Showing papers in "Governance in 2006"

E-Governance Developments in European Union Cities: Reshaping Government’s Relationship with Citizens

Abstract: At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the challenge to governments is to improve citizens’ trust in governments. The Internet aids good governance by increasing transparency and customer-oriented service delivery. During the last few years, European Union local governments have expanded their presence on the Internet. This article presents empirical evidence on the nature of e-governance initiatives in cities across Europe. The findings could be of interest to cities interested in determining how their online presence compares with that of other cities. There are opportunities for information and communication technologies (ICT) to enhance governance in local governments, but the focus of the ICT applications concentrates technologies on the management and delivery of services rather than on other areas. The Internet is not yet running as an effective medium facilitating democratic inputs into the policymaking process. Our study shows that technology is behaving as an enabler within preexisting social and political structures.

From “New Institutionalism” to “Institutional Processualism”: Advancing Knowledge about Public Management Policy Change

Abstract: Research on public management reform has taken a decidedly disciplinary turn. Since the late 1990s, analytical issues are less often framed in terms of the New Public Management. As part of the disciplinary turn, much recent research on public management reform is highly influenced by the three new institutionalisms. However, these studies have implicitly been challenged by a competing research program on public management reform that is emphatically processual in its theoretical foundations. This article develops the challenge in a more explicit fashion. It provides a theoretical restatement of the competing “institutional processualist” research program and compares its substantive findings with those drawn from the neoinstitutionalisms. The implications of this debate about public management reform for comparative historical analysis and neoinstitutional theories are discussed.

Varieties of Regulatory Capitalism: Getting the Most Out of the Comparative Method

Abstract: The rationale behind this special issue’s stepwise analysis of cross-sectoral and cross-national variations and similarities of regulatory reforms is explained. The processes of case selection and inference are clarified and justified. At the same time, the article offers a strategy for an increase in the number of cases without compromising the strength of case-oriented analysis. William Whewell’s notion of consilience is employed to (a) justify the inclusion of sectoral as well as national cases; (b) justify different degrees of in-depth analysis according to the inferential role of the case in the research design; and (c) suggest a distinction in the inferential process between comparisons that enhance internal and external validity. The article concludes with a systematic examination of cross-sectoral and cross-national variations in a table that provides a “panoramic snapshot” and “holistic picture” of the combination of variations and commonalities of the cases analyzed.

Globalization and Governance Capacity: Explaining Divergence in National Forest Programs as Instances of "Next-Generation" Regulation in Canada and Europe

Abstract: New policy initiatives are increasingly embedded in novel governance strategies. These new modes of governance differ from existing policy mixes in that they are specifically designed to reduce the number of instances of counterproductive policy instrument use; to function effectively and meet public policy goals in an era of decreased national state capacity and autonomy; and rely much more heavily than existing instrument mixes have done on the involvement of private actors in both policy formulation and implementation. These instances of contemporary policy design require careful analysis in order to understand where and when such designs may be adopted and, more importantly, prove effective. This article examines efforts made in Europe and Canada to develop “next-generation” forest policy strategies and finds considerable divergence in the new regulatory processes put into place in different countries. Following Knill and Lehmkuhl, this divergence is attributed to changing patterns of domestic actor capacities in the face of weak international regimes.

The New Public Management Reform and Governance in Asian NICs: A Comparison of Hong Kong and Singapore†

Abstract: This article compares the New Public Management (NPM) reform in Hong Kong and Singapore First of all, it highlights how the macroeconomic environment, the political system, and state traditions, factors that are commonly identified as affecting the pattern of NPM reform in western liberal democracies, assume different contexts and significance in affecting reform in Asian states With these general factors, we further compare the NPM reform of these two Asian newly industrialized countries in the areas of economic, administrative, and social governance, and identify the similarities and differences in the objectives of reform, the levels of reform, and the factors affecting such reform in these two cases

Coordination as a Political Problem in Coordinated Market Economies

Abstract: The purpose of this article is to explore the political dynamics of employer coordination in three well-known “coordinated market economies.” We examine differences in how employer coordination has been organized in Sweden, Germany, and Japan in the area of industrial relations, and we examine the extent to which such coordination represents a self-sustaining equilibrium, as some of the most influential treatments suggest. To preview the findings, we argue that precisely the intensification of cooperation between labor and management in some firms and industries (that the “varieties of capitalism” literature correctly emphasizes) has paradoxically had deeply destabilizing collateral effects that have undermined or are undermining these systems as they were traditionally constituted. All three cases are characterized not so much by a full-blown breakdown of coordination so much as a very significant reconfiguration of the terms and scope of such coordination. Specifically, all three countries feature the emergence of new or intensified forms of dualism—different in each case based on different starting points—in which continued coordination within a smaller core has in some ways been underwritten through the breaking off of other, more peripheral, firms and workers.

