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How Institutions Evolve: Insights from Comparative-Historical Analysis
Abstract
This essay explores the question of how formal institutions change. Despite the importance assigned by many scholars to the role of institutions in structuring political life, the issue of how these institutions are themselves shaped and reconfigured over time has not received the attention it is due. In the 1970s and 1980s, a good deal of comparative institutionalist work centered on comparative statics and was concerned with demonstrating the ways in which different institutional arrangements drove divergent political and policy outcomes (e.g., Katzenstein 1978). In addition, scholarship in the comparative historical tradition has yielded important insights into the genesis of divergent (usually national) trajectories. Works in this vein include some classics such as Gerschenkron (1962), Moore (1966), and Shefter (1977), but also significant recent contributions such as Collier and Collier (1991), Skocpol (1992), Spruyt (1994), Ertman (1997), Gould (1999), and Huber and Stephens (2001). Finally, we have a number of analyses that address the issue of “feedback mechanisms” that are responsible for the reproduction of various institutional and policy trajectories over time (e.g., Pierson 1993; Skocpol 1992; Weir 1992b). Ongoing theoretical work centering on the concept of path dependence by Mahoney, Pierson, and others has lent greater precision to previous formulations based on the dual notions of “critical junctures” and “historical trajectories” (Mahoney 2000; Pierson 2000a). As these authors have shown, some of the major works in comparative historical analysis can be read as illustrations of path dependence in social and political development.
... Swedish municipalities occupy a complex position in which they must balance their constitutionally protected self-governance with the obligation to comply with national legislation and directives. Furthermore, as public organizations, municipal PSS entities function as open systems that are continuously negotiated and adapted to reflect evolving social, political, and economic conditions (Thelen, 2003). Consequently, municipal PSS organizations are frequently targeted for "improvements" by political and organizational initiatives shaped by broader societal trends. ...
... The Personal Social Services (PSS) are politically governed municipal organizations whose ultimate responsibility is to ensure that local residents receive the support and help they need (Chapter 2 §1, Socialtjänstlag, SFS 2001:453). As politically controlled organizations, PSS units are open environments whose goals continually evolve to align with changing social, political, and economic conditions (Thelen, 2003). As discussed above, the emphasis on efficiency and efficacy of treatments through standardization has frequently been cited as the most influential movement shaping the organization and delivery of social services in recent decades (Avby & Melke, 2022;Dellgran & Höjer, 2005). ...
... Gleichzeitig bleiben auch die inneren Widersprüchlichkeiten des NSM -etwa die Balance zwischen Flexibilisierung und Kontrolle, Politik und Verwaltung, Konsolidierung und Effektivitätssteigerung präsent. In der Sprache des historischen Institutionalismus (Thelen 2003) fand eine Abschichtung (layering) statt, bei der ältere Institutionen von neuen überlagert werden, aber teilweise weiterhin Wirksamkeit entfalten oder einen Funktionswandel (conversion) durchlaufen. ...
On the occasion of Jörg Bogumil's 65th birthday, this commemorative publication features 23 contributions by companions from academia and practice, reflecting on his multifaceted work in political science research. They reflect on the development paths of public administration and local politics in recent decades, analyze reform trends and sustainable ideas, and show how administrations and local actors prepare for current and future challenges. In addition, they highlight the numerous cross-connections that Jörg Bogumil, one of Germany's most distinguished public administration scholars, has consistently built between the academic research horizon and practical action. With contributions by Nathalie Behnke | Arthur Benz | Martin Burgi | Roland Czada | Falk Ebinger | David H. Gehne | Sascha Gerber | Philipp Gräfe | Stephan Grohs | Jonas Hafner | Rolf Heinze | Lars Holtkamp | Stefan Immerfall | Werner Jann | André Jethon | André Kastilan | Tanja Klenk | Sabine Kuhlmann | Sebastian Kurtenbach | Franz Lehner | Frank Nullmeier | Martin Paul | Sören Petermann | Ludger Pries | Christoph Reichard | Christina Reinhardt | Josef Schmid | Klaus-Peter Strohmeier | Louisa Anna Süß | Sylvia Veit | Hans-Josef Vogel | Uwe Wagschal | Hellmut Wollmann
... The book offers a highly productive meta-analysis of research literature (supplemented by primary sources), as it does not simply look at the material through a theoretical lens. Rather, it explicitly discusses theoretical alternatives, and attempts to show why these can explain the historical developments less well than Thelen's own approach (Thelen, 2003). In line with the meta-analysis we promote, Thelen uses a wide range of secondary and grey literature. ...
Purpose
This article argues that the potential of the vast amount of research, published each year in the history of education, remains untapped. Given the rapidly growing number of academic publications in the field, there is a need for research that is based on articles, chapters and monographs already published. While analyses of existing research publications are widely used in other academic disciplines, such approaches remain under-utilized in the history of education.
Design/methodology/approach
The argument of this article is supported in three steps. Firstly, we distinguish between different forms of research using existing data and research publications, in particular secondary analyses, systematic literature reviews and meta-analyses. Due to the heterogeneous nature of research publications in educational history, this article argues for the method of qualitative meta-analysis. Secondly, we discuss the risks and methodological pitfalls of research using existing research publications, outlining possible areas of application and discuss examples of meta-analyses in educational history. Finally, the article explores the implications of an increased use of meta-analyses, especially for the editors of scientific journals.
Findings
This article provides an introduction to the main features of meta-analysis as applied in history of education. By promoting qualitative meta-analyses as original research, we argue that journals could help ensure that the potential for vibrant and highly productive research in the history of education is fully realized.
Originality/value
Despite that the use of published research is widely discussed in the behavioural and social sciences, there is a lack of reflection on how to use the knowledge produced in the history of education. By presenting qualitative meta-analysis, this article provides a starting point for such a discussion.
... Korpi (2006, 174) definiert Klasse als «Kategorien von Individuen, die relativ ähnliche Positionen oder Situationen auf den Arbeitsmärkten und in den Beschäftigungsbeziehungen teilen». Es ist eine empirische Frage, inwieweit sich Kategorien von ähnlich positionierten Individuen durch kollektives Handeln organisieren oder 10 Siehe Thelen (1999Thelen ( , 2003 und Streeck und Thelen (2005) für ähnliche Diskussionen über institutionellen Wandel. 11 Im weiteren Verlauf dieses Buches wird der gebräuchlichere Begriff «Ideologie» anstelle von «normativen Machtressourcen» verwendet. ...
Woran scheiterte die flächendeckende Einführung der Gesamtschule in Deutschland? Und wieso gelang sie in Norwegen? Diese Fragen werden hier historisch-soziologisch analysiert. Das Buch argumentiert, dass schulpolitische Bündnisse auf gesellschaftlichen Spaltungsstrukturen basieren. Neben der Klassenspaltung befasst es sich mit Spaltungen, die mit Religion, Geografie, Sprache, Antikommunismus und Geschlecht zusammenhängen. Es zeigt, wie norwegische Sozialdemokraten und deutsche Christdemokraten erfolgreiche Koalitionen bildeten, indem sie verschiedene soziale Gruppen mobilisierten.
... Es así como los estudios de partidos, conducta electoral, instituciones, opinión pública, relaciones exteriores, y políticas públicas, entre otros, están sometidos a la constante tensión entre cambio y continuidad, entre equilibrios e inestabilidad. Como señala Thelen (2003), una de las principales características de las instituciones es que pueden cambiar radicalmente en algunos aspectos mientras que permanecen extraordinariamente estables en otros. ...
Este artículo usa el marco teórico, y la metodología, del policy agenda de Baumgartner y Jones, para estudiar los discursos del 21 de mayo de los presidentes de la Concertación con el objeto de determinar la importancia, los cambios y la continuidad que las áreas de salud y educación poseen en la agenda pública.
... Se os mecanismos responsáveis pelo surgimento e expansão do Bolsa Verde nos anos iniciais do programa já foram exaustivamente analisados por diversos autores (OXFAM, 2020;ILO, 2016), raros trabalhos analisaram seu desmantelamento. O presente trabalho buscará dar um passo importante em tal direção a partir da análise da literatura desenvolvida sobre o retrenchment em políticas sociais (PIERSON, 1996;THELEN, 2003;HACKER, 2004;AMABLE, 2006;HACKER et al., 2015;ARRETCHE et al., 2022) O artigo está organizado em três partes, para além desta introdução. Na primeira, reviso a literatura pertinente aos temas de pagamento por serviços ambientais (PSAs) e teorias relacionadas ao desmonte de política pública. ...
O presente artigo busca debater as estratégias de desmonte utilizadas em dois dos principais programas de serviços ambientais do Brasil, o Bolsa Floresta e o Bolsa Verde. O objetivo é identificar as razões por trás da perenidade do primeiro e dissolução do segundo. De maneira geral, o trabalho enquadra as transformações no Bolsa Floresta e no Bolsa Verde em dois níveis distintos: o papel da centralização jurídica e fiscal em cada programa para o corte do orçamento de cada programa nos anos de crise econômica e mecanismos de drift desde a criação das políticas públicas. As questões também são avaliadas sob a luz das transformações institucionais ocorridas durante o fim do governo Dilma e início do governo Temer. Como resultado, apontamos que a criação de uma burocracia própria cuja própria razão de ser era o financiamento do programa foi fundamental para a perenidade do Bolsa Floresta em um momento de grave crise econômica e política. Não obstante, ambos os programas sofreram diferentes estratégias de desmonte desde o momento de sua criação, que se intensificam em 2014 e 2015. Por fim, apontamos os principais aspectos de fragilidade do Bolsa Verde e do Bolsa Floresta em relação ao desmonte e levantamos alguns caminhos possíveis para continuação da pesquisa.
... Sobre a leitura de conjunturas críticas, cujo foco da explicação para as mudanças institucionais reside nos momentos de crises agudas comumente provocadas por fatores exógenos à estrutura -tais como crises políticas e econômicas internacionais, catástrofe ambiental, guerras, pandemias etc. -, a própria tradição institucionalista stricto sensu tem feito importantes ajustes analíticos para interpretar as mudanças institucionais por outro ângulo. Sem desconsiderar os momentos críticos, a "terceira fase" da tradição institucionalista, iniciada anos 1990, tem feito um duplo movimento: (I) refinado o argumento sobre as mudanças institucionais, partindo de uma perspectiva de mudança gradual e considerando as propriedades das instituições e o contexto político; (II) analisado as mudanças operadas a partir do interior das estruturas (North, 2018;Mahoney & Thelen, 2010;Thelen, 2003;Streeck & Thelen, 2005). ...
Os argumentos centrais do artigo é que o Estado, percebido como parte de uma totalidade social, é uma relação social e, portanto, faz-se necessário uma (re)leitura relacional para se pensar a imbricação Estado/sociedade. Ao assumir esse pressuposto, discutirei o Estado como agente e como campo e, a partir de diálogos com a tradição histórico-institucionalista, refletirei sobre a autonomia do Estado e as mudanças institucionais. Com isso, espero trazer para o debate algumas considerações para uma reflexão teórica, com implicações analíticas, a partir de uma perspectiva relacional sobre o Estado.
Abstract
The main argument of this work is that the State, perceived as part of a social totality, is a social relation and, because of that, there is a need for a relational (re)reading to think about the correlation State/society. Assuming that, the discussion will be discussed as agent and field and, starting from the historical institutionalism tradition, the autonomy of the State and its institutional changes will be thought. By doing that, the aim is to bring to debate some considerations for a theoretical discussion, with analytical implications, from a relational perspective of the State.
Collaborative governance arrangements have become an important means by which a wide range of complex collective action problems are solved. Despite the importance assigned by many scholars and policy makers to the role of collaboration, the matter of how these new institutions emerge and take form has not received the consideration it warrants. In the prevailing view, institutional innovations emerge when state actors are confronted with complex problems that exceed the limits of traditional administrative structures and jurisdictional boundaries. Existing rules are seemingly “displaced'' to allow for the introduction of new ones. This article explores the question of what happens when collaborative governance arrangements have been “layered” on top of preexisting institutions to convert them toward new objectives. Using forest collaboratives engaged in managing federal public lands in the Pacific Northwest as a case study, I argue that layering collaborative requirements on top of an existing institutional apparatus may not be the best way to put a bureaucracy in the service of new goals. I propose restructuring or replacing outdated frameworks to create a more integrated system that fosters genuine collaboration, aligns with current goals, and effectively addresses complex challenges.
Venue‐making describes the process of turning political issues into political institutions. Both public policy and institutionalist scholars have addressed the puzzle of when and how new political institutions arise. We draw on both perspectives, arguing that the interaction between interest groups and government ultimately determines whether an issue remains within the existing institutional setting or if a new venue is made. A repeated stag hunt game illuminates the challenges of this interaction: interest groups and government need to coordinate the move from an old to a new venue by amplifying the issue and creating new institutional structures simultaneously. Because the switch from subsystem politics to venue‐making is rewarding but also risky, several mechanisms, including signaling, sustained interaction, and inspection, encourage cooperation. Our research design provides an analysis of three case studies in a fixed institutional context of unified Germany. A first case process‐traces how political issues about digitalization emerged and became institutionalized. A second, off‐path case shows the short‐lived attempt to centralize administrative competences in the domain of energy policy underscores the crucial role of interest groups. The third case explains the ultimately futile attempt to create a new Ministry of Immigration.
This study has the aim to analyze the environmental and institutional frameworks implications in entrepreneurship ecosystems. It is assumed that research on entrepreneurship ecosystem micro foundations are sensitive environmental and institutional factors including the agency of actors in their own local communities. The method used is the meta-analytical-reflective and descriptive based on conceptual, theoretical, and empirical literature reviews. It is concluded that the environmental and institutional factors are relevant in the formation and development of entrepreneurship ecosystems.
The reunification of Germany in 1990 has been extensively analysed, yet little knowledge exists on how this critical period has impacted Germany’s system of tax administration. Drawing upon document analysis and semi-structured interviews with experts who were personally involved in the transition, this article investigates the key challenges faced during the establishment of tax administration infrastructures in the post-1990 eastern German states. Specifically, the article compares the transition process in two eastern German states, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt, thereby illuminating how early administrative design choices explain subsequent differences between these states in their post-1990 tax administration performance. The article employs an historical institutional perspective, combined with an isomorphic institutional analysis, demonstrating that the institutional configuration of Germany’s system of tax administration is central to understanding the performance of eastern German tax administrations post-reunification. Conflicting interests between government actors, both vertically and horizontally, resulted in different views as to how the eastern German states’ tax systems should be developed. Whilst the reunification brought these institutional tensions to the surface in a uniquely clear manner, these tensions continue to affect Germany's present tax administration, making this study important from a historical perspective but also to better understand Germany’s contemporary system of fiscal administration.
Based on the previous chapters’ topics in Part III, this chapter recaptures the changes in business management in Japan and Germany during economic growth up to the early 1970s by applying the framework “reframing” depicted in Chap. 1. Problems stemming from the Japanese and German approaches to conforming to American methods are explored as influenced by cultural and traditional factors in business management and institutional factors. Moreover, influences of the structural characteristics of Japanese and German capitalism, such as the structures of productive forces, industrial structure, and market structure, are examined. This chapter also elucidates the development of Japanese-style business management and German-style business management in relation to capitalism’s reproduction (accumulation) structure in each country.
The purpose of this chapter is to explore theory based practices to implement sustainable HRM practices to achieve organizational financial, human/social and environmental outcomes of corporate sustainability business strategy. To achieve this intention firstly, the framework of typologies of sustainable HRM highlight the sets of core and the unique characteristics of sustainable HRM practices. Subsequently, the sustainability characteristics are embedded to different HRM functions for varied jobs to achieve corporate sustainability outcomes depending on the negative interactional effects of work contexts on the organization-stakeholders care position. Secondly, the scheme of classification of sustainable HRM indicates responsible personnel, compliance personnel, transcended HRM and high-involvement HRM as four categories. Each of the categories explains various levels of organizational involvement in developing and implementing strategies for corporate sustainability. Thirdly, the framework for resource regeneration strategy of sustainable performance was used to explain that employees with high vigor and high proactivity will be able to synthesis work performance and human resource regeneration. Finally, industry and organizational barriers for management actions to embed characteristics of sustainable HRM practices to HRM functions and HRM strategies in an organization to overcome the barriers are explained.
Why do some countries have one official language while others have two or more? Why do Indigenous languages have official status in some countries but not others? How do we theorize about continuity and change when we explain state language policy choices? Combining both the theory and practice of language regimes, this book explains how the relationship between language, politics, and policy can be studied. It brings together a globally representative team of scholars to look at the patterns of continuity and change, the concept of state traditions, and notions of historical legacies, critical juncture, path dependency, layering, conversion, and drift. It contains in-depth case studies from a multitude of countries including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Norway, Peru, Ukraine, and Wales, and across both colonial and postcolonial contexts. Wide-ranging yet accessible, it is essential reading for practitioners and scholars engaged in the theory and practice of language policies.
