IV Governmental and Administrative Institutions / Institutions Politiques et Administratives
| Published date | 01 June 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208345231182641 |
| Date | 01 June 2023 |
373
IV
GOVERNMENTAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS
INSTITUTIONS POLITIQUES ET ADMINISTRATIVES
(a) Central institutions /Institutions centrales
73.3165 ADEGBITE, Kehinde John, et al. — Bureaucracy and policy
implementation in democratic governance: a focus on Ni-
geria’s Fourth Republic. International Journal of Public Ad-
ministration 45(15), 2022 : 1070-1080.
The study investigated the roles of bureaucracy in Nigeria and its inade-
quacies in adhering to the Weberian model of policy implementation in the
Nigeria democratic governance. The study adopted a survey research de-
sign and utilized primary data obtained through the administration of ques-
tionnaires to a purposively selected 220 respondents comprising senior
bureaucrats and CSOs, and conduct of the in-depth interview. The data
were analyzed using descriptive analysis with the aid of SPSS. The study
revealed that even though, bureaucrats are not necessarily the primary
makers of the policy. They play an active role in policy implementation in
Nigeria. However, factors such as political pressure, inadequate budget-
ary allocation, over politicization of the appointment into governmental of-
fices leading to inadequate professionalism, and environmental variables
hinder the effective implementation of policy in Nigeria. It was equally es-
tablished that as ideal as the Weberian model of bureaucracy is, there are
inevitable lacuna and inadequacies in its application to Nigeria, due to fac-
tors such as socio-cultural forces, collectivism as against individualism,
and absolute formalism. [R, abr.]
73.3166 ALLEN, Nicholas — Those who wear the crown wield the
knife: the brutality of recent takeover reshuffles. Political
Quarterly 94(1), March 2023 : 36-44.
Recent ‘takeover’ Prime Ministers have tended to conduct relatively brutal
Cabinet reshuffles immediately after taking office. Liz Truss dismissed and
moved large numbers of ministers after becoming Prime Minister in Sep-
tember 2022, and Rishi Sunak did the same after succeeding Truss in
October 2022. This article locates the tendency towards brutalism in the
broader context of British Cabinet reshuffles. It compares the scale of take-
over reshuffles with other types of reshuffles and demonstrates how in-
coming takeover Prime Ministers in the twenty-first century have recon-
structed their Cabinets more extensively than their predecessors. The ar-
ticle argues that the use of all-member ballots in party leadership elections
has been a key driver of brutalism, and it further identifies several reasons
why future Prime Ministers might want to resist the tendency. [R]
73.3167 ANDERSON, Sarah E., et al. — Driving legislators' policy
preferences: constituent commutes and gas taxes. Legis-
lative Studies Quarterly 48(1), Feb. 2023 : 203-218.
Understanding differential policy costs across constituencies, and how
they link to legislators' policy preferences, can facilitate policy changes
that solve pressing problems. We examine the role of policy costs on con-
stituents by studying legislator support for taxing gasoline. Analysis of sur-
vey responses from US state legislators, as well as of their voting records,
shows that legislators whose constituents would be most affected by an
increased gas tax — those whose constituents have longer commutes —
are more likely to oppose higher gas taxes. Separately estimating the im-
pact of time spent driving to work versus using public transit shows that
the effect of commute times comes from those who have long drives, not
from those who ride public transit, highlighting how the policy costs to con-
stituents is a major driver in legislators' considerations. [R, abr.]
73.3168 ASENCIO, Hugo D. — Ethical leadership and commitment
to behave ethically in government agencies. International
Journal of Public Administration 45(12), 2022 : 907-916.
This study investigates the relationship between ethical leadership and
commitment to behave ethically, a dimension of ethical culture largely un-
derstudied in government settings. It uses survey data collected from pub-
lic servants in a US state. The results from OLS regression analysis indi-
cate that ethical leadership is positively and statistically related to commit-
ment to behave ethically. The findings underscore the importance of ethi-
cal leadership and call for a number of actions to enhance public leaders’
competencies to foster the ethical environment of public sector organiza-
tions. [R]
73.3169 BALLARD, Andrew O., et al. — Dynamics of polarizing rhet-
oric in Congressional tweets. Legislative Studies Quarterly
48(1), Feb. 2023 : 105-144.
