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This article introduces an analytical framework for studying and interpreting the sometimes surprisingly different ‘shapes’ (key topics and approaches) of donor-funded responses to sexual violence in and after armed conflict. Our framework highlights processes of politicization, depoliticization, and technicalization and their influence on interventions. Drawing on available studies, published documents, and our own field research in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Sierra Leone, we show that donor-funded responses to sexual violence since the early 2000s have taken remarkably different shapes – despite the emergence of influential international policy narratives and roughly similar forms of sexual violence in both contexts. A focus on context-specific processes of politicization, depoliticization, and technicalization reveals how these differences came about and persisted over time. (De-)Politicization and technicalization of sexual violence as a ‘weapon of war’ in DRC have led to medicalized and security-centred statebuilding interventions in the county's eastern conflict zones. By contrast, donor-funded responses in Sierra Leone framed and addressed sexual violence as ‘domestic violence’ even before the war had officially ended. We find that these different shapes emerged from initial differences in (de)politicization and technicalization processes driven by different ‘first responders’ in both contexts, which created enduring path dependencies.

The Russian state requires companies to invest in welfare provision and to conclude socio-economic cooperation agreements (SECAs) with regional administrations. Based on empirical evidence from Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug, this article analyses state-business interactions at the subnational level. We show that state and business actors have formalised their resource exchange in the SECAs. Because of the agreements' adaptive nature, both parties are able to manage their respective obligations and risks within an authoritarian and highly volatile environment. We identify four patterns of contractual relations, depending on the companies' production capacities and their commitment to providing social investments in the region.

China hat auf Russlands Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine und das in der Folge von westlichen Staaten verhängte Sanktionsregime mit einem diplomatischen Balanceakt mit „Moskauer Schlagseite“ reagiert. Dieser hält an den strategischen Koordinaten der Vorkriegszeit fest: umfangreiche Integration in die Weltwirtschaft bei gleichzeitiger Zurückweisung globaler US-amerikanischer Hegemoniebestrebungen, diplomatischer und energiepolitischer Ausbau der russländisch-chinesischen Beziehungen sowie selektive Militärkooperation mit Moskau., China has responded to Russia’s war on Ukraine and the sanctions regime subsequently imposed by Western states with a balancing act bearing a “Moscow slant” diplomacy. This balancing act adheres to the strategic coordinates of the pre-war period: extensive integration into the world economy while rejecting global U.S. hegemonic aspirations, the expansion of Sino-Russian relations in terms of diplomacy and energy policy, and selective military cooperation with Moscow.

The European Union's Clean Energy Package (CEP) plans to transform ‘passive consumers’ into ‘active citizens’ to support the transition to a carbon-neutral energy system by 2050. By stimulating the growth of renewable energy communities, the CEP works towards the redefinition of renewable energy as an economic commodity to a common good. In this paper, we approach the implementation of the CEP through the notion of polycentricity. Building on previous literature, we identified seven variables for effective polycentric energy governance: equity and co-benefits; inclusivity and local involvement; information, demonstration and innovation; ownership and accountability; organizational multiplicity; experimentation and flexibility; and clear goals set and enforced by a higher-level authority. To compare a variety of polycentric institutional configurations, we analyze Norway, the Netherlands, and Germany. Our findings indicate that, in general, some degree of polycentricity appears to be beneficial for the energy transition. This is the foundation for building local ownership and inclusivity and thus the emphasis is rightly placed there and could be expanded. Secondly, issues of ownership and accountability stand out as key enablers of renewable energy communities and the additional common goods that they bring to the energy system. These communities need to be enabled in financial terms to deploy a sufficient amount of projects, e.g., by giving them access to risk capital in the early development stages. In turn, this requires clear regulations and accountability mechanisms being installed on what precisely falls under the definition of a renewable energy community. Finally, we found that even as polycentricity is a promising approach, it does need to be anchored with a significant role for higher level government in order to function effectively.

Do animals have moral rights? An affirmative answer follows from the best justification for human rights that we can give. The moral status not only of humans but also of animals consists in an egalitarian right to have rights. From this equal status, however, substantially equal rights follow only if the morally relevant interests are equal. A reasonably broad and differentiated understanding of our own, human animal nature reveals which interests we share with many other animals. Thus, sentient animals have basic rights to life and well-being, including volitional activities and access to beneficial social relationships. Further rights arise from special human–animal relationships that are also politically relevant. By subjecting animals and, thus, making them existentially dependent on us, we owe them more than mere protection and help in easily remediable emergencies. We thereby also assume associative duties, as they exist among fellow citizens. Therefore, we should open our understanding of the common good to the reality of species-mixed communities and represent animals politically.

Are aesthetics and politics really two different things? The book takes a new look at how they intertwine, by turning from theory to practice. Case studies trace how sensory experiences are created and how collective interests are shaped. They investigate how aesthetics and politics are entangled, both in building and disrupting collective orders, in governance and innovation. This ranges from populist rallies and artistic activism over alternative lifestyles and consumer culture to corporate PR and governmental policies. Authors are academics and artists. The result is a new mapping of the intermingling and co-constitution of aesthetics and politics in engagements with collective orders.

How does losing one’s right to vote again after having been eligible to vote before affect political fundamentals such as political efficacy? We draw attention to the hitherto neglected phenomenon “temporary disenfranchisement,” which, for instance, occurs regularly in states that extended the franchise to underage citizens in some but not all elections. If an election with voting age 16 is closely followed by an election with voting age 18, underage voters who are eligible for the former will have no right to vote in the latter. Using original panel data on young citizens in Germany and a differences-in-differences design, we find that temporary disenfranchisement results in a decrease in external efficacy, which remains even after regaining eligibility. Our findings highlight an important side effect of selective voting rights extensions and bear insights that are relevant to other cases of temporary disenfranchisement due to residential mobility, citizenship, or felony disenfranchisement.

Responding to disasters triggered by natural hazards is a deeply political process, but it is usually presented by practitioners as an apolitical endeavour. This is striking when disasters occur in authoritarian and politically highly polarised conflict-affected settings. Although the literature provides leads as to why and how humanitarians depoliticise aid, there has been little empirical research on the implications of depoliticisation, especially at the community level. Based on qualitative fieldwork that focused on the drought responses that overlapped with the 2016-19 sociopolitical crises in Zimbabwe, this paper details the practices, motivations, and implications of humanitarian depoliticisation. It differentiates between strategic, coerced, and routine managerial depoliticisation, and argues that, in an authoritarian conflict-affected setting, depoliticisation strategically allows state and non-state actors to defuse sensitive issues and actor relations and to remain safe. However, depoliticisation can also have implications for information management, monitoring, accountability, and protection, and thus ultimately for upholding humanitarian principles.يُعدّ التصدي للكوارث التي تسببها الأخطار الطبيعية عملية سياسية عميقة، ولكن عادة ما يقدمها الممارسون على أنها مسعى غير سياسي. يكون هذا مدهشاً عندما تحدث الكوارث في البيئات الاستبدادية والمستقطبة سياسياً للغاية والمتأثرة بالصراع. على الرغم من أن الأدبيات تقدم أدلة حول لماذا وكيف ينزع العاملون في المجال الإنساني المساعدات من السياسة، إلا أنه لم يكن هناك سوى القليل من الأبحاث التجريبية حول الآثار المترتبة على عدم التسييس، خاصة على مستوى المجتمع. استنادًا إلى عمل ميداني نوعي يركز على التصدي لحالات الجفاف المتداخلة مع الأزمات الاجتماعية والسياسية في زيمبابوي في الفترة من 2016-2019، تبيّن هذه المقالة بالتفصيل الممارسات، والدوافع، والآثار المترتبة على عدم تسييس العمل الإنساني. إنه يفرّق بين نزع التسييس الاستراتيجي، والقسري، والاعتيادي، ويناقش بأنه، في بيئة سلطوية متأثرة بالصراع، فإن عدم التسييس على نحو استراتيجي يسمح للجهات الفاعلة الحكومية، والجهات غير الحكومية نزع فتيل القضايا الحساسة، والعلاقات بين الجهات الفاعلة لتبقى آمنة. ومع ذلك، فإن عدم التسييس يمكن أن يكون له أيضاً آثار على إدارة المعلومات، والرصد، والمساءلة، والحماية، وبالتالي دعم المبادئ الإنسانية في نهاية المطاف. كلمات محورية: الاستبداد، الصراع، نزع التسييس، الكارثة، الجفاف، الحوكمة، العمل الإنساني، السياسة، زيمبابوي.对自然灾害引发的灾害作出响应，这是一个非常政治化的过程，但实践者通常将该过程展示为一种非政治的努力。当灾害发生在专制政权和在政治上高度两极化的受冲突影响的背景下时，这一点很明显。尽管文献提供了关于人道主义者为何及如何将援助去政治化的线索，然而，关于去政治化的影响，基于实践经验的研究却很少，尤其是在社区层面。干旱响应与2016年至2019年津巴布韦的社会政治危机重合在一起，根据侧重于该响应的定性实地调查，本文详细阐述了人道主义去政治化的实践、动机和影响。该文章区分了战略性、强迫性和常规管理的去政治化，并主张，在专制政权的受冲突影响的环境下，去政治化在战略上允许国家和非政府行动者化解敏感问题和行动者关系，同时保持安全。然而，去政治化也可以对信息管理、监测、问责和保护产生影响，从而最终对维护人道主义原则产生影响。 关键词：专制主义、冲突、去政治化、灾害、干旱、治理、人道主义、政治、津巴布韦.

Auch wenn Deutschlands Performanz bei den Infektions- und Todeszahlen sowie den wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Folgen in Verbindung mit COVID-19 im EU27-Vergleich als zufriedenstellend bewertet würde, stellt sich die Frage nach der Input-Legitimität durch demokratische Verfahren. Sie wird ausgehend vom Konzept der Emergency Politics von Jonathan White am Beispiel Deutschlands mit seinem Notstandsregime der Bund-Länder-Konferenz und dessen Effekten auf die 16 Landesparlamente aufgeworfen. Anschließend daran wird argumentiert, dass die während der Pandemiewellen in den Jahren 2020 und 2021 vorherrschende Entscheidungsfindung und Beschlussfassung innerhalb der föderalen Staatsordnung einen Rahmen bildete, der den Parlamentsfunktionen weitgehend den Boden entzogen hat. Zentral für die Analyse ist die Darlegung der von der Pandemie evozierten Veränderung des Mehrebenen-Regierens durch die Bund-Länder-Konferenzen. Auswirkungen dieser von der Exekutive dominierten Krisenbewältigungspolitik wird für die auf der Landesebene wichtigsten Parlamentsfunktionen, die Kontrolle durch Mitregieren, Oppositionskontrolle, Gesetzgebung sowie das Herstellen von Öffentlichkeit, diskutiert. Empirische Grundlagen bilden Presseberichte, nichtöffentliche Beschlussvorlagen und Beschlüsse der Bund-Länder-Konferenz sowie Bevölkerungsbefragungen. Der Aufsatz schließt mit der Empfehlung, zukünftige Notstandspolitik institutionell besser vorzubereiten und dabei einen Platz für den Landesparlamentarismus vorzusehen., Although Germany’s performance in terms of the number of infections and fatalities as well as the economic and social consequences associated with COVID-19 can be considered as satisfactory in an EU27 comparison, it raises the question of input legitimacy through democratic procedures. It draws on the basis of Jonathan White’s concept of emergency politics, using the example of Germany with its emergency regime of the Bund-Länder-Konferenz and its impact on the 16 state parliaments. It is then argued that the decision-making during the pandemic waves in 2020 and 2021 formed a framework within the federal state that largely removed the basis for parliamentary functions. Essential for the analysis is the outline of the change in the multi-level governance that the pandemic brought about through the conference of the Chancellor and the 16 state prime ministers. The impact of this governmental crisis management politics are discussed for the most important state parliamentary functions, the oversight through co-governance, oversight by the opposition, legislation, and the public debate. The empirical basis is provided by media reports, non-public drafts, resolutions of the Bund-Länder-Konferenz and opinion polls. The article concludes with a recommendation to better prepare future emergency politics institutionally and to give state parliamentarism a place in this process.

The political participation literature has documented a long-term trend of the normalization of noninstitutional participation that is often equated with the conventionalization of engagement in protest politics. Less is known on the extent to which noninstitutional forms are differentiated by their mobilization context. Population surveys find it difficult to contextualize individual engagement, and on-site surveys point to effects that are hard to generalize. This study fills this gap by emphasizing differentiation and distinguishing participation according to the issue of engagement. It introduces a conceptual distinction between political insiders and outsiders, defined based on the extent to which they are embedded in the organizational landscape of the dominant cleavage dimension. Using an original survey conducted in Germany during the Covid-19 crisis, the analysis demonstrates that general-population surveys are fit to examine issue-specific participation patterns. The results expose an insider and outsider divide, captured by the effect of attitudinal and behavioral indicators, and demonstrates that the two groups are equally likely to participate in noninstitutional forms. However, insiders engage on the established issues of climate and anti-racism, whereas outsiders engage on the new issues of Covid-19 related economic assistance and civil liberties restrictions. In addition, dynamic models reveal that noninstitutional participation is rooted in volatile issue preferences. Overall, the paper argues that participation during the Covid-19 crisis has furthered the trend towards a differentiated protest arena.

This paper examines the variety of agrarian classes of labour and the challenges they face in organizing and pursuing their interests. By taking the cotton sector in Burkina Faso as a case study, it analyses how various ‘classes of labour’ organize and mobilize for collective action to raise their claims: poor cotton farmers and workers in the cotton factories. Poor and middle farmers recently came to the fore when they boycotted cotton production in large numbers. The study focusses on the boycott campaign, and more broadly on class struggle and collective action by farmers and workers, on interclass alliances, and on capital's attempts to play the classes of labour against one another. The boycott campaign provides an outstanding case to analyse the interests of the various classes of labour and of opportunities for rural–urban mobilization and alliances across classes of labour. I argue that poor farmers and factory workers along the chain of cotton production can be considered as various classes of labour that are not necessarily antagonistic to one another but, first and foremost, to capital. In order to achieve radical transformation in the agrarian context, what is needed are networks and organizations to establish interclass solidarity and alliances.

This article analyses the organization of Chinese grassroots social management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on a range of local cases researched through policy documents, media coverage and interviews, we scrutinize the appropriation of emergency measures and the utilization of grid-style social management since the outbreak of COVID-19. Grid-style social management – a new grassroots administrative division aiming to mobilize neighbourhood control and services – is a core element in China’s pursuit of economic growth without sacrificing political stability. Conceptualizing grids as confined spaces of power, we show how the Chinese party-state is able to flexibly redeploy diverse forms of power depending on the particular purpose of social management. During non-crisis times, grid-style social management primarily uses security power, casting a net over the population that remains open for population elements to contribute their share to the national economy. Once a crisis has been called, sovereign power swiftly closes the net to prevent further circulation while disciplinary power works towards a speedy return to a pre-crisis routine.

This article investigates the determinants and consequences of manipulating COVID-19 statistics in an authoritarian federation using the Russian case. It abandons the interpretation of the authoritarian regime as a unitary actor and acknowledges the need to account for a complex interaction of various bureaucratic and political players to understand the spread and the logic of manipulation. Our estimation strategy takes advantage of a natural experiment where the onset of the pandemic adjourned the national referendum enabling new presidential terms for Putin. To implement the rescheduled referendum, Putin needed sub-national elites to manufacture favourable COVID-19 statistics to convince the public that the pandemic was under control. While virtually all regions engaged in data manipulation, there was a substantial variation in the degree of misreporting. A third of this variation can be explained by an asynchronous schedule of regional governors’ elections, winning which depends almost exclusively on support from the federal authorities.

Urbanization processes are accompanied by growing global challenges for food systems. Urban actors are increasingly striving to address these challenges through a focus on sustainable diets. However, transforming food systems towards more sustainable diets is challenging and it is unclear what the local scope of action might be. Co-production of knowledge between science and non-science is particularly useful for analysing context-specific solutions and promise to result in more robust socio-economic, political and technical solutions. Thus, this paper aims to integrate different types and sources of knowledge to understand urban food systems transformation towards a more sustainable diet in Vienna; and, second, to analyse and reflect on the difficulties and ways forward to integrate diverse actors’ perspectives, multiple methods and epistemologies. We created different future scenarios that illustrate the synergies and trade-offs of various bundles of measures and the interactions among single dimensions of sustainable diets. These scenarios show that there is plenty of scope for local action, but co-ordination across diverse groups, interests, and types of knowledge is necessary to overcome lock-ins.

A wide range of actors are seeking to democratize energy systems. In the collaborative governance process of energy system transitions to net zero, however, many energy democracy concepts are watered down or abandoned entirely. Using five renewable energy case studies, we first explore the diversity of energy democratizing system challengers and bottom-up actors. Secondly, we analyze the role of conflict and challenges arising from the subsequent collaborative governance process and identify what appear to be blind spots in the CG literature. Our case studies on Berlin (GER), Jena (GER), Kalmar (SWE), Minneapolis (US) and Southeast England (UK) include different types of policy processes and actors. They suggest that actors championing energy democracy principles play an important role in opening participation in the early stages of collaborative energy transition governance. As collaborative governance progresses, participation tends to be increasingly restricted. We conclude that collaborative processes by themselves are insufficient in maintaining energy democracy principles in the energy transition. These require institutional embedding of participative facilitation and consensus building. The Kalmar case study as our only successful example of energy democracy suggests that a more intermediated and service-oriented approach to energy provision can create a business case for democratizing energy provision through collaborative governance.

The article proposes a heuristic framework based on processual sociology to analyse policy interventions aimed at change within conflict contexts. Such a framework is valuable because it creates an opportunity for a more open approach to empirical research that may allow us to research evolving processes and to see things we might miss otherwise. The article aims to complement goal-oriented and predominantly relational approaches and to contribute to debates that warn against the reification of actors and structures in research. It also points to a lack of attention to politics in the analysis of policy interventions. The argument derives from a discussion of transitional justice and peacebuilding and is empirically illustrated for the context of the Tunisian transitional justice process.

To better understand the communication of anti-elitism in contemporary politics, this study conceptually differentiates between specific anti-elitism geared toward specific, materially powerful elites (‘Angela Merkel’) and general anti-elitism referencing broader discursive constructs (‘the elite’). The study analyses the online communications of radical right parties in the 2019 European Parliament elections from six countries (Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Poland and Sweden). This more fine-grained analysis of anti-elitism highlights some areas of transnational convergence, such as a tendency to focus on specific political elites, rather than other sectors such as the media or discursive constructs. The findings also reveal stratification according to parties' position in national power structures: opposition parties tend to target national-level elites while governing parties focus on the European level. The findings highlight that anti-elitism is used in a highly instrumental way, and help us to better understand the intersection between anti-elitism and the multilevel politics of EP elections.

With the Clean Energy for all Europeans legislative package, the European Union (EU) aimed to put consumers “at the heart” of EU energy policy. The recast of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) acknowledged the importance of energy communities for the energy transition and introduced new provisions for renewable energy communities (RECs), empowering them to participate in the energy market. This article analyses the progress of transposing and implementing key provisions of the RED II that apply to RECs in nine European countries and focuses on timeliness and completeness of transposition. It comprises both a qualitative and quantitative assessment covering (1) the definition, rights, and market activities of RECs; (2) key elements of enabling frameworks; and (3) consideration of REC specificities in support schemes for renewable energy. The analysis shows considerable variation in transposition performance between the analysed countries. The authors investigate the reasons for this variation and relate them to findings of European implementation and compliance research. Key factors identified include actor-related and capacity-related factors, institutional fit, and characteristics of the RED II itself. Future research in this field needs multi-faceted avenues and should pay particular attention to the influence of national governments and incumbents, not only in the transposition process, but already in upstream policy formulation at the European level.

Background Social acceptance presents a major challenge for Germany’s transition to green energy. As a power-to-x technology, green hydrogen is set to become a key component of a future sustainable energy system. With a view to averting conflicts like those surrounding wind energy, we have investigated social acceptance of green hydrogen at an early stage in its implementation, before wider rollout. Our study uses a mixed-method approach, wherein semi-structured interviews (n = 24) and two participatory workshops (n = 51) in a selected region in central Germany serve alongside a representative survey (n = 2054) as the basis for both understanding social attitudes and reaching generalisable conclusions. Results Overall, it is possible to observe both a marked lack of knowledge and a large degree of openness towards green hydrogen and its local use, along with high expectations regarding environmental and climate protection. We reach three key conclusions. First, acceptance of green hydrogen relies on trust in science, government, the media, and institutions that uphold distributive justice, with consideration for regional values playing a vital role in establishing said trust. Second, methodologically sound participatory processes can promote acceptance, and active support in particular. Third, recurrent positive participatory experiences can effectively foster trust. Conclusions Accordingly, we argue that trust should be strengthened on a structural level, and that green hydrogen acceptance should be understood as a matter of responsible innovation. As the first empirical investigation into social acceptance of green hydrogen, and by conceptually interlinking acceptance research and responsible innovation, this study constitutes an important contribution to existing research.

Conditional grant programs are widely used in federal systems to address the tension between decentralized policy provision and territorial equity, given constraints on constituent units' ability to raise revenues. While enhancing their financial capacity, conditional grants are often seen as reducing constituent units' policy autonomy. Against this backdrop, this article examines the actual impact conditional grants have on the capacity and autonomy of a constituent unit. We analyze key milestones in the genesis and evolution of conditional grant programs in education and healthcare in Australia, Canada, and the United States. We find that the impact of conditional grants primarily depends on constituent units' size, fiscal capacity, and distinctiveness.\ud Conditional grants are most beneficial to smaller and/or fiscally weaker constituent units but highly distinctive units suffer the most significant autonomy losses. If they are not to exacerbate centralization, conditional grants programs thus need to be sensitive to the preferences of the more distinctive constituent units.

