The legitimation of radical change

In coping with climate change, governments – both at national and local levels – increasingly have to deal with radical change. This term refers to situations characterized by (i) a multidimensional concurrence of different types of changes (political, socio-economic, cultural, organizational, environmental), (ii) drastic (non-path dependent) alterations of public planning and spending priorities and (iii) a generalized perception of crisis and insecurity among stakeholders and civil societies. The climate-related determinants of radical change are in principle well known by now, even though their concrete scope and impacts are still quite difficult to predict. They include issues of adaptation, mitigation and integrated ecosystem management. However, research on the political capability of states to actually manage those changes has been rather limited so far. In particular, a basic coin of adaptability, sustainability and resilience, the legitimacy of political orders, has been largely neglected by the scientific debate. Legitimacy rests on the acknowledgment that a political order exists “rightfully” and that its exponents (the “government”) act in the common interest. It gives states the authority to formulate and implement binding decisions and helps them to mobilize societal resources to meet common challenges. Every political order designed to last in time engages in the strategic procurement of legitimacy, but there are different modalities of legitimation and individual political orders are characterized by a specific (but by no means inalterable) mix of modalities. The proposed paper uses an analytical approach which identifies six modalities of legitimation. The concept will be applied to the political management of climate-related radical change. The main objective is to assess the capability of existing political orders to manage change from a common interest perspective, and the options to strengthen democratic legitimacy in the context of climate change

Taxation, social cohesion and fiscal decentralization in Latin America

Heavy-duty diesel truck engines are routinely idled at standstill to provide cab heating or air conditioning, and in addition to supply electricity to comfort units such as radio and TV. Idling is an inefficient and unfavorable process resulting in increased fuel consumption, increased emissions, shortened engine life, impaired driver rest and health, and elevated noise. Hydrogen-fueled, polymer-electrolyte fuel-cell auxiliary power unit (PEFC-APU) as a silent external power supply, working independently of the main engine, is proposed as viable solution for better fuel economy and abatement of idling emissions. In a diesel PEFC-APU, the hydrogen storage problem is circumvented as hydrogen can be generated onboard from diesel by using a catalytic reformer. In order to make catalytic diesel PEFC-APU systems viable for commercialization research is still needed. Two key areas are the development of reforming catalyst and reformer design, which both are the scope of this thesis. For diesel-reforming catalysts, low loadings of Rh and RhPt alloys have proven to exhibit excellent reforming and hydrogen selectivity properties. For the development of a stable reforming catalyst, more studies have to be conducted in order to find suitable promoters and support materials to optimize and sustain the long-term performance of the Rh catalyst. The next step will be full-scale tests carried out at realistic operating conditions in order to fully comprehend the overall reforming process and to validate promising Rh catalysts. This thesis can be divided into two parts; the first part addresses the development of catalysts in the form of washcoated cordierite monoliths for autothermal reforming (ATR) of diesel. A variety of catalyst compositions were developed containing Rh or RhPt as active metals, CeO2, La2O3, MgO, Y2O3 as promoters and Al2O3, CeO2-ZrO2, SiO2 and TiO2 as support materials. The catalysts were tested in a bench-scale reactor and characterized by using N2-BET, XRD, H2 chemisorption, H2-TPR, O2-TPO, XPS and TEM analyses. The second part addresses the development and testing of full-scale reformers at various realistic operating conditions using promising Rh catalysts. The thesis shows that a variety of Rh on alumina catalysts was successfully tested for ATR of diesel (Papers I-IV). Also, zone-coating, meaning adding two washcoats on specific parts of the monolith, was found to have beneficial effects on the ATR catalyst performance (Paper II). In addition, RhPt supported on CeO2-ZrO2 was found to be one of the most active and promising catalyst candidates for ATR of diesel. The superior performance may be attributed to higher reducibility of RhiOx species and greater dispersion of Rh and Pt on the support (Paper IV). Finally, two full-scale diesel reformers were successfully developed and proven capable of providing high fuel conversion and hydrogen production from commercial diesel over selected Rh catalysts (Papers II-III, V-VI).QC 2011041

E-government - an approach to state reform in developing countries?

"Electronic government, or, in short e-government, can contribute significantly to strengthening the efficiency, productivity, and transparency of government institutions. However, the potentials of the new information and communication technologies (ICT) are not always so easy to translate into practice. Rapid successes can be achieved above all in cases where a solid institutional base is already in place and good expert and infrastructural resources are available – a set of conditions not given in many developing countries. The aim of e-government is to open up new internal and external communications channels, to simplify administrative procedures, to improve the accessibility of public actors and services, and to enhance access to information. This often also means that these new technologies are vehicles of democratic, customer-oriented, and decentralized models of political decision-making and public administration. If these models are to be translated into practice, reforms must be embedded in an overall concept that takes account of both customer and target-group demand and the challenges posed by internal administrative cooperation and networking. In the foreseeable future it will be mainly industrialized and advanced developing countries that are in a position to draft and implement comprehensive strategies of this kind. But potential uses are also opening up for poorer countries. The obstacles to modernization of government institutions must often be sought less in financial or infrastructural bottlenecks than in blockades in the political sphere. Development cooperation (DC) can use e-government as a means of supporting partner countries in devising and implementing political and administrative reforms and in improving market-oriented frameworks. Beyond the immediate benefits of the new technologies, e-government should be taken as an instrument to promote good governance and to strengthen reform-oriented actors in politics and civil society." (author's abstract

Taxation, social cohesion, and fiscal decentralization in Latin America

Der soziale Zusammenhalt in modernen, komplexen Gesellschaften ist von der Fähigkeit des Staates abhängig, die Integration seiner Bürger mit den notwendigen symbolischen und materiellen Mitteln zu gewährleisten. Der Autor diskutiert in seinem Beitrag zwei miteinander verbundene Argumente: Steuern sind erstens ein Schlüsselelement für soziale Kohäsion, da sie nicht nur die Mittel für die Versorgung mit öffentlichen Gütern sichern, sondern weil auch das Steuersystem wichtige Rückwirkungen auf Wachstum und Wettbewerbsfähigkeit hat. Darüber hinaus sind Steuern Ausdruck eines sozialen Vertrages, der politische und soziale Partizipation verspricht. Dem zweiten Argument zufolge kann angenommen werden, dass die Bürgerakzeptanz einer Besteuerung dann am größten ist, wenn eine enge Verbindung zur Versorgung mit öffentlichen Gütern und Dienstleistungen gegeben ist. In lateinamerikanischen Ländern fehlt jedoch diese Grundlage eines sozialen Vertrages, denn die Steuersätze sind hier niedrig und die Besteuerung ist größtenteils von indirekten Steuern, insbesondere der Mehrwertsteuer abhängig. Dies hat zur Folge, dass die obere Gesellschaftsschicht nur einen geringen Anteil zur Finanzierung öffentlicher Güter und Dienstleistungen beiträgt, aber überdurchschnittlich stark von diesen profitiert. Trotz einiger Verbesserungen in den letzten Jahren besteht nach Meinung des Autors eine große Notwendigkeit für weitere Steuerreformen, um die soziale Kohäsion in Lateinamerika effektiv zu fördern. (ICI)"Social cohesion in modern, complex societies hinges upon the capacity of states to supply the necessary means for the symbolic and material integration of its citizens. Although in an increasingly globalized and urbanized world states are not the only arena for collective action and integration, they exert without any doubt a decisive influence on the living conditions of large parts of the world’s population. In order to fulfil their functions, states need money. They obtain money through different channels – mainly, by charging fees for services or royalties for the extraction of natural resources, by receiving contributions to public social security, by obtaining credits from banks and international financial organizations, by issuing money (seigniorage), by receiving a share of the profits of public enterprises (e. g., mining companies), by selling public enterprises or assets, by receiving official development assistance (ODA) – and by levying taxes (including customs duties on foreign trade). Usually, revenues from fees, social security contributions and taxes lumped together constitute what is called the “tax pressure“ or “tax burden”, often expressed as a share of the gross domestic product (GDP) or of total public revenue. Taxes, ODA and rents from natural resource extraction are the dominant income sources for contemporary states (Moore 2007, 10–14). In general terms, the richer a society, and the more equitable the social distribution of wealth and income, the more revenues are obtained through taxation. For instance, in 2005 the average tax yield (including contributions to social security) of the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries amounted to 36.4 % of the GDP, while the Latin American average stood at a mere 17.1 % (Cetrángolo / Gómez Sabaini 2007a, 8)." [text excerpt

E-Government - Ansatz für die Staatsmodernisierung in Entwicklungsländern?