Why Do Governments Delegate Authority to Quasi‐Autonomous Agencies? The Case of Independent Administrative Authorities in France

Abstract: In recent years, there has been a considerable degree of delegation from governments to quasi-autonomous agencies Various reasons have been put forward to explain why governments decide to delegate authority in this way Some reasons are based on a transaction-cost approach, such as credible commitments Other reasons are more contextual For instance, governments may be responding to a process of cross-national policy transfer In the literature on delegation some hypotheses have already been tested Specifically, evidence has been found suggesting that governments create agencies to commit credibly to particular policy choices However, other hypotheses, particularly ones based on contextual explanations, have proved much more difficult to operationalize This article aims to help fill this gap It does so by focusing on the creation of Independent Administrative Authorities in France Does the qualitative evidence in this particular case corroborate the quantitative studies that have been undertaken elsewhere?

The Relationship between Politics and Administration: The Importance of Contingency Factors, Formal Structure, Demography, and Time

Abstract: The article starts with the notion that the relationship between the political and the administrative sphere should be viewed as a variable, opening up for the possibility that it may vary among contexts, formal structures, demographics, and over time. Studying the interaction between politicians and administrators in 30 Norwegian municipalities, data indicate that the interaction between the spheres is mainly a function of the position politicians and administrators have within the formal structure. More importantly, the effect of the formal structure is strengthened over time. This indicates that election may work as a “shock” to the political and administrative system, weakening the effect of the formal structure. Over time, this formal structure is rebuilt, and thus strengthens its effects on the relationship. Implications and limitations of the findings are discussed.

Globalization, the European Union, and Domestic Governance in Telecoms and Electricity

Abstract: The European utilities sectors exemplify the transformation of regulatory capitalism, with far reaching changes occurring at both European Union and domestic levels. Liberalization is the dominant trend, accompanied by the emergence of regulatory regimes designed to promote competition in the imperfect markets characteristic of the utilities sectors. These general trends, however, conceal cross-sectoral and cross-national variations in the pace and extent of liberalization and in the composition of the emergent regulatory regimes. This article uses a stepwise comparative method to analyze regulatory change in the electricity and telecoms sectors in Germany and France. It explains the pattern of similarity and variation in terms of the interplay between globalization pressures, the policy transfer effects of EU institutions, and the domestic institutional environment.

The Politics of Social Learning: Finance, Institutions, and Pension Reform in the United States and Canada

Abstract: Because the traditional concept of social learning has faced significant criticism in recent years, more analytical work is required to back the claim that the lessons drawn from existing institutional legacies can truly impact policy outcomes. Grounded in the historical institutionalist literature, this article formulates an amended concept of social learning through the analysis of the relationship between finance, social learning, and institutional legacies in the 1990s debate over the reform of earnings-related pension schemes in the United States and Canada. The article shows how social learning related to specific ideological assumptions and policy legacies in the public and the private sectors has affected policymaking processes. At the theoretical level, this contribution stresses the political construction of learning processes, which is distinct from the technocratic model featured in the traditional literature on social learning. This article also distinguishes between high- and low-profile social learning while emphasizing the impact of private policy legacies on learning processes.

Delegating to the quango: Ex ante and ex post ministerial constraints

Abstract: This article examines delegation in the environment of quasi-governmental, special purpose bodies. Better known as “quangos,” these agencies present a challenge for the theory of delegation, because their tasks are often comprised of routine administration, such as the distribution of benefits and the collection of user fees, rather than more politically salient policymaking. Do (spatial) policy conflict and legislative capacity affect the conditions under which authority is delegated to quangos? What effect do “good government” ideology and legislative capacity have on the presence of ex ante and ex post control over quangos? Theoretical predictions are examined with data from a study of Dutch public bodies as well as issue scales from the Manifesto Research Group. Multinomial logit statistical models produce evidence that although policy conflict and legislative capacity measures affect the probabilities of enacting both ex ante and ex post controls, their contributions to ex post measures, as expected in the presence of important hidden action incentives, are much stronger.