Affective polarization is pervasive in modern US politics, and can be inten-
sified by strategic messaging from members of Congress. But there are
gaps in our knowledge of the dynamics of polarizing appeals from elected
representatives on social media. We explore the usage of polarizing rhet-
oric by members of Congress on Twitter using the 4.9 million tweets sent
by members of Congress from 2009 to 2020, coded for the presence of
polarizing rhetoric via a novel and highly accurate application of supervised
machine learning methods. Fitting with our expectations, we find that more
ideologically extreme members, those from safer districts, and those who
are not in the president’s party are more likely to send polarizing tweets,
and that polarizing tweets garner more engagement, increasing campaign
funding for more polarizing members. [R]
73.3170 BEHRENS, Lion ; NYHUIS, Dominic ; GSCHWEND, Thomas
— Constructive and destructive legislative review: the
government-opposition divide in parliamentary oversight.
Journal of Politics 85(1), Jan. 2023 : 223-239.
There is growing interest in the policy impact of legislatures in parliamen-
tary systems. While scholars have shown that coalition parties rely on leg-
islative amendments to police deviations from the coalition compromise,
there are notable gaps in our understanding of legislative review, most im-
portantly, regarding the substance of amendments. Introducing the con-
cepts constructive and destructive legislative review, we identify distinct
patterns of legislative review by government and opposition parties. Using
the notion of collective cabinet responsibility, we argue that coalition par-
ties are bou nd by informal rules that limit them to the labor-intensive re-
drafting of bills (constructive review). Conversely, opposition parties take
a low-cost approach by proposing to strike out bill sections (destructive
review). We provide empirical support for our hypotheses by analyzing an
original data-set of counterfactual bills from a German state legislature. [R,
abr.]
73.3171 BELLI, Sharon S. ; BURSENS, Peter — The revolving door
in Brussels: a process-oriented approach to employee re-
cruitment by interest organisations. Journal of European
Public Policy 30(1), 2023 : 128-149.
The staff flow between the public sector and organised interests is meta-
phorically defined as ‘revolving door’. This paper seeks to explain variation
in hiring behaviour across interest organisations (IOs). Using data from the
Comparative Interest Grou p-survey project, we show that revolving door
practices do not occur systematically across IOs but that, under specific
conditions, IOs are more likely to attract employees from the public sector
than others. Our main findings demonstrate that citizen organisations are
more likely to hire employees with public sector background, compared
with professional and business organisations. We also show that the effect
of group type is resource-sensitive, as wealthy citizen groups are more
likely to hire from the public sector than wealthy business organisations.
Additionally, we demonstrate that contextual factors such as the degree of
political involvement and the perceived complexity of the policy environ-
ment predict hiring from the public sector. [R]
73.3172 BEST, Jacqueline — Uncomfortable knowledge in central
banking: economic expertise confronts the visibility di-
lemma. Economy and Society 51(4), 2022 : 559-583.
How do central bankers cope with the uncomfortable fact that there are
significant limits to their expertise without losing authority? Drawing on
Steve Rayner’s concept of ‘uncomfortable knowledge’, this paper under-
takes a historical examination of the early years of Paul Volcker’s role at
the head of the Federal Reserve, and then traces the ways in which the
uncomfortable fact of ignorance has been dealt with in the years since
then: from the reflexive and experimental approach of the 1980s, through
the dismissal and displacement of the Great Moderation, to the exception-
alism and new experimentalism of the post-2008 era. In each of these
eras, I argue that central banks face a visibility dilemma: their expertise
must be visible enough to demonstrate their mastery but not so conspicu-
ous that the often ad hoc and uncertain nature of their craft generates po-
litical push-back about their role and authority. [R] [See Abstr. 73.3177,
3196, 3211, 3225, 3854]
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