ASTK12136U Comparative Public Policy: Analyzing Change and Stability in Political Institutions

Volume 2013/2014
Content

Why do countries as diverse as Switzerland, Albania and Kazakhstan all have an independent central bank, ‘protected’ from political interference? Why does Turkey, despite all the negative signals regarding membership prospects, choose to comply with the rule of law reform program of the European Union (EU)? Originating in the US, why has the ‘regulatory state’ shaken the dominance of the ‘positive state’ in many regions of the globe resulting in the formation of similar regulatory institutions in non-similar countries such as Denmark and Croatia? These questions might appear diverse; however, they have at least one very important thing in common: their attempt at understanding why policy outcomes take place the way they do. This course takes this fundamental question into focus and aims to address it by examining cross-national comparisons from an institutionalist perspective.

New institutionalist theories form the backbone of this course on comparative public policy analysis. The course uses such institutionalist approaches to analyze change and stability of political institutions in a wide range of cases. The course schedule predominantly focuses on 1. how institutions shape, enable and constrain changes in public policy and 2. how institutions themselves resist and/or are being subject to change through various factors. More specifically, models of change developed by the rational choice, historical, sociological and discursive variants of new institutionalism are applied to cross-national comparative case studies. Most importantly, the course consists of a critical examination of the strengths and weaknesses of these frameworks in explaining change and stability in public policy and political institutions. Case studies presented in the course syllabus are mainly selected from Western industrialized countries. However, during the specific section on the European Union and its impact, we will also be considering similar domestic changes in the EU’s enlargement zone. Students are also welcome to include countries of their choice during class presentations. 

Learning Outcome
The course aims to equip students with several analytical models for examining change and stability in public policy. During the course period, students should be able to develop their capacity to make a critical evaluation of these general models and frameworks by examining the empirical evidence that they encounter in the course syllabus. An essential goal of the course is to provide the students with the necessary tools in order for them to ask the relevant questions in public policy, orient themselves within different theoretical positions and put forth convincing arguments backed by relevant data about public policy processes, mechanisms and outcomes.
 

Competences
At the completion of the course, students should have acquired general knowledge of relevant issues in the study of public policy change. They will be able to recognize and appreciate the different points of view offered by different schools of new institutionalism. It is also important that students reach their own conclusions and support these with relevant theoretical and empirical evidence. This means that at the end of the course, students will become familiar with the theoretical literature, be able to approach it critically and back their criticism in a substantive manner. At the empirical level, students will develop familiarity with a number of cases in key policy domains, which may complement their knowledge gained through other courses on public policy, comparative politics and organizational analysis.

Literature

This is a tentative list of some of the key readings that will be discussed in the course. Students who wish to enroll in the course are advised to subscribe to the Absalon page where the final syllabus will be uploaded close to the start of the course.

 

Blyth, M (2002) Great Transformations. Economic Ideas and Institutional Change in the Twentieth Century (CUP)

Featherstone and C. Radaelli (eds.) (2003) The Politics of Europeanization, Oxford University Press

Goetz & S. Hix (eds.) (2001) Europeanised Politics? European Integration and National Political Systems, Frank Cass

Hall, P.A. (1993) Policy Paradigms, Social Learning, and the State. Comparative Politics 25(3): 275-296

Hall P. A. and Taylor, R. C. R.  (1996) Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms. Political Studies 44(4): 936-57

Hall, PA, and D Soskice (2001) Varieties of Capitalism: The Institutional Foundations of Comparative Advantage. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Immergut, Ellen M and Karen M Anderson, ‘Historical Institutionalism and West European Politics’, West European Politics 31(1-2): 345-69 January-March 2008

Journal of European Public Policy 12(5), October 2005 on Cross-national policy convergence, especially Knill, C ‘Introduction’

Krasner, S. (1984), 'Approaches to the State.  Alternative Conceptions and Historical Dynamics', Comparative Politics, 16, 223-46

March, J G. and Olsen, J. P., Rediscovering Institutions: The organizational basis of politics (New York: The Free Press, 1989)

North, D. C. (1990), Institutions,Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). Chs 1 and 9-11

Olsen, J (2010), Governing through Institution Building (Oxford: Oxford University Press)

Pierson, P (2000) ‘Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics’ American Political Science Review 94(2), 251-68

Powell, WW and Di Maggio (eds) (1991). The New Institutionalism in Organizational analysis.

Rose, R (1990), ‘Inheritance Before Choice in Public policy’, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Vol. 2, No. 3, 263-291

Scharpf, FW (1997) Games Real Actors Play: Actor-Centred Institutionalism in Policy Research. Boulder: Westview Press. Introduction, Ch 1 & 2

Streeck, W and Thelen, K (2005), Beyond Continuity (Oxford: OUP)

Shepsle, K (1989) Studying Institutions: Some Lessons from the Rational Choice Approach. Journal of Theoretical Politics 1(2): 131-147

Thelen, K (1999) Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics. Annual Review of Political Science 2: 369-404

Thelen & Mahoney (2010), Explaining institutional change. Ambiguity, agency and power. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Thelen, K. and Steinmo, S. (1992). Structuring politics: Historical institutionalism in comparative analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

Tsebelis, G (2002) Veto Players: How Political Institutions Work. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press and New York: Russell Sage Foundation, chs 1,2 & 7 or Tsebelis, G (2000) Veto Players and Institutional Analysis, Governance 13(4): 441-474

There are no prerequisites for enlisting in the course. All BA and MA level students with an interest in cross-national public policy analysis are welcome to take part.
The course is a combination of lectures, student presentations and class discussions. Normally, one- hour lecture is followed by a 10-minute student presentation that focuses on one of the questions that the instructor provides for that week. The rest of the class involves a critical discussion of the presentation topic and any follow-up questions that may arise during the discussion or from the readings.
The first part of the course is purely theoretical and introduces the four different branches of new institutionalism as alternative models of change in public policy. Later, the course goes on to critically assess to what extent these theoretical tools are suitable for understanding and explaining the contemporary changes experienced in different national settings with regard to public policy. Some of the key issue areas considered include independent central banks, regulatory reform and varieties of capitalism. The third and last section of the course is also empirical, although with an exclusive focus on the EU and the impact it has on its member and candidate states.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Class Instruction
  • 28
  • Exam
  • 79
  • Preparation
  • 168
  • Total
  • 275
Credit
10 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written assignment
Written exam
Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
External censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
  • Grade 12 is given for an outstanding performance: the student lives up to the course’s goal description in an independent and convincing manner with no or few and minor shortcomings
     
  • Grade 7 given for a good performance: the student is confidently able to live up to the goal description, albeit with several shortcomings
     
  • Grade 02 is given for an adequate performance: the minimum acceptable performance in which the student is only able to live up to the goal description in an insecure and incomplete manner