| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
This article addresses the ambiguity of the governmental politics model (GPM) concerning the selection of policy options by political actors. It argues that the GPM's core proposition in this respect ("Where you stand depends on where you sit") can be conceptualized by integrating its substantive claims into the two-stage process of the poliheuristic theory of decision making (PH). This is accomplished through the introduction of a "noncompensatory organizational loss aversion variable" in the first stage of PH, according to which decision makers reject all options that are unacceptable for their organization irrespective of their benefits in other decision-making dimensions. In the second stage, the decision makers scrutinize the remaining options more thoroughly with respect to several decision dimensions, including organizational interests. This article uses Germany's decision to participate in EUFOR RD Congo, a military operation of the European Union in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to probe the plausibility of the revised GPM.
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