Verfolgungsnetzwerke

In the literature, the power structures during the rule of National Socialism are characterized as a more or less uncoordinated mix of administrative bodies, which often worked parallel to or even against each other. This structure has been widely labeled as “Polycracy” or even as “Organized Chaos”. It is yet unknown, however, whether these characteristics intensified or mitigated the persecution of the Jewish population in Europe under Nazi rule. Also, an operationalization of the “Polycracy” concept and a subsequent measurement of these specific features of Nazi rule has yet to be done. In the article, the structure of the Nazi government and persecution apparatus is operationalized through division of labor and differentiation of power applying the network concept. These structural characteristics are then measured using quantitative network analysis. This is demonstrated by presenting the case of the persecution of “converted Jews” in the Netherlands from summer 1942 to spring 1943. In the conclusion, the potential of network analysis for holocaust research and the implications of the findings for the overarching questions in this research area are discussed.     

Government/third-sector relationship in a comparative perspective: the cases of France and West Germany

Both the private for-profit and the non-profit (or third) sectors provide what economists call public goods. The division of labour between these sectors, however, differs substantially across countries in terms of both qualitative and quantitative dimensions. Such cross-national differences are illustrated in the present paper with respect to France and West Germany. The autonomy of the state, the nature of the dominant actors and their style of interaction are identified as crucial variables shaping the linkage patterns of government/third-sector relationship. The cross-national comparison allows for the hypothesis that different patterns of government/third-sector linkages also shape different degrees of institutional adaptiveness in a changing political and economic environment.