A Preliminary Assessment of Water Institutions in India: An Institutional Design Perspective

Water institutions in India play a crucial role in managing scarce water resources and are central to economic development and poverty alleviation. Designing appropriate institutional mechanisms to allocate scarce water and river flows has been an enormous challenge due to the complex legal, constitutional, and social issues involved. The Indian water sector has been grappling with poor performance and deterioration of public (canal and tank) irrigation systems, high extraction levels of groundwater, and related economic and environmental problems. The objective of this article is to carry out a preliminary assessment of institutional mechanisms available to manage water resources in India. The article surveys various formal and informal institutional arrangements that are used at present and their design features in order to identify those institutions related to superior performance. The analysis indicates that crafting “winning institutions” and the policy frameworks to strengthen them should take into account not only the proven criteria of institutional design but also the changing socioeconomic, political, and cultural factors.     

Land tenurial dynamics and participatory forestry management in Bangladesh

Of late, participatory forestry management, more popularly known as ‘social forestry’ (SF), has acquired great significance in Bangladesh as a strategy for both forest resource management and rural development. However, research on the contextual factors such as social relations, institutional structures, forest policies and land tenurial arrangements which regulate SF's performance in the field has been limited. Land ownership and tenurial arrangement is one crucial factor which has remained virtually unexplored in the context of Bangladesh SF. This article examines the land use and tenure arrangements in selected SF projects in Bangladesh. It focuses on the perceptions and choice of the SF farmers regarding land ownership, tenure and use; implications of central land tenurial policy on farm productivity and farmers' motivation; and also on the difference between farmers' land use choice and the assumptions of the SF planners. It shows that land tenure is a complex issue for SF. Although tenurial security is a major motivating force for farmers, providing permanent land ownership alone has little impact on farm productivity or on the growth of collective effort among SF farmers. Farmers need institutional assurance and support (especially from the government) to fully utilize the potential rights and benefits associated with such ownership. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Gender,actors, and institutions at the local level: Explaining variation in policies to address violence against women and girls

Research on gender equality policy has generally focused on actors and institutions at the national and international levels. This article considers the role of local‐level actors and institutions in explaining different policy responses to violence against women and girls (VAWG). The literature on gender policy trajectories identifies the particular importance of executive actors in influencing “status policies” like VAWG. Quantitative data are analyzed to show how local Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales have responded to demands for policy action. The focus is on the interaction between the 41 elected commissioners and the new institutional arrangements for police governance introduced in 2012. The article shows that variation in policy outcomes is related (a) to the gender of executive actors and (b) to the way in which actors interpret elements of the institutional framework, regardless of their own gender.     

The regulatory style of environmental governance in China: the case of EIA regulation in Shanghai*

The body of literature that examines how institutional contexts affect environmental governance in advanced industrial countries finds that style of environmental regulation is country‐specific. In the pluralist form of democracy like the United States, environmental policy formulation involves bargaining and compromises among interest groups and regulation enforcement through relatively formal and legalistic means. In the corporatist form of democracy like Sweden and Great Britain, in contrast, environmental policies are more accommodating to divergent societal interests and tend to be less formal in their enforcement. These variations in regulatory style have been attributed to differences in basic constitutional structures, regime types and cultures. How do institutional contexts affect the style of environmental regulation in China, which is both a non‐democratic and developing country? This article examines China's regulatory style by focusing on environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulation in Shanghai. The Shanghai EIA system is analyzed in terms of policy ideology, policy content, regulatory process, public participation and policy consequences. It is shown that China's being a single‐party regime with a ‘rule of persons’ tradition has heavily shaped its environmental governance. Based on Shanghai experience, China's style can be characterized as formal in requirement, agency‐dominated in the regulatory process, legalistic in enforcement, and informal politics as the substance of regulation. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Policy Entrepreneurs,Issue Experts,and Water Rights Policy Change in Colorado

