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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

3. How Bureaucratic Networks Make Intergovernmental Relations Work: A Mechanism Perspective

Author : Nathalie Behnke

Published in: Configurations, Dynamics and Mechanisms of Multilevel Governance

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

While intergovernmental negotiations in multilevel systems are typically fraught with conflict and potential deadlock due to conflict of interest, this chapter argues that the specific role of bureaucrats in those negotiations is a key to understanding successful decision-making in intergovernmental arenas. Public servants differ from politicians in relevant respects: being not subject to (re-)election, but appointed to office for long periods of time, they develop neutral and expert positions on issues. Also, in repeated rounds of interaction trust and reciprocity evolve, helping them to smoothen negotiations. Based on a network survey and expert interviews among German bureaucrats, this chapter shows that those mechanisms are indeed at work and can be transferred to other multilevel systems, if certain scope conditions are met.

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previous chapter Transformation of the State and Multilevel Governance

next chapter ‘Governance Fatigue’ and Public Mismanagement: The Case for Classic Bureaucracy and Public Values

The following analysis is based on a research project on intergovernmental relations in Germany that was conducted by the author and her doctoral student Yvonne Hegele from 2014 to 2017. Data were collected in a series of semi-structured interviews and in a standardized online survey with senior bureaucrats in Land Ministries.

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Title: How Bureaucratic Networks Make Intergovernmental Relations Work: A Mechanism Perspective
Author: Nathalie Behnke
Publisher: Springer International Publishing
Book: Configurations, Dynamics and Mechanisms of Multilevel Governance
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05510-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-05511-0

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05511-0_3