Spiegelreferate in Regierungszentralen: Konsequenzen für die politikwissenschaftliche Lehre aus Forschungsstand und Regierungspraxis

In addition to their assigned function—the coordination of individual departmental tasks—mirror departments in government headquarters perform far more tasks. In fact, they are involved in all processes that are in any way related to a policy area. The preparation of appointments, speeches and votes for the head of government takes on a greater scope than the coordination of departments. In research and teaching, however, the idea of working towards a unified government line dominates as the main task of the mirror departments. In the professional field course “Public Administration as a Professional Field for Social Scientists” at the University of Düsseldorf, insights into the practice of departmental coordination are provided through role plays and typical tasks from government work. The aim is not only to correct the image of departmental coordination that is widespread in theory, but also to provide realistic preparation for a later position in a government department. In the following, the formal and informal activities as well as the conflicts of departmental coordination are presented using the example of the State Chancellery of North Rhine-Westphalia.