This dissertation investigates the incongruence of climate change mitigation and environmental protection goals in the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and the empirical track record of the country in the respective fields. Central concepts on paths towards environmental reform are analyzed against the case of Iran: These are the theories of Ecological Modernization, environmental activism and social movements, theories of the state and state-failure, and concepts of International Environmental Governance. This research assesses the explanatory power of said concepts for the challenges of environmental reform in the case of Iran and explores gaps in theory building. Through qualitative analyses of existing research and empirical data this dissertation argues that to the above-mentioned paths of reasoning can be applied to conceptualize the divergence between the environmental and climate protection vows in Iran and their implementation record. However, to thoroughly explore the chasm between words and actions in the Iranian case, additional factors should be considered. These prove to be rooted in socially constructed norms and ideas, the evolving nature of statehood in Iran, and historically shaped perceptions. These factors have been neglected in the current academic debate and empirical assessment of Iran’s environmental and climate change mitigation policies. This study offers a conceptual framework for understanding the challenges of environmental reform in Iran through a multi-level analysis where the interplay of the domestic and the international level as well as ideational factors are centered. Through this investigation we are better able to reflect on the limits of applicability of the existing canon of theories of environmental reform outside of the Western context. At the same time this research provides insight into ways to adequately appraise Iran’s behavior as an actor within international environmental governance schemes vital to future global efforts of climate change mitigation., Diese Dissertation untersucht die Inkongruenz zwischen Klimaschutz- und Umweltzielen in der Islamischen Republik Iran (IRI) und der empirischen Erfolgsbilanz des Landes in den jeweiligen Bereichen. Zentrale Konzepte über Wege zu einer Reform der Umwelt- und Klimapolitik werden am Beispiel des Iran analysiert: Dies sind die Theorien der Ökologischen Modernisierung, der sozialen Bewegungen, Theorien des Staates und des Staatsversagens sowie Konzepte der Internationalen Umweltpolitik. Die vorliegende Arbeit bewertet die Erklärungskraft der genannten Konzepte für den Fall des Iran und untersucht Lücken in der Theoriebildung. Anhand qualitativer Analysen bestehender Forschungsarbeiten und empirischer Daten wird in dieser Dissertation argumentiert, dass die oben genannten Argumentationswege auf die Divergenz zwischen den Umwelt- und Klimaschutzversprechen im Iran und deren Umsetzung angewendet werden können. Um jedoch die Kluft zwischen Worten und Taten im iranischen Fall gründlich zu konzeptualisieren, sollten zusätzliche Faktoren berücksichtigt werden. Diese haben ihre Wurzeln in sozial konstruierten Normen und Ideen, in der sich entwickelnden Natur der Staatlichkeit im Iran und in historisch geprägten Wahrnehmungen. Diese Faktoren wurden in der aktuellen akademischen Debatte und empirischen Bewertung der iranischen Umwelt- und Klimaschutzpolitik bislang vernachlässigt. Diese Studie bietet einen konzeptionellen Rahmen für das Verständnis der Herausforderungen einer Reform der Umwelt- und Klimapolitik im Iran durch eine Mehrebenenanalyse, bei der das Zusammenspiel der nationalen und internationalen Ebene sowie ideelle Faktoren im Mittelpunkt stehen. Durch diese Untersuchung sind wir besser in der Lage, über die Grenzen der Anwendbarkeit des bestehenden Kanons von Theorien zur Umweltreform außerhalb des westlichen Kontexts nachzudenken und das Verhalten des Irans als internationalen Akteur, das für künftige globale Bemühungen zur Eindämmung des Klimawandels von entscheidender Bedeutung ist, angemessen zu bewerten.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of Eurosceptic contestation within the legislative arena of the European Parliament (EP) from 2009 to 2019. Under what conditions do Eurosceptics vote differently from their Europhile peers? The literatures on European integration, party competition and policy types lead us to expect variation in Eurosceptic contestation across policy areas. Drawing on roll-call votes in the EP, we introduce two new measures of such contestation: Eurosceptic dissent, that is, the extent to which Eurosceptics diverge from the Europhile plurality, and integration polarization, that is, the extent to which Eurosceptics and Europhiles oppose each other as cohesive camps. Our two indicators show that Eurosceptic contestation is particularly pronounced when the EP votes on cultural, distributive and constituent issues. When voting on redistributive policies, in contrast, dissent and polarization are curbed by national and ideological diversity.

The Covid-19 pandemic triggered polarisation across Europe. While most citizens supported governments’ containment measures, others took to the streets and voiced their dissatisfaction. The article focuses on the mobilisation potential related to this heterogenous protest wave. It examines individuals that show sympathy and are willing to engage in anti-containment demonstrations based on 16 waves of a rolling cross-section survey fielded in Germany in 2020/2021. The results show a considerable and stable mobilisation potential: every fifth respondent sympathises with the protesters, and around 60% of those are ready to participate themselves. Political distrust, far-right orientations and an emerging ‘freedom divide’ structure the potential, as do Covid-19-related economic and health threats. Moreover, the findings indicate a radicalisation process and show how ideology and threat perceptions drive the step from sympathy to willingness to participate, suggesting that ideological polarisation may quickly spill over to the streets given an appropriate supply of protest opportunities.

After a failed transition to democracy in the 1990s in Togo, the opposition took refuge in Ghana, outside of the regime’s reach. Why and how did the regime react to transnational dissent? Analyzing an unpublished RPT-produced press review and the opposition press in Ghana and Togo, Raunet argues that the Togolese regime used the foreign press, the language of legality, and the politics of belonging to consolidate itself and shape a public image of apparent legitimacy. She suggests that the skillful adaptation of legitimation narratives is key in understanding the “internal logic” of authoritarian regimes and their prospects of survival., Après l’échec d’une transition démocratique au Togo dans les années 1990, l’opposition s’est réfugiée au Ghana, hors de la portée du régime. Comment et pourquoi le régime a-t-il réagi à la dénonciation du régime par l’opposition à l’étranger? Basé sur l’analyse d’une revue de presse produite par le RPT (non-publiée) et la presse de l’opposition, Raunet démontre que le régime togolais a utilisé la presse étrangère, le langage du droit, et le thème de l’identité pour consolider son pouvoir et forger une image publique de légitimité apparente. Cet article suggère que l’adaptation habile des récits de légitimité par les régimes autoritaires est clé dans notre compréhension de « leur logique interne » et pour leurs perspectives de survie., Após uma transição falhada para a democracia no Togo, na década de 1990, a oposição refugiou-se no Gana, foram do alcance do regime. Por que motivos e como reagiu o regime a esta dissidência transnacional? Com base na análise de uma resenha de imprensa produzida pelo RPT (Rally of the Togolese People), que não chegou a ser publicada, e na imprensa de oposição do Gana e do Togo, Raunet argumenta que o regime togolês utilizou a imprensa estrangeira, a linguagem legalista e as políticas de pertença para se consolidar e criar uma imagem pública de aparente legitimidade. No texto sugere-se que a hábil adaptação das narrativas de legitimação é a chave para compreender a “lógica interna” dos regimes autoritários e das suas perspetivas de sobrevivência.

China’s renewable energy innovation is essential for realizing its carbon neutrality targets and the low-carbon transition, but few studies have spatially examined its characteristics and spillover effects. To fill the research gap, this study investigates its distribution and trends from a spatiotemporal dimension and focuses on the spatial effects of the influencing factors to identify those that have a significant impact on renewable energy innovation by using China’s provincial panel data from 2006 to 2019. The results show the following findings. (1) Renewable energy innovation shows distinct spatial differences across China’s provinces such that it is high in the east and south and low in the west and north, which exhibits spatial locking and path-dependence. (2) There is a positive spatial correlation with renewable energy innovation. (3) R&D investment and GDP per capita significantly promote renewable energy innovation, but the former effect is mainly observed in the local area, whereas the latter shows spatial effects. More market-oriented policies should be taken for the improvement of renewable energy innovation and the establishment of regional coordination mechanisms are proposed.

