Political governance takes place with the help of instruments, which political science classifies into different typologies. Instruments can take the form of hierarchical requirements (prohibitions or obligations), create incentives, or provide information to achieve a desired change in behavior among the population.
The KPM researches explanatory factors for the decision for and use of certain policy instruments, their effect on the achievement of objectives and their long-term influence. Current projects are focusing on this question, particularly with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. The project “Compliance with National COVID-19 Responses and Measures (CoWiNaCo)”, led by Prof. Dr. Fritz Sager, Dr. Jörn Ege, Dr. Susanne Hadorn and Dr. Anna Malandrino, examines the factors that lead to both compliance and non-compliance with COVID-19 countermeasures from a comparative perspective. In addition to the sometimes commissioned evaluation of policy instruments (see policy evaluation) and at the interface with the research focus “Science and Policy”, there is a particular scientific interest in the conditions under which policy instruments are designed in an evidence-based manner on the basis of known and anticipated mechanisms of action and the extent to which the choice of policy design is both influenced by institutional factors and produces different effects under varying institutional factors. In terms of content, this research is particularly located in the area of health policy, which is represented as a research focus by Dr. Susanne Hadorn and Dr. Johanna Hornung and in which Lisa Asticher's doctoral thesis is also located