Gender and Corruption: The Mediating Power of Institutional Logics

Scholars have argued that recruiting more women to office is an effective way to curb corruption; however, the more precise mechanisms underlying why this may be the case have remained unclear. We use meso‐level theories to elaborate on the relationship and suggest that institutional logics mediate the effect of gendered experiences on corruption. We make two propositions: First, we suggest that the relationship between more women and lower levels of corruption is weaker in the state administration than in the legislative arena, because the bureaucratic administrative logic absorbs actors’ personal characteristics. Second, we refine our institutional argument by claiming that the stronger the bureaucratic principles are in the administration, the less gender matters. We validate our theory using data provided by the European Commission (EC) covering the EC countries and original data from the Quality of Government Institute Expert Surveys, covering a larger set of countries on a worldwide scale.     

A Multiple Streams Analysis of Institutional Innovation in Forest Watershed Governance

Increasingly severe wildfires have focused attention on forested watershed vulnerabilities, causing significant changes to policies and governance. We utilized the Multiple Streams Approach (MSA) to understand institutional innovations of federal agency–large water provider partnerships in Colorado to protect watersheds through joint planning and funding. Ambiguous problem definition and focusing events were significant aspects of these partnerships. We interviewed individuals in the partnerships, with MSA ideas of how solutions to policy problems develop, and the role of policy entrepreneurs. We found that wildfires served as focusing events, creating space and time for learning, collaboration and new problem framing, increased political attention, and institutional innovation. In this study, windows of opportunity stayed open longer, policy entrepreneurs and agencies played larger roles in communication and coupling streams and the context of fast‐moving, unpredictable ecological crises changed responses to issues. Our findings also have implications for broader policy studies and environmental governance scholarship.     

European Defence Agency: A Flashpoint of Institutional Logics

The European Defence Agency (EDA) works in a policy area traditionally characterised by high diversity among actors regarding basic notions of what level of integration and which principles of interaction in the defence sector are appropriate for the EU, which countries should participate in defence cooperation, and what coordination mechanisms and instruments should be used. In all these dimensions, the EDA has been a flashpoint of institutional logics representing different visions of how various aspects of defence integration in the EU should be organised. There are tensions between the logic of supranational regulation and the logic of intergovernmental networking; between the logic of defence sovereignty and the logic of pooled defence resources; between the Europeanist and the Euro-Atlanticist logic; and finally between the logics of liberalisation and Europeanisation of the defence market. Studying the ways in which the collisions of institutional logics are being accommodated by the EDA can contribute to greater understanding of the emerging political order of European defence.     

试论制度创新

在邓小平理论的指导下,我国改革开放的进程实际也是制度创新的进程。本文探讨了制度创新的条件、主体和进程,制度优化的标准、环节和层面。     

The Impact of Competing Institutional Pressures and Logics on the Use of Performance Measurement in Hybrid Universities

Abstract

This study contributes to the current debate on competing institutional pressures and logics and performance measurement practices in hybrid universities and examines how shifts in logics have affected performance measurement practices at the organizational and individual levels. It draws upon the theoretical lenses of institutional theory and adopts a longitudinal case study methodology based on participant observations and retrospective interviews. The findings show that universities and academic workers are affected by external pressures related to higher education that include government regulations and control of the state (state pressure), the expectations of the professional norms and collegiality of the academic community (academic pressures), and the need to comply with international standards and market mechanisms (market pressures). Academic workers operate in an organizational context in which conflicting conditions from both academic and business logics co-exist. The results indicate that institutional pressures and logics related to the higher education field and organizational context shape the use of universities’ performance measurement practices and result in diverse solutions. While previous literature has focused mainly on competing logics and the tensions they may generate, this study shows that, in a university context, potentially conflicting logics may co-exist and create robust combinations.     

