Wolfgang Seibel

Successful Failure An Alternative View on Organizational Coping

Although organization theory has acknowledged low-performance-high-persistence phenomena, the question remains how resources can conceivably be mobilized in favor of permanently failing organizations. This article argues that permanent organizational failure requires those contributing resources to an organization to be interested in both failure and ignorance about failure. Two illustrative examples—help for battered women, employment of the handicapped—are interpreted as cases where “principals” are not necessarily interested in high performance of their “agents” but rather in symbolic problem solving. It is stated, though, that neither the competitive market nor the public sector in a democratic system is likely to provide a favorable environment for such interest. Rather, there is good sense to assume the third (or nonprofit) sector to provide a structural and ideological setting in which both interest in failure and interest in ignorance about failure may be flourishing.

Government/Third-Sector relationship in a comparative perspective : the cases of France and West Germany

Both the private for-profit and the non-profit (or ‘third’) sectors provide what economists call public goods. The division of labour between these sectors, however, differs substantially across countries in terms of both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. Such cross-national differences are illustrated in the present paper with respect to France and West Germany. The autonomy of the state, the nature of the dominant actors and their style of interaction are identified as crucial variables shaping the linkage patterns of government/third-sector relationship. The cross-national comparison allows for the hypothesis that different patterns of government/third-sector linkages also shape different degrees of institutional adaptiveness in a changing political and economic environment.

Administrative Science as Reform: German Public Administration

What characterizes German public administration since the 18th century is its early modernization relative to the political regime. Germany is not a classic constitutional state. The identity as well as the stability of German statehood are based on administration and its organizing principle of public law. Even when the political regimes completely broke down, as was the case in 1918 and 1945, public administration never ceased to operate more or less regularly. Regardless of the criticism against bureaucracy, the reliability of public administration has its place in German collective memory. Inclination to change basic modes of administrative operation is, therefore, limited. German public administration has a remarkable history of self-reform. Examples are the integration of the nonruling bourgeoisie into the administrative elite stratum during the 18th century, the reorganization of state bureaucracy as well as the partial democratization of municipal administration after Prussias defeat by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1806, the several waves of readjustment of county and regional administration during the 19th century, the flexible adaptation to the new political regimes during the 20th century (a more than ambiguous flexibility during the Nazi regime, 1933-1945), and the territorial reform of county and regional administration in the 1970s. Those processes were mostly initiated by top-level bureaucrats (at least it was never enforced against them) and then smoothly organized by the rank-and-file professionals. The prerequisite of this pattern of administrative behavior was a combination of rigidity and flexibility that was provided by public law and the people handling it. What the Germans call the Rechtsstaat evolved in the course of the 19th century as a compromise between the rule of man (i.e., the monarchy) and the requirements of a modern administration. Modern administration as a complex machinery demanded a reliable mechanism to keep it running. This mechanism was provided by the law and by those knowing the law and how to apply it (Rechtsanwendung). Germans are far less apt than Anglo-americans to think in terms of enforcing law as the will of the constitutionally organized public. What the Germans call public law or state law, by contrast to the civil law governing in civil society, became a nonpublic affair of professionals. In a decisive period that roughly covers the second half of the 19th century, the scholarly treatment of public administration changed from a common sense-based catalogue of what administration actually did (Stein, 1866-1884) to strictly formalized prescriptions of professional administrative procedures (Mayer, 1895). Not surprisingly, these legalistic prescriptions shaped scholarly approaches to public administration directly and indirectly in several respects. First, the science of administration became dominated by jurisprudence. The study of public administration was interpreted and developed by lawyers. Second, the influence of jurisprudence in shaping administrative behavior became relatively independent from parliamentary lawmaking. Instead, jurisprudence-under the label of state-law precept (Staatsrechtslebre)--acquired a crucial separate power in terms of how to apply the law. The structural and the political conditions for sustaining this academic monopoly were particularly favorable. The relatively rigid legal structure that was the backbone of public administration turned out to be a desirable counterweight to the volatility of the political structure in 20th century Germany. By the same token, however, the German public law system was compelled to incorporate structural flexibility when adjusting the guidelines for public administration. Beneath the surface of parliamentary lawmaking, lawyers in academia, in the courts, and in public administration shared the role of defining and adjusting what was right and wrong, what was appropriate and what was not. This flexibility enabled German jurisprudence to preserve its hegemony over the academic discipline of public administration despite considerable practical and academic challenges. …

The nonprofit sector in Germany : Between State, economy and society

This text offers an overview of the size, scope, structure, historical development and current policy environment of the German nonprofit sector.

Studying Hybrids: Sectors and Mechanisms

The present paper introduces and compares two alternative perspectives on hybridity. One is the perspective of hybrids being located at the interface of dominant ‘sectors’ such as the private for-profit sector, the public sector and the civil society or nonprofit sector. The alternative perspective focuses on a combination of sector-specific governance mechanisms. The paper discusses the characteristics as well as the advantages and disadvantages of those two perspectives and what a combination of both implies for further research with an emphasis on the analysis of organizational pathologies and managerial coping.