Why do some countries have one official language while others have two or more? Why do Indigenous languages have official status in some countries but not others? How do we theorize about continuity and change when we explain state language policy choices? Combining both the theory and practice of language regimes, this book explains how the relationship between language, politics, and policy can be studied. It brings together a globally representative team of scholars to look at the patterns of continuity and change, the concept of state traditions, and notions of historical legacies, critical juncture, path dependency, layering, conversion, and drift. It contains in-depth case studies from a multitude of countries including Algeria, Burkina Faso, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Norway, Peru, Ukraine, and Wales, and across both colonial and postcolonial contexts. Wide-ranging yet accessible, it is essential reading for practitioners and scholars engaged in the theory and practice of language policies.
The research examines integrating the Slow Food Movement (SFM) with Ireland's lobster industry, emphasising preserving local culinary heritage as crucial for Sustainable Food Systems. This heritage includes both tangible elements, like agricultural practices and intangible ones, such as traditional food preparation. Slow food aims to protect these traditions from the homogenisation of food production. Using Social Practice Theory, the research analyses lobster consumption in Ireland, underscoring its symbolic importance in Irish culture to develop a novel framework adapted from the Social Practice Framework. The study combines qualitative interviews and secondary data analysis to explore lobster's role in Irish culinary heritage and its potential for promoting sustainable seafood consumption. Results from the study highlight the critical role of Irish lobster fishing communities in maintaining cultural food heritage, with traditional practices contributing to ecological and economic sustainability. The SFM influences lobster consumption, supporting sustainable and culturally important food practices. This research underscores the intricate link between tradition and sustainability, suggesting a model to balance cultural integrity with sustainable practices, contributing to a more culturally informed and environmentally conscious food consumption approach.
In today's rapidly evolving business landscape, understanding the dynamics of institutional change is crucial for shaping innovation and enterprise strategy. This chapter delves deep into the interplay between institutional change, legitimacy, and entrepreneurship, highlighting the profound impact on an organization's innovation strategy. Toreover, this chapter sheds light on power dynamics, accentuating is often underrepresented role in institutional discussions. Practical implications are highlighted, offering insights for firms navigating the turbulent waters of institutional change. The chapter concludes with a synthesis of insights, drawing attention to the multifaceted interconnections between institutional change, innovation, and strategy. As the corporate world continues to shift, this comprehensive exploration equips readers with the knowledge to thrive amidst change.
This chapter describes the general theoretical background of the study “Narrating the Rule of Law”, which builds on approaches and findings from political science, history, sociology and cultural studies. The point of departure is the neo-institutionalist assumption that existing orders influence actors’ behaviour, but that actors can also use or try to modify these orders according to their interests or normative ideas. They do so by using, constructing and circulating ideas and beliefs through discourse. We further assume that the specific context matters for how politicians refer to the rule of law. In this chapter, we apply the general analytical framework to trace the history of the liberal rule of law and illustrate some ‘classical’ conflicts surrounding its meaning and development, including the essential role of politicians (and judges) in this process. We develop these considerations and discuss why national and temporal differences in the rule of law narratives are conceivable. Finally, we discuss potential conflicts and narratives that may arise from party competition, the government–opposition divide and differing rationale of politicians’ and judges’ views of the rule of law.
High-quality strategic environmental assessment (SEA) guidelines are essential for ensuring effective SEA implementation. However, empirical studies appraising the quality of existing guidelines are scarce, particularly in Africa. This paper evaluates the quality of national SEA guidelines in Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda, focusing on their potential to support strategic thinking and practice. Data were drawn from guideline documents and analysed using content analysis against best practice, strategic criteria. The analysis reveals that while guidelines share some commonalities, they differ in scope, specificity and strategic orientation. They all incorporate important guiding principles, but only partially address other best practice criteria. Notably, they offer inconsistent guidance on structuring the assessment process and engaging decision windows, which may limit their practical usefulness. The findings highlight opportunities for improving future guideline development, revision and updates. This research and policy recommendations will benefit practitioners, policy-makers and other stakeholders in the case countries and similar jurisdictions.
Since the 1990s, and accelerating with the adoption of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the goals for development aid in donor-government development policies have proliferated. Goal structures have also become complex. It is, therefore, often difficult to read a given donor’s intentions from officially declared policy: what exactly it claims being committed to accomplishing with aid in recipient countries and through what means? Furthermore, when goals and means for aid are non-transparent, it becomes more difficult to evaluate or assess donor development policies as officially promised action plans. Related to but not identical to Hall’s policy paradigm concept [Hall, P, 1993, ‘Policy paradigms, social learning, and the state: The case of economic policymaking in Britain’, Comparative Politics, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 275–296] this study aims to develop an analytical framework for reconstructing given donor’s aid logic of goals and means. The framework keeps attention on tracking everywhere two elementary answers from direct or implied statements in official policy documents: what change or changes exactly a given donor claims to promote in recipient countries and through what actions or measures? With interest in Finnish development policies, all the main policy documents for three decades (1993–2023) were analysed. The finding was an apparently enduring core of policy understanding used in Finnish development policies, giving similar stated logic for aid for three decades.
Keywords: policy paradigm, development policy, development aid, development cooperation, Finnish aid
This article provides an analysis of the temporal development of interactions within SOLVIT, the European Union's problem-solving internal market network. Adopting an agency-based, rationalist approach, we hypothesize that temporal development depends on cross-border interdependence, institutional homogeneity, SOLVIT centre caseload and Brexit. Testing these hypotheses, we control for members’ resources, perceptions of SOLVIT and endogenous network dynamics. The ensuing model is tested using stochastic actor-oriented models on interactions in 2011 and 2018, thus yielding a panel-data analysis. Our main finding is that SOLVIT interactions are remarkably stable over time. This is mostly due to the strong effect of interdependence, which is rather constant over time. Strikingly, we find no effect for institutional homogeneity, case load and Brexit. In sum, our analysis reveals that European Administrative Networks can develop into stable patterns of interactions, driven by rather structural features of interdependence.
