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    <title>EconStor Community: Sonderforschungsbereich 597: Staatlichkeit im Wandel,  Universität Bremen</title>
    <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/199</link>
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      <title>PISA as a legitimacy tool during China's education reform: Case study of Shanghai</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/64810</link>
      <description>Title: PISA as a legitimacy tool during China's education reform: Case study of Shanghai
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Zhang, Chenjian; Akbik, Alexander
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: In this paper we examine the Chinese domestic discourse centering on Shanghai's participation in the PISA study and interpretations of the 2009 results. The main focus is to examine why local education authority took part in the PISA project and how actors from the education authority use PISA as a tool to legitimize their reform stance. We adopted discourse and rhetorical analysis techniques and analyzed the data collected from newspapers and official documents. The analysis shows that the local education authority and PISA team used PISA as an external assessment tool to legitimate the pre-existing education reform measures, confirm its leadership, and appeal for the collective actions from other social groups in future reform agenda. Different interpretations of the test results by independent educators and overseas professors are demonstrated to contrast officials' framings and shed light on the rationales behind these framings. This study contributes to the theoretical discussion of how local actors use PISA to respond to domestic and international pressures on education reform and at the same time pursue local political interests.</description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title>Classifying OECD healthcare systems: A deductive approach</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/64809</link>
      <description>Title: Classifying OECD healthcare systems: A deductive approach
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Böhm, Katharina; Schmid, Achim; Götze, Ralf; Landwehr, Claudia; Rothgang, Heinz
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: This paper is a first attempt to classify 30 OECD healthcare systems according to a typology developed by Rothgang et al. (2005) and elaborated by Wendt et al. (2009). The typology follows a deductive approach. It distinguishes three core dimensions of the healthcare system: regulation, financing, and service provision. Moreover, three types of actors are identified based on long-standing concepts in social research: the state, societal actors, and market participants. Uniform or ideal-type combinations unfold if all dimensions are dominated by the same actor, either belonging to the state, society, or the market. Further, we argue, there is a hierarchical relationship between the dimensions of the healthcare system, led by regulation, followed by financing, and last service provision, where the superior dimension restricts the nature of the subordinate dimensions. This hierarchy limits the number of theoretically plausible healthcare system types within the logic of the deductive typology. The classification of 30 countries according to their most recent institutional setting results in five healthcare system types: the National Health Service, the National Health Insurance, the Social Health Insurance, the Etatist Social Health Insurance, and the Private Health System. Of particular relevance are the National Health Insurance and the Etatist Social Health Insurance both of which include countries that have often provoked caveats when allocated to a specific family of healthcare systems. Moreover, Slovenia stands out as a special case. The findings are discussed with respect to alternative taxonomies, explanatory factors for the position of single countries and most likely trends.</description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>Private Sicherheitsunternehmen und die USA: Eine Länderstudie zur Regulierung von Privaten Sicherheitsdiensten im Bereich der äußeren Sicherheitsgewährleistung</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/64808</link>
      <description>Title: Private Sicherheitsunternehmen und die USA: Eine Länderstudie zur Regulierung von Privaten Sicherheitsdiensten im Bereich der äußeren Sicherheitsgewährleistung
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Kommer, Steffen
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: In Reaktion auf zahlreiche wirtschaftliche Missbrauchsfälle und Gewalteskalationen, in die Private Sicherheitsunternehmen (PSU) während des Irak- und Afghanistaneinsatzes verwickelt waren, sind in den Vereinigten Staaten eine Reihe von neuen Regulierungen in Kraft getreten. Im Mittelpunkt stehen Reformen zur Stärkung der strafrechtlichen Verantwortlichkeit von PSU-Mitarbeitern und neue Mechanismen zur Kontrolle von Sicherheitsfirmen, die für die USA als contractor im Bereich des Personen-, Transport- oder Gebäudeschutzes tätig sind. Auch wenn eine überparteiische Untersuchungskommission des Kongresses in ihrem Abschlussbericht (2011) die Verschwendung von U.S.-Steuergeldern durch PSU im Irak und in Afghanistan auf bis zu 60 Milliarden Dollar schätzte, sprach sie sich nicht für ein striktes PSU-Verbot aus, sondern fordert primär den personellen Ausbau staatlicher Kontroll- und Überwachungsorgane. Eine eindeutige Verbotsregel hat der Kongress 2009 lediglich in Folge des Abu Ghraib-Folterskandals in Bezug auf Verhörtätigkeiten verankert, die nunmehr allein durch staatliches Personal ausgeübt werden dürfen. Der Einsatz von Schutzfirmen soll hingegen nur dann ausgeschlossen sein, wenn in unkontrollierten oder hochgefährlichen Umgebungen der Einsatz von tödlicher Gewalt zu erwarten ist. Der Verteidigungsminister hat 2010 einem gesetzlichen Auftrag entsprechend neue Vergleichsregeln zur Kostenberechnung staatlicher und privater Aufgabenausführungen erlassen. Diese sollen das Insourcing von Sicherheitsaufgaben erleichtern, bleiben als Maßstab für einen fairen Kostenvergleich zwischen öffentlichen und privaten Anbietern aber weiterhin umstritten. Nach Einschätzung der parlamentarischen Untersuchungskommission führt der Einsatz von PSU lediglich im Falle langfristiger Auslandseinsätze zu relativen Kostenersparnissen, wenn Mitarbeiter aus dem Einsatzland oder aus Drittstaaten angeworben werden können, die vergleichsweise niedrigere Löhne als U.S.-Bürger beziehen.</description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>PISA as a legitimacy tool during China's education reform: Case study of Shanghai</title>
      <link>http://hdl.handle.net/10419/64810</link>
      <description>Title: PISA as a legitimacy tool during China's education reform: Case study of Shanghai
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Authors: Zhang, Chenjian; Akbik, Alexander
&lt;br/&gt;
&lt;br/&gt;Abstract: In this paper we examine the Chinese domestic discourse centering on Shanghai's participation in the PISA study and interpretations of the 2009 results. The main focus is to examine why local education authority took part in the PISA project and how actors from the education authority use PISA as a tool to legitimize their reform stance. We adopted discourse and rhetorical analysis techniques and analyzed the data collected from newspapers and official documents. The analysis shows that the local education authority and PISA team used PISA as an external assessment tool to legitimate the pre-existing education reform measures, confirm its leadership, and appeal for the collective actions from other social groups in future reform agenda. Different interpretations of the test results by independent educators and overseas professors are demonstrated to contrast officials' framings and shed light on the rationales behind these framings. This study contributes to the theoretical discussion of how local actors use PISA to respond to domestic and international pressures on education reform and at the same time pursue local political interests.</description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 Oct 2011 22:58:59 GMT</pubDate>
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