Research on government institutions is one of the most exciting intellectual areas in political science and policy studies today. Increasingly it is recognized by scholars in these fields that effective and legitimate policies depend on the design and maintenance of complex institutional arrangements. This book brings together some of the leading scholars in institutional research in The Netherlands. Their work addresses such perennially difficult questions in institutional research such as: How do we understand institutional change? How do we measure the effects of institutions on societal sectors and public policy? How do the normative foundations of government institutions influence their functioning? What are the principles of effective and legitimate institutional design? Through analysis of well-researched examples ranging from the fabled Dutch ̀poldermodel', through the transformation of the welfare state, through privatizations of the Dutch telecommunications industry, to the work of welfare officials, these authors demonstrate the interpenetration of normative, empirical and design issues in institutional theory. The book is intended for scholars and graduate students in political science, public policy, public administration, and law
CONTENT
I Institutional Change -- Institutional crises and reforms in policy sectors -- Institutional change of welfare states Empirical reality, theoretical obstacles -- The interplay of institutional sectors Negotiating policy change in the Dutch welfare state -- II Testing Institutional Theory -- Dedicated followers of fashion Program emulation at Dutch universities -- Constitutional change in the European Union Parliamentโ{128}{153}s impact on the reform of the codecision procedure -- III Normative Foundations of Government Institutions -- Legitimate governance within the state -- The Procrustean Bed Of The Rational Organization The works of Taylor, Weber and Fayol revisited -- Oedipus in the Welfare Office Practice, discourse and identity in public administration -- IV Institutional Design -- Cultural bias and framing wicked problems A comparative analysis of structuring the car mobility problem by three institutes for parliamentarian technology assessment -- Institutional change and implementation A dynamic implementation-study of the Dutch General Administrative Law Act -- Organizing Accountability: From Best Practices to Dilemmas in Design -- Design in Context: Applying Institutional Analysis to Social Designing -- Biography
