SFB 597:  Transformations of the State

• Subject Area: Social and Behavioural Sciences
• Term: from 2003 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5485778

• Final Report Year: 2015

Final Report Abstract

Our research question in Political Science, Sociology, Law, Economics, and Communication Studies was: How and in what respect has the national state changed, transformed, in the last thirty years under the pressures of globalization und liberalization? The results of TranState’s first phase of research pointed to many changes in the nature of the modern state. But, upon closer inspection, the claim that the state has shrunk, even decomposed and politics has ended and transnational companies have taken over power is quite overblown. The state has withdrawn from providing a few services—postal services, telecommunications, electricity—, but the final responsibility for any mishaps even in these sectors still falls on him. In the second phase of research TranState focused on the causes for these changes. Grand macrotrends like globalization and individualization are at work, but as a rule they cannot explain state developments and reactions in the individual cases studied. Rather we have to study the „switch boards“ („Weichensteller“) that program this development, and these are nationally peculiar institutional designs or ideational constructs. The third phase of research was about figuring out, how state transformations affected to provision of certain normative goods like security, rule of law, welfare, and legitimacy. Are fewer such products produced today or is their quality deteriorating? We could establish that there is no general reduction in services or in quality. But due to the complex production processes for such public goods in multitiered political systems concerns for the sustainability and reliability of their production has increased substantially in the decades since the 1970s.

Publications

• (2005) Transformations of the State?, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  Leibfried, Stephan & Michael Zürn, Hg.
  
• (2006) The State and Its Welfare State: How Do Welfare State Changes Affect the Make-up of the Nation State? Social Policy and Administration 40:3, 250-266
  Rothgang, Heinz, Herbert Obinger & Stephan Leibfried
  
• (2006) Transformationen des Staates?, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp
  Leibfried, Stephan & Michael Zürn, Hg.
  
• (2007) Transforming the Golden-Age Nation State, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Hurrelmann, Achim, Stephan Leibfried, Kerstin Martens & Peter Mayer, Hg.
  
• (2008) Transnationalization of Public Spheres, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series = Der Sinn von Öffentlichkeit, Frankfurt a.M.: Suhrkamp)
  Wessler, Hartmut, Bernhard Peters, Michael Brüggemann, Katharina Kleinen-von Königslöw & Stefanie Sifft
  
• (2008), Zerfasert der Nationalstaat? Die Internationalisierung politischer Verantwortung, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus (Reihe Staatlichkeit im Wandel)
  Hurrelmann, Achim, Stephan Leibfried, Kerstin Martens & Peter Mayer, Hg.
  
• (2009) Auf dem Weg zu internationaler Rechtsherrschaft? Streitbeilegung zwischen Politik und Recht, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus (Reihe Staatlichkeit im Wandel)
  Zangl, Bernhard
  
• (2010) Civilising Globalism: Transnational Norm-Building Networks as a Lever of the Emerging Global Legal Order? Transnational Legal Theory 1:4, 523-573
  Mückenberger, Ulrich
  
• (2010) Democracy’s Deep Roots. Why the Nation State Remains Legitimate, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Schneider, Steffen, Achim Hurrelmann, Zuzana Krell-Laluhova, Frank Nullmeier & Achim Wiesner
  
• (2010) Rough Consensus and Running Code. A Theory of Transnational Private Law, Oxford: Hart
  Calliess, Gralf-Peter & Peer Zumbansen
  
• (2010) The State and Healthcare: Comparing OECD Countries, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Rothgang, Heinz, Mirella Cacace, Lorraine Frisina, Simone Grimmeisen, Achim Schmid & Claus Wendt
  
• (2010) Transformations of the Welfare State: Small States, Big Lessons, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  Obinger, Herbert, Peter Starke, Julia Moser, Claudia Bogedan, Edith Gindulis & Stephan Leibfried
  
• 2010. The Oxford Handbook of the Welfare State, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  Castles, Francis G., Stephan Leibfried, Jane Lewis, Herbert Obinger & Christopher Pierson, Hg.
  
• (2011) Processes and Production Methods (PPMs) in WTO Law. Interfacing Trade and Social Goals, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  Conrad, Christiane
  
• (2011) Transnational Administrative Rule-Making, Oxford: Hart
  Dilling, Olaf, Martin Herberg & Gerd Winter, Hg.
  