Beyond Hierarchies and Networks: Institutional Logics and Change in Transboundary Spaces

In almost all subfields of political science in the last third of the twentieth century, it was claimed that we are witnessing a transformation of political order from hierarchies to networks. This paper traces institutional change during the twentieth century by examining structures and modes of interaction in transboundary regions in Europe and North America. First, it challenges functionalist explanations of institution-building and institutional change. Instead, the impact of general discourses and ideas is highlighted. Second, it takes a closer look at the hierarchies-to-networks transformation thesis. Whereas this thesis can be confirmed if we define hierarchies and networks as patterns of interaction, if we define hierarchies and networks in terms of modes of interaction this is less certain. De jure, institutional elements implying a "hierarchical order" have been supplanted in newer institutions by provisions allowing for "majority voting." De facto, nothing has changed, since these modes of interaction have never actually been used. In practice, the only way to achieve joint action has always been and still is through "agreement" or "consent." What has changed over the years, though, is the institutionalized approach to reaching "agreement." The older approach uses a technocratic-deductive logic. In recent years, we have been able to observe various new approaches in cross-border regions: a symbolic-inductive logic in Western Europe, a utilitarian-evolutionary logic along the U.S.-Mexican border, and a normative-constructivist logic along the U.S.-Canadian border. Based on the empirical findings, I conclude that institutional theory should pay more attention to the fact that many political institutions provide orientation, shape identities, and mobilize activities through emotional symbols.     

中国地方政府制度创新研究综述

地方政府是一个国家政治制度的重要组成部分,地方政府制度创新因其与民众息息相关的地位而日显重要。随着新制度主义经济学对政治学、行政学的渗透,运用新制度主义的方法对地方政府制度创新的研究迅速发展并取得了一定成果。目前地方政府制度创新的研究主要集中在地方政府制度创新的内涵、主体地位、作用意义、角色内容、动因、悖论及其克服等方面,但在研究中还存在不足。     

技术创新背景下制度创新视野的转变

在技术创新背景下,制度创新应与技术创新相适应,为技术创新活动提供前提条件,形成制度创新促进技术创新的局面。制度创新必须有整体性、开放性和市场观念。同时,技术创新也将为制度创新提供支持,使制度创新向前推进,进而形成技术创新与制度创新互相促进和互相作用的良好关系。     

Different Shades of Gray: A Priming Experimental Study on How Institutional Logics Influence Organizational Actor Judgment

This article examines whether and how judgments made by individual organizational actors may be influenced by institutional logics—the historical patterns of cultural symbols and material practices, including assumptions, values, and beliefs, by which individuals and organizations provide meaning to their daily activity, organize time and space, and reproduce their lives and experiences. Using an experimental design, the authors prime three institutional logics in three independent groups of managers (n = 98) and assess the influence of the primes on individual‐level judgment preferences. The results show that such priming affects participants' judgments in an ambiguous judgmental task, with each prime influencing judgment in a discernibly unique pattern. Consequently, a more nuanced account of larger patterns of behavior can be constructed. The findings highlight the potential of text as priming stimuli within institutionally complex work settings such as those in the public sector, an important yet underexamined issue.     

突发性公共事件的治理与制度创新

突发性公共事件既考验一国政府能否充分利用本国以及全球公共资源履行公共服务的能力,又成为政府转变功能、由善政转向善治的机遇。在全球化背景下,政府只有将功能从以经济为中心转向经济与社会协同发展,建立政府——社会、中央——地方、国家——国家间多中心的公共事务治理结构,才能实现本国公共利益最大化,增进政府统治竞争力。     

预防化解多元治理主体利益冲突的制度架构

多元主体协同治理是当前社会治理实现由共治到善治的应有之义,是实现治理体系和治理能力现代化的重要形式。建立健全一套完整、畅通、高效、无缝隙的预防化解多元治理主体利益冲突的制度体系,才能更有效地推进社会治理由共治实现善治,突破单边权力失灵的困境。当前适合中国实际的预防化解多元治理主体利益冲突的制度体系主要包含灵活的主体参与制度体系、严格的过程监督制度体系及完善的利益保障制度体系三个维度。     

区域协调发展与地方政府制度创新

地方政府制度对区域协调发展的影响,既包括地方政府制度创新对区域发展的积极作用,也包括地方政府制度创新异化对区域发展的负面影响。促进区域发展以及实现区域间协调发展需要规范地方政府制度创新的思路:即从推动本地区经济发展的角度来看,地方政府制度创新的目的在于提升地方政府的效能,为本地区经济发展提供一个好的环境;从推动区域协调发展上看,地方政府制度创新要有助于协调好地方政府间关系,有助于区域经济整体的发展。     

