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.     

Response and responsibility: China in East Asian financial cooperation

Abstract

China's behaviour in East Asian financial cooperation has overall changed from passively responding to external pressures to taking proactive initiatives, which are highlighted by Chinese elites as evidence of a sense of responsibility. China has taken varied positions towards proposals for Asian financial regionalism, from ‘silent’ objection, to lukewarm or superficial support, to enthusiastic participation and substantial contribution, and this variance has not always taken place in a chronological order. Despite much speculation over the trajectory of China's role in East Asian regionalism, there has not been a study focused on China's policymaking towards East Asian financial cooperation. Therefore, this paper fills the gap by analysing the factors and policymaking processes that have led to those varied positions. It argues that China, recognising the momentum in the region to enhance cooperation, has replaced the blunt dismissals of proposals, particularly those from Japan, with a more subtle approach that is aimed at ensuring China's influence and promoting the image of a responsible great power; that the extent to which it can contribute to this process is mainly constrained by its economic conditions, particularly the financial institutions.     

Institutional Change and the Social Sources of American Economic Empire: Beyond Stylised Facts

The three volumes commented on here present some of the very best political economy and economic sociology scholarship on change within the US economy, as well as US-led changes in the international political economy. This review article seeks to identify the key contributions made by these works and how they improve our understanding of institutional change within the US economy. At a time when international relations and political science is populated by critiques of US empire, this article submits that understanding the 'economic taproot' of US power is essential in exposing its enduring character and weaknesses.
Gourevitch, P. A. and Shinn, J. J. (2005) Political Power and Corporate Control: The New Global Politics of Corporate Governance. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.
Sinclair, T. J. (2005) The New Masters of Capital: American Bond Rating Agencies and the Politics of Creditworthiness. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.
Whitford, J. (2005) The New Old Economy: Networks, Institutions, and the Organizational Transformation of American Manufacturing. Oxford: Oxford University Press.     

用发展、变化的观点认识农村和农村经济——建设社会主义新农村的经济学理论思考

独立性、封闭性、落后性是传统农村与农村经济的基本特征。只有逐步改变传统农村和农村经济所固有的上述特征,不断调整历史上形成的城乡经济社会分割格局,才有可能从根本上克服作为各自独立的城市系统与农村系统所必然产生的一系列矛盾,并为整个经济社会的协调发展开辟广阔的前景。城乡一体化是建设社会主义新农村的必由之路。城市化应当是推动农村发展的城市化,社会主义新农村应当是城市化进程中的新农村。     

Review Article: Don't Discard State Autonomy: Revisiting the East Asian Experience of Development

Rapid East Asian economic growth was commonly credited to the existence of strong, autonomous developmental states. Subsequently a new 'institutionalist' school of thought emerged which argued that an effective state must be connected to civil society, not autonomous from it, and which reinterpreted East Asian development in these terms. This paper is a critical reappraisal of the institutionalist school. The evidence of state autonomy (seen in relativistic rather than absolute, either-or terms) in East Asia's recent history is too great to be ignored. And since some institutionalists themselves acknowledge autonomy as a necessary foundation for developmentally effective relationships with civil society, we should recognize autonomy as a potentially important element of state capacity. State autonomy remains an important analytical concept that deserves the attention of scholars.     

Huang Chin-Hao and David C. Kang,State Formation through Emulation: The East Asian Model

Journal of Chinese Political Science -     

New Institutionalist Explanations for Institutional Change: A Note of Caution

This article demonstrates the explanatory poverty of new institutionalist hypotheses on institutional change. The new institutionalism fails to provide an adequate explanation of institutional change because, by relying on variables such as critical junctures, path dependency, leadership or the role of ideas, it leaves institutions behind and employs a grab-bag of explanations that proponents of almost any theoretical perspective could use. The conditions under which these variables matter are unspecified and the causal relevance of institutions themselves is unclear. New institutionalists should specify more rigorously the factors that change institutions and explicate the links between these factors and institutional change. Doing so, however, could mean abandoning their emphasis on the primacy of institutions in developing explanations for political phenomena.     

Institutional preconditions of privatization in market-based political economies: Implications for Jordan

Concepts of privatization have been adopted on a global scale. Yet few studies examine issues other than economic and selected political ones. This article argues, however, that a broad spectrum of institutional considerations must be evaluated in order to assess the viability of any proposed privatization strategy. A further distinction must be made between countries with developed markets and those market-based political economies (MBPEs) whose extant institutional configurations have not reached a level of independence to fully support extensive privatization measures. Jordan, Turkey and Egypt would be examples of such countries. This article contends that the enactment and implementation of privatization policies will achieve its avowed goals only (a) if the state-controlled enterprises (SCEs) are sufficiently independent of their supervising bureaucracies (presumably a ministry, the treasury or development planning organization) prior to their transfer to a private partner and (b) if the government possesses requisite monitoring capacity to ensure the fulfilment of contractual obligations of the privatized entity. An ancillary thesis suggests that the societal and organizational culture must be succinctly separated to warrant a full-scale transfer of SCEs to the private sector. In Jordan, privatization has been discussed for a number of years, but no projects have been attempted so far. The article assesses the likelihood of large-scale privatization occurring soon.     

