Regulatory Agencies—The Challenges of Balancing Agency Autonomy and Political Control

In this article we focus on the dynamic interplay between increase in autonomy of regulatory agencies and political control of those agencies. The general research issues are the weak empirical foundations of regulatory reforms, the complex trade‐off between political control and agency autonomy, the dual process of deregulation and reregulation, the problems of role‐specialization and coordination, and the questions of “smart practice” in regulatory policy and practice. The theoretical basis is agency theories and a broad institutional approach that blend national political strategies, historical‐cultural context, and external pressures to understand regulatory agencies and regulatory reform. This approach is contrasted with a practitioner model of agencies. Empirically the article is based on regulatory reform in Norway, giving a brief introduction to the reform and agency context followed by an analysis of the radical regulatory reform policy introduced recently by the current Norwegian government. We illustrate how regulatory reforms and agencies work in practice by focusing on two specific cases on homeland security and telecommunications.     

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

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.     

The Securities and Exchange Commission: A Small Regulatory Agency with a Gargantuan Challenge

Multibillion–dollar accounting scandals have brought down Enron and WorldCom, while other corporations continue to revise and restate earnings. The gradual stock market tumble has played havoc with investment portfolios of retirees, parents saving for education, small business owners, and corporate America. All eyes are on the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a small, independent regulator of the securities markets with a gargantuan challenge. On the one hand, it faces great public expectations for rigorous reform of Wall Street. Politicians have mandated rules and sanctions for cleaning up the practice of outside audits and for improving the veracity of financial disclosures. Yet the public's expectations for a vigorous market recovery are even greater. If sanctions and rules are too severe, though, reform efforts could slow capital accumulation. This special report examines the SEC's regulatory past in order to understand the task it faces today. Management challenges posed by recent legislation are discussed, and recommendations for strengthening the SEC are presented.     

Political Ambivalence as Praxis: The Limits of Consensus in Habermas's Theory of the Public Sphere

This paper argues that ambivalence can serve as a proxy for consensus-based debates in public discourse as it allows for individuals to maintain flexible and analytic perspectives on matters that otherwise appear contradictory. In particular, an affirmative understanding of ambivalence will be presented to supplement the highly influential Habermasian approach by drawing from sociological theories of ambivalence found in the work of Simmel, Bauman and Ko?akowski. While the theme of ambivalence is not completely absent from Habermas’s work on the public sphere, it is typically described as a structural consequence of contradiction rather than a form of action that is capable of working with and around inconsistencies in ethics, knowledge and social values. This allows for participation to be sustained through contradiction, rather than being withdrawn in frustration, while also encouraging open-minded judgements capable of avoiding forms of fanaticism.     

The Persistence of Corruption and Regulatory Compliance Failures: Theory and Evidence

This paper examines the reasons whycorruption and policy distortions tend toexhibit a high degree of persistence incertain regimes. We identify circumstancesunder which a firm seeks to evaderegulations through (i) bribery of localinspectors, and (ii) by lobbying high-levelgovernment politicians to resist legalreforms designed to improve judicialefficiency (rule of law) and eliminatecorruption. We show that in some casespolitical instability reinforces thesetendencies. The analysis predicts that inpolitically unstable regimes, theinstitutions necessary to monitor andenforce compliance are weak. In suchcountries, corruption therefore is morepervasive, and the compliance withregulations is low. We test thesepredictions using cross-country data. Theempirical results support the predictionsof the model. Political instability reducesjudicial efficiency, which in turnstimulates corruption. Thus, the effect ofpolitical instability on corruption is notdirect, but occurs indirectly via itseffect on the degree of judicialefficiency. Finally, corruption lowers thelevel of regulatory compliance. Thus,political instability indirectly affects compliance, via judicial efficiency andcorruption.     

组织学习：管理学视角下的多元理论

就管理学领域中关于组织学习的理论进行了比较系统的研究.在彼得·帕沃夫斯基提出的五大类组织学习理论的分类基础上,进一步对每类理论下各种研究视角和研究思路进行了更为系统的规范分析.主要是对管理学中关于组织学习问题研究的各种理论的缘起、分化、进程及现状进行了系统的分析与评价.研究发现,由于学者们对组织学习的本质的看法、研究视角以及研究范式的不同,使得组织学习问题的研究呈现出理论多元化倾向.但近年来,一些从不同角度研究组织学习问题的理论,又正在趋向于新的整合.认为,关于组织学习问题的更为系统的看法,将建立在关于组织学习本质的多元视角而形成的综合观点基础之上.     

Organizational Learning Capacity and Its Impact on the Results in a Government Agency in Chile

ABSTRACT

Rising demand for quality, efficiency, and openness in the management of collective problems and their solutions has prompted successful government agencies to consider knowledge as a key resource. Government agencies make intensive use of human capital and knowledge in the performance of their duties. Knowledge represents the most important strategic resource, and its skillful management is a key capability in institutional performance. Using structural equation modeling, we analyze the relationship between the learning capability of an organizational system, characterized by the dynamic interaction of stocks and flows of knowledge, and its impact on performance. Our results support the view that learning capability, especially knowledge flows and stocks, has a positive impact on the performance of public institutions.     