Background: Access to safe abortion is not guaranteed in many parts of the world, nor is there a standardized method to measure access to abortion care. Objective: The present study aimed to analyse how selected studies in the UK measure access to abortion. This is intended to facilitate the following researchers to operationalize access, thus facilitating the collection of scientific data on access and, overall, creating the possibility to improve access to abortion care. Methods: Through a systematic literature review, ten studies were identified that met the inclusion criteria. Differences between the studies with regards to the coding categories setting, participants, methods, dimensions of access, and indicators were compared. Advantages and disadvantages of the different approaches and methods to record access to abortions were discussed. Results: Differences between the studies were found in all coding categories. The various approaches to investigate access to abortion care led to differences in the data and the results, limiting their comparability and generalizability. Conclusion: There is a high heterogeneity between the studies and how they measure access to abortion care. Further research is needed to operationalize access and develop a common framework.

Will die SPD den Kapitalismus überwinden oder ihn nur durch Reformen einhegen? Diese Fragen werden in der SPD immer wieder neu aufgeworfen. In diesem Beitrag werden die Kernaussagen der Aufsätze „Den Kapitalismus überwinden. Plädoyer für eine nüchterne Strategie“ (perspektivends, Heft 1/2021) und „Profit- oder Gemeinwohlorientierung? Grenzen nicht-kapitalistischer Unternehmensführung“ (perspektivends, Heft 2/2021) zu zehn Thesen zugespitzt.

This cumulative dissertation analyzes public opinion on policies that redistribute income: progressive taxes and targeted social transfers. It primarily explains why individuals and countries support more or less redistribution. The fundamental expectation is that people are driven by two motives: to expand and maintain their disposable income (“self-interest”) and to ensure a fair distribution of income (“fairness”). Those with less (more) income, those who expect to lose (gain) income, and those who find the current income distribution unfair (fair) should demand more (less) redistribution. While these theories are drawn from previous research, I revise common theoretical approaches to arrive at a deeper understanding of public opinion. Firstly, people’s ability to pursue their economic self-interest is inhibited by cognitive limits. Those with less income (expectations) only increase their support for redistribution when they know and think about expectable financial benefits, which is often not the case. In accordance with this theory, the dissertation presents quantitative evidence suggesting that those who gain income over time reduce their demand for redistribution but those who lose income do not increase it. Moreover, those who experience more economic risk of substantial income drops are not found to increase their demand for redistribution. In contrast, the implications of employment are fully in line with rationalist expectations: those who become unemployed demand more redistribution while those who re-gain employment reduce their demand again. Secondly, this dissertation advances the understanding of how unfairness perceptions and resulting redistribution demand arise. It uses equity theory to argue that people consider the income distribution to be unfair when there is inequality between workers with similar skills and efforts, which I coin unfair inequality. Quantitative analyses show that redistribution demand is not only higher among those who believe that unfair inequality is higher; there is also more support of redistribution in countries where objectively realized inequality between workers with similar skills and efforts (i.e., unfair inequality) is higher. This shows that unfairness beliefs are not idiosyncratic traits but are grounded in reality. The dissertation further shows that self-interest and unfairness perceptions are not equally strong drivers of preferences across countries. People only turn their aversion to inequality (be it due to self-interest or a desire for fairness) into demand for public redistribution when redistribution can be implemented fairly and effectively. This is the case when the government wields an effective bureaucracy and is free of corruption and nepotism, i.e., when it has high-quality institutions. Quantitative evidence offers strong support for these expectations. Income and unfairness perceptions are only strong predictors of differences in public support of redistribution when the quality of government of a country is sufficiently high. In a last step, the dissertation also analyzes the consequences of public support of redistribution. It argues that public opinion influences voting behavior (via issue-voting) and policymaking (via office- and policy-seeking politicians). Zooming in on a popular expectation subsumed under these arguments, the dissertation analyzes whether parties that governed are retrospectively punished and rewarded for implementing changes to the welfare state. It is typically assumed that parties will be punished (rewarded) for implementing welfare policies that oppose (are in line) with the policy preferences of their voters. Quantitative evidence suggests that this is not the case, not even under favorable circumstances such as a left government party. That notwithstanding, previous research suggests that prospective issue-voting does matter, where voters chose parties on the ballot paper that promise to act in accordance with their redistribution preferences.

Orienting societies towards sustainability requires comprehensive learning of how to think, act and live within a safe and just space for humanity. Approaching sustainability as a core paradigm of quality education in the twenty-first century, Education for Sustainable Development necessitates an integrated view on learning. For educational organizations, Whole Institution Approaches (WIAs) to sustainability emphasize that all learning is embedded within its socio-physical contexts. Although the core objective—to “walk the talk” on sustainability—is theoretically well established, questions remain regarding its specific conceptualizations. Based on a systematic qualitative analysis of 104 international documents from scientific and grey literature, this article offers a conceptual synthesis of the core elements of WIAs to sustainability in education. Based on the literature analysis, WIAs are described as continuous and participative organizational learning processes aimed at institutional coherence on sustainability, consistently linking the formal and informal (hidden) curricula. While specific pathways are necessary for diverse organizations, the article synthesizes a joint framework. Key characteristics of WIAs are clustered within five core principles (coherence, continuous learning, participation, responsibility, long-term commitment), seven highly integrated areas of action (governance, curriculum, campus, community, research, communication, capacity building), the underlying organizational culture, and critical conditions for successful implementation. As becomes clear from the synthesis, following a WIA means to collaboratively switch the default mode of all rules-in-use to sustainability. The concept of WIAs may thus both be approached as an instrument for consistent organizational development in light of (un-)sustainability and as a keystone of integrated high-quality sustainability learning.

Recently, a small but growing number of intelligence scholars has called for more methodological variety in the study of intelligence. In this article, we connect with the emerging discussion about the utility of sociological approaches and discuss three influential sociological concepts, namely ‘epistemic communities’, ‘transnational fields’ and ‘knowledge circulation’ for understanding international intelligence relations. We apply each concept to an empirical example from our research on German-Arab intelligence relations during the Cold War. The paper concludes that the concepts highlight the everyday life and social embeddedness of shared and transnational intelligence practices and processes.

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) demonstrate an integration of development and environmental agendas. However, none of the environmental sub-targets, which were due by 2020, were accomplished. Global governance through goal setting requires functioning mechanisms of accountability. Based on a theoretical framework that differentiates between public, private and voluntary logic of accountability, the article illustratively explores accountability mechanisms concerning the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This allows to discuss the untapped potential for holding power wielders, such as governments, private companies, and norm champions, accountable. While the SDGs were adopted within public governance institutions, there are regulative means of accountability available that follow private and voluntary logic. Acknowledging this hybrid character of accountability in the implementation stage, the article concludes that there is a need for additional research to explore dimensions of non-public accountability for goals agreed upon by the international community. SDG indicators should be mandatory for corporate reporting, and civil society organisations should report more comprehensively on the spread of environmental norms in global development.

