III Governmental and Administrative Institutions / Institutions Politiques et Administratives
| Published date | 01 August 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/00208345211038642 |
| Date | 01 August 2021 |
535
III
GOVERNMENTAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS
INSTITUTIONS POLITIQUES ET ADMINISTRATIVES
(a) Central institutions /Institutions centrales
71.5258 BOCHEL, Hugh ; BERTHIER, Anouk — Parliamentary
committee witnesses: representation and diversity. Jour-
nal of Legislative Studies 27(1), 2021 : 55-72.
Issues of diversity in elected bodies have received considerable attention
in recent years, in particular with regard to the characteristics of elected
representatives. This article explores a rather different dimension relating
to representation and diversity, the witnesses that appear before parlia-
mentary committees in their scrutiny of government actions and legisla-
tion. It draws on Pitkin and Saward’s conceptions of representation and
the case of witnesses who provide oral witnesses to the Scottish Parlia-
ment’s committees. The article suggests that the application of such
ideas to the selection and characteristics of witnesses, and in particular
to the views expressed by MSPs and parliamentary officials, is helpful in
highlighting the different understandings of and aspirations for ‘represen-
tation’, including the variety of perceptions of the advantages and disad-
vantages of these. [R]
71.5259 BRANT, Hanna K. ; OVERBY, L. Marvin — Congressional
career decisions in the 2018 Congressional midterm
elections. Congress and the Presidency 48(1), 2021 : 8-24.
We consider the impact of retirements (and other forms of non-electoral
exits) on the 2018 congressional midterms, focusing primarily on the
House of Representatives. After reviewing the relevant (and limited)
literature, we provide a descriptive overview of congressional retirements
(including the unusual retirement of a comparatively young speaker of
the House and almost two dozen GOP committee and subcommittee
chairs) then examine the extent of voluntary retirements in this electoral
cycle against historical patterns, and explore the effects of different
retirements (i.e., progressive ambition ve rsus retirement from public life).
Using multivariate models, we examine which factors correlate signifi-
cantly with retirement decisions, test for a partisan differential in retire-
ment rates, and compare the rates at which the parties are capable of
replacing retirees with co-partisans. [R, abr.] [First article of a thematic
issue on "The politics of the 2018 midterm elections", introduced, pp. 1-7,
by Jennifer Lucas, Tauna S. Sisco and Christopher J. Galdieri. See also
Abstr. 71.5269, 5350, 5451]
71.5260 BRIERLEY, Sarah — Combining patronage and merit in
public sector recruitment. Journal of Politics 83(1), Jan.
2021 : 182-197.
When do politicians in developing democracies prioritize meritocratic
recruitment over patronage hiring for public sector jobs? I distinguish
between low- and high-skilled positions and argue that the former are
valuable for sustaining party machines, while manipulating the latter can
undermine state performance. Accordingly, politicians will interfere to
ensure their copartisans are hired to low-skilled jobs but select bureau-
crats for high-skilled positions based on meritocratic criteria. I test my
argument using novel bureaucrat-level data from Ghana (n=17,942) and
leverage a change in the governing party to investigate hiring patterns.
The results suggest that partisan bias is confined to low-ranked jobs. [R,
abr.]
71.5261 BURDEN, Barry C. ; SNYDER, Rochelle — Explaining
uncontested seats in Congress and state legislatures.
American Politics Research 49(3), May 2021 : 247-258.
Our study documents and explains trends in uncontested seats in the US
Congress and state legislatures over time. We uncover a striking incon-
sistency in the health of elections: the frequency of uncontested seats in
Congress has declined while the frequency of uncontested seats in state
legislatures has actually increased. To explore these divergent trends,
we consider factors that are common to both Congress and state legisla-
tures such as the redistricting cycle but also variables that are unique to
the state level. Our analysis points to the relative “flippability” of Con-
gress compared to many state legislatures as a factor behind diverging
levels of contestation. While many state legislatures have become
bastions for dominant parties, congressional districts in those same
states are often nonetheless viewed as enticing targets because they
contribute to control of the federal government. [R, abr.]
71.5262 DeWITT, Darin — Time allocation across the Senate
election cycle. Journal of Legislative Studies 27(1), 2021 :
73-92.
This paper evaluates a long-standing question about how senators
allocate their time to the task of governance across their lengthy, six-year
term. I construct a new individual-level dataset that tracks a key compo-
nent of a senator’s governance responsibilities, participation in committee
hearings. With this dataset, I explain variation in a senator’s propensity to
attend committee hearings with reference to the Senate election cycle,
electoral competitiveness, cohort socialisation, and the permanent
campaign. I find that senatorial policy activism surges in early non-
election years — the first and third year of the senate term — but does
not plummet until the sixth year, when a senator is up for re-election. In
the domain of hearing attendance, I also show that the US Senate’s
workhorses are those who hold marginal seats and come from relatively
recent legislative cohorts. [R, abr.]
71.5263 DYSON, Tom — The challenge of creating an adaptive
Bundeswehr. German Politics 30(1), 2021 : 122-139.
This article examines the capacity of the German Army to establish key
conditions for successful tactical- and operational-level adaptation,
innovation and emulation. In doing so, it explores the factors which
stimulate and block adaptation, innovation and emulation. The article
points to the need for accounts of German foreign, defence and security
policy to pay greater attention to the intra-organisational barriers to
effective policy implementation. Finally, it highlights avenues for future
empirical and theoretical research on military change, especially the
need for greater understanding of the role of learning processes in linking
military adaptation in the field to wider organisational learning. [R] [See
Abstr. 71.5058]
71.5264 GIMPEL, James G. — Citizen contacting in response to
crisis: voicing grievances to the Consumer Financial Pro-
tection Bureau. American Politics Research 49(2), March
2021 : 198-214.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) [was] created as a
means for aggrieved consumers to bring problems to the attention of
federal regulators empowered to fine banking and finance companies,
the inflow of complaints began late in 2010 and has steadily risen in the
years since. This research examines the variable emergence of com-
plaints across 5 years, asking what types of constituencies are most likely
to register grievances with the CFPB. The filing of complaints is mostly
responsive to the presence of middle- and upper-income populations with
mortgages, though contacts are also high from African-American neigh-
borhoods. Government contacting among lower income populations is
facilitated by the presence of counseling and consultative services at the
grassroots. Notably, legal aid services often present in lower- and mod-
erate-income neighborhoods are associated with higher complaint fre-
quency for several financial products. [R, abr.]
71.5265 GODWIN, Kwemarira ; NTAYI, Joseph M. ; MUNENE, John
C. — Accountability and public interest in government
institutions. International Journal of Public Administration
44(2), Jan. 2021 : 155-166.
The study explains public interest in government institutions using stew-
ardship theory. It builds upon previous studies which have largely used
agency theory to examine public interest. Data relating to the constructs
of responsibility, answerability, and openness were found to be signifi-
cant predictors of public interest. Data were collected from public primary
schools’ teachers and parents in these schools. This paper urges public
officers in government institutions to offer accountabilities for the public
funds as they execute their tasks and duties. These findings have both
policy and managerial implications which we discuss. [R]
71.5266 GOET, Niels D. — The politics of procedural choice:
regulating legislative debate in the UK House of Com-
mons, 1811-2015. British Journal of Political Science 51(2),
Apr. 2021 : 788-806.
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