Subversion In Institutional Change And Stability

This book theorizes subversive action, a neglected mechanism in the new institutionalism literature. Subversive action is political in nature, secretly undermining some institutions to open up alternative ideas or to secure existing institutions by secretly undermining adversaries. An example is a politician who promises change in public, but does something else behind the scenes to preserve the status quo. The book addresses the nature and meaning of subversive action and the contexts that give rise to it, as well as how it can work as an important mechanism behind institutional change and continuity. The book will interest students and scholars of public policy, public administration and political science.

This book considers how public sector institutions can be transformed to better support sustainable development by exploring the concept of green inside activism and its importance for institutional change. The phenomenon of inside activism has been shown to be crucial for green policy change and this book focuses on public officials as green inside activists, committed to green values and engaged in social movement, acting strategically from inside public administration to change public policy and institutions in line with such value commitment. The book theorizes how green inside activism can contribute to a more sustainable development through institutional change. This theorizing builds on and relates to highly relevant theoretical arguments in the existing literature. The authors also consider the legitimacy of inside activism and how it can be reconciled with democratic ideals. This innovative work will appeal to students and scholars of public policy, political science and environmental politics.

Institutional theory plays a significant role in contemporary political science. As in the previous editions, the new fourth edition provides an overview of the major institutional approaches in the discipline, as well as considering the possibility of a more integrated institutional theory. This edition also contains two new chapters. One assesses the role of informal institutions and their linkages with formal structures of governing. The second new chapter provides a detailed discussion of the processes of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization.

This visionary Research Handbook presents the state of the art in research on policy design. By conceiving policy design both as a theoretical and a methodological framework, it provides scholars and practitioners with guidance on understanding policy problems and devising accurate solutions.

The SAGE Handbook of Research Methods in Political Science and International Relations offers a comprehensive overview of research processes in social science — from the ideation and design of research projects, through the construction of theoretical arguments, to conceptualization, measurement, & data collection, and quantitative & qualitative empirical analysis — exposited through 65 major new contributions from leading international methodologists. Each chapter surveys, builds upon, and extends the modern state of the art in its area. Following through its six-part organization, undergraduate and graduate students, researchers and practicing academics will be guided through the design, methods, and analysis of issues in Political Science and International Relations: Part One: Formulating Good Research Questions & Designing Good Research Projects Part Two: Methods of Theoretical Argumentation Part Three: Conceptualization & Measurement Part Four: Large-Scale Data Collection & Representation Methods Part Five: Quantitative-Empirical Methods Part Six: Qualitative & "Mixed" Methods

This book examines contemporary public administration and its historical roots, and how those traditions continue to influence administrative behaviour.

Having started out as a new and alternative way of thinking about policy making and governing more broadly, governance is now established as a dominant paradigm in understanding national, subnational and global politics. The long-awaited second edition of this textbook takes into account the significant growth and proliferation of the field in recent years and offers a state of the art introduction to how governance is being theorised and studied today. Written by two leading political scientists, Governance, Politics and the State considers how societies are being, and can be, steered in a complex world where states must increasingly interact with and influence other actors and institutions to achieve results. It is a valuable book for all students of governance. New to this Edition: - A fully updated and revised set of chapters, including four new chapters – on multilevel governance, global governance, metagovernance and populism and governance. - A postscript on how to study governance

This book examines the extent to which recent transformations of administrative systems and public management mechanisms in Central European (CE) countries serve the purpose of providing effective and efficient public institutions, high quality of public services, respect for the rule of law, and the citizens’ trust in the state. It details the reasons behind the major differences in the modernisation paths followed and their attendant inconsistencies and how, despite the adoption of values and solutions prevailing in the EU upon accession, these countries are shifting, to varying degrees, towards institutional design reminiscent of illiberal democracies. Taking a comparative approach and based on rich original data, it applies theoretical models to explain the nature and implications of the processes under consideration and identifies the determinants that impact upon the transformation of public administration systems and its consequences. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of public governance, public administration and policy, East European studies, and more broadly politics, law, sociology but also economy.