When forming state governments: Difficult coalitions want career civil servants - Hesse is the exception

The line between politics and administration is often thin in state governments. Especially among coalition partners who get along well. This is the result of a study by the Public Management Department at the University of Kassel. "If coalition negotiations are easy, such as in the case of red-green coalitions, state governments usually prefer people close to politics, with a party banner and political experience, as top officials," says Prof. Dr. Sylvia Veit, head of the RegPol research project. The reverse is true, she says, with difficult coalition partners. "Black-green coalitions, for example, tend to rely on career civil servants." These are mostly state secretary posts, he said. State secretaries are the highest officials in most states. They report directly to ministers.

Veit explains the advantages: "Career civil servants have experience, competence and know the work processes." Top officials with a political background, on the other hand, are more likely to toe the party line, have well-developed networks and know the political business." Loyalty and competence are both important qualities, he said. "Ideally, of course, ministers want secretaries of state who have both." Hesse is an exception. Despite the black-green coalition, the majority of all state secretaries to date have had a strong political affinity, for example as former elected officials or by holding party offices.

Veit and her research assistant Stefanie Vedder wanted to use the project to find out how strongly politicized the ministerial administrations in federal states are. The results show clear differences between the states. The researchers emphasize that in some states, many state secretaries come from political backgrounds, which is not problematic per se at this level of the hierarchy. The problem arises when political criteria undermine the merit principle or party affiliation becomes relevant for hiring and promotion at lower levels.

The project also offers other findings. "Women, for example, are still significantly underrepresented". However, the proportion of women has been steadily increasing since 2000, it says. In Hesse, the proportion of women is particularly low, averaging 15 percent between 2000 and 2018.

With the RegPol project, researchers at the University of Kassel examined the curricula vitae of state secretaries in all 16 German states. In addition to political proximity and gender, Veit and Vedder also examined education, professional experience and other factors.

The RegPol project includes the studies:

Bach, Tobias; Veit, Sylvia (2017): The Determinants of Promotion to High Public Office in Germany: Partisan Loyalty, Political Craft, or Managerial Competencies? In Journal of Administrative Research and Theory 66 (2). Pp. 254-269.

Vedder, Stefanie; Veit, Sylvia (2017): Political culture and party politicization of administrative elites in the old and new federal states. In: dms - der moderne staat 10 (1). Pp. 153-168.

Veit, Sylvia; Hustedt, Thurid; Bach, Tobias (2016): Dynamics of change in internal policy advisory systems: the hybridization of advisory capacities in Germany. In: Policy Sciences.

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Sylvia Veit
Department 07
University of Kassel
Public Management
Tel: +49 561 804-7786
E-Mail: sveit@uni-kassel.de