Der Beitrag diskutiert den Zusammenhang von Organisationsform, institutionellem Kontext und der konkreten Forschungstätigkeit außeruniversitärer Forschungseinrichtungen im 20. Jahrhundert. Hierzu bezieht er sich auf Erkenntnisse der fünfzehn Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes. Es werden die zentralen Forschungsfragen vorgestellt, entlang derer die Beiträge abgefasst wurden, sowie die daraus verallgemeinerbaren historisch-soziologischen Befunde. Weiterhin wird ein konzeptuelles Schema zur Einordnung historischer Fälle vorgestellt. Das Ergebnis unserer Analyse lautet: Die Erneuerung der Forschung findet auf zwei Weisen statt. Entweder werden für neue Forschungsthemen und -gebiete neue Forschungseinrichtungen und teilweise neue Organisationsformen etabliert, oder ein wissenschaftlich erfolgreiches Thema oder Gebiet wird organisational in Form neuer Forschungskapazitäten expandiert.
An important aspect of policy integration is the need for policymakers to establish integrative capacity. However, very few scholars who refer to this concept have explained what integrative capacity is and what aspects of the policy process policymakers need to focus on to establish that capacity. In this paper, we define integrative capacity and introduce an “integrative capacity framework” that outlines key components required by public agencies to progress policy integration. Drawing on existing literature, we apply three dimensions of policy—the policy process, program, and politics—to identify where integrative capacity can occur. Within those dimensions, we identify four conditions that can impact integration: coordination and coherence; accountability, transparency, and legitimacy; resourcing and adequate institutional architecture. We argue that by unpacking the integrative capacity concept, scholars and policymakers can utilize the framework to identify what elements of the policy process need to be addressed to increase the likelihood of integrative policy success.
Zusammenfassung
Der Beitrag vergleicht zwei Großforschungseinrichtungen, die als Einrichtungen der Teilchenphysik gegründet wurden, aber ihre ursprüngliche Forschungsmission und ihre Großgeräte vollständig auf die multidisziplinäre Photonenforschung umorientierten. Trotz einiger Gemeinsamkeiten unterscheiden sich beide Zentren sehr deutlich im Hinblick auf die Geschwindigkeit ihrer Transformation sowie die Forschungserfolge. Auf der Basis theoretischer Überlegungen wird ihr Verhältnis zur institutionellen Umwelt analysiert: (1) Zugang zu institutionellen Unternehmern; (2) organisationaler Status der Photonenforschung; (3) Rolle externer Finanzierungsquellen bei der Förderung und Konsolidierung der Photonenforschung; (4) Möglichkeit, sich im Rahmen von Personalfluktuation inhaltlich zu erneuern. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Diskussion zu forschungspolitischen Empfehlungen.
This chapter analyses how the taken-for-granted institutionalised patterns and practices layered over decades in Sierra Leone provide a conceptual perspective on the systemic corruption-related phenomenon associated with state institutions. In the post-conflict period of Sierra Leone, tenacious corruption-related patterns have remained. Analysis of its probable causes has primarily focused on a rational choice perspective, placing the actor-centric notion of interest maximisation in centrality. Thus, this problematisation of the corruption phenomenon profoundly remains inattentive to the social institutional patterns. With careful examination of social institutions and use as the framework, the study argues that the customs and practices of the corruption-related phenomenon within state institutions in Sierra Leone could be much appreciated by uncovering how layered social institutional and behavioural patterns evolved over decades within the social-political space of the country. The practices, the study argues, have been taken for granted and normalised to become characteristic of the political superstructure of the state system within which corruption has not been unconnected. This study employs process tracing and elements of the path dependence approach to analyse pertinent data sources.
Central among a range of reforms and policy measures aimed at enhancing the quality and social cohesion of Norwegian early childhood education and care (ECEC) services is the 2017 Framework Plan for Kindergartens. In this article, we investigate the policy formation process and how framework plan reform has been carried out by public and private stakeholders at different levels. The reform is explored as institutional layering, referring to theoretical contributions that stress the role of incremental development and gradual institutional change. We ask: What are the policies added, and to what extent do added policies instigate institutional change? This article relies on qualitative document analyses, semistructured interviews, and quantitative survey data. We find high legitimacy for the framework plan in the ECEC sector, and informants broadly regard it as a continuation of earlier versions of the plan. Our analysis further shows that the implementation of the 2017 framework plan reform cannot be viewed in isolation, as it interacts with other reforms, trends, and instruments in the sector. We argue that blending reform design features with existing values and practices adds layers to Norwegian ECEC, instigating change. The analysis points to the need for further research on how national educational reforms are implemented in complex settings and to investigate the relationships between policy design and measures and between policy outcomes and ambitions. The relationships between different measures can be unclear to local implementers. Thus, we stress the importance of considering how reform outcomes depend on intertwined reforms and varying local conditions regarding capacity, norms, and values.
The aim of this article is to understand the dynamic evolution of a governance framework for major public projects. Drawing on Ralf Müller's contributions in the field of project studies regarding governance, combined with a theoretical anchoring in neo-institutionalism, we seek to shed light on the evolutive aspects of a governance framework, also framed as a public policy. Based on the case of Canada, relying on secondary sources and ethnographic sensitivity, we trace the trajectory of the policy (the governance framework) and highlight the main evolutions and turning points. Five iterations are documented, resulting in increasing complexity over time and institutional layering. The theoretical contribution is to uncover the dynamic and evolving nature of governance frameworks, whereas the practical benefit is to enable decision makers to understand the implications of layering and find the right balance between novelty and overlap for optimal project governance.