政府制度创新的支持性要素分析

政府是最大的制度供给主体,政府制度创新需要一定的支持,否则,难以实现预期目标。政府制度创新的支持性要素分为四大类,即共同性支持、同源性支持、关联性支持和社会成员通过利益集团的支持。     

我国乡镇政府的制度创新

随着我国农村社会的发展,乡镇政府的公共服务职能大于政治职能的趋势日益明显。在这种新的环境下,乡镇政府运营成本过高的问题越来越突出,直接导致了乡镇政府根本没有财力和精力去从事农村公共服务活动,所以,有必要对乡镇政府进行制度创新。创建“法治—服务型”乡镇政府模式符合中国农村现在及未来的发展需要,其具体策略是:精简乡镇政府的机构;改变官僚体制的层级节制原则,并在更多的层面上赋予乡镇政府相应的权责;实行党政合一的乡镇领导体制;将“法治—服务型”治理理念纳入乡镇政府改革中,最终提升政府服务能力,丰富管理手段。     

公共政策创新中合法性要素的制度分析

公共政策创新中的政策供给是建构性的,因此,它必须通过各种渠道获得合法性要素的支持方能得以实施,否则,也可能因合法性要素的支持短缺而蔫死在襁褓之中。可见,合法性要素是政策供给的给养,只有给养充分,政策创新才能顺利进行。历史上存在着大量的公共政策创新失败的案例,其重要原因在于缺乏一系列必要的合法性要素的支持,这些要素是共同性支持、同源性支持、关联性支持和社会成员通过利益集团的支持。它们在公共政策创新中缺一不可,否则将导致公共政策创新的最终失败。因此,公共政策创新必须在这些要素的全面支持下获得合法性方能成功。     

Logics of interdisciplinarity

Abstract

This paper interrogates influential contemporary accounts of interdisciplinarity, in which it is portrayed as offering new ways of rendering science accountable to society and/or of forging closer relations between scientific research and innovation. The basis of the paper is an eighteen-month empirical study of three interdisciplinary fields that cross the boundaries between the natural sciences or engineering, on the one hand, and the social sciences or arts, on the other. The fields are: 1) environmental and climate change research, 2) ethnography in the IT industry and 3) art-science. In the first part of the paper, in contrast to existing accounts, we question the idea that interdisciplinarity should be understood in terms of the synthesis of two or more disciplines. We stress the forms of agonism and antagonism that often characterize relations between disciplinary and interdisciplinary research, and distinguish between three modes of interdisciplinarity. In the second part we outline three distinctive logics or rationales that guide interdisciplinary research. In addition to the logics of accountability and innovation, we identify the logic of ontology, that is, an orientation apparent in diverse interdisciplinary practices in each of our three fields towards effecting ontological transformation in the objects and relations of research. While the three logics are interdependent, they are not reducible to each other and are differently entangled in each of the fields. We point to the potential for invention in such interdisciplinary practices and, against the equation of disciplinary research with autonomy, to the possibility of forms of interdisciplinary autonomy.     

现代公务员培训管理制度的创新—广州市公务员培训管理工作的实践探索

十六大以来,中央提出了"大规模培训干部、大幅度提高干部素质"的战略任务,强调了加强公务员培训的紧迫性,而传统的以静态滞后的培训管理手段、模式化的培训内容以及过于强调组织要求的课程设置方式等为特征的培训管理模式已经不能适应现代公务员培训管理工作的新挑战.为了应对以上挑战,广州市积极进行现代公务员培训管理体系的创新探索,在管理理念、管理体制、管理制度、管理手段、培训模式、培训内容以及培训经费保障机制等方面的创新举措在全国走在前列.     

社会团体年度检查的法律困境与制度创新——以S市为例

社会团体年度检查是政府监督社会团体的一种重要方式。通过对S市社会团体年度检查工作考察,发现S市社会团体管理局经过多年的实践探索,在社会团体年度工作中形成了自身的特点,取得了较好效果。同时也发现年度检查面临法律依据失效、部分检查项目缺乏明文规定、主管单位初审责任加重、年度检查结果的执行刚度不够等法律困境。实现制度创新,促进社会团体健康发展,关键在于明确年度检查目的、修订《社会团体年度检查办法》、理顺社会团体党建工作和年度检查的关系、优化社会团体年度检查流程等方面。