@article{Robinson, author = {Robinson, Nicholas}, title = {Open to open-source AI? Navigating AI model choice in public sector agencies}, series = {Government Information Quarterly}, volume = {43}, journal = {Government Information Quarterly}, number = {2}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, doi = {10.1016/j.giq.2026.102133}, abstract = {Public sector Agencies are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) tools. High quality open-source AI (OSAI) options are available, but much of their current attention is on proprietary options such as Copilot and ChatGPT. There are parallels with take-up of open-source software (OSS). While OSS has a foothold in niche functions of Agencies' technology suites, it has not seen widespread adoption despite backing from technical and political spheres and its potential to reduce costs and spur increased competition and innovation. Grounded in theoretical frameworks and evidence used to investigate OSS uptake, the study draws on interviews with 31 decision-makers on AI adoption in Australian, Canadian and German public sector Agencies to analyse key factors in the feasibility of open-source technologies in general and OSAI in particular, compared to their proprietary counterparts. In comparison to determinants of OSS adoption, technological characteristics like fit, control and the availability of hardware infrastructure are more influential in whether OSAI is adopted. Furthermore, organisational considerations like digital sovereignty and data protection were more prominent in the AI decisions. Conversely, AI models are more homogenous and easier to switch between than traditional software products, meaning that perceptions of usability, fears of vendor lock-in and availability of support were not as strong an influence as with OSS. Although AI is a fast-evolving technology, the choice to adopt OSAI or proprietary AI involves making commitments today — like investment in hardware and building internal sovereign capabilities — that will echo into the future.}, language = {en} } @article{DušekTraxler, author = {Dušek, Libor and Traxler, Christian}, title = {Swiftness and delay of punishment}, series = {The Economic Journal}, journal = {The Economic Journal}, publisher = {Oxford University Press (OUP)}, doi = {10.1093/ej/ueag035}, abstract = {We study how the swiftness and delay of punishment affect behaviour in the context of speeding offences. Using rich administrative data from automated speed cameras, we exploit two quasi-experimental sources of variation in the lag between an offence and the sending of a ticket. At the launch of the speed camera system, administrative bottlenecks created delays of up to three months. Later, we implemented a protocol that randomly assigned tickets to either swift or delayed processing. We present two main results. First, delays reduce payment compliance: timely payments fall by 7 to 9\% when tickets are sent with delays of four or more weeks. We also provide evidence suggesting that very swift tickets - sent on the first or second day after the offence - increase timely payments. These findings align with predictions from expert scholars elicited through a survey. Second, speeding tickets cause a strong, immediate, and persistent decline in speeding. Although swift tickets generate sizable mechanical benefits, we find no robust differential effects of swiftness or delay on subsequent speeding behaviour. This challenges widely held beliefs, as reflected in our survey. Finally, we outline a simple framework of learning and updating that explains our findings.}, language = {en} } @article{Prasad, author = {Prasad, Shubha Kamala}, title = {Indian Foreign Policy and the Diaspora: Continuity or Change?}, series = {Indian Politics \& Policy}, volume = {5}, journal = {Indian Politics \& Policy}, number = {3}, publisher = {Policy Studies Organization}, issn = {2573-8054}, doi = {10.18278/inpp.5.3.6}, pages = {93 -- 120}, abstract = {The Indian government's engagement with the Indian diaspora has seen a major upswing since the early 2000s. However, very different political parties have steered the Indian government in the first quarter of the 21st century. Has the ideological preferences of the political parties in power shaped the Indian government's engagement with the diaspora? To answer this question, this article analyzes the government's rhetoric towards the diaspora from 2005- 2025. The author uses both quantitative and qualitative content analysis on speeches by politicians at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) to test the arguments. The main findings are that speeches contain more Hindutva themes after 2014 while they continue with economic themes but with a lesser frequency. The change indicates a stronger emphasis on Hindu ideology but continuity on engaging the diaspora for India's economic development. Using primary sources such as speeches, party manifestoes, annual reports of government ministries, and media articles, the author explains the shift based on BJP's civilizational foreign policy agenda, the effect of Modi's personalist leadership, and the desire to promote India's status on the global stage.}, language = {en} } @article{KaiserRodriguesAzevedoetal., author = {Kaiser, Silke K. and Rodrigues, Filipe and Azevedo, Carlos Lima and Kaack, Lynn H.