The Faroe Islands is receiving increased international attention due to the political changes in the Arctic region. This is causing challenges for the Home Rule model and the Danish Realm. The Faroe Islands have previous experiences with critical junctures that have led to change in self-government settings. Based on historical institutionalism, this article conducts a comparative case study of two previous critical juncture events and time-periods for the Faroe Islands. The first is the Second World War followed by the implementation of the new Home Rule model in 1948, and the second is the severe economic crisis in the 1990s followed by path dependency institutional adaptations to the Home Rule model in 2005. The investigation resembles a different-outcomes comparison and focuses on identifying the contextual political factors of importance and how these factors varied for the two cases. The findings show shifts in the within-case political power balance in opposite directions, changes in the policy space, differences in the Danish state´s position and third-party actor roles as well as differences in terms of international salience of national self-determination norms.
This article attempts to capture the fundamental conclusions of Gerhard Loewenberg’s comparative legislative research. As an early leader in the field, Loewenberg focused on comparative legislative research in his scholarship throughout this career, producing a significant body of work on the topic. This article may be viewed as a tribute but carries a great deal of relevance for legislative studies. It highlights enduring questions not only about research in the field of legislative studies as Loewenberg saw them, but also his preoccupation with unlocking the puzzles surrounding the core substantive issues of legislative concern. A careful analysis of Loewenberg’s research shows key advances as well as notable shortcomings of comparative legislative studies over the last several decades.
Quels sont les effets de l’intensification de l’interdépendance énergétique entre la Russie, deuxième exportateur mondial d’hydrocarbures, et la Chine, premier importateur mondial ? L’interdépendance bilatérale serait le levier de l’hybridation des institutions d’encadrement des relations énergétiques internationales. Centrée sur des enjeux de puissance et de sécurité énergétique, l’intensification de l’interdépendance s’accompagne de changements institutionnels, qualifiés d’hybridation, fondés sur un arbitrage sécurité-efficience spécifique. Quatre facteurs paramètrent cette hybridation : le contexte structurel auquel font face les acteurs, le comportement stratégique du complexe État-Entreprises, les propriétés sectorielles et les arrangements institutionnels existants.
How do we apply a gender lens to the housing needs of vulnerable women? The YWCA Niagara Region (YWCA) asked this question. Brock University's Niagara Community Observatory (NCO) partnered with the YWCA to identify the barriers to accessing safe and affordable housing in Niagara, with priority placed on community engagement and inclusive access to housing. The article has a two‐fold purpose. First, it provides an overview of community‐engaged research, focusing on the key principles and practices involved in listening to stories of women with lived expertise of homelessness facing discrimination or disadvantage compounded by intersectional identities of Indigeneity, race, gender and ability. Second, it reports on the making of a policy brief and video clip designed as advocacy tools for increasing awareness of the need for increased equitable access to safe and affordable housing for women and gender diverse peoples in Niagara.
The article examines Brexit through the historical institutionalist scholarship on European integration, critical junctures and institutional change. It finds that the concepts of path dependence, and critical junctures that emerge from exogenous shocks, as well as most processes of endogenous institutional transformation cannot fully account for Brexit. How can a Member State leave the European Union, if membership in the organisation produces path-dependent effects and there is no exogenous shock? To answer the question, the article introduces the concept of a hybrid critical juncture – a period of increased contingency and uncertainty that is created gradually by a combination of exogenous and endogenous causes and agency. The article examines the events that led to the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU to demonstrate how the hybrid critical juncture concept explains Brexit. The analysis contributes to understanding potential future European disintegration and incremental institutional transformation broadly defined.
Despite the EU's commitment to promoting the transition towards the circular economy (CE), implementation continues to face significant constraints within small firms, which represent 99% of all EU businesses. This study deals with the implementation of CE in SMEs to understand their perceptions of CE and assess the firm-level features obstructing transition. We present evidence from 58 inter-views with 37 Italian agri-food firms. Evidence suggests a dichotomy between larger SMEs, which implement CE to pursue economic advantages, and smaller ones. Overall, a lack of a strategic approach to CE emerges, as well as several ob-stacles to circular transition (e.g., lack of technical expertise, effective networks and practical guidance). Our findings suggest the importance of (i) disseminating accounting and measurement tools among SMEs, (ii) working to create circular networks, and (iii) developing tailor-made guidance.
Value capture (VC) is widely cited as a method for local authorities to provide
urban public goods to their cities in the face of fiscal stress. Its application in practice
however remains limited. In this article, we aim to explain the implementation
process of VC as a strategy to fund public transportation infrastructure
through case studies in London, New York, and Copenhagen. Adopting a theory
of gradual institutional change, we argue that the implementation of VC depends
on the capacity to change distributional institutions that are inherently contested.
Particularly relevant is the role of the beneficiary, whose support of VC is necessary
but not likely. Our results show that a strategic urban development project
can act as a driver to overcome this barrier, but that this driver can,
simultaneously, also hinder the institutionalization potential of a VC strategy.
We therefore suggest that, for VC strategies to become more commonplace,
sharing value uplifts among beneficiaries must become more commonplace too.
To address the impacts of densification on social sustainability, this book follows a multidisciplinary theoretical approach based on three theoretical strands: public policy analysis (land use planning as a public policy), new institutional economics (role of property rights) and political ecology (conceptualization of power). In addition, these concepts are linked to human geography (actor-centered perspective, construction of space) as well as housing (gentrification, social segregation) and sustainability (resources use) studies. The analytical framework of the Institutional Resource Regimes (IRR) makes it possible to connect these different disciplines. The IRR enables to conceptualize the combined effect of public policies and property rights on the regulation of use rights to the land and housing resources. In general, this multidisciplinary theoretical approach allows to point out and highlight the limited amount of recent scientific research on the crucial role played by power in spatial development.
