Aid effectiveness has been intensively (and inconclusively) debated ever since the first strong criticism was published in the mid-1980s. Reducing the level of complexity by focusing on the sector level rather than on general economic development, we attempt to add some new insights to this debate. Moreover, we consider that just like decision making in any other field, decision making on development cooperation is not free from vested interest of the different actors involved. We apply the analytical tools of public choice analysis to create some transparency about how exactly these decision making processes work. Providing insight into the different channels of influence and deriving institutional conditions conducive to effective aid may help to allocate aid more efficiently in the future. This research is also related to the analysis of the political economy of international organizations, a topic we started a conference series on (with Axel Dreher, ETH Zurich). For these conferences, see http://www.cis.ethz.ch/events/pastevents/PEIO; http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/jrv24/PEIO.html (Our research in this field partially overlaps with research in the framework of our project on --> aid and democratization). Finally, we examine existing evaluation systems within the aid administration in donor countries, with a particular focus on different German aid agencies. Specific institutional characteristics, e.g. the independence of evaluation units, the selection process of evaluators, and the follow-up on evaluation outcomes, are important determinants of the reliability of evaluation results. Looking at different aid agencies, both the effectiveness and the cost of evaluation systems can be compared, and lessons can be drawn to improve overall efficiency. (This part of our research has now been completed, see publications below.)
This project examines the influence of the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) on democratization in developing countries. The project focuses on two interrelated topics: (1) the instruments that the IMF and the World Bank can use to effectively encourage democratization in developing countries, and (2) the institutional context that shapes the interactions between domestic and international actors in the area of democratization. More specifically, the project compares the new Poverty Reduction Strategies (PRS) with previous instruments of IFIs’ intervention. The aim is to define procedural and contextual factors that explain whether, and under which conditions, the IFIs’ influence in general, and the PRS process in particular, can be expected to encourage democratization in developing countries. The main focus will be on African and Asian countries during the third wave of democratization from 1974 to 2007. Theoretically, a political economy perspective is adopted here. According to this logic, the policies of the IFIs can have a positive or negative impact on democratization depending on the incentives thereby created for the involved political actors. On this theoretical basis, an empirical analysis based on a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods is proposed. As a result, it should become clear whether, and under which conditions, PRSP processes outperform previous instruments of multilateral cooperation in terms of promoting democratization in developing countries. (For related research, see also --> "Aid effectiveness / Political economy of aid".)
In 2001 the Federal government defined a new set of goals for the development of Switzerland’s metropolitan areas (“Agglomerationspolitik”). Due to the rules of Swiss federalism, the Confederation has only few instruments to directly enhance these goals. Hence, cantons and cities bear the main responsibility for the formulation and implementation of strategies to guide metropolitan development. However, they have proven rather hesitant to do so up to now. This study will focus on experiences that have been made in the formulation and implementation of metropolitan strategies in Swiss cantons. The goal is to work out the profiles of cantonal metropolitan strategies in terms of substance and organisation, and shed light on the conditions that frame the elaboration of these strategies. This will be done on the basis of in-depth case studies of five cantons: Aargau, Bern, Graubünden, Neuchâtel, Ticino. Data will be collected and analysed with qualitative methods, drawing on documentary evidence as well as a collective interview in each canton. For validation of data and results, several feedback events will be held with relevant actors of the cantons under scrutiny. In addition, the project is monitored by a an expert panel of representatives drawn from the Confederation, the cantons and the cities. This project is related to the project "Assessing the trend towards new regionalism" of the NCCR-Democracy (see weblink).
The study is aimed at identifying the factors which support a successful development of national strategies, programmes, packages of measures etc. with the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (SFOPH) and will provide findings and guidelines for the future planning of programme development processes. The research is based mainly on detailed case studies of selected programme development processes in the SFOPH. The case studies consist of a detailed reconstruction of the programme formulation processes with special emphases on the actors involved in the processes and other factors influencing the success of the programme formulation. In addition to a traditional comparative case study design, the research will rely on the Actor Process Event Scheme approach (APES; see pwi-apes.uzh.ch) which allows not only for a graphical analysis of the processes but as well for a comparative social network analysis.
