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This paper investigates whether the presence of gender quotas makes political parties likely to ask their female members to run for elective office. Based on an original mail survey of over 1000 local party leaders in Germany, this paper finds that female members in German parties are no less likely than male members to have been asked by their parties to run for elective office. Furthermore, this result is also observed in political parties without gender quotas and in and places where state and local electoral systems are not compatible with the use of quotas, indicating that, in this case, quotas have a contagion effect. They have created a normative expectation that parties nominate female candidates even in instances when there is no official quota in place. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper points out the importance of party competition as an explanatory factor in comparative welfare state research that is neglected by standard theories. The argument is applied to explaining the differentiation of social rights, and, more specifically, to the case of unemployment compensation in post-war Germany. The party system and the dynamics of competition that it generates determine which voters are most considered in the policy decisions of parties. Together with the structure of the labour market and the existing policies, which condition the interests of voters, this political logic shapes policy changes. Accordingly, the paper shows how centripetal party competition in Germany helps to explain the establishing of a clearly stratified but relatively inclusive system of unemployment benefits in the post-war phase of welfare state expansion. By contrast, during welfare state retrenchment centripetal competition has contributed to an increase in segmentation between benefits. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent have changes in party finance laws transformed party organizations in Germany and Austria? This paper adopts a rational choice - institutional approach in order to answer this question. That is, the ability of party elites to change their party organization is constrained by institutional rules such as party finance laws. Hypotheses regarding fundraising, bureaucratic professionalism, fundraising, and membership relations are developed from this theory. These hypotheses are tested via interviews, survey data and financial reports of political parties from 1980 to 2000 on the national and sub-national level in Germany and Austria. Results indicate that parties in Germany are becoming sophisticated in their fundraising techniques, although their methods are not as advanced as those used by parties in the U.S. Furthermore, parties in both countries are becoming increasingly professional and bureaucratic. However, despite their growing party offices, parties are not increasing membership recruitment or communications with current members. The implications of these findings for party democracy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand political leadership it is crucial to understand if politicians act as leaders in their respective constituencies and parties. Although little work has been done on this topic from a political science perspective there exists established literature on a comparable topic, the roles of managers as leaders in business. This paper examines whether a theory on business leadership proves to be robust for political leadership. In 2002 W. Bennis and R. Thomas proposed a theory of leadership that attributed to leaders common biographical situations and common attitudes. This study tries to ascertain if those common characteristics could also be found among political leaders in a different cultural context and of a different generation. For this purpose 19 qualitative interviews with young Hessian politicians were conducted. They all executed leadership positions in the youth organizations of their respective parties. Although the major claims of the 2002 theory could not be corroborated the results of this study suggest that management theory can serve, if not as a source for robust hypotheses, than at least as a guideline for the design of studies on leadership behavior of politicians. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does the economy explain the long-term trend of party membership? This paper will examine the long-term relationship between the economic conditions and the party membership trends of British Labour Party and German Social Democratic Party,1950-1994. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I ask whether gender quotas have led to an increase in political ambition among German women. I surveyed over 1000 members of German political parties and found that a gendered gap in political ambition persists despite the use of gender quotas. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are Green Parties locations of power for women in terms of political interests and party participation? I compare the success of Germany's Green Party to that of the U.S. Green Party in improving access to political participation. ..PAT.-Conference Proceeding [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]