This article presents a quantitative method for mapping semantic spaces and tracing political frames’ trajectories, that facilitate the analysis of the connections between changes in ideas and socio-political phenomena. We test our approach in Spain, where the Catalan conflict fostered a competition in terms of decontestation of meanings of key political concepts. Using unsupervised machine learning, we track the salience, level of semantic fragmentation and fluctuations in meanings of 216 frames in the two largest Spanish newspapers, El País and El Mundo, throughout 8 years. This is achieved via the extraction, vectorization, and comparison of over 70,000 words. We apply Latent Semantic Analysis, an innovative methodology for the alignment of semantic spaces, and new institutional theory. Our exploratory study suggests that the evolution of many nationalism-related frames resembles a punctuated equilibrium model, and that political events in Catalonia, acted as critical junctures, altering the meanings reflected in the Spanish press.
American and French political studies have excluded the question of unelected governmental elites from the field of policies and states studies. However, it is essential to know, what “makes” the elites (who are they?) with what the elites “do” (How do they act?). In the Programmatic Elites Framework, these governmental elites are (i) unelected individuals, (ii) politically appointed at the apex of the state apparatus (iii) where they develop their career path over the long term by circulating vertically (occupational advancement) and horizontally (between governmental institutions), (iv) working collectively out of sight, and (v) influencing decisively policy decision-making process. The aim is to highlight the role of unelected governmental elites in decisively influencing transformation of the French welfare state over the long term.
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La literatura predominante sobre política latinoamericana ha señalado la existencia de path dependency entre los regímenes presidenciales de la región. Sin embargo, este trabajo ofrece una explicación alternativa que incluye en el análisis los valores de poder centralizado, autoridad, orden y preeminencia de la élite, que fueron transformados en instituciones formales, principalmente la Constitución. En consecuencia, decisiones sub-óptimas tomadas en ciertas coyunturas críticas destinadas a mantener el status quo son más relevantes que acuerdos institucionales duraderos, como en el caso de Estados Unidos. La falta de un acuerdo constitucional en América Latina, donde coaliciones políticas coyunturales de la élite con otros sectores sociales impusieron las reformas estructurales, se parece a lo que en economía se ha descrito como el contrato social ausente. Para superar dicha falta, en Chile los sectores no pertenecientes a la élite buscaron métodos democráticos a diferencia que en Argentina donde la democracia se consideró sólo una de las herramientas disponibles. Aunque el resultado inicial del análisis es diferente, hoy en día ambos países enfrentan una falta de acuerdo constitucional similar, que obliga tanto a Argentina como a Chile a continuar esforzándose por lograr instituciones democráticas duraderas.
"Nowhere does history indulge in repetitions so often or so uniformly as in Wall Street," observed legendary speculator Jesse Livermore. History tells us that periods of major technological innovation are typically accompanied by speculative bubbles as economic agents overreact to genuine advancements in productivity. Excessive run-ups in asset prices can have important consequences for the economy as firms and investors respond to the price signals, resulting in capital misallocation. On the one hand, speculation can magnify the volatility of economic and financial variables, thus harming the welfare of those who are averse to uncertainty and fluctuations. But on the other hand, speculation can increase investment in risky ventures, thus yielding benefits to a society that suffers from an underinvestment problem.
Throughout the evolution of the modern world economy, new models of productive efficiency and business organization have emerged — in Britain in the 19th century, in the US in the early (and perhaps late) 20th century, and in Japan in the 1980s and 1990s. At each point, foreign observers have looked for the secrets of success and best practice, and initiatives have been taken to transmit and diffuse. This book looks in detail at ‘Americanization’ in Europe and Japan in the post-war period. The processes, ideologies, and adaptations in a number of different countries (the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Germany) and different sectors (engineering, telecommunications, motor vehicles, steel, and rubber) are explored. This book details theoretical analysis of the complexities of the diffusion of business organization and the powerful influences of Americanization in this century.
This book offers a careful examination of the politics of social policy in an era of austerity and conservative governance. Focusing on the administrations of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, Pierson provides a compelling explanation for the welfare state's durability and for the few occasions where each government was able to achieve significant cutbacks. The programmes of the modern welfare state - the 'policy legacies' of previous governments - generally proved resistant to reform. Hemmed in by the political supports that have developed around mature social programmes, conservative opponents of the welfare state were successful only when they were able to divide the supporters of social programmes, compensate those negatively affected, or hide what they were doing from potential critics. The book will appeal to those interested in the politics of neo-conservatism as well as those concerned about the development of the modern welfare state. It will attract readers in the fields of comparative politics, public policy, and political economy.
This book is not another parable of Japan's economic success; it provides rich and systematic descriptions of Japanese microeconomic institutions and interprets their work in terms familiar to Western economists. A systematic, in-depth analysis of Japanese institutions of this kind has never been available before. In making his comparative analysis of the Japanese system, Professor Aoki critically examines conventional notions about the microstructure of the market economy that have strongly shaped and influenced economists' approach to industrial organization (e.g., hierarchy as the alternative to the market, the firm as a propery of the stockholders, and market-oriented incentive contracts). While these notions may constitute an appropriate foundation for the analysis of the highly market-oriented Western economies, the author has found that a more complete understanding of the Japanese economy requires us to broaden such 'specific' notions. At one level, therefore, this book may be regarded as a provocative exercise in comparative industrial organization and the theory of the firm. To the extent that this approach is convincing, the book suggests a reordering of focus and emphasis in these studies.
The United States, France and Britain use markedly different kinds of industrial policies to foster economic growth today. To understand the origins of these different policies, this book examines the evolution of public policies governing one of the first modern industries, the railroads. The author challenges conventional thinking in economics, political science and sociology by arguing that cultural meaning plays an important role in the development of purportedly rational policies designed to promote industrial growth. This book has implications for the study of rational institutions of all sorts, including science, management and economics, as well as for the study of culture.
