Showing papers by "Oliver E. Williamson published in 1990"

Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story—Comment

Abstract: Although an understanding of bureaucracy is vital to the evolving theories of economic organization and politics, bureaucracy is a seriously neglected topic. Terry Moe is one of the few scholars who has addressed himself to the pertinent issues in an illuminating way (see especially Moe, 1990a). I concur with Moe's view that political scientists of the "new institutionalist" genre have given disproportionate attention to legislatures as compared with bureaucracies and that a more balanced approach that "tackles the subject of bureaucracy in a serious way" (Moe, 1990b:S250) is needed. Furthermore, I concur with the eight points of inquiry that he prescribes (Moe, 1990b:S250-S251). My own sense of the best way to reorient a field is to address the neglected questions and to offer insights and answers with which "orthodoxy" must come to terms. Moe's comparison of the American separation-ofpowers system with the parliamentary systems of other Western democracies-in terms both of the differences in their politics of structural choice and differences in the bureaucracies-is in that spirit. His contrast between presidents and legislators as it relates to bureaucratic design is also illuminating. His main point is that political institutions are distinctive and need to be addressed on their own terms. Much of the recent work that he reviews fails that test.