Contesting Contextual Forces of National Politics—Explaining German Transnational Education from a Policy Design Perspective

Abstract

Germany's activities in the transnationalization of higher education reveal distinctive patterns of its policy coordination. In contrast to sending countries such as Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, German state actors are involved in the implementation of cross‐border projects. In the article, we analyze data in connection to the theoretical debate on the nation state's role in policy coordination. We therefore introduce the policy design to study the coordination practices employed by state actors while mapping changes in the institutional arrangements of German transnational education. As a result, we discuss a new form of policy layering, which we propose to call ‘horizontal layering’. Originating in the observation of competing state actors and their strategies to avoid interdepartmental conflicts, this type of policy design leads to a policy field charged with an increasing number of partially contradictory policy objectives, lowering the state's capacity for efficient policy formulation.

Policymaking in multiple European cases

“…在EPA期刊发展过程中，我们欢迎青年学者和资深学者投稿，投稿内容应聚焦于以欧洲为背景的Anglo‐Saxon政策研究，例如倡议联盟框架（ACF） (Jenkins‐Smith, Nohrstedt, Weible, & Ingold, ; Nohrstedt & Olofsson, )、多源流框架（MSF）(Blum, ; Deruelle, ; Herweg, Zahariadis, & Zohlnhöfer, )、叙事政策框架（NPF）(Shanahan, Jones, McBeth, & Radaelli, ) 和公共政策中与叙事相关的视角(Bandelow & Hornung, )、政策设计（Fromm & Raev, ; Howlett, ）、或是政策过程中的社会认同（SIPP）(Haslam, ; Hogg, ; Hornung, Bandelow, & Vogeler, )。我们同样有兴趣将理论视角聚焦于欧洲公共政策案例、或由欧洲学者提出的公共政策，例如以行为者为中心的建构主义、抑或是计划行动框架（PAF）(Hornung & Bandelow, )。…”

“…En el desarrollo de la revista EPA, agradecemos las presentaciones de académicos junior y senior que apliquen las perspectivas anglosajonas en estudios de políticas como el Marco de Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) (Jenkins‐Smith, Nohrstedt, Weible e Ingold, ; Nohrstedt & Olofsson, ), el Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) (Blum, ; Deruelle, ; Herweg, Zahariadis y Zohlnhöfer, ), Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) (Shanahan, Jones, McBeth y Radaelli, ) y relacionados perspectivas sobre narrativas en políticas públicas (Bandelow & Hornung, ), diseño de políticas (Fromm & Raev, ; Howlett, ) o Social Identities in the Policy Process (SIPP) (Haslam, ; Hogg, ; Hornung, Bandelow y Vogeler, ) a contextos europeos. También estamos interesados en aportar lentes teóricos sobre políticas públicas derivadas de casos europeos o de académicos europeos como el constructivismo centrado en el actor (Saurugger, ) o el Programmatic Action Framework (PAF) (Hornung y Bandelow, ).…”

European Social Policy: Financial Pressure, Societal Differences, and Multi‐level Policy‐Making in Comparative Perspective

“…Además, el artículo describe explícitamente el papel de los actores locales para diseñar e implementar programas de inversión social. Una perspectiva de diseño de política similar es inherente al trabajo de Fromm y Raev (), que aplican este enfoque para comprender la coordinación de políticas de los actores estatales alemanes en la transnacionalización de la educación superior. Sin embargo, esta contribución está más bien relacionada con el nivel nacional y la competencia entre actores estatales.…”

“…随后的文章虽然没有涉及因危机导致的政策制定这一论点, 但也并未离开健康政策这一主题。这些文章致力于社会政策的特定方面。它们并不源自于ESPAnet, 但属于开放性投稿,且碰巧和今年 EPA 第二期的主题相吻合。首先, 作者 Ettelt 和 Hawkins () 对德国和英国进行了比较研究, 以展示为何相比起德国, 英国的电子烟监管存在更多争议。通过使用几个理论解释, 作者识别了议题显著性、制度差异、以及将科学和司法建议这两个相互分离的因素进行整合作为此悖论的关键决定因素。下一篇文章继续进行比较研究, 作者 O'Leary et al. () 就次国家和地方层面上的社会投资, 对10个欧盟国家进行了检验。因此这篇文章与社会投资战略 (Kvist, ) 和作为新福利范式的社会投资福利国家 (Morel, Palier & Palme, ) 存在联系。为将社会投资与社会创新进行联系,作者提出一项理论, 认为次国家层面上的社会创新可能会被国家政府所取代, 进而为政策问题提供创新性答案。文章进一步清晰概述了地方行为者在设计并实施社会投资项目时发挥的作用。作者 Fromm 和 Raev () 的文章也提供了一个相似的政策设计视角, 他们将这种方法用于理解德国国家行为者在高等教育跨国化过程中发挥的政策协调作用。然而, 这篇文章与国家行为者之间的竞争极其相关。与全球背景或国家间竞争相反的是, 跨国高等教育的政策制定是由部门中竞争的重新分配(当国家行为者致力扩大其权威时)所导致的。最后, 作者提出了“水平叠加”(horizontal layering)这一概念, 作为政策叠加的新形式。在近期政策过程研究中, 被计划组(programmatic groups)所寻求的权威扩张, 以一种新的方式阐述了政策过程动态 (Hornung & Bandelow, )。…”

“…The article furthermore explicitly outlines the role of local actors to design and implement social investment programs. A similar policy design perspective is inherent in the work of Fromm and Raev (), who apply this approach to understand policy coordination of German state actors in the transnationalization of higher education. However, this contribution is rather concerned with the national level and competition between state actors.…”