Politics

The increasing coupling of minimum rates for municipal taxes and conditions of funding programs is a profound threat to the self-government of the municipalities. This development in a shocking way undermines the basic principles of municipal self-determination,... [...]

In many Lusatian communities, the feeling is spreading that the higher-level state levels can reliably fulfill their tasks less and less. Decisions are cumbersome, procedures are becoming more extensive, and at the same time there is a lack of tangible results... [...]

Many district reforms in Germany have repeatedly caused displeasure and confusion among citizens in recent years. The central problem is that in most of these reforms, the counties - i.e. the... [...]

Democracy, aristocracy, oligarchy, dictatorship, despotism, totalitarianism, absolutism and anarchy - each of these forms of government faces the fundamental challenge of finding a balance between the two crucial criteria of efficiency and legitimacy. While efficiency describes how quickly... [...]

The rural communities in Lusatia have been struggling with growing structural deficits for a long time because higher-level administrative levels are constantly burdening them with new duties. The federal, state and European institutional landscapes are continuously delegating additional responsibilities without the need for... [...]

The debate about the abolition of Christian holidays affects many people like an attack on identity, memory and social stability. Not as a factual reform, but as a cold offsetting exercise that wants to exchange culture for supposed productivity gains.... [...]

In a hypothetical scenario, the image of a fine, hardly tangible network of influence is created in which German state and semi-state actors try to have a deep impact on the administrative processes of the USA without ever appearing openly.... [...]

Trust in the course of democratic elections is based on transparency, traceability and legal control. In recent years, however, there have been increasing indications of discrepancies in the handling of postal voting documents, of non-transparent counts and insufficient controls,... [...]