Introducing 'ministerial politics': Analyzing the role and crucial redistributive impact of individual ministries in policy-making

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Garritzmann, Julian L.; Siderius, Katrijn
• 署名单位: Goethe University Frankfurt; Goethe University Frankfurt
• 刊物名称: GOVERNANCE-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF POLICY ADMINISTRATION AND INSTITUTIONS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0952-1895
• DOI: 10.1111/gove.12859
• 发表日期: 2025
• 关键词: bureaucratic politics; WELFARE-STATE; social investment; management; GOVERNMENT; PARADOX; poverty; reforms

摘要

Policy-making is a complex business. While scholars have studied the politics of policy-making for decades, we know surprisingly little about the role of individual ministries. We argue that and why individual ministries crucially shape policies' content, particularly their distributive profiles. We explain that it matters whether for example, a Ministry of Labor, of Finance, or of Home Affairs designs a policy. First, we systematically review existing literature on the factors that influence preferences of ministries and their power in policy-making. Second, we develop a theory explaining that and why ministries have substantive policy impact and introducing a typology of three different ministerial ideal-types: ministries follow a social logic, an efficiency logic, or a law-and-order logic. Third, we offer systematic empirical evidence: Using the least likely case of Germany, we introduce a novel content-coded dataset on all social policies in the Bundestag since 1969, showing that ministries shape policies' distributive profiles, even when controlling for rival explanations, such as the partisan affiliation of ministers, the policy field, or cabinet type. We conclude by developing a research agenda on ministerial politics and highlight important implications for representation and responsiveness.