Politics and Administration in German Dictatorships – A Comparing Analysis of the National Socialism and the SED-Regime

The politicisation of public administrations is a major topic in the fields of political and administration science. In this context politicisation is defined as “the substitution of political criteria for merit-based criteria in the selection, retention, promotion, rewards, and disciplining of members of the public service” (Peters und Pierre 2004). While the phenomenon of politicisation is well discussed for western democratic states, it has hardly ever been used in the analysis of public administrations in authoritarian regimes. Therefore, the aim of this project is to examine politicisation criteria, which can be used to analyse public administrations in de facto single-party systems.

As empirical case studies serve the National Socialism in Germany between 1933 and 1945 and the SED-Regime in the German Democratic Republic. The final goal of the research is then to examine commonalities and differences between the two systems concerning the implementation of a politicised administration. Questions of the research are: Did the Socialist Unity Party use methods the National Socialists already used successfully? Are there strategic similarities in the transformation process of the administrational system? Did civil servants always act in the interest of the reigning party or did they resist the politicisation in any way?

If you are interested in the dissertation project, you may ask or send comments to: bastian.strobel(at)uni-kassel.de

Supervisor

Prof. Dr. Sylvia Veit

Duration
November 2018 to September 2021

Part of project
New Elites – Established Personnel? (Dis-)Continuities of German Ministries in System Transformations