Résumé
Dr. Céline Lauer was a doctoral candidate at the Associate Professorship of Policy Analysis at the Munich School of Politics and Public Policy/TUM from 2019 to 2024.
In 2014, she completed her bachelor's degree in chemistry at TU Munich with a thesis on biofuels at the Chair of Technical Chemistry. At the same time, she began studying political science, which she completed in 2018 with a diploma thesis on nuclear energy policy in Bavaria, earning the academic degree Diplomaticus Scientiae Politicae Universitatis at the Hochschule für Politik München. Her subsequent research focused on policy field analysis of the energy transition in Bavaria.
During her doctorate, Lauer worked as a research associate in the Bavarian State Parliament and was actively engaged in local politics voluntarily. From 2020 to 2024, she was a doctoral scholarship holder of the Hanns Seidel Foundation.
Doctoral Project
Dr. Céline Lauer's dissertation examines the causes of discrepancies between the political objectives of the energy transition in Bavaria and their implementation from 2011 to 2022. The study analyzes how energy policy goals have evolved over three governmental terms. Three case studies from the electricity sector illustrate that the Bavarian state government failed to achieve its self-imposed targets. To explain this, three theoretical approaches are applied: territorial distribution conflicts, policy legacy, and politically strategic populism.
The study contributes by identifying overarching theories that explain the causes of conflicting decisions regarding the accelerated energy transition in Bavaria. It establishes causal links between intra-party disagreements on handling spatial distribution conflicts and the use of so-called favor-seeking populism by political actors. Additionally, the analysis highlights that the applicability of the policy legacy theory significantly influences the divergence between goals and implementation.