The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) is in charge of the environmental education on the federal level. The unit for Environmental Education (EE) encourages the implementation of environmental education since 12 years. The activities in environmental education of the FOEN are mostly based on partnerships with the following four institutions: the Foundation for Environmental Education (SUB/FEE), the Education Centre of WWF, Partner for Environmental Training and Sustainability (sanu) and Silviva, an organisation for environmental education and forest. Furthermore the FOEN collaborates with the Federal Office for Professional Education and Technology (OPET) and the Swiss Conference of Cantonal Ministers of Education. The evaluation of these activities intends to analyse the effects of the FOEN regarding the implementation of the environmental education in the educational system in Switzerland. It should give a basis for future activities of the FOEN in environmental education. The leading questions are 1) Did the division EE of the FOEN achieve their goals from 1993-2005? 2) How are the effects of the EE on a political level regarding the educational system in Switzerland and on a textual level in schools and education centres? 3) What can be improved regarding synergies with other domains like health and global learning in the framework of education for sustainable development? 4) What are the consequences of an abandonment of the EE in the FOEN? 5) What role plays the International Day of Forest? 6) What is the ideal institutional setting of the EE unit within the FOEN? The study follows a multi-methods approach with inter alia documentary analysis, surveys and expert interviews.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is in a very challenging situation. The territorial organisation with the two entities, the Federation and the Republica Srbska, is far from contributing to overcoming ideological and political barriers within the country. The professional and political exchange with the surrounding countries of former Yugoslavia is (to a great extent artificially) kept low-profile. The relation to the EU is as yet mainly marked by the 'foreign governance' of the country, and not by spatial, social and economic coherence. Within the SCOPES 2000-2003 programme, aspects, shortcomings and opportunities of inter-regional co-operation within Bosnia and Herzegovina, but also with the surrounding countries, were tested and evaluated against the background of two specific issues of regional planning and development: the main transport corridors linking to the EU, and the question of city networks and territorial units (project nr. 7BIHP65680). One of the most important conclusions was that that it might not be possible to find an optimal regional structure solving all kinds of tasks and ambitions. Instead, an efficient system and basis for inter-regional co-operation could actually be the primary task, allowing for flexibly generating adequate forms of co-operation for different issues. Bearing this in mind, the project has culminated in a final conference bringing together professionals from all space-relevant fields of work (sociology, planning, economy, ecology, political sciences, law etc.) as well as political representatives, from all countries of former Yugoslavia. The current SCOPES 2005-2008 project is being built upon this strong basis. On the one hand, the impulse induced by the final conference will be picked up and 'institutionalized', establishing a platform of professional and political exchange in the region on the basis of strategic and regional planning tasks. This will challenge and help to overcome the ideologies still strongly determining opportunities in the region. On the other hand, specific issues regarding the territorial organization of Bosnia and Herzegovina will be further developed. In this respect, the aim of the project is to establish principles and criteria for the territorial organization and inter-regional cooperation in Bosnia and Herzegovina. An appropriate territorial organization and inter-regional cooperation would accelerate democratic processes, improve the efficiency of civil services, and prepare grounds for a thorough exercise of civil rights. At the same time, it would speed up the linking of regions and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina with those in Europe, which means speeding up the entire development of the country. All of this in a time when European cities and regions – more than ever – are at the heart of the dynamics of the continent.
Many scholars have asserted that the legitimacy of democratic political systems depends more and more on the performance of public policies. Output of the political system is replacing input as the central criterion for legitimate public action. For a political system to achieve output legitimacy, it must incorporate information about the public’s perception of its performance into its policy-making processes. The question of how to measure public policy performance, the processes through which the media system selects and communicates news about public performance, and the utilization of information on public perceptions of performance in public decision-making have each received wide attention in the literature, some of which addresses the Swiss case. However, no research to date has attempted to show how these issues relate to each other. We propose to investigate these questions in a common framework, which will allow us to address how the interdependencies between the processes of creation, diffusion, and utilization of information affect public performance. Connecting these processes is a necessary step towards answering the question of whether information on performance can generate political legitimacy. To investigate these questions, four policy fields are selected, within each of which three to four case studies are conducted. Each of these embedded case studies deals with one policy-making process. The main questions are: 1) how is information about the performance of the public sector created? 2) How do the media (and other communication channels) select and frame information about public performance for diffusion to citizens and decision-makers? And 3) how does the public sector use this information about perceptions of its performance? This integrative approach will provide insight into the processes of creation, diffusion and utilization of information about public performance. In so doing, the project will contribute to the ongoing debate on whether democratic legitimacy can be secured by political system output and thereby covers a crucial topic for the future of democracy in the 21st century.
Since the beginning of the 1990s, capacity of area-wide governance in urban regions is seen to rely increasingly on issue-oriented networks that associate public authorities from various levels of government, and often also business actors and other non-governmental agencies. The purpose of this project is to assess this trend towards ‘new regionalism’, through an analysis of the ways in which the conditions, the structures and the democratic anchorage of area-wide governance have changed in seven Swiss metropolitan areas during the 20th century. The research is guided by three basic questions: How have socio-political cleavages changed in the metropolitan areas under scrutiny? How has governance of these areas changed? How have patterns of decision making regarding metropolitan policies changed? The project combines quantitative and qualitative methods. On the one hand, longitudinal quantitative demographic, socio-economic and electoral data at the communal level will be collected and analysed for each metropolitan area. On the other hand, comparative case studies will be conducted on the change of urban public transport policies in these areas.
Die dezentrale Besiedlung der Schweiz ist unter Druck geraten. Zwar wurde seit den 1970er Jahren eine ganze Palette regionalpolitischer Instrumente entwickelt, mit denen das Überleben peripherer Regionen gesichert werden soll. Mit diesen Instrumenten wurden Berg- und sonstige wirtschaftliche Problemregionen während langer Zeit zweckmässig gefördert. In den letzten Jahren hat jedoch aufgrund geänderter nationaler und internationaler Rahmenbedingungen der Druck auf diese Regionen deutlich zugenommen. Viele periphere Regionen sehen sich aufgrund dieser Entwicklung mit Abwanderung – vor allem junger Menschen – und Bevölkerungsrückgang konfrontiert. Daran wird auch die gegenwärtig zur Debatte stehende Reform der Schweizer Regionalpolitik nichts grundlegendes ändern. Auch wenn dadurch die Zukunft gewisser Regionen insgesamt gesichert werden kann, ist nicht ausgeschlossen, dass innerhalb derselben weiterhin Abwanderungs- und Schrumpfungsprozesse stattfinden. Vor diesem Hintergrund besteht das Ziel dieses Teilprojekts darin, die relevanten politischen Prozesse zu erfassen, welche im Zusammenhang stehen mit der Entwicklung peripherer Regionen (d.h. im Wesentlichen: Wachstum oder Schrumpfung).