Do Institutions Matter?

R. Kent Weaver; Bert A. Rockman

doi:10.5771/9780815714361

Summary

As a stunning tide of democratization sweeps across much of the world, countries must cope with increasing problems of economic development, political and social integration, and greater public demand of scarce resources. That ability to respond effectively to these issues depends largely on the institutional choices of each of these newly democratizing countries. With critics of national political institutions in the United States arguing that the American separation-of-powers system promotes ineffectiveness and policy deadlock, many question whether these countries should emulate American institutions or choose parliamentary institutions instead.

The essays in this book fully examine whether parliamentary government is superior to the separation-of-powers system through a direct comparison of the two. In addressing specific policy areassuch as innovation and implementation of energy policies after the oil shocks of 1970, management of societal cleavages, setting of government priorities in budgeting, representation of diffuse interest in environmental policy, and management of defense forcesthe authors define capabilities that allow governments to respond to policy problems.

Do Institutions Matter? includes case studies that bear important evidence on when and how institutions influence government effectiveness. The authors discover a widespread variation among parliamentary systems both in institutional arrangements and in governmental capabilities, and find that many of the failings of policy performance commonly attributed to American political institutions are in fact widely shared among western industrial countries. Moreover, they show how American political institutions inhibit some government capabilities while enhancing others. Changing American institutions to improve some aspects of governmental performance could hurt other widely valued capabilities.

The authors draw important guidelines for institutional reformers wh

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2010
ISBN-Print: 978-0-8157-9255-0
ISBN-Online: 978-0-8157-1436-1
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 498
Product type: Edited Book

1. Contents No access
1. Evaluating Governmental Effectiveness No access
2. A General Model of Government Capabilities No access
3. Parliamentary and Presidential Systems No access
4. Variations among Parliamentary and Presidential Systems No access
5. Other Influences on Governmental Capacity No access
6. Comparing Capabilities No access
7. Research Strategy No access
1. Institutions and Policy Capabilities No access
2. The Cases No access
3. Starting Points and Policy Responses: An Overview No access
4. The United States No access
5. Canada No access
6. France No access
7. Germany No access
8. Japan No access
9. Patterns and Explanations No access
10. Conclusion No access
1. Institutional Structure and the Politics of Loss Imposition No access
2. The Cases No access
3. Pension Policies, Program Structure, and Loss Imposition No access
4. Patterns and Explanations No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Institutions and Industrial Policy No access
2. The Cases No access
3. Industrial Policy in Sweden No access
4. Industrial Policy in Japan No access
5. Industrial Policy in the United States No access
6. Governmental Institutions and Industrial Change No access
7. Conclusion No access
1. Government Capabilities and Government Deficits No access
2. Case Study Countries No access
3. From Expansion to Restraint: Fiscal Policy in the OECD Countries No access
4. Battling the Deficit: Two Disappointments, One Success No access
5. Political Capacity No access
6. Concluding Thought No access
1. Institutions and Diffuse Interests No access
2. Case Study Countries No access
3. Comparing Environmental Policies No access
4. Patterns and Explanations No access
5. Conclusion: Evaluating Institutional Opportunities and Risks No access
1. Identifying Failures of Conflict Management No access
2. Institutional Mechanisms for Cleavage Management No access
3. The Cases: Cleavage Management in Four Democracies No access
4. Political Institutions and Democratic Stability No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Political Institutions and Cleavage Management No access
2. Cleavage Management: A Macroquantitative Evaluation No access
3. Institutions and Cleavage Management in the United States No access
4. Patterns and Explanations No access
5. Conclusions No access
6. Appendix: Quantitative Data No access
1. Institutions and Capabilities No access
2. The Making of International Policy in Three Nations No access
3. Patterns of Trade Policy No access
4. Explaining Trade Policy No access
5. Conclusion No access
1. Political Institutions and Government Capabilities No access
2. The Cases No access
3. Policy Stability and Weapons Procurement: The U.S. Case No access
4. Policy Stability and Conflict Management: The British and French Cases No access
5. Patterns and Explanations No access
6. Conclusion No access
1. A Useful Comparison? No access
2. Policy Capabilities and Their Determinants No access
3. Historical Legacies No access
4. Security Givens No access
5. Party and Electoral Systems No access
6. Administrative Institutions No access
7. Defense Private Sector No access
8. Conclusions and Speculations No access
1. Overall Patterns of Institutional Influence No access
2. Institutional Influences on Specific Capabilities No access
3. Conclusions No access
1. Questions for Institutional Reformers No access
2. General Caveats about Institutional Reform No access
3. Institutional Reform in the United States No access
4. Institutional Reform and America's Central Policy Concerns No access
5. Conclusion No access
Chapter Authors No access Pages 483 - 483
Other Conference Participants No access Pages 484 - 484
1. A No access
2. B No access
3. C No access
4. D No access
5. E No access
6. F No access
7. G No access
8. H No access
9. I No access
10. J No access
11. K No access
12. L No access
13. M No access
14. N No access
15. O No access
16. P No access
17. Q No access
18. R No access
19. S No access
20. T No access
21. U No access
22. V No access
23. W No access
24. Y No access
25. Z No access