The Dynamics of Abstract and Manifest Institutional Change: MITI and the Japanese "Economic Miracle" Reconsidered

Modern institutional theory specifies two different aspects of institutions. The first aspect—and by far the predominant perspective—sees institutions as recurrent patterns of behavior, values, norms and practices which guide social and political behavior. The second aspect refers to the manifest institutional systems of the state. These two sides of institutions are supposed to be mutually reinforcing. Thus, institutions are "embedded" in overarching systems of values at the same time as they "constrain" behavior. This article takes exactly the opposite approach and seeks to separate the two different meanings of institutions in order to explain changes in the effective capabilities of manifest institutions. Using the Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) as an empirical case, the argument advanced in the article is that variations in the institutional leverage and capacity of MITI can to a significant extent be explained by changes in the relationship between "abstract" and "manifest" institutions, i.e. the extent to which the institutional arrangement of the state reflects predominant systems of values, norms and beliefs in society. In addition to the vast literature on institutional theory, the article draws on a series of interviews with MITI senior officials between 1988 and 1996 as well as on the literature on Japanese political economy.     

The European Parliament's Legislative Powers Reconsidered – Assessing the Current State of the Procedural Models Literature

This article maps out the state of affairs of the academic literature which uses procedural spatial voting models to explain legislative decision-making in the European Union. Employing Tsebelis's (1994 ) article in which the author models the Union's co-operation procedure and using it as a reference point, I show that there is no clarity yet as to which of the several existing procedural model specifications yields the most convincing results. I conclude by suggesting how the current situation could be improved, and that procedural modelling might be integrated with other rational choice theory for a better understanding of the ongoing evolution of the policymaking instruments in the European Union.     

The Dialectic of Enlightenment Reconsidered

In the darkest days of the Second World War Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno overturned the wisdom of modern times by suggesting that the idea of a constant struggle between Enlightenment and myth overlooked an unacknowledged identity between these alleged eternal combatants. This paper will briefly explain this claim and examine it in its historical context, consider the responses of the subsequent generation to the first iteration of Dialectic of Enlightenment with its radical negation of this tradition, before concluding with a contemporary evaluation of its remaining relevance.     

Taking on the World: The International Activities of American State Legislatures

State legislatures in the United States engage in a substantialamount of international activity. In the 2001-2002 legislativesessions, some 886 bills and resolutions with significant internationalimplications were introduced. Approximately 306 of these wereadopted. This level of international activity has increasedsubstantially since 1991, and the substantive focus has changedover time. In addition, about half of all state legislaturesreceived at least one foreign delegation and sent at least onedelegation of members abroad in the last session. As in mostareas of state policy, there is considerable interstate variationin legislatures' international activities. Some states had virtuallyno international legislative activity, whereas others were veryactive. The principal factors explaining this variation werethe degree of state involvement in the international economy,as measured by the level of state exports, and party controlof the legislature.     

The New Racial Calculus: Electoral Institutions and Black Representation in Local Legislatures

In this study we revisit the question of black representation on city councils and school boards using a novel substantive and methodological approach and longitudinal data for a sample of over 300 boards and councils. Conceptualizing black representation as a two-stage process, we fit Mullahy's hurdle Poisson models to explain whether and to what extent blacks achieve representation in local legislatures. We find that while the size of the black population and electoral arrangements matter more than ever, especially for overcoming the representational hurdle, the extent to which the black population is concentrated is also strongly associated with black council representation. Further, whereas black resources and opportunities to build "rainbow" coalitions with Latinos or liberal whites are marginally if at all related to black legislative representation, we find that legislative size is an underappreciated mechanism by which to increase representation, particularly in at-large systems, and is perhaps the best predictor of moving towards additional representation.     

Educational Vouchers: The Case for Public Choice Reconsidered

Parental choice and operational efficiency are the key features proponents use to promote the desirability of educational voucher programs. The argument is that educational vouchers increase competition among schools by allowing parents the freedom to choose which schools their children attend. In turn, competition improves the performance of individual schools. This article argues that, as currently put forth, the case for vouchers minimizes the special position of public schools with respect to their equity goals. Equity, arguably, has been one of the most significant tenets of public education policy in the last half-century. Moreover, vouchers have significant hidden costs that could compromise any efficiency.     

The Fiscal Organization of Metropolitan Areas: The Allegheny County Case Reconsidered

Is consolidation of local governments within metropolitan areasdesirable? The "traditional reform approach" advocates greaterconsolidation to promote efficiency and equity. However, recentstudies by the U.S. Advisory Commission on IntergovernmentalRelations (ACIR), relying on a "public choice approach," arguethat formally fragmented systems can produce self-determination,citizen choice, competition, fiscal equivalence, accountability,and representation. This study reassesses the evidence presentedin the ACIR study on Allegheny County. While concurring thattraditional reform efforts are poorly conceptualized, the findingsshow that fiscal disparities among Allegheny County municipalitiespersist and have significantly increased over the past decade.These findings, taken together with those from citizen surveys,challenge the conceptual foundations and policy implicationsof both approaches. F or more than half a century, scholars     

Constituency Demands and Limited Supplies: Comparing Personal Issue Emphases in Co‐sponsorship of Bills and Legislative Speech

Parliamentary party groups typically comprise members of parliament (MPs) with diverse preferences and different personal issue emphases. At the same time, speaking in plenary debates is a scarce resource controlled and allocated by parliamentary party group leaders. This has led recent research to investigate how speakers for plenary debates are selected. This contribution connects with this literature by asking whether MPs’ personal issue emphases deviate from their parliamentary party groups’ issue emphases. In order to answer this question, the issue emphases which individual MPs devote to a set of issues in an open access parliamentary instrument is measured and compared to the emphases MPs devote to these issues in speeches. The results for the 2005–9 legislative period of the Norwegian Storting indicate that MPs differ in how closely aligned their issue emphases are in these two instruments and that these differences vary in a way consistent with theories on candidate selection and individualized MP behaviour.     

The Effect of Electoral Geography on Pork Barreling in Bicameral Legislatures

How does the electoral geography of legislative districts affect pork barreling? This article presents a formal model extending Mayhew's classic credit‐claiming theory to account for the electoral geography of bicameralism. Under bicameralism, upper chamber (Senate) and lower chamber (Assembly) legislators who share overlapping constituencies must collaborate to bring home pork projects. Collaboration is easier between a Senator and an Assembly Member who share a large fraction of their constituents and thus have relatively aligned electoral incentives. But dividing a Senate district into a larger number of Assembly district fragments misaligns these electoral incentives for collaboration, thus reducing equilibrium pork spending. Hence, increased Senate district fragmentation causes a decrease in equilibrium spending. I exploit the 2002 New York Senate expansion as a natural experiment, examining how sudden changes in the geographic fragmentation of Senate districts account for differences in the distribution of pork earmarks immediately before and after the redrawing of district boundaries.     

The 1986 Midterm Elections for Governor and State Legislatures: A Modest Departure From Past Patterns

The 1986 midterm election results departed from the normal patternin which the president's party loses governorships and controlof a significant number of state legislative chambers. For thefirst time since World War II, the presidential party scoreda net gain in governors. At the same time, it sustained onlyminor losses in the legislatures. The election was unusual inthe degree to which national forces, which normally work tothe disadvantage of the president's party, were neutralized.The exposure/base year variable and the large number of open-seatcontests worked to produce a high level of partisan change amongthe governorships. The absence of a strong national trend, coupledwith the increasing institutionalization of state legislatures,worked against partisan change in the legislatures. Nationalparty involvement in state elections increased and is resultingin more integrated party structures.     

Political Support for Decentralization: An Analysis of the Colombian and Venezuelan Legislatures

A worldwide trend of decentralizing political power, fiscal authority, and the responsibility for providing services to subnational governments has been especially evident in Latin America over the past decade. This article focuses on variation in intracountry support for decentralization, using data on bill initiation from Colombia and Venezuela to determine the domestic sources of this policy. While the data support prior findings that decentralization is supported by parties whose future electoral prospects are better at the subnational level, the analysis also shows that citizen's trust in government and greater wealth affect a deputies' support for decentralization .