ABSTRACT
This chapter contextualizes the appeal of analytical tools. It reviews the well-researched Anglo-American “benchmark” cases, explores how their distinct institutional contexts shape dominant interpretations of analytical tools, and discusses the limits of applying these accounts to multi-level administrations. Using the example of German executive federalism, the chapter theorizes how formal and informal coordination requirements, such as constitutional norms of legal-administrative-unity and equal living conditions, nourish context-specific attractions of analytical tools. I argue that the need to address tensions between central level steering and subnational executive autonomy will raise - rather than lower - the currency of risk analysis in multi-level administrations.
