Download
DFG-Application 2003-2006 in short

Please note
The literature referred to in the texts can be found in the bibliography

The research center

The research center consists of 15 projects and 2 associated projects. The projects of the first phase of the Collaborative Research Center "Transformations of the State" can be divided into four groups, which derive directly from our conceptualisation. The more or less equally large groups examine the legal dimension (4 projects), the legitimization dimension (5 projects), the intervention dimension (3 projects and 2 associated projects) and the resources dimension (3 projects).

The projects are not perfectly, but sufficiently well distributed among the four dimensions of statehood. The slight imbalances are partly a reflection of the facts (it seems that there is little transformation in the resources dimension; the intervention dimension deals with the state budget), and partly a reflection of the current research strengths of the institutions involved in the Center. Imbalances resulting from the latter factor are to be balanced out in the medium run.

The majority of the projects are researching the same time period - from the 1970s to the present - and all projects focus on the most important OECD countries. Due to project-specific questions and selection criteria, some projects are focusing on the large G-6 countries, and others on the small European states in which the "final stage of development" of the DCIS is believed to have been reached. Those projects dealing with relationships between OECD countries and other regions will expand their focus as necessary.

Central to the integration of all the projects is their concentration on a shared conceptualization of the "dependent variable". All the projects begin with a descriptive study, based on the conceptual framework, to elucidate whether and to what extent there are shifts in statehood, and in what directions these shifts are developing. All projects also include a causal-analytic component, which in most cases will only move into focus in the second phase.
Some projects will primarily examine the causes of general and international transformations in the core of the OECD world

• Falke/Joerges (A1)
• Genschel (D1)
• Gessner (A4)
• Jachtenfuchs (D2)
• Nanz (B5)
• Peters (B3)
• Senghaas/Schneckener (D3)
• Winter (A3)
• Zürn (B4)
• Zürn/Zangl (A2)

while others will focus on explaining the continued existence of variance between these countries:

• Leibfried/Obinger (C1)
• Lhotta/Nullmeier (B1)
• Rothgang/Müller/Schmähl (C3)
• Sackmann/Weymann (C4)

These differences arise from the internal logic of the respective research objects. If, for example, the aim is to record the relative insignificance of the transformation of tax collection internationally, it is obvious that one should ask about general causes and not reasons for variation.

In a later module (usually the third) all projects will include a shared evaluative component that asks the following questions: What effect will the transformations that have been identified and explained have on the supply of normative goods like security, legal equality, self determination and social security? And through what institutional reforms might one be able to compensate for possible deficits? The research center will end with this evaluative component (with praxeological reflections), even though the differentiation into three modules - description, causes and variations, effects - will not be rigidly harmonized across the projects.

The projects were chosen and planned with the goal of covering the four dimensions and the different possible transformations of statehood as broadly and representatively as possible. Therefore the idea is that each project will cover the separate dimensions as extensively as possible, and with a continual rather than intermittant focus. At this point, some general comments should suffice:

In the legal dimension we have consciously refrained from introducing projects that examine the possibility of subnationalisation. The projects share a focus on the shift beyond the nation state and examine processes of transnationalization (Gessner - A4, Winter - A3), internationalization (Winter - A3) and supranationalization (Falke / Joerges - A1, Zürn / Zangl, A2). Different elements of the shift in the legal dimension will be taken into consideration: the expansion of legal subjects (Gessner - A4 and Winter - A3); the process of constitutionalised law making (Winter - A3, Falke / Joerges - A1); and the constitutionalised application of law (Falke / Joerges - A1, and Zürn / Zangl - A2). Finally, different problem areas will be considered. While the main focus will lie on economic questions and aspects of market-making (all projects), social-regulatory or even market-correcting interventions will also be studied (Falke/Joerges - A1, Winter - A 3, and Zangl/Zürn - A2). In project A2 security questions will also be examined.

In the legitimation dimension, two projects ask whether and to what extent national parliamentarianism is being attacked and desubstantialized as a central focus of democratic legitimization, and whether, therefore, new forms of legitimation will become necessary. While one project will explicitly ask about the effects of transnational social spaces on democratic legitimacy (Faist - B 2), another project leaves open the question of whether processes of privatization and internationalization represent a danger to democracy (Lhotta/Nullmeier - B1). As opposed to these critically-oriented projects, the other three projects deal with the question of whether the sociocultural (Peters - B3) and infrastructural (Zürn - B4) preconditions for the formation of democratic processes are developing beyond the nation state, and how international institutions might be able to exploit this potential (Nanz - B 5). These projects entail a constructive treatment of the problem by asking if there is hope for, and the possibility of, democratic processes beyond the DCIS.

There are three projects and two associated projects in the intervention dimension. The intervention state is distinguished by the combination of three types of political intervention, all of which must be considered (cf Cerny 1995b; Streeck 1998b). Firstly, the state creates markets by removing barriers (market-making); secondly it establishes "guard rails" for market forces, so that human resources, infrastructural prerequisites and certain fundamental services are provided (market-braking); and thirdly, it corrects market results through the secondary distribution of income, macroeconomic policy, and microeconomic forms of risk absorption (market-correcting). The latter type of political intervention, which has, at core, a "market-correcting" effect, represents the central element of the welfare state.
In the projects of Leibfried/Obinger (C1) and Rothgang/Müller/Schmähl (C3), as well as in the associated project of Gottschall, different core elements of welfare statehood are examined. Sackmann/Weymann (C4) will mainly analyze market-braking policies. Zimmermann's associated project examines decisions in accounting; that is, market-creating regulation. On the one hand, these projects ask whether processes of deregulation and privatization can be observed internationally, and how persistent national differences can be explained. On the other hand, they will examine what effect international regulations have on the reform of state interventions.

Three projects examine the resources dimension: two with a focus on questions about the development of the monopoly and the use of force (Jachtenfuchs - D2, and Senghaas/Schneckener - D3), and one with focus on the development of fiscal policy (Genschel - D1). Both projects on force deal with the question of the extent to which the external monopoly of force, and the state sovereignty related to it, are incorporated into an international and supranational superstructure. While Jachtenfuchs (D2) also examines the internal monopoly of force, Senghaas/Schneckener (D3) consider the implosion of the state monopoly of force beyond the core of the OECD world, which can work as a trigger for processes of supranationalization in the OECD world. Genschel (D1) analyzes the pressure on nation states due to tax competition. He will answer the question of why, in contrast to other policy areas and federal systems, this pressure has not yet led to an international harmonization of fiscal policy.

We believe that this network of 15 projects is sufficient to cover the various components and dimensions of statehood. We also believe that, depending on the subject of analysis, we have always chosen the most obvious and reasonable restrictions regarding the transformation processes under consideration. Indeed, the research focuses on the one hand on processes of internationalization (and not of regionalization) and on the other hand on processes of privatization (and not of nationalization). Thus, all projects focus on "parts" of the larger topic "Transformations of the State ". In the first phase, we do not plan to have projects that deal with the evaluation of the overall findings. Rather, the development of general conclusions will take place in a discursive process incorporating all participants.

The Collaborative Research Center has a political-science core, with an orientation towards interdisciplinary research. The disciplines represented - political science, law, economics and sociology - form the four pillars of a modern interdisciplinary "state sciences" (cf Bleeck 2001: 71-90). However, all the projects are oriented towards their respective disciplines. The interdisciplinary nature of the state sciences will be deliberately introduced into discussions in plenary sessions. It is not merely a decorative accessory but crucial to obtaining an overall picture of the results of the individual analyses, in which transformations of statehood can be rendered configurationally.