Rituals of Reform, Policy Transfer, and the National University Corporation Reforms of Japan

Abstract: In 2004, Japan restructured the state-directed public university system to create the national university corporations (NUCs). Proponents of the reforms made explicit mention of agentification in the United Kingdom, changes to university management structures elsewhere, and reforms in the wider Japanese public sector. As such, the NUC reforms are an example of policy transfer. Despite rhetoric to the contrary, however, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) has not surrendered the large degree of control it had manifested over the university system. Rather the means of control have changed from largely direct ones to largely indirect ones. Policy transfer provided a means by which MEXT could legitimate its policy stance by referring to developments elsewhere, show it was responding to pressure for reform by adopting its rhetoric and superficial forms, but use this to capture the policy agenda to its own ends.

The Limits of Europeanization: Regulatory Reforms in the Spanish and Portuguese Telecommunications and Electricity Sectors

Abstract: The creation of a European Union-level regulatory regime for telecommunications and electricity was a highly successful political initiative of the European Commission. However, this article argues that the causal link between European initiatives and national policy change is weak. Building on an emerging tradition of cross-sector research of these two sectors, and considering two most similar European countries, the article applies a series of comparisons, including a stepwise comparative analysis of two countries (one a reluctant liberalizer, the other an enthusiastic one), of two sectors (a pacesetter and a footdragger), and of two time periods (before and after the regulatory reforms). We suggest that Spain and Portugal were able to shape their sectors according to the preferences of their national policy communities and in a context of a global shift in the way countries both within Europe and outside it defined their interests.

Europeans outside the EU: Telecommunications and Electricity Reform in Norway and Switzerland

Abstract: Norway and Switzerland are two western Europe states that are not members of the European Union (EU), and they are among a number of small and economically open states in which reform of economic sectors is seen to be incremental and reactive. This article poses two questions about the reform of telecommunications and electricity in the two countries. First, what impact has nonmembership of the EU had on the reforms? Second, have their small and open economies and policymaking systems—conceptualized as “social corporatism” in Norway and “liberal corporatism” in Switzerland—had a decisive impact? Some influence from the EU is evident, particularly in telecommunications, but parallels with EU states indicate that nonmembership of the EU, though influential, is not decisive. Although national characteristics matter, social and liberal forms of corporatism are shown to have limited utility. The “actor-centered institutionalism” approach, which allows a more nuanced analysis of actors and national institutions, is better at explaining the reforms.

Blowback: Investor–State Dispute Mechanisms in International Trade Agreements

Abstract: This is a post-print version of an article published on behalf of IPSA's Research Committee on the Structure and Organization of Government (SOG) by Blackwell in Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration and Institutions © 2006 Blackwell; the definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com

The Political Frame for Negotiated Capitalism: Electoral Reform and the Politics of Crisis in Japan and Sweden

Abstract: This article examines the impact of political institutions on the strength of executive governments as well as the consequences of that strength for policymaking. It argues that both political changes and electoral reforms in Japan and Sweden have weakened the political frame for “negotiated” or “coordinated” decision making in these nations. In Sweden, however, the complete demolition of the old political frame has opened up opportunities and incentives for new modes of governance. In Japan, by contrast, reforms have buttressed rather than dismantled the old frame, impeding the transition to a new approach.

Intergovernmental Innovation and the Administrative State in Canada

Abstract: Canadian federalism has experienced considerable pressure for change and innovation in recent years. There have been calls for more collaborative federalism and demands for public sector reforms consistent with the precepts of New Public Management. This article examines the hypothesis that these pressures might be expected to have resulted in some intergovernmental institutional innovation in the arena of federal–provincial–territorial relations. Using a conceptual distinction between federalism, intergovernmental relations, and intergovernmental management (IGM) as the basis of analyzing institutional innovation at six levels in the Canadian intergovernmental administrative state, the authors find a differentiated impact with more institutional innovation evident at the micro levels of IGM and innovation more constrained at the macro levels of the administrative state by the traditional institutional infrastructure of executive federalism.

Withering in the Heat? In Search of the Regulatory State in the Commonwealth Caribbean

Abstract: This article explores the "regulatory state hypothesis" in the context of electricity and telecommunications regulation in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. This article questions whether institutional features associated with the regulatory state are triggered by a preference for efficiency and added complexity within the policy domain. This article progresses in three steps. After setting out the regulatory state hypothesis as derived from the work by Giandomenico Majone and its empirical consequences, the article explores the four cases in brief. Although the empirical evidence broadly supports the regulatory state hypothesis across domains, states and over time, some puzzles in terms of reform trajectories and extent of regulatory reform do emerge. The final section explores these puzzles through an actor-centered institutional perspective. It is suggested that the "regulatory state hypothesis" may be useful for predicting institutional arrangements, but has difficulty in accounting for the extent of regulatory reform and timing.

