Freie Universiẗat, Diss.--Berlin, 2006.

Univ., Diss.--Göttingen, 2000.

Zugl.: Freiburg (Breisgau), Univ., Diss., 2000.

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States merge local governments to achieve economies of scale. Little is known to which extent mergers of county-sized local governments reduce expenditures, and influence political outcomes. I use the synthetic control method to identify the effect of mergers of large local governments in Germany (districts) on public expenditures. In 2008, the German state of Saxony reduced the number of districts from 22 to 10. Average district population increased substantially from 113,000 to 290,000 inhabitants. I construct a synthetic counterfactual from states that did not merge districts for years. The results do neither show reductions in total expenditures, nor in expenditures for administration, education, and social care. There seems to be no scale effects in jurisdictions of more than 100,000 inhabitants. By contrast, I find evidence that mergers decreased the number of candidates and voter turnout in district elections while vote shares for populist right-wing parties increased.

This paper analyzes the utilization of repression and democratic institutions by a non-democratic government striving for political power and private rents. We find that economic development has different impacts on policy choices, depending on whether it appears in the form of rises in income or in education: A higher income level reduces democracy, whereas more education leads to both more democracy and more repression. These theoretical findings are corroborated by panel data regressions.

Mit den immensen Aufgaben und Problematiken der Transformation konfrontiert, wechselten die Mehrparteien-Regierungen in Estland vergleichsweise häufig. Im Jahr 2002 war die insgesamt achte Regierung seit 1992 im Amt. Eine detaillierte Untersuchung der Regierungsstabilität am Beispiel von Estlands bis dato sieben Regierungen erscheint daher angebracht, da das Land trotz der häufigen Regierungswechsel im osteuropäischen Vergleich als erfolgreichstes Transformationsland angesehen wird.<br> Kann Regierungsstabilität auch dann vorliegen, wenn die Regierungen selbst sehr häufig wechseln? Dies ist die eigentliche Fragestellung der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass sich Regierungsstabilität aus mehreren Variablen zusammensetzt, die sich gegenseitig beeinflussen. Angaben über die durchschnittliche Verweildauer einer Regierung im Amt besitzen wenig Aussagekraft, vielmehr müssen die eigentlichen Hintergründe für einen Wechsel beleuchtet werden. / Confronted with the immense tasks and problems of the democratic transition, the multiparty governments of Estonia change comparatively often. Following the elections of March 2003, a new government is being formed: the ninth since 1992. A detailed examination of government stability and the example of Estonia is accordingly warranted, given that the country is seen as the most successful Eastern European transition country in spite of its frequent changes of government.<br> This article asks whether government stability can exist in a case that exhibits frequent changes of government. It is presumed that government stability is composed of various variables influencing one another. Data about the average tenure of a government is not very conclusive. Rather, the deeper political causes for changes of governments need to be examined.

Humboldt-Univ., Diss.--Berlin, 2005.

This paper analyzes the utilization of repression and democratic institutions by a non-democratic government striving for political power and private rents. We find that economic development has different impacts on policy choices, depending on whether it appears in the form of rises in income or in education: A higher income level reduces democracy, whereas more education leads to both more democracy and more repression. These theoretical findings are corroborated by panel data regressions.

No description available.