Signing Globally, Implementing Locally
Protecting Endangered Wildlife and the Predicament of Germany’s Federalism
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6262082 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Kayla M Gabehart (0000-0002-5719-231X, Michigan Technological University, corresponding author), Christoph H Stefes (0000-0002-2876-5713, University of Colorado Denver) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 609-639 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | German Politics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-4008 • E-ISSN: 1743-8993 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09644008.2024.2342960 |
| OpenAlex | W4396695151 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 38 |
Germany has signed numerous international treaties for the protection and conservation of endangered wildlife and has transposed these, as well as related EU directives and regulations, into national law over the years with due diligence. It has been traditionally considered one of Europe’s environmental leaders. Yet, despite its reputation, Germany often seems unwilling and/or unable to enforce environmental laws and regulations. Germany’s federalism has led to a patchwork of enforcement of environmental laws, via either centralised, decentralised, or cooperative enforcement regimes. We aim to address this seeming contradiction through the theoretical lens of street-level bureaucracy to understand how federalism expands and/or constrains discretion. Our study relies on a mixed-methods approach incorporating qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative analysis utilises about forty interviews of German street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), other government officials, politicians, and NGO representatives. We corroborate this through multivariate panel regressions on environmental crime outcomes using data regarding crimes recorded and solved at both the municipal (2016–2020) and state (2013–2021) level from the Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, BKA). Our results indicate that decentralisation of enforcement authority down the municipal level has considerable drawbacks, while cooperative and centralised arrangements perform more favourably
Endangered species · Environmental planning · Federalism · Geography · Political science · Politics · Population · Sociology · Wildlife · Law · Ecology
Data Analysis in Qualitative Research
Compliance
Responsive Regulation
Street-Level Bureaucrats and the Implementation of Public Policy
When the State Meets the Street
Work and the Welfare State
Biodiversity policy integration in five policy sectors in Germany
Attitudes and perspectives of frontline workers in environmental policy
Coping During Public Service Delivery
Active representative bureaucracy, homogeneous organizational context, and deviation from official policy among street‐level bureaucrats
Implementing ecological footprinting in decision-making processes
Central‐local tensions in the decentralization of social policies
Reform in the Making
Child Welfare Practice in Organizational and Institutional Context
Are Street‐level Bureaucrats Compelled or Enticed to Cope
Reinforcing public responsibility? Influences and practices in street‐level bureaucrats' engagement in policy design
The Joint‐decision Trap
Policy change and Europeanization
Street Level‐Bureaucracy
The Implementation of Welfare Reform Policy
Mind the Gap
The Necessity of Discretion
For-Profit Welfare
Community, Diversity and Autonomy
Policy Making in Congressional Committees
Holding Clients Accountable
The Agency of Welfare Workers
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |