week 3 - What Explains Policy Choices Theories of Policy Making II (Institutions)

Question 1

Theory of Policy-Making.

Define features of ‘rules of the game’ for Institutions

Answer 1

Rules, norms, practices, and relationships that influence individual and collective behavior.

Rules can be formal and widely understood, such as when enshrined in law or a constitution.

Informal, not existing in formal or legal environment.

Question 2

What are the 2 types of Institutions? Provide examples for each.

Answer 2

Formal (Political parties/elections, Legislatures/executives, Police/judiciary, Bureaucracies, Military/Security, Center-region relations)

Informal (Traditions, Customs, Taboos, Codes of conduct, Clans, Networks)

Question 3

What are the relations between Formal and Informal institutions?

Answer 3

Complementary
Co-existance
Competition
Replacing

Question 4

Institutions and Public Policy Choices
Fill in the gaps:
At each policy stage, certain institutions take
…

Agenda-setting: …

Creation: …

Implementation: …

Answer 4

At each policy stage, certain institutions take
importance

Agenda-setting: media and interest groups

Creation: Central government

Implementation: Bureaucracy

Question 5

Institutions and Public Policy Choices.
What comparative public policy attempts to explain and
predict?

Answer 5

influence of political institutions on the choices of public policy

Question 6

Institutions and Public Policy Choices.
Fill in the gaps:
Institutions (social, political, economic, informal)
become ...and ..., hence affect policy
choices in ... .

Answer 6

Institutions (social, political, economic, informal)
become large and more complex, hence affect policy
choices in more ways.

Question 7

Institutions and Public Policy Choices.
Fill in the gaps:
Institutions impose ,,, on policy outcomes.
Countries differ in the range of institutionally permissible … .
International legal … .

Answer 7

Institutions impose limitations on policy outcomes.
Countries differ in the range of institutionally permissible policy options.
International legal constraints.

Question 8

What is the relationship between Actors and Institutions?

Answer 8

Actors shape policy-making
BUT
Actors are strongly influenced by the institutional rules to which they owe their existence and by institutional and cultural norms.

Question 9

Institutions and Public Policy Choices.
Fill in the gaps:
Institutions are socially … .

They represent broadly shared … of how things work.

When policy-makers want to redesign institutions, they are constrained by …

Answer 9

Institutions are socially constructed.
They represent broadly shared cultural understandings of how things work.
When policy-makers want to redesign institutions, they are constrained by these embedded, cultural constraints.

Question 10

Institutional design and political structures.

Define Neopatrimonialism?

Answer 10

Neopatrimonialism - Mix of formal institutions and informal networks. It emphasizes personal rule, rather than rule of law, and promotes patron-client relationships.

Question 11

Institutional design and political structures.
Fill in the gaps:
Public norms under neopatrimonialism are ..?

Answer 11

Public norms under neopatrimonialism are formal and rational, but their social practice is often personal and informal.

Question 12

Describe features of Post-1991 Developments in Central

Asia

Answer 12

Presidential systems;
Strong Executives;
Weak Legislatures;
Formal institutions in place / Many informal institutions;
Centralization of power, regional elites pushed aside.

Question 13

Describe historical characteristics of Presidential systems in CA?

Answer 13

Long presidential tenures;
Electoral cycles not always based on fixed schedule;
Referendums about extension of presidential terms (KZ 1995, TJ 2003, TM 1994, UZ 1995);
Transition not always according to legal basis (TM 2006, UZ 2016).

Question 14

Describe features of Political parties in CA

Answer 14

Different from Western European/American understanding;
Formal organization?
Ideological platform?
Open membership?

Personalistic groups/often focused on specific issues/weak ideological basis (KG/KZ);

State-backed dominant parties (UZ/KZ/TJ/TM).

Question 15

Define dominant Political parties in CA countries?

Answer 15

Nur Otan (KZ)
People’s Democratic Party (TJ)
Social Democrats (KG)
Liberal Democratic Party (UZ)
Democratic Party (Turkmenistan)

Question 16

Describe historical characteristics of Presidential systems in CA?

Answer 16

Long presidential tenures;
Electoral cycles not always based on fixed schedule;
Referendums about extension of presidential terms (KZ 1995, TJ 2003, TM 1994, UZ 1995);
Transition not always according to legal basis (TM 2006, UZ 2016).

Question 17

Describe features of Political parties in CA

Answer 17

Different from Western European/American understanding;
Formal organization?
Ideological platform?
Open membership?

Personalistic groups/often focused on specific issues/weak ideological basis (KG/KZ);

State-backed dominant parties (UZ/KZ/TJ/TM).

Question 18

Define dominant Political parties in CA countries?

Answer 18

Nur Otan (KZ)
People’s Democratic Party (TJ)
Social Democrats (KG)
Liberal Democratic Party (UZ)
Democratic Party (Turkmenistan)

Question 19

What are the features of Center-Regions relationship in CA?

Answer 19

Centralized unitary systems;
Presidents appoint regional governors. Governors act like Party secretaries in the Soviet times;
Localism and regionalism.

Question 20

What are the features of Military and Law Enforcement in CA countries?

Answer 20

KGB – political police;
Police as an example of Soviet legacy;
Lower status of the military;
Security service/police more politically influential than the military.

Question 21

Informal Institutions.
What is the name of ground-breaking concept by Elinor Ostrom?
|Shortly describe the key point of this concept.

Answer 21

“Tragedy of the Commons” / Common Pool Resources (CPR).

Lack of formal rules does not mean lack of a selfregulating system.

Question 22

Institutional design and political
structures.
According to Elinor Ostrom, people are capable to …

Answer 22

People are capable to manage resources without requiring governmental regulation (*if certain conditions are met)
Fisheries, Sports, Forests, Irrigation.

Question 23

Informal institutions.
What is Modernization theory?
Provide historical case relevant to CA?

Answer 23

Modernization theory is used to explain the process of modernization within societies. Modernization refers to a model of a progressive transition from a ‘pre-modern’ or ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ society. Modernization theory originated from the ideas of German sociologist Max Weber (1864–1920), which provided the basis for the modernization paradigm developed by Harvard sociologist Talcott Parsons (1902–1979). The theory looks at the internal factors of a country while assuming that with assistance, “traditional” countries can be brought to development in the same manner more developed countries have been. Modernization theory was a dominant paradigm in the social sciences in the 1950s and 1960s, then went into a deep eclipse. It made a comeback after 1991 but remains a controversial model.

Modernization theory - Rapid technological modernization mixes with preexisting societal structures.

Central Asia - Agrarian society to industrial society in 1 generation.

Question 24

Central Asia:

What are the impacts of the Soviet legacy relevant to informal institutions?

Answer 24

Pre-Soviet informal networks not completely destroyed by the Soviet system.

Many were reintegrated to Soviet structures (tribes to kolkhozes).

New forms and networks (‘blat’) also appeared in Soviet times due to incapacity of the centralized planning system to satisfy demands.