Ongoing Research Projects

The research focus of the Swiss Institute for Public Management is local governance, organisation of state institutions and agencies.

Currently, we are involved in the following research projects:

Local Autonomy and Local Public Sector Reforms

This project is supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation and aims to analyse the effects of reforms at the local level using QCA. The project runs from 2016-2018.

Local Government Performance and Reforms in Switzerland

The goal of this project is to conduct longitudinal research on the situation of the municipalities and reforms at the local level. The project is supported by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI) and includes a survey of all Swiss municipalities and local executive members. The project runs from 2015-2017.

Local Public Sector Reforms: An International Comparison ('LocRef') - EU COST Action IS 1207

This European research project aims to analyse European local governments and to provide recommendations for their future development. The project runs from 2013-2017.

Knowledge platform of the Swiss Society of Administrative Sciences (SSAS)

On behalf of the Swiss Society of Administrative Sciences, IPM.SWISS maintains the knowledge platform in the public sector for the society on the web (since 2003).

Monitoring of Swiss Municipalities

In the framework of this monitoring, the development of the Swiss municipalities has been examined since 1988. This comprehensive survey focuses on questions about performance, reforms and the political system at the local level. The survey of all local secretaries is again conducted in 2016 by IPM.SWISS in collaboration with IDHEAP Lausanne.

Public Sector Organizations in Switzerland

In this research project, which is already concluded, the autonomy and oversight of state organizations in Switzerland was examined in comparison to Europe. The project asked whether there was a path dependency for development, i.e.  whether (for example) the continental legal tradition has an influence on the governance of public entities and how the governance is organized. This research project was embedded in the EU COST Action IS0601 "Comparative Research into Current Trends in Public Sector Organization".