Introducing ‘ministerial politics’: Analyzing the role and crucial redistributive impact of individual ministries in policy‐making
研究提出单个部委（如劳动部、财政部）对政策内容有实质性影响，尤其影响政策的分配特征。基于德国1969年以来社会政策数据，发现部委类型（社会逻辑、效率逻辑、法律秩序逻辑）显著塑造政策分配，为理解政策制定中的代表性和回应性提供新视角。
Abstract Policy‐making is a complex business. While scholars have studied the politics of policy‐making for decades, we know surprisingly little about the role of individual ministries . We argue that and why individual ministries crucially shape policies' content, particularly their distributive profiles. We explain that it matters whether for example, a Ministry of Labor, of Finance, or of Home Affairs designs a policy. First, we systematically review existing literature on the factors that influence preferences of ministries and their power in policy‐making. Second, we develop a theory explaining that and why ministries have substantive policy impact and introducing a typology of three different ministerial ideal‐types: ministries follow a “social logic”, an “efficiency logic”, or a “law‐and‐order logic”. Third, we offer systematic empirical evidence: Using the least likely case of Germany, we introduce a novel content‐coded dataset on all social policies in the Bundestag since 1969, showing that ministries shape policies' distributive profiles, even when controlling for rival explanations, such as the partisan affiliation of ministers, the policy field, or cabinet type. We conclude by developing a research agenda on ministerial politics and highlight important implications for representation and responsiveness.