Multiple studies have examined the effects of financial development on renewable energy consumption, but little is known about its impact on renewable energy innovation. The validity of the Porter Hypothesis (PH) in renewable energy industries—that is, whether stricter environmental policies promote innovation—remains unclear. This study explores the effects of financial market development and environmental policy stringency on renewable energy innovation, as well as whether renewable innovation differs with levels of stringency of environmental policy and levels of development of the financial market. We apply a nonlinear panel threshold model to the 37 member countries of the organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 1990 to 2019. The results show that as financial development increases, its impact gradually declines, and that as environmental policy becomes more stringent, its impact rapidly increases. This finding implies that financial development is associated with greater increases in renewable innovation in countries with a medium level of financial development, and that stricter environmental policies can be used by OECD countries to increase innovation. This study therefore confirms the validity of the PH as well as the financial development effect on renewable innovation in OECD countries. It also finds that international oil prices and the level of research and development expenditure have significantly positive effects on renewable innovation. Policy suggestions for developing financial markets and increasing policy stringency are proposed.

The Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) refers to a country’s climate action plan to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and adapt to climate change hazards. Each country is obliged to submit its NDCs to the UNFCCC, adhering to a guideline for increasing clarity and transparency. Nonetheless, few studies have employed this guideline to assess countries’ contributions, particularly the NDCs of developed countries. Our article centers on the case of The Arab Republic of Egypt (hereafter Egypt), which is extremely susceptible to climate change impacts due to its geographic location and economic structure. Using desk research and a systematic NDC analysis, this paper reviews recent measures Egypt has taken to build national resilience against climate change. We also assess Egypt’s planned mitigation and adaptation measures until 2030, documented in its updated NDC according to four criteria: mitigation ambition level, comprehensiveness, implementation plan, and transparency. The results show that Egypt’s 2022 NDC is more advanced on different fronts than the 2015 submission, focusing on fewer sectors and specific quantified targets for mitigation and adaptation. However, the updated NDC only partially meets the essential criteria for mitigation ambition level, implementability, and transparency. We provide a set of methodological and policy recommendations for improvement.

After more than 25 years of scholarship, the deliberative turn in international relations (IR) theory is ready to be revisited with a fresh perspective. Using new methods from automated text analyses, this explorative article investigates how rhetoric may bind action. It does so by building upon Schimmelfennig’s original account of rhetorical entrapment. To begin, I theorize the opposite of entrapment, which I call rhetorical hollowing. Rhetorical hollowing describes a situation in which actors use normative rhetoric, but instead of advancing their interests, such rhetoric fails to increase their chances of obtaining the desired outcome because the normative force of their rhetoric has eroded over time. To provide plausibility to both entrapment and hollowing, I present two mechanisms by which language is connected with action in the United Nations Security Council. Finally, I run a series of time-series-cross-section models on selected dictionary terms conducive to entrapment or hollowing on all speeches and an original Security Council resolution corpus from 1995 to 2017. The research shows that while mentioning ‘human rights’ is consistently associated with increased odds of authorization of force; the word ‘terrorism’ is associated with a decrease of odds for intervention. This finding suggests that some terms may not only entrap or hollow but also normatively backfire.

Polarisation over cultural issues and the emergence of radical, often populist, challenger parties indicate a fundamental restructuring of political conflict in Western Europe. The emerging divide crosscuts and, in part, reshapes older cleavages. This special issue introduction highlights how the transformation of cleavage structures relates to the dynamics of polarisation and political participation. The contributions to the special issue innovate in two ways. First, they adapt concepts and measures of ideological and affective polarisation to the context of Europe’s multi-party and multi-dimensional party competition. Second, they emphasise electoral and protest politics, examining how ideological and affective polarisation shape electoral and non-electoral participation. Apart from introducing the contributions, the introduction combines different datasets – the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, Comparative Study of Electoral Systems and the European Social Survey – to sketch an empirical picture of differentiated polarisation with types of polarisation only weakly associated cross-arena, cross-nationally and over time.

Background Transport policy has regained political relevance in Germany. The successful realization of the Verkehrswende,—the extensive transition toward sustainable transport and mobility—is central to reaching climate neutrality. In 2020, the Federal Government proposed the reform of two key ordinances that have regulated road traffic so far. The amendment was aimed at implementing several provisions at the expense of car drivers and, at the same time, in favor of cyclists and pedestrians. Due to cooperative federalism, the governments of the 16 constituent units (Länder) had to adopt the amendment in the Bundesrat, Germany’s second chamber. In the legislative process, however, the reform ultimately failed in its original scope. Using it as a particularly instructive case study, we show how and why party competition and cooperative federalism hamper comprehensive transport policy reforms in Germany. Results In the German political system, political interests interact within a complex web of cooperative federalism. To understand partisan encroachment on the federal decision-making processes, this paper uses a process-tracing approach. To investigate decision-making in the Bundesrat and its outcomes, the empirical analysis combines qualitative analyses of several publicly available sources. We can empirically demonstrate that political parties influenced legislative procedures. The reform failed in its original scope because the three political parties with veto power in the Bundesrat insisted on their positions and were not willing to agree on a compromise. Conclusions For the implementation of the Verkehrswende, the German federal system proves to be both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, the institutional design of the Bundesrat constrains extreme positions and helps promote decisions most citizens may agree with. The Länder governments and administrations can also contribute their expertise and local experience to federal legislation via the Bundesrat. On the other hand, veto powers are ubiquitous in the German system of cooperative federalism. Therefore, it is prone to blockades. The actions of the political parties in the Bundesrat have hampered the comprehensive reform of road traffic regulations that was originally envisaged. Policymaking took two steps forward toward implementing the Verkehrswende, only to immediately take one step back again.

Die politische und gesellschaftliche Entwicklung der Republik China (1912–1949) ist untrennbar verbunden mit der Geschichte der „Nationalen Volkspartei Chinas“ (KMT bzw. Kuomintang). Die KMT definierte sich, trotz prominenter christlicher und anderer religiöser Mitglieder, stets als säkulare Bewegung und setzte es sich zum Ziel, ein auf Wissenschaft und Rationalität ausgerichtetes „neues China“ zu schaffen. Besonders in den Jahren 1927–1937 kam es somit zu umfangreichen Kampagnen gegen Aberglauben, von denen auch die buddhistische Gemeinschaft betroffen war. Die Diskurspositionen innerhalb der Kuomintang zur Frage, welche Rolle dem Buddhismus beim nationalen Aufbau zugedacht werden soll, sind jedoch wesentlich differenzierter. Dies soll anhand zweier bedeutender Theoretiker der KMT, Wu Zhihui (1865–1953) und Dai Jitao (1891–1949), analysiert werden. Sie beide eint ihre Zugehörigkeit zum sogenannten „rechten Flügel“ der Partei, welcher sich gegen eine Zusammenarbeit mit der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas engagierte. Auf intellektuell-weltanschaulicher Ebene waren beide Vertreter aber höchst unterschiedlich: Wu Zhihui gilt allgemein als stark vom Szientismus geprägter, religionskritischer Gelehrter, wohingegen Dai Jitao in seinen späteren Lebensjahren eine starke Affinität zum Buddhismus zeigte. Aufgrund der unterschiedlichen ideologischen Akzentsetzung lassen sich beide spezifischen Parteiungen innerhalb des rechten Parteiflügels zuordnen. Insgesamt vertritt dieser Artikel die These, dass sich die KMT mit dem Begriff der „Volkspartei“ beschreiben lässt, welche die Existenz verschiedener, weltanschaulicher Parteiungen durchaus toleriert hat, solange sich diese an die Vorgaben über „anerkannte Religion(en)“ hielten. Diese Vorgänge sind nur zu verstehen in Hinblick auf die komplexen Transfer- und Adaptionsprozesse von Strukturen der westlichen Moderne. Dies betrifft insbesondere die Genese von politischen Institutionen, aber auch die konzeptuelle Ausdeutung von Neologismen wie „Religion“, „Aberglauben“, „Wissenschaft“ und „Partei“., The political and social development of the Republic of China (1912–1949) was deeply entangled with the history of the “Chinese Nationalist Party” (Kuomintang; KMT). The KMT, even though it had Christians and other religious actors among its members, would mostly define itself as a secular movement with the goal of establishing a “new China” founded on science and rationality. Especially during the years 1927–1937 there were far-reaching campaigns against superstition that would also effect the Buddhist community. However, the discursive positions in the KMT on the question of which role Buddhism could play in the national reconstruction were much more diverse. This will be analyzed on the basis of the chief theoreticians Wu Zhihui (1865–1953) and Dai Jitao (1891–1949). What both have in common is their affiliation with the “right wing” of the party, which was committed against the cooperation with the Communist Party of China. However, regarding their intellectual framework and worldview, both members were highly different: Wu Zhihui is mostly considered a thinker with strong anti-religious positions coming from scientism, whereas Dai Jitao later showed a strong affinity with Buddhism. Due to their different ideological weighting both can be attributed to specific factions within the right wing of the KMT. Overall, this article argues that the KMT can be described as a “Volkspartei” which tolerated different ideological factions as long as they adhered to what the party had defined as “acknowledged religion(s)”. These constellations can only be understood with regards to the transfer of structures of Western modernity. This holds true not only for the formation of political institutions but also for the conceptual interpretation of neologisms like “religion”, “superstition”, “science” and “party”.

