germany. Distinguishing the type of investments and the location of subsidiaries around the world between 1997 and 2008, our evidence shows that for both the manufacturing and services sector the expansion of employment abroad does not occur at the detriment of employment at home. The analysis is extended to see whether outward FDI causes average wage cuts for workers employed in the German parent firm. Our findings indicate no clear average wage effects due to outward FDI. Given that domestic MNEs are seen to play an important role in the growth potential for an economy, these findings are somewhat re-assuring from a policy point of view.

Challenges and limitations of intercultural training for inpatriates in German multinationals:a case study

Despite the increasing popularity of research on intercultural preparation and its effectiveness, research on training for inpatriates has not been developed with the same level of rigour as research on training for expatriates. Furthermore, research on intercultural training hardly ever includes the aspect of preparing for the corporate culture of a company. For expatriates coming from headquarters’ national culture and equipped with a good knowledge of headquarters’ corporate culture, it might be sufficient to address only the national culture of the location abroad. But can the same be said for inpatriates coming from a foreign subsidiary? Therefore the qualitative research of my thesis was aimed at finding out if intercultural training programmes that address only the national culture of the host country are sufficient to prepare inpatriates for working at headquarters. A case study using a German multinational company has been conducted in order to find out what kind of problems and irritations inpatriates at the company’s headquarters perceive at work. In order to determine whether the findings are related to the national or the corporate culture, Hall’s and Hofstede’s approaches to culture were used. The interview analysis produced the following conclusion: Although the researched company promotes standardised worldwide corporate guidelines, there are many differences between headquarters and subsidiaries regarding the interpretation and realisation of these guidelines. These differences cause irritation, confusion and problems for the inpatriates. Therefore an effective intercultural preparation for inpatriates should be tailor-made and take into account the aspect of corporate culture, as well as the specific roles and functions of inpatriates.

West German bank advertising and the East German public:a study in intercultural advertising communication

In the wake of German unification, initial advertising by many West German companies in the new federal states (the former German Democratic Republic - GDR) proved largely ineffective and many advertisers were forced to change their approach to this new market. The advertising task proved even more complicated for banks, because banking existed only at the most basic level in the former GDR. Furthermore, under the old regime, "capitalist" banks represented the very antithesis of the GDR's founding ideology. This analysis of advertising by West German banks - in particular Dresdner Bank - in the new federal states brings together elements of discourse and communication theory, particularly Relevance Theory [Sperber and Wilson 1986], with the overall objective of designing a model of intercultural advertising communication. A series of simple association tasks based on texts from pre-Wende advertisements was completed by a sample of advertisees (as they are called in the study) in Leipzig. The research shows the lack of relevance between the advertiser's understanding of concepts such as "credit", "bank" etc. and the associations which these concepts have for the sample of advertisees. Further analysis reveals that this lack of relevance occurs because advertisers and advertisees assign differing contexts to these concepts when they communicate through advertising. The study concludes that these different contexts, governed by the contrasting ideological, economic and linguistic environments of the advertisers and advertisees, interfere with the effective communication of the advertising message.

Post-vernacular language use in a Low German linguistic community

In a time of rapid shift and loss of smaller, regional and minority languages it becomes apparent that many of them continue to play a role as post-vernacular varieties. As Shandler (2006) points out for Yiddish in the United States, some languages serve the purpose of identity-building within a community even after they have ceased to be used as a vernacular for daily communication. This occurs according to Shandler through a number of cultural practices, such as amateur theatre, music and folklore, translation, attempts to learn the language in evening classes, etc. This paper will demonstrate that the paradigm developed by Shandler for Yiddish can be applied to other linguistic communities, by comparing the post-vernacular use of Yiddish with Low German in Northern Germany. It will focus on the linguistic strategies that individuals or groups of speakers apply in order to participate in a post-vernacular language community.

Disentangling Double Politikverflechtung? The implications of the federal reforms for Bund-Länder relations on Europe

The recent reforms of German federalism (Reform I) have established a new framework for Bund–Länder co-operation on EU policy. These seek to safeguard Germany's ability to co-operate in Europe by disentangling the joint roles and responsibilities bound up within the complex arrangements of the EU policy-making system, defined as a multiple framework of joint decisions, or doppelte Politikverflechtung. Whilst on the surface, the reforms enacted may be read as a success for the Länder in their bid to secure autonomy on European issues, closer analysis reveals that these changes may in fact hamper the Länder agenda on European issues, closing off new opportunities for influence.

