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Report on Workshop No 5:

Institutional Theory: Issues of Measurement and Change’

by Uwe Serdült

General points, atmosphere

The workshop was characterized by a good mix of scholars regarding seniority, gen-

der and regional distribution. We had lively and fair discussions, tolerating other re-

search paradigms (qualitative vs. quantitative, theoretical vs. empirical etc.). Unfortu-

nately, for personal reasons Guy Peters was not able to attend the workshop.

Presentation of papers and discussion1

In their theoretical introduction to the workshop Christensen and Peters gave an

overview of the dynamics between three different forms of institutional change. They

argue that institutional change is difficult to control by means of ‘rational’ institutional

design and that normative as well as ideational basis of political life need to be taken

into account.

Birth and Decay of Institutions

Boin and Kofman-Bos demonstrate that the problem for newly created institutions is

to develop trust and legitimacy, a rather weak point in institutional theories. Auton-

omy, Reliability and Crisis management capacity are the factors most likely in order

to promote institutionalisation processes.

In her case study on the DG DEV of the European Commission Dimier managed to

give a detailed account of a de-institutionalising organisation. The same mechanism

that brought this organisation to the fore – strong personal networks around its direc-

tor – were responsible for its death in the environment of a bureaucratising EU.

In his detailed empirical case study about the Italian Parliament Capano raises many

interesting theoretical questions. Following the institutionalisation process over sev-

eral decades he also hints at the importance of institutional relations mentioned be-

low.

1Please note: For reasons of space only the more mature papers are mentioned in this report.

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Public Administration and Administrative Reforms

Ronness aimed at connecting Normative Institutionalism and Garbage Can Model.

He argued that structural features and the decision-making process have an influ-

ence on the outcome of administrative reform. In the empirical part he investigates

the reaction of unions on NPM and vice versa in Australia, New Zealand, Sweden

and Norway.

Employing the concepts of ‘critical junctures’ and ‘critical moments’ Burch , Hogwood

and Bulmer set the stage for evaluating the nature and degree of institutional change

in the case of a devolving UK.

Quantitative analysis of institutions

Giraud linked Institutionalism with Policy Analysis by applying the policy style frame-

work to the implementation of labour market policies in Swiss Federalism with quanti-

tative data. Furthermore he discussed the relevance of ideas within rational choice,

sociological and historical institutionalism.

In her thorough effort to review and compare different veto-player indexes measuring

the institutional design of democracies Roller shows which indexes are of dubious

quality and should therefore be avoided. For most cases there are parsimonious and

valid indexes at hand.

Johannsen and Norgaard presented their work on the Index of Presidential Authority

applying it to an impressive list of 96 countries around the globe. They find that ex-

ecutive authority around the world shows a much more puzzling picture than the tra-

ditional dichotomy of presidential versus parliamentary political systems.

Institutional relations as an emerging theme

In an empirical investigation including 21 OECD countries Harfst and Schnapp test

whether the parliaments formal and informal resources are able to monitor the execu-

tive. Their analysis is a step toward more integrated institutional studies focusing

more on the relations between institutions than a quantitative description of institu-

tions without taking into account their interdependence.

Departing from the concept of executive-legislative arrangements Krouwel and de

Raadt show how conflict over institutional design in seven East European countries is

driven by key political actors who are trying to change the rules of the polity for theirown benefit.

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In his theoretically fruitful studies on weakly institutionalised politics Feldman takes us

a step further when it comes to conceptualising existing relations between institu-

tions. Taking into account systems theory, the German steering debate and the con-

cepts of networks he argues for a theoretical framework allowing us to study politics

in a relational fashion also in the realms of institutions.

Conclusions, continuation

The current state of the scholarly debate reflected in the presented papers as well as

in the discussions of the workshop indicates that steps should be undertaken to in-

vest further work in the issue of the measurement of institutions, the conceptualisa-

tion of institutional change, and regarding the interactions between institutions (over

time). These three issues are to be followed with a more focused selection of schol-

ars working in the field of institutionalism.

The following concrete steps are in the planning phase and can lead to a continua-

tion and collaborative effort resulting directly out of this workshop:

• André Krouwel and myself will ask ECPR to sponsor an ad hoc research ses-

sion in order to continue work on quantitative, empirical institutional studies

and measurement issues.

• Theoretical advances and some of the most promising empirical work repre-

sented in this workshop ought to be published in a reader. Guy Peters and me

will therefore respond to a request by the editor of the ECPR/Routlede Series

and submit a book proposal.

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