A MARKET FOR MASS CRIME? INTER-INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITION AND THE INITIATION OF THE HOLOCAUST IN FRANCE, 1940–1942

ABSTRACT Recent Holocaust research has emphasized the role of utilitarian rather than ideological motivation for the participation in organized mass crime. The relevant literature, however, does not address the ‘structure-agency’ issue which is how the overall organization of the persecution apparatuses was related to individual wrongdoing. Since the structure of Nazi rule was rather ‘polycratic’ than monolithic, the core-group of perpetrators had to share power and resources with a variety of actors. The planners of the ‘final solution’ could not always rely on a hierarchical chain of command nor on anti-Semitism as a coordinating source of compliance under. Did the absence of monopoly in terms of power and resources create a market-style incentive structure at least as effective as coordination by hierarchy and ideology? Based on recent documentary and scholarly work on the looting of Jewish property in Vichy France, this paper presents evidence both supporting and challenging a related hypothesis. Comp...

Arduous Learning or New Uncertainties? The Emergence of German Diplomacy in the Ukrainian Crisis

type=graphical xml:id=gpol12229-abs-0001> German foreign policy did adapt its principled beliefs as far as German-Russian relationship is concerned and was successful in integrating EU and NATO over the crisis, but did not manage to adapt decisively causal beliefs at the tactical level.

Der Bürger als Schreibtischtäter : der Fall Kurt Blanke

Vorspann Rechtsanwalt, Koordinator der Judenverfolgung in Frankreich und Oberbürgermeister in Celle nach 1945 – das sind die Kapriolen einer Karriere, die so oder so ähnlich tausendfach zu konstatieren ist. Die Geschichtswissenschaft steht hier vor vielen Fragen: worin besteht das innere Kontinuum? Und was bewog einen unbescholtenen hervorragenden Juristen ohne Bindung an die NS-Vernichtungsideologie, aktiv an der Judenverfolgung mitzuwirken? Martin Jungius und Wolfgang Seibel rollen einen solchen Fall auf und entdecken dabei einen neuen Typus: den Bürger als Schreibtischtäter. Abstract Dr. jur. Kurt Blanke (1900–1995) was head of the “Dejewification” department (Referat “Entjudung”) in the economics division of the German occupational authorities in France between September 1940 through August 1944 and, thus, a key-figure of anti-Jewish policy in France. Blanke was in charge of the economic persecution which, in collaboration with the Vichy authorities, resulted in the legalized robbery of Jewish property and served as a precursor of the deportations to Auschwitz. Blanke, a lawyer by training and a local dignitary in his hometown of Celle in Northern Germany, had protested against the November pogrom in 1938, known as Kristallnacht, by leaving the SA which he had joined in 1933. As a civil servant in the German occupation administration he nonetheless organised the economic persecution of the Jews with particular zeal and professional ability. The case of Kurt Blanke illustrates the crucial role of well educated middle-class elites without inclinations towards eliminationist Nazi ideology for the systematic persecution of the Jews. The distance vis-à-vis SS and SA and their plebeian attitudes served as an identity-generating link between perpetrator biographies and post-war careers, many of which were quite remarkable. Kurt Blanke, for example, not only never had to stand trial, but even served as mayor of Celle between 1964 through 1973. He was awarded the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1969. Even today, a cul-de-sac in Celle is named Kurt Blanke Straße.

Die institutionelle Transformation Ostdeutschlands zwischen Systemtransfer und Eigendynamik

Mit den in diesem Band versammelten Aufsatzen soll ein Beitrag zur Berichterstattung der Kommission zur Erforschung des sozialen und politischen Wandels in den neuen Bundeslandern (KSPW) geleistet werden, deren Berichtsgruppen in den letzten Jahren in der Absicht gebildet und tatig wurden, den schier beispiellosen politisch-administrativen, wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Umbruch in Ostdeutschland nach dem Zusammenbruch des SED-Regimes zu dokumentieren und zu analysieren. Dieser Band ist im Zusammenhang mit der KSPW-Berichtsgruppe 3 entstanden und soll deren Veroffentlichungen1, insbesondere den fur den Berichtsband 3 geschriebenen Report zu den politisch-administrativen Institutionen in Ostdeutschland erganzen2. Durch von der KSPW finanzierte Expertisen zu einzelnen Teilthemen (und in den Kapiteln dieses Bandes jeweils nachgewiesen) unterstutzt, zielen die Aufsatze des vorliegenden Bandes darauf, Verlauf und (Zwischen-) Ergebnis des institutionellen Transformationsprozesses sowie dessen Bestimmungsfaktoren in Schlusseldimensionen abzubilden. Zwar soll und kann hier kein Band handbuchartiger Vollstandigkeit vorgelegt werden. Dadurch jedoch, das die einzelnen Kapitel des Bandes den Systemwechsel in Ostdeutschland unter je rechtlichem, finanziellem, institutionell-organisatorischem, elitenpersonellem und politikkulturellem Fokus beleuchten, konnten sie ein Gesamtbild bieten, wie es im vorliegenden Schrifttum ungeachtet seiner inzwischen schier unuberblickbaren Fulle bislang nicht zu finden ist.

Professional Integrity and Leadership in Public Administration

Seibel addresses the question of what makes public officials neglect professional standards when facing conflictive decision-making. The chapter explores the failure of German police authorities to investigate the nature of a series of killings committed in the early 2000s. Using a parliamentary committee report, the chapter re-analyses a key episode of decision-making when an attempt to streamline the organization and management of relevant police authorities and to re-evaluate the investigation’s core hypotheses failed to materialize. In doing so, Seibel reveals a tension between the logic of professional integrity or ‘goal attainment’ and the logic of ‘system maintenance’, also emphasizing the necessity to re-consider the notion of professional integrity and its protection through considerate leadership.