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Chair of Empirical Political Science

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  9. New Publication on the Structure of Government Departments in Germany

New Publication on the Structure of Government Departments in Germany

A new publication by Ulrich Sieberer and David Schmuck titled “Portfolio Design in Germany - How Coalition Governments (Re-)Shape Ministerial Jurisdictions and What This Tells Us About Coalition Politics” has been published as part of an edited volume in honor of Prof. Dr. Thomas Saalfeld.

This volume brings together 28 contributions from colleagues and long-time associates in academia, thereby honoring the scholarly work of Thomas Saalfeld.

The contribution by Prof. Sieberer and David Schmuck examines the evolution of the division of responsibilities within the German federal government from 1949 to 2022. The focus is on comprehensive changes in ministerial administration: On the one hand, shifts in the substantive areas of responsibilities of individual ministries are analyzed from a coalition-political perspective; on the other hand, structural changes in organizational units are examined from an administrative science perspective. The analyses show that the organizational and jurisdictional structure of the federal ministries has changed significantly over the decades and allows for important conclusions to be drawn about the dynamics of coalition governments.

The data for this publication comes from the DFG-funded research project “The Politics of Ministry Division in Germany”.