• (2011) Wozu Staat? Governance in Räumen begrenzter und konsolidierter Staatlichkeit, Baden-Baden: Nomos
  Beisheim, Marianne, Tanja A. Börzel, Philipp Genschel & Bernhard Zangl, Hg.
  
• (2012) Liberal States and the Freedom of Movement. Selective Borders, Unequal Mobility, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Mau, Steffen, Heike Brabandt, Lena Laube & Christof Roos
  
• (2012) Zur Architektur globaler Governance des Klimaschutzes, Zeitschrift für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht 72:1, 105-145
  Winter, Gerd
  
• (2013) Five Types of OECD Healthcare Systems: Empirical Results of a Deductive Classification, Health Policy 113:3, 258-269
  Böhm, Katharina, Achim Schmid, Ralf Götze, Claudia Landwehr & Heinz Rothgang
  
• (2013) Integration and Inequality in Educational Institutions, Dordrecht: Springer
  Windzio, Michael, Hg.
  
• (2013) Regulating Capitalism? The Evolution of Transnational Accounting Governance, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Zimmermann, Jochen & Jörg R. Werner
  
• (2013) Spatial Interdependencies and Welfare State Generosity in Western Democracies, 1960-2000, Journal of European Social Policy 23:2, 119-133
  Schmitt, Carina & Herbert Obinger
  
• (2013) Transnationalisierung des Rechts, Weilerswist: Velbrück
  Viellechner, Lars
  
• (2014) Beyond the Regulatory Polity: The European Integration of Core State Powers, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  Genschel, Philipp & Markus Jachtenfuchs, Hg.
  
• (2014) Global Order Beyond Law: How Information and Communication Technologies Facilitate Relational Contracting in International Trade, Oxford: Hart
  Dietz, Thomas
  
• (2014) Internationalization of Education Policy – A New Constellation of Statehood in Education?, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Martens, Kerstin, Philipp Knodel & Michael Windzio, Hg.
  
• (2014) Marktwirtschaft in der Legitimationskrise? Ein internationaler Vergleich, Frankfurt a.M.: Campus (Reihe Staatlichkeit im Wandel)
  Nullmeier, Frank, Dominika Biegoń, Jennifer Gronau, Sebastian Haunss, Falk Lenke, Henning Schmidtke & Steffen Schneider
  
• (2014) National Responses to European Court Jurisprudence, West European Politics 37:3, 457-477
  Blauberger, Michael
  
• (2014) Partisan Politics and Privatization in OECD Countries, Comparative Political Studies 47:9, 1294-1323
  Obinger, Herbert, Carina Schmitt & Reimut Zohlnhöfer
  
• (2014) State Transformations in OECD Countries, Annual Review of Political Science 17, 337-354
  Genschel, Philipp & Bernhard Zangl
  
• (2014) States, Markets and Education – The Rise and Limits of the Education State, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Weymann, Ansgar
  
• (2014) The European Crisis and the Transformation of Transnational Governance: Conflicts-Law Constitutionalism and Authoritarian Managerialism, Oxford: Hart
  Joerges, Christian & Carola Glinski, Hg.
  
• (2015) Forum Shopping in International Disputes, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Mondré, Aletta
  
• (2015) Public Sector Employment Regimes: Transformations of the State as an Employer, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Gottschall, Karin, Bernhard Kittel, Kendra Briken, Sylvia Hils, Daniela Kroos, Sebastian Streb & Markus Tepe
  
• (2015) State Transformations in OECD Countries: Dimensions, Driving Forces, and Trajectories, Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Rothgang, Heinz & Steffen Schneider, Hg.
  
• (2015) The Communicative Construction of Europe: Discourse Cultures, Public Sphere, and the Crisis. Basingstoke: Palgrave (Transformations of the State Series)
  Hepp, Andreas, Monika Elsler, Swantje Lingenberg, Anne Mollen, Johanna Möller & Anke Offerhaus
  
• (2015) The Global Mobility Divide: How Visa Policies Have Evolved Over Time, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 41:8, 1192-1213
  Mau, Steffen, Fabian Gülzau, Lena Laube & Natascha Zaun
  
• (2015) The Oxford Handbook of Transformations of the State, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  Leibfried, Stephan, Evelyne Huber, Matthew Lange, Jonah D. Levy, Frank Nullmeier & John D. Stephens, Hg.
  
• (2016) The Political Economy of Privatization in Rich Democracies, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  Obinger, Herbert, Carina Schmitt & Stefan Traub