Policy entrepreneurs can influence policy changes and decisions. These people invest their time, knowledge, and skills into promoting policies with which they agree. This paper investigates the influence that entrepreneurs had in the case of recreational water rights policy in Colorado to build a model of policy entrepreneurship. Almost 20 Colorado communities have constructed white‐water kayak courses to boost their local economies. In twelve of these communities, construction was followed by community pursuit of a new form of water right—the recreational in‐channel diversion. This case study is relevant to many areas of environmental policy and management where policies are transitioning from traditional consumptive uses of the resource to nonconsumptive uses. This policy change was not a given in Colorado communities, with recreational water rights requiring significant investments of community resources. These research findings conclude that policy entrepreneurs were influential to policy change, but the most important actors were expert entrepreneurs who hold expertise in water resource matters.     

Learning from Abroad: The Role of Policy Transfer in Contemporary Policy-Making

In recent years there has been a growing body of literature within political science and international studies that directly and indirectly uses, discusses and analyzes the processes involved in lesson-drawing, policy convergence, policy diffusion and policy transfer. While the terminology and focus often vary, all of these studies are concerned with a similar process in which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political setting (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political setting.
Given that this is a growing phenomenon, it is something that anyone studying public policy needs to consider. As such, this article is divided into four major sections. The first section briefly considers the extent of, and reasons for, the growth of policy transfer. The second section then outlines a framework for the analysis of transfer. From here a third section presents a continuum for distinguishing between different types of policy transfer. Finally, the last section addresses the relationship between policy transfer and policy "failure."     

Collaboration in the shadow of the wall: shifting power in the borderlands

Border security places a heavy burden on public and private land managers affecting rural livelihoods and limiting managers’ ability to collectively act to deal with environmental issues. In the southern Arizona borderlands, natural resource managers come together to solve complex environmental issues creating a diverse set of formal and informal institutional arrangements between state and nonstate actors. We explore the effects of the border on these collaborative institutions, as well as the managers’ views of the border, invoking theoretical work on power, institutions, literature from the burgeoning field of borderland studies, and recent work on collaboration and the common interest in civil society. In doing so, we seek to understand how a rural community that has taken center stage in national discourse copes with the border on a daily basis and how changing power differentials in the borderlands affect a governance network. This study informs our understanding of when and where collaboration occurs, as well as our conceptualization of the border and the effects of border policy and immigration on natural resource management.     

‘Twinning’ and the South Africa/Canada programme on governance: some reflections on Blunt,Jones and Askvik

In reflecting on recent articles about ‘twinning’ as a means of building institutional capacity, the experience of the South Africa/Canada Programme on Governance offers some useful insights. The Programme operated in South Africa from 1993 until early 2000. Among other activities, it sponsored seven twinning arrangements in which the paired institutions, mostly sub‐national governments, worked together from two to over five years. These arrangements provided access to the contributed skills of experienced, senior Canadian public servants and access to sites for study visits and placements in Canada. For Canadians the advantages were the means to contribute to South Africa, to employ their own skills in new ways, and to learn. The contributions of Canadian provincial and national governments more than doubled the professional time devoted to the Programme. The use of experienced public servants, careful programme design and management, selection of appropriate partnerships, a strategic focus and flexible use of resources were all important to making the Programme effective. While it is not feasible to prove institutional development in any ‘scientific’ fashion, it is certainly possible to identify successful contributions to South Africa's own public service transformation. Continued study of twinning arrangements should address and compare programme design and delivery including management approaches and the appropriate duration of the arrangements. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

