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Berufsausbildung in Luxemburg: historische Ursprünge, institutionelle Struktur und aktuelle Herausforderungen
No full textLuxembourg has a well differentiated and highly complex national vocational training system. Like many other countries, Luxembourg has a binary secondary education system, consisting of the largely institutionally separate areas of classical general education (secondaire générale) and rather more practical vocational training (secondaire technique). In the school year 2012–2013, there were 12,958 pupils enrolled in general secondary education (33%) and 26,627 in technical secondary education (67%).
In the Luxembourg vocational education system at least four different qualifications can be distinguished; these are associated with very different possibilities for routes to subsequent education, such as access to higher education or training as a master craftsman. As compared to the other options, the régime technique provides the best opportunity to start university studies or, after one year of vocational training, to begin to train as a master craftsman. Of particular interest at the moment is the 2008 reform of vocational training, which is being implemented in stages between 2010 and 2015 and which is focusing more on skills and work processes, providing a more modular structure to the training and a more systematic combination of on-the-job- and school-based learning phases.
International influences on the Luxembourg vocational training system are visible at different levels: first, the Luxembourg system itself contains elements of the dual German system and the more school-orientated and predominantly state-organised French system. Secondly, international cooperation with neighbouring countries – especially cross-border dual training – is essential because of the country's small size and the small number of qualified vocational trainers. Thirdly, the predominantly German-speaking Luxembourg vocational training system faces major challenges because of the high proportion of immigrants. It is clear that the Luxembourg system contains a certain degree of 'mix-and-match' of different elements and educational principles, which contribute to the strong separation between different pathways in secondary education.
The vocational and practical training must not be a dead end for academically talented but linguistically disadvantaged pupils with an immigrant background, nor must vocational training be educationally unattractive for practically inclined and talented Luxembourgers for reasons of prestige. In order to formulate appropriate solutions in the context of these inequality-related problems, more international comparative research seems inevitable.
An additional area for in-depth analysis is assessing the impact of the reform of 2008 on vocational training. Currently, it is not clear what lies behind a number of potentially problematic developments within the system. For example, there needs to be discussion on whether the modularisation measures have led to an unintended fragmentation of vocational training, which would be contrary to the principles and uniformity of the various professions. In this context, there is also the question of how the number of modules could be reduced
Explaining variation and change in supervisory confidentiality in the European Union
No full textSome European Union member states’ financial regulators choose to make some of the data they routinely collect on individual banks publicly available. Others treat this data as confidential. What explains this difference? This paper considers the possible effects of crises, path-dependent legal institutions, and the design of deposit insurance schemes. At the national level, the paper focuses on contrasting German and Dutch cases. After the recent economic crisis, the Dutch released more data while the German authorities maintained strict confidentiality rules. The design of deposit insurance schemes provides a key reason why the level of secrecy varies, with the Dutch move from an ex post to an ex ante scheme where the government served as the ultimate backstop leading to questions about the accounts of individual banks while the German system favoured continued secrecy. The paper also describes the level of transparency at the EU level. Multilevel legal restrictions and bureaucratic capacity tilt EU banking union practices towards member states that treat financial supervisory data as confidential
On the Cyclicality of Public Finances in Europe
No full textUnder EMU, monetary policy is oriented toward the euro area as a whole and fiscal policy is an important instrument remaining in the hands of national governments to cushion economic shocks to individual countries. The current paper analyses the cyclical pattern of public finances in Europe and addresses the question of whether fiscal policies have been geared towards this stabilising role. Although taxes fluctuate countercyclically in a conventional manner, we find that discretionary measures have tended to undermine automatic stabilisers. On the expenditure side, we find that public investment also displays a consistent procyclical pattern. Dynamic analysis reveals that a permanent shock to output induces asynchronous fluctuations in taxes and expenditures in the year of the shock and in periods thereafter. Finally, we examine political and institutional factors. The political fragmentation of the government as well as the partisan hue of the government do not interfere with the cyclical response of public finances, but we do find evidence of a pronounced electoral cycle
German Unification 1815-1871 and Its Relevance for Integration Theory
No full textThis paper reconsiders German unification during the period 1815-1871. First, it makes explicit the comparison between the German Empire and the European Union. Actors faced remarkably similar institution-building problems in both organisations. The second part of the paper evaluates the usefulness of three arguments from two theoretical traditions in European Union integration studies to explain the course of German unification. Following an analytic narrative approach, it considers the relevant actors and the relevant decision points to evaluate two versions of intergovernmentalism, one focused on the security concerns of actors and one focused on economic concerns, as well as neo-functionalism. Economic interests did play a role even in the geopolitically heavy 19th century. Neo-functionalism was less useful, although some structures like pan-German interest groups in support of further integration did develop as neo-functionalists would predict
Multiple Shades of Grey: Opening the Black Box of Public Sector Executives’ Hybrid Role Identities
No full textDuale Studiengänge als "unerwartete" Form der institutionellen Durchlässigkeit zwischen Berufs- und Hochschulbildung in Deutschland
No full textCooperation and norm enforcement - The individual-level perspective
Get PDFWe explore the relationship between individuals' disposition to cooperate and their inclination to engage in peer punishment as well as their relative importance for mitigating social dilemmas. Using a modified strategy-method approach we identify individual punishment patterns and link them with individual cooperation patterns. Classifying N = 628 subjects along these two dimensions documents that cooperation and punishment patterns are aligned for most individuals. However, the data also reveal a sizable share of free-riders that punish pro-socially and conditional cooperators that do not engage in punishment. Analyzing the interplay between types in an additional experiment, we show that pro-social punishers are important for achieving cooperation. Incorporating information on punishment types explains large amounts of the between- and within-group variation in cooperation
International Conventions and Non-State Actors: Selection, Signaling and Reputation Effects
No full textWhether international humanitarian norms are respected during and after civil conflict depends on the behavior of both governments and nonstate actors (NSAs). However, international conventions on the protection of civilians generally do not address NSAs, as such conventions are open only to the representatives of states. In a pioneering initiative, the nongovernmental organization Geneva Call has started to address this problem by soliciting NSAs to sign “deeds of commitment” to ban particular activities violating humanitarian norms. Focusing on the case of antipersonnel mines, we examine why NSAs would choose to sign conventions that limit their autonomy, and whether such conventions can change the behavior of governments and nonstate armed groups. We propose a game-theoretic model of how the interaction between governments and NSAs shape their incentives to commit to and comply with international humanitarian norms. Our empirical evidence highlights the importance of these interdependencies between governments and NSAs in the realm of humanitarian engagements