Institut für Politikwissenschaft

Prof. Dr. Simon Fink

CV and profile:
Simon Fink has studied political science, law and psychology at the University of Konstanz and the University of Bamberg. He was assistant professor for comparative politics at the University of Bamberg, and Postdoc at the graduate school "Markets and Social Systems in Europe". Moreover, he founded a company offering political science trainings and simulations for various German and international customers.

Simon Fink´s research is focused on the analysis of public policy. His last major project studied the diffusion of privatization policies in the OECD world and elucidated how learning, emulation and competition drive the spread of new policies. His dissertation dealt with religious influence on embryo research policies and showed that cultural factors do indeed influence public policies.

Currenty, Simon Fink is working on a project studying public participation in German electricity grid expansion policies. The question is whether public participation really causes changes in policy decisions about electricity grids.

The teaching focus of Simon Fink is the political system of Germany and its embededness in the European multilevel system, as well as policy analysis. Moreover, his courses always emphasize the dicussion of research logic, research design and (quantitative) methods.

You can find more about his research and teaching at simonfink.wordpress.com.

Research topics:

  • Comparative politics
  • Policy diffusion
  • Policy analysis
  • Quantitative methods
  • Technology policy
  • Politics and religion
  • Network analysis



Current Publications:

  • Fink, Simon (2017): Varieties of capitalism and privatization in a globalized world. How trade integration shapes the relation between type of capitalism and privatization, in: Comparative European Politics forthcoming.
  • Fink, Simon/Felix Julian Koch (2016): Agiert die Bundesnetzagentur beim Netzausbau als Agent oder als Treuhänder?, in: dms - der moderne staat 9, S.277-288.
  • Fink, Simon (2013). Policy convergence with or without the Europan Union: The interaction of policy success, EU membership and policy convergence. Journal of Common Market Studies, 51(4), 631-648.
  • Fink, Simon (2013). When I find myself in times of trouble... The conditional effect of international organizations on policy convergence. European Journal of Political Research 52(5), 630-659.
  • Krapohl, Sebastian/Simon Fink (2013). Different Paths of Regional Integration: Trade Networks and Regional Institution-Building in Europe, Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. Journal of Common Market Studies 51: 472-488.
  • Fink, Simon (2011): Der Einfluss von Spielarten des Kapitalismus auf Privatisierungspolitik. Ein quantitativer Test, in: Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft 5(2), 277-301.