Bureaucratic Professionalization and the Limits of the Political Control Thesis: The Case of the Federal Trade Commission

This article explores the political control thesis in light of the literature on bureaucratic politics and agency professionalization. It argues that existing studies of political control have been limited by a failure to analyze the impact of organizational factors on policy change. The article tests political-control and bureaucratic hypotheses through an analysis of changing enforcement priorities at the Federal Trade Commission, The results suggest that the growing role of economists in the agency, rather than congressional oversight or presidential appointments, is critical in explaining the changing antitrust priorities of the Federal Trade Commission.     

Understanding Public Sector Ethics: Beyond Agency Theory in Canada's Sponsorship Scandal

ABSTRACT

Public sector ethics is a topic of ongoing concern in developed democracies. The most popular theoretical approach to this issue is found in principal–agent theory literature. This approach assumes that public sector organizations are populated by principals and agents, each of whom pursue their own self-interest, with agents having a persistent informational advantage. A second approach to ethical conflicts focuses on cognitive processes. According to cognitive theory, all decision makers are vulnerable to “ethical numbing,” particularly in organizational settings that condone the substitution of personal agendas for organizational goals. We argue that Canada's sponsorship scandal has been interpreted almost exclusively from a principal–agent perspective, with subsequent reforms firmly based on introducing new rules to oblige agents to advance the interests of principals. While more faithful adherence to established rules by agents would have avoided a scandal, such adherence is unlikely to be achieved through incentives, monitoring, and penalties as suggested by principal–agent theory. The policy message contained in and implied by the cognitive framework suggests that the focus must be on creating an organizational learning environment that discourages responsible public officials from reframing decision situations in a manner that allows them to become morally disengaged.     

Agency reform as decision process: The reengineering of the Agency for International Development

The Agency for International Development (AID), the U.S. Government's principal dispenser of foreign economic assistance, is struggling to define its mission in the post Cold War era. AID staff and overseas presence has contracted in recent years following reinvention reforms. But reinvention has not clarified the agency's mission nor protected it from powerful critics. AID's future depends on its ability to develop a mission that excites popular demand. Agency reformers promote foreign aid as a means to advance sustainable development in developing countries. But AID's sustainable development mission lacks credibility because it excludes references to reforms required in post-industrial societies. Participation of U.S. local interests in aid management and more effective promotion of familiar premises for aid (many of them consistent with the tenets of sustainable development) are essential elements of a revitalized foreign aid program.     

The New Institutionalism and EC Governance: The Promise and Limits of Institutional Analysis

The "new" institutionalisms" in rational choice and historical analysis are being applied with increasing sophistication and accuracy to the study of European Community governance. The basic premise of such institutional approaches is that EC institutions, once created, "take on a life of their own," acting as independent or intervening variables between the preferences and power of the member governments on the one hand, and the ultimate policy outputs of EC governance on the other. The challenge for institutionalist theory consists in constructing a precise analytical tool-box that will allow us to make specific predictions about the ways in which, and the conditions under which, EC institutions may exert such an independent causal influence. EC institutions matter, I suggest, insofar as they: lend stability to an existing institutional structure; shape any subsequent amendment of those institutions; allow individual member governments to be outvoted by qualified majority; cause member states to lose control of events through lock-ins; and subject member governments to the actions of supranational agents whose behavior they can control only imperfectly.     

The Limits of Control: The Market State,Divided Power,and the Response to 9/11

ABSTRACT

The 9/11 attacks demanded a response from the U.S. government, but designing and executing that response was not easily done. The United States is an advanced market society in which power is highly dispersed. Federal policymakers were confronted with challenges that we now regard as typical of the network form of governance. Their ability to act decisively was constrained by public law, by the political influence and superior knowledge of private industry, and by widespread skepticism about the legitimacy of federal authority. While many commentators worried about the excessive concentration of power in the federal executive branch after 9/11, it might be more accurate to say that the post-9/11 period was typified by a prolonged, and often unsuccessful, effort to induce cooperation and coordination by a range of public and private actors.     

中国地方政府预算绩效管理改革的组织机制重构——基于CGRs理论的分析

全面实施预算绩效管理是推进国家治理体系和治理能力现代化的内在要求和基本路径。中国地方政府预算绩效管理改革的棘手问题属性、碎片化管理现状和协同失灵现象成为影响改革绩效的主要表现。在协同治理机制(CGRs)理论框架下,地方政府预算绩效管理改革的跨部门协同治理机制可以从协同驱动、协同过程和协同结果等三个维度进行构建,通过运用该理论模型对地方政府预算绩效管理改革实践进行分析发现:通过领导力、不确定性和相互依存等驱动要素充分调动和激活各级党委、人大、财政、审计等各方面力量,建构有原则地参与、共享动机和联合行动能力等协同过程,形成交互协同并相互制约的预算绩效协同治理体系与机制,可以有效推进预算绩效管理改革进程。     

