Statistische Indikatoren als Führungsinstrumente für die politische Planung: Ein Vorschlag zur Ergänzung der Legislaturplanung

Effect-oriented politics shifts the emphasis from controlling the input (deployment of staff and financial resources) to controlling the outcome (products and effects) of government action. Increasingly, politicians are applying results-oriented standards and setting performance targets and operational targets, the achievement of which can be assessed on the basis of quantitative and qualitative criteria (effectiveness and economic efficiency). This paradigm shift increases the importance of meaningful, up-to-date information both for setting targets and for verifying them. This means that there is an increased need to conduct evaluations, and the importance of statistical information to strategic management grows accordingly. What is required are indicators specially designed to observe developments as a comparison in time and space and to describe the performance and effects of government action. Although the report on legislative planning, the Swiss government''s political programme, in its present form contains targets and standards for the political and legislative programme, they are only quantified and operationalized by the aid of (financial) indicators within the confines of the Financial Plan. This does not take sufficient account of the productive and creative nature of the modern state and makes it difficult to evaluate the government''s work. It is therefore proposed to supplement the programmatic part of the report on legislative planning with statistical indicators, which, because they allow international comparisons to be made, will also situate Switzerland within a global and, more importantly, within a European context. Such a supplement, covering the environment, the implementation and the outcome of the government''s work, would focus attention on the big picture and deepen the sense of responsibility for the effect of government action.