The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved the program „International Public Administration. Emergence and Development of Administrative Patterns and their Effects on International Policy-Making“ led by Professor Dr. Christoph Knill.
A nationwide research unit will be granted funds amounting to 2.8 million euros for a total of six years. Ten researchers will study various topic areas of international public administration in a total of eight projects. From the start of the funding on 1 April 2014, different administration styles and single decision-making processes in international administration will be investigated.
With the increasing importance of global institutions, bureaucracy has become an essential characteristic of the international system. The administrative body of international organisations has never before played a more important role in national and international policy-making. Nevertheless, little is known about these organisations’ internal structures, decision-making processes, and administrative processes, or their independence vis-à-vis political interests and their relations with other administrations and social players. The research unit will address exactly these topics in order to analyse how administrative patterns emerge and develop.
In close dialogue with neighbouring subdisciplines, particularly in the field of international relations, the central questions will be: How autonomous is the administration vis-à-vis the member states? How is it linked to the national administration? Does the administration have its own expertise?
„The close collaboration of highly regarded researchers of that field and the systematic involvement of young researchers will contribute to consolidating the importance of public administration as a subdiscipline of political science,“ emphasises Christoph Knill, spokesman of the nationwide research unit.