Surviving the Great Recession: Nonprofit Housing Developers Through the Lens of Organizational Theory

This study identified factors that influenced California nonprofit housing development organizations’ (NHDO) survival and financial stability during the Great Recession. NHDO typically develop and manage affordable housing, while providing social services. During the recession, NHDO financial issues were exacerbated and compounded by the elimination of state redevelopment funds. This research tested organizational theories through bivariate and multivariate analyses from Internal Revenue Service 990 tax forms for nearly 800 NHDO. In many ways, the factors that influenced NHDO sustainability and performance were similar to those affecting for-profits and other nonprofits. For example, older and larger organizations with more staff and revenue fared better. Other factors were unique to this sector (e.g., the region and type of housing developed affected outcomes). An important finding was that reliance on government funding was negatively associated with survival and revenue. The lessons learned from NHDO inform other organizations about surviving and thriving during tough economic times.     

Dark Networks as Organizational Problems: Elements of a Theory 1

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we try to understand and interpret why and how dark networks manage to survive despite massive control efforts by nation states, thus demonstrating a high degree of resilience. We approach this question from an organizational perspective looking at the (organizational) changes dark networks undergo in adapting to attempts to destroy them. We draw on insights based on the analysis of how Al Qaeda changed after the massive control efforts by some of the world's most powerful nation states since their attacks on the U.S. on September 11, 2001. In order to develop more general propositions, we contrast the Al Qaeda case with the development of the organizational structure behind the cocaine trade from Colombia to the United States after it had become the object of massive control efforts by the U.S. during the 1990s. Through the analysis we inductively develop a theoretical framework for the analysis of dark networks. Central to this framework is the assumption that dark networks, which are resilient, manage to rebalance differentiation and integration mechanisms in their internal structure and adjust to the new requirements in their task environment based on the actors, their linkages and resources available in order to persist and maintain some capacity to act. We further identify drivers and facilitators stemming from larger societal and political problems that create the motivation for new people to join dark networks. The analysis shows that control efforts that are directed towards the organizational extinction of dark networks will be likely to fail as long as the central problems behind their existence are not tackled. We conclude by sketching out an agenda for future organizational research on covert and illegal networks and organizations.     

社会契约论视角下国家限度性问题探析

从人性恶到社会契约的形成,霍布斯的《利维坦》利用社会契约论的论证逻辑,构建了一个绝对主权国家,被认为是专制主义的代表。从社会契约的原则、内容与主体间关系来看,作为国家基础的公民被国家所吞噬,国家享有对公民的绝对主导地位。然而从国家主权产生方式、社会契约的基础与目的来看,人为构建的利维坦,仍然具有自身的限度,这也是为什么霍布斯的《利维坦》同时被称为自由主义的代表作,证明了社会契约论视角的双重性。     

Science Use in Regulatory Impact Analysis: The Effects of Political Attention and Controversy

Scholars, policy makers, and research sponsors have long sought to understand the conditions under which scientific research is used in the policy‐making process. Recent research has identified a resource that can be used to trace the use of science across time and many policy domains. U.S. federal agencies are mandated by executive order to justify all economically significant regulations by regulatory impact analyses (RIAs), in which they present evidence of the scientific underpinnings and consequences of the proposed rule. To gain new insight into when and how regulators invoke science in their policy justifications, we ask: does the political attention and controversy surrounding a regulation affect the extent to which science is utilized in RIAs? We examine scientific citation activity in all 101 economically significant RIAs from 2008 to 2012 and evaluate the effects of attention—from the public, policy elites, and the media—on the degree of science use in RIAs. Our main finding is that regulators draw more heavily on scientific research when justifying rules subject to a high degree of attention from outside actors. These findings suggest that scientific research plays an important role in the justification of regulations, especially those that are highly salient to the public and other policy actors.     

Cultural Theory: The Neglected Variable in the Craft of Policy Analysis

This article discusses the role of the craft of policy analysis in public policymaking and, relating to cultural theory, provides a causal explanation for differences and nuances in the craft of policy analysis. Two perspectives underlie this article: The first is the role of policy analysis in policymaking; the second concerns cultural theory and its contribution to policy analysis. While highlighting the role of culture in policy analysis, the article suggests that in order to improve policy analysis processes, policy analysis studies and policy analysis training should take into account cultural factors. Finally, in view of the scarcity of studies in this domain, this article suggests a rationale for studies that enhance the understanding of how political cultures interfere with normative policy analysis and proposes an agenda for research on policy analysis craft by cultural bias.     

Modernization Programs in Perspective: Institutional Analysis of Organizational Change

Contemporary reform programs give students of comparative public administration a new chance to update their theoretical ideas about organization and organizing. Do forms of government and political institution matter? If so, what are the effects of different organizational forms? Why do we have the institutional forms we have? How can we explain their origins, persistence and development? This article explores the possible value of organization theory for the study of comprehensive administration reform. An attempt is made to specify how modernization efforts may be affected by properties of existing institutions. It is argued that contemporary modernization programs are based on an instrumental view of organizational decision-making and change. An institutional perspective is then outlined.