社会保障资源安排中的逻辑与政治——以华北一个村庄为例

采用"质的研究"方式,对社会转型期华北一个村庄内各种保障或救济性质的资源安排进行了微观分析。相对于宏观政策层面的简单与明晰,正式的社会保障资源在农村社区的分配与利用过程中的功能、内容和形式都更为丰富,如作为消解其他政策和项目所带来的负面影响的工具,或演变为被争夺的竞争性经济资源,或将动态的保障制度异化为长期的养老保障,或作为维稳和社区治理的一种政策性工具等;这些变异一方面有悖政策初衷,使得政策目标发生偏离,另一方面也可能侵蚀社会公正。因此,社会保障政策制定与执行过程中需要充分考虑农村社区复杂而多元的现实,更具规范性、透明性和参与性,这也要求建立起更为健全的农村社会保障体系以及相应的监测与评估机制,厘清社会保障与社会治理的关系,尽可能避免进入政策资源异化与资源补偿型维稳的怪圈。与此同时,非正式的保障资源或社区内部的某些安排则在一定程度上弥补了正式的政策性资源的缺位或短缺,而如何将正式的保障政策资源与社区的、社会的力量有效结合起来是有待进一步研究的课题。     

Improving Policy Effectiveness: Land Use Planning in a Devolved Polity

Improving public policy efficiency and effectiveness in land use planning is an established priority on the prevailing political agenda in the UK. Practical measures to enhance policy formulation in local land use development plans in Scotland offer an interesting case study of an attempt to improve policy consistency, and to secure efficiency gains in policy authorship. This article considers the specific focus on the drafting stage of public policy‐making drawing on insights provided by research into the production of model policies in Scotland. It questions the extent to which such an initiative will promote a more robust public policy‐making discipline in light of the policy cycle. The discussion of the case study illustrates a practical attempt by central government to enhance public policy‐making at the local level, while raising questions about the dangers of invoking a technocratic and instrumentalist approach to policy analysis.     

Perceptions of policy choice in contemporary democracies

Though the concept of choice is essential to democracy, little is known about how citizens make sense of the diversity of policies offered by political elites. Research has found that institutional arrangements such as low electoral thresholds and multiple party competitors are associated with greater policy choice. Other work emphasises non‐institutional factors. No research, however, examines what the voters think. In this article these alternative explanations are assessed in terms of whether citizens believe parties to provide choice over policy. Evidence from 25 democracies reveals that electoral and party systems have no direct effect. Choice perceptions are instead affected by non‐policy factors: social heterogeneity and individual political dispositions. This result contrasts with analyses showing a strong connection between electoral rules and the diversity of messages communicated by parties during campaigns. The article also shows how choice perceptions matter for political behaviour. Overall, study findings imply that the promise of institutions for fostering representation is weaker than previously assumed.     

Detached,Hostile, Adaptable and Liberalising: The Chameleon Qualities of the UK's Relationship with EU Social Policy

In this article, we review the EU's significance for social policies in the UK. The EU has a limited legal role or institutional capacity to directly regulate the social policies of its member states. This role is even more limited in the case of non‐eurozone countries. There are a handful of EU policy measures which have had effects on social policy in the UK. However, these effects have not changed the institutional arrangements for making, organising and delivering social policy, which remain firmly in the hands of UK governments. In consequence, a ‘Leave’ or ‘Remain’ result has relatively limited implications for social policy, except in the case of specific social groups: notably for UK and other EU nationals who have lived and worked in at least one other EU country. Other EU legislation and regulation is compatible with the current and historical policy preferences of UK governments and political parties.     

Community‐Based Organizations and Institutional Work in the Remote Rural West

The institutional landscape for public land management in the U.S. West underwent a seismic shift in the 1990s as the long‐dominant resource extraction paradigm was replaced by the ecosystem management paradigm. Here we analyze the efforts of community‐based organizations (CBOs), entities that emerged in some locations across the West to help their respective communities navigate the transition from resource extraction to environmental stewardship. Despite their formal status as civil society actors, in practice CBOs came to fill various institutional gaps by taking on roles traditionally assigned to both the state and the private sector. We use a case study approach to examine how the Hayfork, California–based Watershed Research and Training Center engages in institutional work within a setting that is at once both open and constrained, as the rural community within which it operates lacks strong state‐ or industry‐led development trajectories while remaining constrained by the legacies of past institutions.     