The Limits of Design: Explaining Institutional Origins and Change

Political scientists have paid much more attention to the effects of institutions than to issues of institutional origins and change. One result has been a marked tendency to fall back on implicit or explicit functional accounts, in which the effects of institutions explain the presence of those institutions. Institutional effects may indeed provide part of such an explanation. Yet the plausibility of functional accounts depends upon either a set of favorable conditions at the design stage or the presence of environments conducive to learning or competition. Exploring variability in the relevant social contexts makes it possible to both establish the restricted range of functional accounts and specify some promising lines of inquiry into the subject of institutional origins and change.     

马克思与西方经济学发展方式转变理论比较

经济增长理论是现代经济学研究的核心问题之一。通过比较可以发现,马克思主义经济学与西方经济学经济增长理论在研究出发点和落脚点、研究方法和研究内容等方面都存在显著差异。西方经济学对经济增长理论做了大量工作,取得了丰硕的理论成果,而经过一百多年世界经济社会发展的检验与洗礼,马克思主义经济学的经济增长理论仍然具有足够的说服力和解释力。     

Institutional Dynamics in Environmental Corporatism: The Impact of Market and Technological Change on the Dutch Polder Model

This article describes how market and technological change can be conceived to affect corporatist politics in the area of waste management. The article adopts a political economy approach to institutional change, and seeks to trace the impact of market and technological change on established political and regulatory institutions. The article demonstrates that the main impact of marketization of waste services and the introduction of ISO 14001 environmental management systems was to expand the range of choices for companies and regulators to engage in regulatory interaction concerning environmental waste management practices. The main purpose of the article is to demonstrate exactly how the emergence of regulatory choices for both companies and regulators is likely to open up new avenues for regulation in the environmental field that, once pursued, systematically reduce incentives for corporate and regulatory actors to engage in associational politics.     

The Directions of Constitutional Change: Implications for the Public Sector

Constitutional change is in the air and this applies to the constitutional system, not just the documents that we call the Commonwealth and state constitutions in Australia. The causes of change are multitudinous but two warrant special mention: (a) natural or endemic change in the economy and society at large, and (b) political causes.     

Leadership and Institutional Reform: Engineering Macroeconomic Policy Change in Australia

This article seeks to enhance the actor perspective on major policy reforms. It builds upon the literature on "policy entrepreneurs" and addresses its explanatory vagueness by specifying five hypotheses outlining the actions that proponents of major policy change need to take in order to be effective in forging departures from existing, path-dependent policies and to overcome entrenched opposition to reforms. These hypotheses on "reformist political leadership" (after Blondel) are applied to the four attempts to reform key aspects of macroeconomic policy in Australia under the first two Labor governments led by Robert J. Hawke.     

反思与进展:新制度主义政治学的制度变迁理论

新制度主义政治理论被认为更有助于解释制度稳定与维持,而对制度变迁解释乏力,因为它仅把制度变迁看作是由外生因素引起的。面对这种批评,近年来,新制度主义者提出制度变迁的内生理论,并试图与外生理论结合起来,把制度的起源、稳定维持和急剧变动看成是一个统一的演化过程,更加注重制度变迁的历时与空间维度,对制度变迁中观念与制度的相互作用给予了更多的关注,洞悉路径依赖的多样性及其解释制度变迁的可能性。另外,制度变迁的动力与具体方式,制度的分层等问题也成为研究制度变迁的议题。新制度主义者的这些努力大大丰富了新制度主义对制度变迁的解释,增强了其理论说服力,但并没有解决批评者提出的所有问题,同时还带来了不少新问题。     

规制、规范与认知:制度变迁的三种解释路径

制度变迁研究的前提性问题是如何理解制度这一概念。社会科学领域对于制度概念存在三种解读,即规制性制度观、规范性制度观、认知性制度观,分别将制度视作外在的规制结构、偏外在的规范系统、内在的共享信念。三种对于制度的不同解读意味着对制度本质的理解是存在差异的,特别是在制度变迁根源的外生性或内生性、制度变迁的决定性变量、制度变迁的设计或演化方式等方面存在分歧或有所侧重,形成各具特色的制度变迁研究。三种制度观强调了制度变迁的不同维度,未来的制度变迁研究可在秉持某种制度概念的前提下关注更多维度,发展制度变迁的中观理论或实证研究。