}, title = {Spatio-temporal graph neural network for urban spaces: Interpolating citywide traffic volume}, series = {Expert Systems with Applications}, volume = {316}, journal = {Expert Systems with Applications}, publisher = {Elsevier BV}, doi = {10.1016/j.eswa.2026.131823}, abstract = {Graph Neural Networks have shown strong performance in traffic volume forecasting, particularly on highways and major arterial networks. Applying these models to urban street networks, however, presents unique challenges: urban networks are structurally more diverse, traffic volumes are highly overdispersed with many zeros, spatial dependencies are complex, and sensor coverage is often very sparse. To address these challenges, we introduce the Graph Neural Network for Urban Interpolation (GNNUI), a model designed specifically for citywide traffic volume interpolation. GNNUI employs a designated masking strategy to learn interpolation, integrates node features to capture the different functional roles across the street network, and uses a loss function tailored to zero-inflated traffic distributions. We evaluate GNNUI on two newly constructed, large-scale urban traffic volume benchmarks, covering different transportation modes: Strava cycling data from Berlin and New York City taxi data. Across multiple evaluation metrics, GNNUI outperforms both the state-of-the-art graph-based interpolation model IGNNK and the widely used machine-learning baseline XGBoost, reducing MAE by at least 13\% on Strava data and 7\% on Taxi data while better capturing the empirical traffic distribution, and improving the identification of zero-traffic streets. Additionally, the model remains robust under the realistic case of extremely scarce ground truth sensor data. When sensor coverage is reduced from 90\% to 1\%, the MAE increases by approximately 48\% on Strava and 76\% on the taxi data, despite the near-complete removal of sensor information. We also examine how graph connectivity choices influence model performance, and find that a simple and computationally efficient binary adjacency matrix outperforms distance or similarity based ones.}, language = {en} } @article{BorońskaHryniewieckaSus, author = {Borońska-Hryniewiecka, Karolina and Sus, Monika}, title = {The illusion of convergence? Exploring the patterns of (de-) politicisation of Russia's war against Ukraine in the European Parliament}, series = {Journal of European Integration}, volume = {48}, journal = {Journal of European Integration}, number = {2}, publisher = {Informa UK Limited}, doi = {10.1080/07036337.2026.2619425}, pages = {209 -- 227}, abstract = {The full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 not only reshaped national security considerations but also influenced debates in the European Parliament (EP). This article examines how this external shock shaped supranational political discourse in the EP between 2022 and 2024. While crises often generate temporary depoliticising effects, we find that these were conditional and context-dependent. Based on a thematic discourse analysis of EP plenary debates, we show that support for Ukraine remained depoliticised, marked by broad cross-party consensus. However, politicisation re-emerged when the war was framed as an opportunity for EU institutional reform. Unusually, it was mainstream rather than challenger actors who used this strategic window to promote deeper integration. By demonstrating that crises do not automatically generate convergence but instead produce selective politicisation across issues, our findings advance debates on EU crisis governance. We show that even existential security shocks may strengthen coordination without prompting far-reaching institutional change.}, language = {en} } @article{OrlandoSallingSteininger, author = {Orlando-Salling, Jennifer and Steininger, Silvia}, title = {Decolonising European Society}, series = {European Law Open}, journal = {European Law Open}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press (CUP)}, doi = {10.1017/elo.2025.10066}, pages = {25}, abstract = {Who is recognised within the concept of 'European Society', and, more importantly, who or what remains unseen? This article critically examines European Society through a decolonial lens, arguing that EU law is detached from the lived and diverse realities of European Society. Drawing on the work of sociologist Manuela Boatcă, the authors propose a decolonial approach that excavates coloniality of power, knowledge and, especially, belonging within EU law to reimagine European Society. Analysing cases in migration and the rule of law, the article reveals how EU law perpetuates hierarchical structures of inclusion and exclusion, and invisibilises the liminal—often deploying "Western" norms, values, and lifestyles as gatekeeping tools, especially in post-colonial contexts. At the heart of this argument is the necessity to move beyond Eurocentric assumptions of universality, neutrality, and totality in legal scholarship, instead embracing plurality of perspective, creolisation, and reflexivity. The authors contend that European Society should not be treated as a rigid legal construct but rather as a dynamic and inclusive one that amplifies marginalised voices, acknowledges and accounts for the liminal, and critically examines the law's inherent limitations. Ultimately, the article calls for a radical reimagining of European Society through its decolonisation—one that confronts historical injustices, disrupts entrenched power structures, and steers EU law toward a more just, equitable, accountable and reconstructive future.