"Electronic government, or, in short e-government, can contribute significantly to strengthening the efficiency, productivity, and transparency of government institutions. However, the potentials of the new information and communication technologies (ICT) are not always so easy to translate into practice". (author's abstract)Electronic Government (kurz: E-Government) kann einen bedeutenden Beitrag zur Erhöhung von Effizienz, Produktivität und Transparenz staatlicher Institutionen leisten. Allerdings ist es nicht immer einfach, das Potenzial der neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien in die Praxis umzusetzen. (ICEÜbers

Tax revenue performance and vulnerability in developing countries

This paper addresses vulnerability of revenue to external shocks using export composition to capture economic structure and differentiating countries according to income levels, resource endowments and political regimes. This gives a richer characterization than previous studies. Lower income countries are vulnerable to shocks, especially in terms of trade (associated with the greatest revenue loss): democratic regimes seem to be less vulnerable to revenue losses due to shocks than non-democracies whereas revenue in resource rich is more vulnerable to shocks (except natural disasters) than non-resource rich countries. We find a negative relationship between manufacturing exports and revenue in lower income countries

Kommunale Steuerverwaltung im Kontext des peruanischen Dezentralisierungsprozesses: Das Modell der semi-autonomen Steueragenturen ; Endreport der Länderarbeitsgruppe "Peru"

"Um die eigenen Einnahmen zu steigern, haben einige peruanische Kommunen seit 1996 semi-autonome Steueragenturen, sogenannte , gegründet. Diese Agenturen sind im Bezug auf ihre Personal- und Finanzplanung autonom. Sie finanzieren sich über eine Kommission von 3 bis 10 % auf die von ihnen eingetriebenen Steuern und sonstigen Abgaben. Bisher haben neun peruanische Kommunen solche Agenturen gegründet, zwei weitere befinden sich in der Planung. Allerdings verfügen nur drei Städte – Lima, Trujillo und Piura – über SAT, die älter als fünf Jahre sind. Die Auslagerung der Steuerverwaltung auf semi-autonome Agenturen wird in Entwicklungsländern seit ca. 20 Jahren erprobt. Mit dem Modell werden privatwirtschaftliche Instrumente und Anreizsysteme in der öffentlichen Verwaltung eingeführt, wie sie im Rahmen des New Public Management (NPM)-Ansatzes seit den 1980er Jahren diskutiert und angewandt werden. Der Ansatz versucht, zwischen tendenziell gegenläufigen Zielen – Effizienzsteigerung und Kostensenkung auf der einen Seite, erhöhte Kundenorientierung und Servicequalität auf der anderen Seite – eine Balance zu finden. Kritiker werfen dem NPM-Ansatz vor, im Zweifelsfall einseitig auf Kostensenkung zu setzen und damit die Gemeinwohlorientierung und Legitimität öffentlichen Handelns zu untergraben. Peru ist bislang das einzige Land, in dem semi-autonome Steueragenturen sowohl auf der nationalen als auch auf der lokalen Ebene eingerichtet wurden. Während die ersten SAT-Gründungen als Reaktion der Kommunalregierungen auf den Zentralismus der Regierung Fujimori (1990–2000) aufzufassen sind, entstehen die neueren SAT vor dem Hintergrund eines zaghaften Dezentralisierungsprozesses, der bis heute nicht abgeschlossen ist. Insbesondere die fiskalische Dezentralisierung ist dabei bislang noch wenig vorangekommen. Die Kommunen sind in hohem Maße von Transferleistungen des Zentralstaats abhängig. Weniger als 2 % des gesamten Steueraufkommens Perus werden von der lokalen Ebene eingeworben. Die lokalen Steuerverwaltungen gelten als notorisch schwach, schlecht ausgestattet und korruptionsanfällig. Die vorliegende Untersuchung beleuchtet die Arbeit der SAT aus vier verschiedenen Blickwinkeln. — Erstens wird gezeigt, dass die SAT ein interessanter Ansatz sind, um die Effektivität und vermutlich auch die Effizienz der kommunalen Steuerverwaltung zu steigern. Hierfür werden sieben SAT-Städte mit 21 Städten ohne SAT verglichen. — Zweitens wird dargestellt, über welche Mechanismen die SAT einen Beitrag zur Legitimität des kommunalen Steuersystems leisten, bzw. unter welchen Umständen ihre Arbeit zu Legitimitätseinbußen führen kann. — Drittens wird untersucht, wie Innovationen in den SAT auf andere Steuerverwaltungen und öffentliche Institutionen ausstrahlen. — Viertens wird auf der Basis der drei ersten Untersuchungsachsen gefragt, inwiefern das Modell der SAT auf weitere Kommunen in Peru oder anderswo übertragbar ist." [Autorenreferat