In the early 1980s, many observers, argued that powerful organized economic interests and social democratic parties created successful mixed economies promoting economic growth, full employment, and a modicum of social equality. The present book assembles scholars with formidable expertise in the study of advanced capitalist politics and political economy to reexamine this account from the vantage point of the second half of the 1990s. The authors find that the conventional wisdom no longer adequately reflects the political and economic realities. Advanced democracies have responded in path-dependent fashion to such novel challenges as technological change, intensifying international competition, new social conflict, and the erosion of established patterns of political mobilization. The book rejects, however, the currently widespread expectation that 'internationalization' makes all democracies converge on similar political and economic institutions and power relations. Diversity among capitalist democracies persists, though in a different fashion than in the 'Golden Age' of rapid economic growth after World War II.
Post-Communist Party Systems examines democratic party competition in four post-communist polities in the mid-1990s: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland. Legacies of pre-communist rule turn out to play as much a role in accounting for differences as the institutional differences incorporated in the new democratic rules of the game. The book demonstrates various developments within the four countries with regard to different voter appeal of parties, patterns of voter representation, and dispositions to join other parties in legislative or executive alliances. The authors also present interesting avenues of comparison for broader sets of countries.
In this book Bo Rothstein seeks to defend the universal welfare state against a number of important criticisms which it has faced in recent years. He combines genuine philosophical analysis of normative issues concerning what the state ought to do with empirical political scientific research in public policy examining what the state can do. Issues discussed include the relationship between welfare state and civil society, the privatization of social services, and changing values within society. His analysis centres around the importance of political institutions as both normative and empirical entities, and Rothstein argues that the choice of such institutions at certain formative moments in a country's history is what determines the political support for different types of social policy. He thus explains the great variation among contemporary welfare states in terms of differing moral and political logics which have been set in motion by the deliberate choices of political institutions. The book is an important contribution to both philosophical and political debates about the future of the welfare state.
The book provides a thorough analysis of the genealogy and the functional logic of German capitalism over the last 130 years. It addresses several puzzles of the existing literature, in particular how economic coordination proved possible and remained stable in a (big) country without prominent traits of neo-corporatism, without long government participation of social democratic parties, without centralized wage bargaining, without active economic steering by the government, under a “monetarist” regime, and under an allegedly liberal, namely “ordoliberal” economic policy. The central claim of the book is that the functional equivalent for all that was a “conservative-continental” welfare state which provided labor and capital with the organizational resources and the infrastructure to establish and maintain long-term economic coordination (of which we know that it is not-self-enforcing, i.e. that it needs institutional support). A better understanding of the German case, which can be seen as prototypical for other continental political economies as well, thus provides us also with a much better understanding of the different variants of coordinated market economies in northern, continental, and southern Europe, i.e. it provides us with a more profound Comparative Political Economy framework. This has important implications for contemporary debates on Germany’s role within international trade, and especially on its role within Europe and especially within the eurozone and its crisis. Much of the current debate, so the book claims, is based on an incomplete account of the functional logic of Modell Deutschland .
Engagement with American practices and ideas in the period after the Second World War differed in Germany and Japan compared to in many of the other political economies considered in this volume, because both were militarily occupied countries. Thus, in addition to the diffusion (or in any case, incursion) of American industrial ideas, principles of organization, and technologies by way of markets, scholarly and technical writings, and elite circulation, American ideals were also imposed on Germany and Japan by military governors during the first decade after the war. By analysing the process of restructuring in the steel industries in both occupied countries, this chapter examines the complexity of the notion of 'imposition' in the context of this military occupation. The main argument is that the American occupation dramatically changed both societies by forcing them to grapple with American ideas of social, industrial, and political order. © Jonathan Zeitlin and Gary Herrigel, 2000. All rights reserved.
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The welfare states of the affluent democracies now stand at the centre of political discussion and social conflict. In this book, which grew out of two conferences held at the Center for European Studies, Harvard University, in November 1997 and October 1998, an international team of leading analysts reject simplistic claims about the impact of economic ‘globalization’. Whilst accepting that economic, demographic, and social pressures on the welfare state are very real, they argue that many of the most fundamental challenges have little to do with globalization. In contrast to many popular accounts, the authors detect few signs of a convergence of national social policies towards an American‐style lowest common denominator. The contemporary politics of the welfare state takes shape against a backdrop of both intense pressures for austerity and enduring popularity. Thus, in most of the affluent democracies, the politics of social policy centre on the renegotiation, restructuring, and modernization of the post‐war social contract rather than its dismantling. The authors examine a wide range of countries and public policy arenas, including health care, pensions, and labour markets. They demonstrate how different national settings affect whether, and on what terms, centrist efforts to restructure the welfare state can succeed. The 13 chapters of the book are arranged in four main sections, each with three chapters, and a concluding section: I. Sources of Pressure on the Contemporary Welfare State; II. Adjustment Dynamics: Economic Actors and Systems of Interest Intermediation; III. Adjustment Dynamics: Parties, Elections, and Political Institutions; IV. Comparing Policy Domains; and V. Conclusions.
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Formal political institutions have been assigned two roles in democratization theorizing: as contingent effects of strategic interaction and as predictable bases for democratic consolidation. These roles might be reconciled if we assume that institutions become persistent once in place. But patterns of behavior surrounding these institutions do not appear to conform to the expectations of path dependency or comparable frameworks: while unchal- lenged in some cases, these institutions are repeatedly contested and often enough revised in others. This is true even of 'low stakes' institutional designs. Consequently, groups often perceive institutional designs not as 'locked in' and instead as malleable over even a few years. Codified political institutions therefore appear unable to generate the reduced risks - in effect, the credible commitments - which Adam Przeworski's argument about democratic consolidation requires. This conclusion suggests that consoli- dation may result from reductions in political risks caused by non-insti- tutional factors. It also has implications for diverse arguments which assume stability or predictability in formal institutions. KEY WORDScredible commitmentsdemocratic consolidationinsti- tutionspath dependence