Trajectories of Administrative Reform: Institutions,Timing and Choices in France and Spain

The influence of national administrative institutions on contemporary reforms has often been noted but insufficiently tested. This article enriches the comparative perspective of administrative reform policies by focusing on four interrelated dimensions: the choices of reformers, institutional constraints, timing and sequencing and long-term trajectories. This article tries to determine whether most similar administrative systems exhibit analogous contemporary reform trajectories in content, timing and sequence. By comparing the administrative reform policies of two ‘most similar’ Napoleonic countries, France and Spain, this article analyses the commonalities and divergences of decentralisation, territorial state reorganisation, civil service reforms and policies that focus on performance management and organisational design. The article identifies the ‘causal mechanisms’ that characterise the specific role of institutions and considers both the role of context and the importance of policy intersections.     

Liberation regimes and land reform in Africa. Land politics transcending enmity in South Africa

Truthfulness, the norm of science, is etymologically related to trust. Both concepts are related to ‘tree’, as a symbol for grounded knowledge, for differentiation (the tree of knowledge), for uprightness and reliability (Searle, 1995). Truthfulness generates trust. Trust generates community. The land politics and trust project in South Africa (Askvik and Bak, 2005) investigated how trust relations intervened within and between government institutions engaged in redistribution and management of land. It enquired into trust relations between the land state and stakeholders in land. It assessed how the new ANC‐controlled state intervened into the relation between market‐oriented urban industry and subsistence‐oriented livelihoods on communal land. Could that intervention explain the slow pace of land redistribution? The field work was done in the Northern and the Western Cape provinces. A hypothesis is that unconditional personal trust across institutional boundaries is a condition for post‐colonial, post‐liberation community building. In 2001, aspects of political democracy were in place. Trust relations between government institutions and to stakeholders in land varied, but were limited. Trusted mediators between the institutions, across cultures, were few and far apart. Subsistence‐oriented livelihoods on communal land were there to be transformed to commercial farming. The three‐step Government strategy, growth in the urban economy, commercialisation of rural subsistence production and rural welfare from the urban surplus, augmented separation, disbelief and distrust. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From policy lessons to policy actions: motivation to take evaluation seriously

The purpose of this article is to analyse the institutional aspects of creating effective systems for monitoring and evaluations (M&E) in government‐led rural development efforts in developing countries. We argue that the ultimate challenge of creating effective M&E systems for public policy is not only related to the supply of information and the delivery of new knowledge to policy makers, but more importantly to their demand for lessons learnt about the effects of earlier policies. The challenge, then, is for governments to construct institutional arrangements that support the transformation of policy lessons into policy actions. This article shows that the likelihood of this transformation is closely related to the capacity of institutions to deliver mechanisms for downward accountability and processes for organisational learning. We add to earlier work in this area by considering the conditions under which such a transformation process is more or less likely, given the severe power and information asymmetries that characterise the institutional context of many developing countries' national governments. We use the tools of institutional analysis to examine the incentive structures of the actors involved in two concrete field settings, and assess to what extent these actors are likely to take evaluations seriously. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Impacts of China's Rural Land Policy and Administration on Rural Economy and Grain Production