}, language = {en} } @article{KayserNalewajko, author = {Kayser, Mark A. and Nalewajko, Kasia}, title = {How Bad Can It Get? Polarization and the Public Interest When It Matters}, series = {British Journal of Political Science}, volume = {56}, journal = {British Journal of Political Science}, publisher = {Cambridge University Press (CUP)}, doi = {10.1017/S0007123425101257}, abstract = {Scholars and political observers, alike, have associated political polarization with the weakening of democratic norms and the undermining of accountability, as partisans trade off the public interest against in-group loyalty. We probe how in-group bias shapes support for collective goods in actual high-stakes settings in an especially polarized democracy. Conducting survey experiments in Poland, we examine two scenarios: electoral integrity during the 2023 parliamentary election that could have entrenched authoritarian rule and national security after Russia's 2022 invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Our findings show pronounced partisan bias undermining support for electoral integrity - approximately 40 per cent of party supporters with an average level of partisanship supported rerunning an election when their party unexpectedly lost - but less bias in judgments about national security, raising the possibility that individuals may view democracy as more of an instrumental than an intrinsic good.}, language = {en} } @incollection{GohdesKohSchumann, author = {Gohdes, Anita R. and Koh, Allison W. and Schumann, Maurice P.}, title = {4 Digital Authoritarianism}, series = {De Gruyter Handbook of Political Control}, booktitle = {De Gruyter Handbook of Political Control}, editor = {Earl, Jennifer and Braithwaite, Jessica Maves}, publisher = {De Gruyter}, doi = {10.1515/9783111298559-005}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {75 -- 89}, language = {en} } @article{Rogers, author = {Rogers, Sawyer B.}, title = {How Demographic Data Can Strengthen Equity and Efficiency: The 21st Century Assistive Technology Act}, series = {Public Integrity}, journal = {Public Integrity}, doi = {10.1080/10999922.2026.2632392}, abstract = {The 21st Century Assistive Technology Act in December 2022 reauthorized federal funding for state programs to spread awareness and provide assistive technology services to the public. This article analyzes the effectiveness of the act in the areas of equity, efficiency, and savings. The article uses comparative and textual analysis of the bill and its past iterations and descriptive statistical analysis of disability demographics and program data to conduct this analysis. The article finds that the act improves equity for certain groups with higher rates of disability yet leaves out other groups, achieves cost-efficiency across most states, and creates substantial cost savings for consumers. The act does address some gaps in assistive technology among older adult and veteran populations yet does not explicitly increase representation for gender, LGBT, rural, or other demographic groups with higher prevalence of disability. This article recommends that policymakers utilize demographic figures to improve the equity and efficiency of funding allocation, increase the representation of LGBT, rural, and other groups with higher disability prevalence within the design and implementation process, and remove states' ability to opt out of providing certain activities such as financing to improve the effectiveness of the act and savings for individuals.}, language = {en} } @techreport{Quaritsch, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Quaritsch, Luise}, title = {How Has the DSA Performed in Protecting Election Integrity?}, pages = {4}, abstract = {The EU's Digital Services Act is intended to protect the integrity of electoral processes and civic discourse on large online platforms. A look back at three recent national elections in Romania, Germany and Poland offers a sobering picture. While civil society organisations and media observed apparent failures by platforms to detect covert influence operations or correctly identify political advertising, it remains unclear whether that means platforms are not doing enough to protect election integrity. In addition, three risks might be underappreciated: political advertising, influencers and asymmetric amplification of political candidates.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{LeNoan, author = {Le Noan, Anne-Cl{\´e}mence}, title = {Changing the way social inequality in education is treated in France and Germany: Schule macht stark (2019) and Les contrats locaux d'accompagnement (2020) as contrasting examples of layering}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-6167}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-61674}, school = {Hertie School}, pages = {316}, abstract = {France and Germany are among the OECD countries where social origin most strongly affects educational achievement. While the structural causes of this phenomenon have been widely studied, the institutionalization of its policy treatment and the room for manoeuvre available to policymakers to bring change in these two contrasting education systems remain underexplored. This dissertation addresses this gap through a comparative analysis of two recent policies targeting schools in disadvantaged areas: Schule macht stark in Germany and les contrats locaux d'accompagnement in France. Drawing on process-tracing, the analysis of documents and 50 interviews, and grounded in neo-institutionalist theory, this research shows that these policies exemplify layering: strong veto players constrained policymakers to implement change through the addition of experimental initiatives rather than through reform of existing policies. These shifts affected policy orientations—toward greater efficiency in France and greater equity in Germany—policy instruments—via the strengthening of New Public Management—and governance levels—with the involvement of the federal tier in Germany. In France, changes were rapid but short-lived, marked by the political instrumentalization of experimentation. In Germany, they were slower but more enduring, supported by academic expertise. In both cases, broader initiatives—Conseil national de la refondation and the Startchancen-Programm—have continued these trajectories, illustrating the relevance of the layering approach.}, language = {en} }