Ethnic identity in a globalised world:the German community in Richmond and Kingston since 1970

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Interlingual Identifiers of an L1 German speaker writing in English

Master of Arts dissertation

Mobile Election

Mobile phones have the potential of fostering political mobilisation. There is a significant political power in mobile technology. Like the Internet, mobile phones facilitate communication and rapid access to information. Compared to the Internet, however, mobile phone diffusion has reached a larger proportion of the population in most countries, and thus the impact of this new medium is conceivably greater. There are now more mobile phones in the UK than there are people (averaging at 121 mobile phones for every 100 people). In this paper, the attempt to use modern mobile technology to handle the General Election, is discussed. The pre-election advertising, election day issues, including the election news and results as they come in, and answering questions via text message regarding the results of current and/or previous general elections are considered.

Introduction to the special issue : reframing German Federalism

In recent years, Germany’s federal system has been subject to a number of pressures for change. A constitutional debate on ‘disentangling’ the legislative roles of federal and Länder institutions which stuttered through the 1990s and into the 2000s finally led to a re-allocation of competences in 2006. These reforms shifted some areas of legislative responsibility from the federal to the Länder level and relaxed rules which had earlier justified a federal override when both levels held legislative responsibilities concurrently. At the very least, these constitutional adjustments increased the potential for policy outputs to diverge from one Land to another and give expression to territorial differences in priority and preference.

The use of presidential executive orders to control the management and administration of the federal government

As long as governmental institutions have existed, efforts have been undertaken to reform them. This research examines a particular strategy, coercive controls, exercised through a particular instrument, executive orders, by a singular reformer, the president of the United States. The presidents studied-- Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton--are those whose campaigns for office were characterized to varying degrees as against Washington bureaucracy and for executive reform. Executive order issuance is assessed through an examination of key factors for each president including political party affiliation, levels of political capital, and legislative experience. A classification typology is used to identify the topical dimensions and levels of coerciveness. The portrayal of the federal government is analyzed through examination of public, media, and presidential attention. The results show that executive orders are significant management tools for the president. Executive orders also represent an important component of the transition plans for incoming administrations. The findings indicate that overall, while executive orders have not increased in the aggregate, they are more intrusive and significant. When the factors of political party affiliation, political capital, and legislative experience are examined, it reveals a strong relationship between executive orders and previous executive experience, specifically presidents who served as a state governor prior to winning national election as president. Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton (all former governors) have the highest percent of executive orders focusing on the federal bureaucracy. Additionally, the highest percent of forceful orders were issued by former governors (41.0%) as compared to their presidential counterparts who have not served as governors (19.9%). Secondly, political party affiliation is an important, but not significant, predictor for the use of executive orders. Thirdly, management strategies that provide the president with the greatest level of autonomy--executive orders--redefine the concept of presidential power and autonomous action. Interviews of elite government officials and political observers support the idea that executive orders can provide the president with a successful management strategy, requiring less expenditure of political resources, less risk to political capital, and a way of achieving objectives without depending on an unresponsive Congress. ^

The use of presidential executive orders to control the management and administration of the federal government

As long as governmental institutions have existed, efforts have been undertaken to reform them. This research examines a particular strategy, coercive controls, exercised through a particular instrument, executive orders, by a singular reformer, the president of the United States. The presidents studied- Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, and Clinton-are those whose campaigns for office were characterized to varying degrees as against Washington bureaucracy and for executive reform. Executive order issuance is assessed through an examination of key factors for each president including political party affiliation, levels of political capital, and legislative experience. A classification typology is used to identify the topical dimensions and levels of coerciveness. The portrayal of the federal government is analyzed through examination of public, media, and presidential attention. The results show that executive orders are significant management tools for the president. Executive orders also represent an important component of the transition plans for incoming administrations. The findings indicate that overall, while executive orders have not increased in the aggregate, they are more intrusive and significant. When the factors of political party affiliation, political capital, and legislative experience are examined, it reveals a strong relationship between executive orders and previous executive experience, specifically presidents who served as a state governor prior to winning national election as president. Presidents Carter, Reagan, and Clinton (all former governors) have the highest percent of executive orders focusing on the federal bureaucracy. Additionally, the highest percent of forceful orders were issued by former governors (41.0%) as compared to their presidential counterparts who have not served as governors (19.9%). Secondly, political party affiliation is an important, but not significant, predictor for the use of executive orders. Thirdly, management strategies that provide the president with the greatest level of autonomy-executive orders redefine the concept of presidential power and autonomous action. Interviews of elite government officials and political observers support the idea that executive orders can provide the president with a successful management strategy, requiring less expenditure of political resources, less risk to political capital, and a way of achieving objectives without depending on an unresponsive Congress.