The distinctive changes in China's rural land policy and administration have exerted significant impacts on China's rural socioeconomic development and grain production, either positively or negatively. This article reviews the changes of China's rural land policy and administration in the recent 5 decades. After the land reform accomplished in 1952 and the people's commune system implemented during 1952–1978, China adopted a house responsibility system, which was proven to be effective for increasing grain output and peasants’ income. Yet, it preserved the urban–rural dichotomous economy, formed in the people's commune era, which placed agriculture in a secondary position. The low efficiency in agricultural production and the small‐scale household management, under the current rural land policy and administration, stimulated the transfers of agricultural laborers to the nonagricultural sectors and cultivated land to urban land. Grain production and cultivated land protection in China are conducted most times under the political mandates rather than the economic guidance. Although the previous rural land policies and the strict residence registration helped China to avoid problems prevailing in prime cities of other developing countries, compulsorily asking peasants to grow more grain and to stay in their native land resulted in outstanding social injustice, vulnerable grain production systems, and poverty in rural areas. There are also outstanding conflicts among the interests of central government, local governments, collectives, and peasant households. More flexible rural land policies and more strict cultivated land administrations could be solutions for improving the profitability of grain production and protecting the rapidly declining cultivated land. Compensations for the low profitability in grain production are also needed to encourage an increase in grain output and rural economy.     

论国土资源系统权力监督制约机制的构建

国土资源管理部门拥有行政审批权、执法权、大额度资金的管理和支配权等,在土地使用权和矿业权审批、土地和矿业权交易市场建设、土地价格和矿业权价款评估、储量详审、地质灾害危险性评估、矿山地质环境影响评价、行政执法、重大项目资金使用等重点部门和关键环节的管理、制度建设和执行上还存在多种权利运行风险点,涉土涉矿腐败案件呈现出易发多发态势。特别是国土资源管理部门领导干部的违法违纪案件,已严重影响国土资源管理部门的社会形象,严重损害政府机关的公信力。因此,要强化国土资源系统的管理体制、监督体制和用人机制的建设,科学规范权利运行的各个环节,形成监督制约的长效机制。     

Decoupling practical and legal compliance: Analysis of member states’ implementation of EU policy

Despite the vast literature on policy implementation, systematic cross‐national research focusing on implementers’ performance regarding different policy issues is still in its infancy. The European Union policies are conducive to examining this relationship in a comparative setting, as the EU member states need to implement various EU directives both legally and in practice. In this study, a first attempt is made to analyse the relationship between legal conformity and practical implementation and the conditions for practical deviations in 27 member states across issues from four policy areas (Internal Market, Environment, Justice and Home Affairs and Social Policy). In line with existing approaches to EU compliance, it is expected that the policy preferences of domestic political elites (‘enforcement’) affect their incentives to ‘decouple’ practical from legal compliance. Instead, administrative and institutional capacities (‘management’) and societal constraints (‘legitimacy’) are likely to limit the ability of policy makers to exert control over the implementation process. The findings suggest that practical deviations arise from policy makers’ inability to steer the implementation process, regardless of their predispositions towards internationally agreed policies. The results have strong implications for the effective application of international rules in domestic settings, as they illustrate that political support for the implementation of ‘external’ policy does not ensure effective implementation in practice.     

Elk management and policy in southern Greater Yellowstone: Assessing the constitutive process

The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, USA, is recognized globally as a model for land and wildlife conservation, management, and policy. A major policy problem in the region is the highly contentious winter feeding of elk (Cervus elaphus) on 23 government feed grounds in western Wyoming through cooperative management under several state and federal agencies. Numerous non-governmental groups and concerned citizens are also affected by elk management or seek to contribute to management policies. The long-term controversy shows that this issue centers on how management and policy should be made and who should be involved in decision-making—the constitutive policy process. This paper examines and appraises the constitutive process in this case, including how competency, authority, and control are allocated. It also looks at how institutions, analytic techniques, procedures, and people are structured, selected, and included or excluded in decision-making processes. Our data come from a multi-method approach over the past decade, including participant-observation, historical literature, interviews, media analysis, and technical reports. Our analysis shows that institutional dynamics severely constrain the scope of deliberations, the production of practical problem definitions, and the search for improvements in elk management. We recommend that participants focus on the constitutive level of policy making, i.e., the underlying structure and functioning of policy processes, learn how these elements function and affect processes and outcomes, and learn to configure them in ways that embody democratic principles, serve common interests, and resolve policy problems.