This dissertation investigates the response strategies of existing focal international organizations (IOs) to new IO entries in the same regime complex. It expands international relations literature concerning IO behavior, regime complexity and inter-institutional cooperation and conflict as it provides a new angle for studying inter-institutional interactions and IO developments. In an institutional environment characterized by regime complexity, existing focal IOs take on an important role as they set the tone for handling new institutional challengers. To be more precise, this research is driven by the question why existing focal IOs sometimes respond to new IOs in friendly ways and other times in more adversarial ways. Conceptually speaking, a novel typology distinguishes between four types of IO response strategies, namely Accommodation, Admission, Delegitimation and Obstruction. An IO response strategy embodies a reflected answer of an existing IO in reaction to a new IO’s entry to the regime complex. IO entry either takes place in the form of IO creation or happens inadvertently as a new IO that was constituted to tackle a separate issue, now also addresses the global issue that lies at the center of the regime complex. The theoretical and empirical contributions of this dissertation demonstrate that existing IOs are indeed responsive to threats targeting their focal position in the regime complex. The focus on IO-IO interactions as presented in the theoretical framework deviates from conventional analyses of IO-state interactions when studying changes in IO behavior. The two key variables for assessing the degree of focal status threat feature the type of challenge posed to existing IOs’ focality by new IO entries and institutional design similarities. The theoretical framework is further based on the mechanism of status threat which advances the main argument that strong threats to the focal status of existing IOs provoke more competitive response strategies. Empirically speaking, this research captures different IO response strategies across 11 regime complexes. It covers diverse issue areas such as development finance, global energy governance, international security, international migration and global food governance. The first part of the empirical analysis utilizes the methodology of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to uncover necessary and sufficient conditions leading to the presence of cooperative and competitive IO response strategies. The second part of the empirical analysis features a structured, focused comparison of IO response strategies by the World Bank, International Energy Agency, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and International Whaling Commission. Besides the mechanism of status threat being reflected in all case studies, central findings of the empirical analysis are that it matters whether new IOs challenge existing IOs’ norm or resource dimensions of focality and how strong existing IOs’ focality is. In addition, shared governance goals are found to mitigate the degree of focal competition. Essentially, this dissertation detects first trends in IO response strategies, untangles the relevant configurations of conditions leading to them and so forms a deeper understanding of the observed relations between existing focal and new IOs. The central findings of this dissertation enable a better understanding how inter-institutional relations manifest, provide an explanation for shifts in IO policy changes and give reason to believe that regime complexes are more stable than extant research might expect., Diese Dissertation untersucht die Antwortstrategien bestehender fokaler internationaler Organisationen (IOs) auf den Eintritt neuer IOs in denselben Regimekomplex. Sie stützt sich auf die Literatur zu internationalen Beziehungen, die sich mit dem Verhalten von IOs, der Regimekomplexität und der interinstitutionellen Kooperation sowie Konflikten befasst. Diese Forschung entfaltet einen neuen Blickwinkel für die Untersuchung interinstitutioneller Interaktionen und IO-Entwicklungen. In einem institutionellen Umfeld, das durch Regimekomplexität gekennzeichnet ist, spielen bestehende fokale IOs eine wichtige Rolle, da sie den Ton für den Umgang mit neuen institutionellen Herausforderern angeben. Genauer gesagt geht es bei diesem Forschungsprojekt um die Frage, warum bestehende fokale IOs zuweilen auf freundliche oder mitunter auf tendenziell feindliche Weise auf neue IOs antworten. Konzeptionell gesehen unterscheidet eine neuartige Typologie zwischen vier Arten von IO-Antwortstrategien, nämlich Accommodation, Admission, Delegitimation und Obstruction. Eine IO-Antwortstrategie verkörpert die reflektierte Antwort bestehender IOs als Reaktion auf den Eintritt neuer IOs in denselben Regimekomplex. Der Eintritt einer neuen IO in den Regimekomplex erfolgt entweder in Form der Gründung einer IO oder unbeabsichtigt, wenn eine neue IO, die zur Lösung eines separaten Problems gegründet wurde, sich nun auch mit dem globalen Problem befasst, das das Zentrum des Regimekomplexes bildet. Die theoretischen und empirischen Beiträge dieser Dissertation zeigen, dass bestehende IOs tatsächlich auf Bedrohungen reagieren, die auf ihre fokale Position im Regimekomplex abzielen. Der Fokus auf IO-IO-Interaktionen, wie er im theoretischen Rahmen vorgestellt wird, weicht von bisherigen Untersuchungen von Veränderungen im IO-Verhalten mit Fokus auf IO-Staat-Interaktionen ab. Die beiden wichtigsten erklärenden Variablen, die den Grad der Bedrohung des fokalen Status erfassen, sind die Art der Herausforderung, die neue IOs für die Fokalität bestehender IOs darstellen, und Ähnlichkeiten im institutionellen Design. Der theoretische Rahmen stützt sich ferner auf den Mechanismus der Statusbedrohung, der das Hauptargument liefert, dass starke Bedrohungen des fokalen Status von bestehenden IOs kompetitivere Antwortstrategien hervorrufen. Empirisch gesehen werden in dieser Untersuchung verschiedene IO-Antwortstrategien in 11 Regimekomplexen erfasst. Sie umfasst verschiedene Themenbereiche wie Entwicklungsfinanzierung, globale Energiepolitik, internationale Sicherheit, internationale Migration und globale Ernährungspolitik. Der erste Teil der empirischen Analyse nutzt die Methodik der Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), um notwendige und hinreichende Bedingungen für die Präsenz von kooperativen und kompetitiven IO-Antwortstrategien aufzudecken. Der zweite Teil der empirischen Analyse umfasst einen strukturierten, gezielten Vergleich der IO-Antwortstrategien der Weltbank, der Internationalen Energieagentur, des Hohen Flüchtlingskommissars der Vereinten Nationen und der Internationalen Walfangkommission. Neben dem Mechanismus der Statusbedrohung, der sich in allen Fallstudien widerspiegelt, ist ein zentrales Ergebnis der empirischen Analyse, dass es eine Rolle spielt, ob eine neue IO die Norm- oder Ressourcendimension der Fokalität von bestehenden IOs in Frage stellt und wie stabil die Fokalität von bestehenden IOs ist. Darüber hinaus wird festgestellt, dass gemeinsame Governance-Ziele das Ausmaß des fokalen Wettbewerbs abmildern. Im Wesentlichen geht es in dieser Dissertation darum, erste Trends in IO-Antwortstrategien zu erkennen, die relevanten Bedingungskonfigurationen, die zu ihnen führen, zu entwirren und so ein tieferes Verständnis der beobachteten Beziehungen zwischen bestehenden fokalen und neuen IOs zu entwickeln. Die zentralen Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation ermöglichen ein besseres Verständnis dafür, wie sich interinstitutionelle Beziehungen manifestieren, liefern eine Erklärung für IO-Politikwandel und geben Grund zu der Annahme, dass Regimekomplexe stabiler sind, als die bisherige Forschung vermuten lässt.

The GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 was a pilot project aimed at demonstrating that registered reports are an appropriate and beneficial publication format in quantitative political science that helps to increase transparency and replicability in the research process and thus yields substantial and relevant contributions to our discipline. The project resulted in the publication of this special issue, which includes seven registered reports based on data from the German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) collected in the context of the 2021 German federal election. This concluding article of the special issue brings together the perspectives of the participating authors, reviewers, organizers, and editors in order to take stock of the different experiences gained and lessons learned in the course of the project. We are confident that future projects of a similar nature in political science, as well as authors, reviewers, and editors of registered reports, will benefit from these reflections., Die GLES Open Science Challenge 2021 ist ein Pilotprojekt, das zeigt, dass Registered Reports ein geeignetes und gewinnbringendes Publikationsformat in der quantitativen Politikwissenschaft sind, die dazu beitragen können, die Transparenz und Replizierbarkeit im Forschungsprozess zu erhöhen und somit substanzielle und relevante Beiträge für unsere Disziplin zu liefern. Das Ergebnis ist die Veröffentlichung dieses Sonderheftes mit sieben Registered Reports, die auf Daten der German Longitudinal Election Study (GLES) basieren, die im Rahmen der Bundestagswahl 2021 erhoben wurden. Dieser abschließende Artikel des Sonderheftes bringt die Perspektiven von Autor*innen, Gutachter*innen, Organisator*innen und Herausgeber*innen zusammen, um eine Bilanz der verschiedenen Erfahrungen und Lehren zu ziehen, die im Laufe dieses Projektes gewonnen wurden.

Online petitions have become a widespread vehicle for contemporary political participation. While research tends to focus on individual factors for potential petitioners that influence signing, less attention has been paid to the influence of the actual text of petitions. This paper uses data from an original web-based survey experiment in Australia and Germany to test the influence of content factors: narratives (i.e., stories based on individual experiences and emotions) and popularity cues (i.e., high numbers of signatures) across two issues: climate change and welfare policy. We find that narratives within petition texts involve readers through the mechanism of transportation and motivate them to sign petitions, as do popularity cues. The effects of narratives were found across both countries but tended to be stronger in Germany than in Australia. We argue that our novel framework can be used for future research on how the presentation of issues shape contemporary political participation.

This article aims to explain the under-researched phenomenon of why the European Commission (the Commission), as ‘guardian of the Treaties’, tolerates member states’ noncompliance with the EU law. While major accounts of selective enforcement depict the Commission as a self-serving political entrepreneur, this paper assumes that it is a trustee guardian of EU treaties that aims to safeguard the stability and integrity of the EU legal order. For this purpose, the Commission is theorized to strategically utilize toleration of noncompliance to evade jurisdiction overlap and norm collision. Relying on the detailed tracing of the Commission's enforcement leniency towards Slovakia regarding pharmaceutical parallel trade, this illustrative case study indicates that toleration of noncompliance is a necessary evil for the Commission and other stakeholders to navigate through a legal and political impasse. And it simultaneously preserves the delicate integrity of the existing legal order of EU free movement law.

This Testify article features a conversation about the emancipatory potentials and pitfalls of girls empowerment as practiced, experienced, and judged by Sierra Leonean activists. We – two scholars and four activists – discussed views on and experiences of girls empowerment approaches that have been interpreted in critical scholarly literature as a form of neoliberal responsibilization. Also within this critical literature, there is often the notion that these approaches may yet create openings for emancipatory agency and counter-conduct. However, it remains unclear whether this happens and to what extent. Our conversation centres activists’ views on the academic critique of girls empowerment and raises a number of questions, including: Why do many feminist activists in Sierra Leone embrace girls empowerment approaches? What do they see in them? How do they interpret and practice them? Where do they see potentials and pitfalls? And what is the role of donors?

As they become more successful, populist radical right parties face a tension between keeping their nativist credentials and moderating their appeal to gain new voters. We argue that differentiating party messages to core supporters and the wider electorate allows parties to pursue both goals. We outline and empirically illustrate the previously underexplored phenomenon of selective messaging based on the communication strategy of the Hungarian Jobbik party throughout its lifespan (2006–19) in partisan outlets, press releases and Facebook. Using a dictionary approach, we map the co-evolution of populist and nativist mobilization under conditions of supply- and demand-side changes. Our results show the decline and transformation of Jobbik's nativist appeal, and an increasing reliance on populism. The trend is not uniform; Jobbik relies on nativism as a function of targeting party identifiers or the general electorate in specific media outlets. Our findings show the importance of mapping parties’ programmatic appeal across platforms and over time.

The article constitutes the first comprehensive review of the EU's export of crime control policies and ‘aid to internal security’ across regions over the last 15 years. Drawing on both International Relations and criminology, it develops an analytical framework to identify the political rationalities and technologies of crime control that the EU attempts to transfer across the Eastern and Southern (extended) neighbourhoods. By scrutinising 216 projects aimed at combating transnational crime beyond Europe's borders, spanning law enforcement, border security, criminal justice, and the penitentiary sector, the empirical analysis is geared towards detecting and systematising the ways of thinking and doing crime control that the EU seeks to promote and export. Moreover, it investigates the ‘action at a distance’ whereby it does so. It is argued that in shaping third countries’ ability to criminalise, police, indict, convict, and punish, the EU is simultaneously defining its own security actorness, specifically consolidating its role as a ‘global crime fighter’.

This article makes four claims: First, tax systems at the national, regional and global level are regulatory systems. They can and should be studied as that. Second, taxation is an important extension to regulatory scholars’ empirical field of inquiry. It is a hard case to test prominent theories of new, softer modes of governance. Third, in the era of liberalization and globalization tax governance exhibits similar institutional changes as regulatory governance. It has changed (1) from national to multi-level governance, (2) from public and direct to indirect with increased involvement of private actors, and (3) from hierarchical and coercive to cooperative and responsive. Fourth, since the global financial crisis, the new sites of tax governance have increasingly been involved in the fight against tax evasion and avoidance and have become more politicized. These claims are substantiated by reference to the contributions to the special issue that this article introduces.