Policy management
The term political management comes from political science and stands for the connection between the controllability of the political system on the one hand and the ability of political decision-makers to steer on the other. Political management is not only an activity by or for politicians or state institutions, but can also be carried out by specialists by or for other political actors (e.g. companies, interest groups, non-governmental organizations).
Political management can be seen as applied political science. Political management does not stand for a single professional field or a single activity, but for a spectrum of professionally performed activities. This includes content-related politics, but also process-related activities that are primarily located in political communication such as political PR and advertising, political internet communication, party, parliamentary group and election campaign management, strategic planning in political staffs and departments of ministries, opinion research , lobbying , Association management and lobbying. Political managers are sometimes even more of a technical expert.
Despite the addition of the word “ management ”, political management is not originally an economic function, since the application and control in a political system are subject to different factual rationalities. Political science research emphasizes the complex interdependence of political management within factual and power issues (factual and power issues are inevitably linked). In analogy to English, the term political management is also used to emphasize that it is not politics that is managed, but management has a political dimension.
However, policy management in the narrower sense also has a business side, as limited resources - time, money, personnel, etc. a. - have to be managed in organizations. Therefore, the term is much more specific and more related to the management of political organizations and interests than z. B. the much broader term governance , which is also aimed at control in complex systems.
The definition of the terms political consulting and political communication and advocacy / lobbying is difficult because different aspects of political management responsibility are emphasized.
Control forms
In political management, a distinction can be made between three forms of control.
Direct control:
- Dominance of the higher-level control authorities
- Objective by the control instance towards the control addressees
Indirect control:
- The control authority acts primarily by setting the framework
- Scope of the control addressees to design this framework
Self-coordination:
- Several sovereign actors without a higher-level control authority
- Joint achievement of control results
Political leadership
The investigation of political leadership styles , also known as leadership research, plays an important role in political management. Because changes in political communication require new strategies during election campaigns in order to mobilize voters, in everyday political life majorities have to be organized from different interests. Political leadership can be divided into personal factors (Personality), political-institutional factors (Institutions) and temporal-structural environmental factors (Environment). The mix of these instruments characterizes the individual leadership style of a political actor.
Three rationalities apply to political leadership (according to: Korte / Fröhlich / Florack):
1. Factual rationality: How can an appropriate and politically secure problem solution look like?
2. Mediation rationality: How and with whom must the solution of a problem be mediated in order to organize majorities?
3. Rationality of enforcement: What does the political process look like in which the negotiated problem solution can be enforced?
literature
- Karl-Rudolf Korte , Manuel Fröhlich : Politics and governance in Germany, structures, processes, decisions . Schöningh / UTB, Paderborn u. a. 2006.
- Nico Grasselt, Karl-Rudolf Korte: Leadership in politics and economy - instruments, styles and techniques. Studies by the NRW School of Governance. Wiesbaden 2007.
- Ludger Helms: Government organization and political leadership in Germany . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005.
- Karl-Rudolf Korte, Gerhard Hirscher: Information and decision-making, communication management of the political leadership . West German Publishing House, Wiesbaden 2003.
- Steffen Dagger (2009): Employee in the German Bundestag: political manager, public relations worker and consultant , Ibidem, Stuttgart
- Steffen Dagger et al. (Ed.) (2004): Political Advice in Germany - Practice and Perspectives . VS-Verlag, Wiesbaden, ISBN 3-531-14464-2 .
- Steffen Dagger, Michael Kambeck (Eds.) (2007): Policy advice and lobbying in Brussels. VS-Verlag, ISBN 3-531-15388-9 .
- Steffen Dagger, Manuel Lianos: New game, new luck - Public Affairs in Brussels. In: Politics & Communication No. 21, 11/2004 .
- Marco Althaus, Michael Geffken; Sven Rawe: Handlexikon Public Affairs . Lit Verlag, Münster 2005.
- Svenja Falk, Dieter Rehfelder, Andrea Römmele , Martin Thunert: Handbuch Politikberatung . VS Verlag, Wiesbaden 2006.