Introduction: A Crisis of Governance in Japan and Europe

Abstract: Book Reviews Review Essay: International Organizations and Institutional Change in Central and Eastern Europe (John A. Scherpereel): Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, eds., The Europeanization of Central and Eastern Europe; Wade Jacoby, The Enlargement of the European Union and NATO: Ordering from the Menu in Central Europe; James Hughes, Gwendolyn Sasse, and Claire Gordon, Europeanization and Regionalization in the EU’s Enlargement to Central and Eastern Europe: The Myth of Conditionality 135

Government Partisanship and Managing the Economy: Japan and Sweden in Comparative Perspective

Abstract: It is generally taken for granted that countries governed by leftist governments expand social policies and have an affinity for active fiscal policy that implies higher tolerance of deficit-ridden budgets. In contrast, conservative governments are taken to be less likely to favor welfare expansion, especially when it has negative fiscal consequences. We challenge this conventional wisdom by comparing the reactions of the Swedish and Japanese governments to economic crises during the 1990s. The puzzle is that the Social Democratic governments in Sweden were able to reduce ballooning budget deficits and thus bring the economy back into balance, while still having one of the largest public sectors in the developed world. In contrast, the conservative Liberal Democratic Party governments in Japan have been unable to redress their deficit problems despite having one of the smallest public sectors among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. We argue that this can be explained by taking into consideration that governments’ tax and spending policies are influenced by bureaucratic structures and institutionally driven public beliefs. By comparing Japan and Sweden, we show how political parties actively seek to make their policy stances permanent by structuring taxation and expenditure policies to create institutionalized support for their policy preferences.

Managing the Bank-System Crisis in Coordinated Market Economies: Institutions and Blame Avoidance Strategies in Sweden and Japan

Abstract: Sweden and Japan represent two different positions regarding policy-making facing similar crises of the bank systems. The Swedish public policy was encompassing, far-reaching and quick. The Japanese government hesitated for many years to take over bad loans, before they implemented policies of a more limited scope. Why?In short, different institutional settings lead the main actors into different paths of reactions in order to avoid blame. In the Japanese case, the very close relationship between private banks and the Ministry of Finance, in combination with the lesser degree of widespread perceptions of a system-crisis, made it more urgent as well as possible to conceal the actual state of affairs for the politicians. Confronted with the threat of losing power over the financial administration to a new agency, the ministry postponed the reforms in order to conceal the deep financial problems. The institutional setting was different in Sweden. The deregulation had separated the government from the administration of banks. Among the public deteriorating economic conditions were easily connected to the banks. This brought about political unity. It was possible to put the blame on the banks and take the credit for the efforts to tide up the mess without losing credibility.

Technovation in Taiwan: Implications for Industrial Governance

Abstract: No longer able to compete with China and Southeast Asian economies on the basis of cheap skilled labor, Taiwan has begun to explore new industrial sectors, such as biotechnology and the life sciences more generally, as key areas for development. The notion that biotech has been “targeted” by the government naturally conjures up images of the postwar developmental state and its mechanisms for industrial governance. Indeed, the resiliency of the East Asian developmental state model has been the focus of much recent debate (Wong 2004), which begets the question: Does the developmental state still matter in Taiwan, and if so, specifically what role can it play? The government’s current effort in facilitating biotech industrialization provides an idea case through which to reappraise the developmental state, and specifically its role in leading industrial transformation in this uniquely knowledge-intensive sector.

Explaining Australian Economic Success: Good Policy or Good Luck?

Abstract: Australia and some European countries experienced economic “miracles” in the 1990s that reversed prior poor export, employment, and fiscal performance. The miracles might provide transferable lessons about economic governance if it were true that economic governance institutions are malleable, and that actors deliberately changed those institutions in ways that contributed to the miracles. This paper analyzes Australian policy responses to see whether remediation should be attributed to pluck (intentional, strategic remediation of dysfunctional institutions to make them conform with the external environment), luck (environmental change that makes formerly dysfunctional institutions suddenly functional), or just being stuck (endogenous or path-dependent change that brings institutions into conformity with the environment). These distinctions help establish whether actors can consciously engineer institutional change that is “off-path.” While pluck appears to explain more than either stuck or luck in the Australian case, the analysis suggests that both off-path behavior and policy transfer are probably rare.