Institution-building Process Research Articles

How Institution-Building Shapes Great Power Alignment: An Institutional Perspective on the China–Russia Partnership

Abstract Sino-Russian relations have thrived in the post–Cold War era. While the relationship has attracted ample academic attention, many of the underlying factors contributing to the bilateral rapprochement over the past three decades remain un(der)explored. This article examines the role played by one of the factors involved in this process: the development of institutional links between the two states. Bilateral institutions, which were largely absent until the mid-1990s, have rapidly proliferated into a dense network of commissions and subcommissions, working groups, and other institutionalised exchanges, encompassing virtually all sectors of interaction between China and Russia. The article employs analytical concepts borrowed from Institutionalist theory and develops criteria of analysis to assess the extent to which the process of bilateral institution-building has contributed to promoting and perpetuating Sino-Russian rapprochement, enabling the two states to forge a closer working relationship with each other. The article also examines what the limits of this process have been. It concludes that the practical impact of bilateral institution-building on policy-making has been modest; however, the institutions have come to constitute important forums to secure a regular exchange and familiarisation between senior decision-makers and stakeholders, allowing for an active communication of important information and mutual assurances regarding each country’s policy choices, intentions, and concerns.

Evolution of an Independent Research Institution: A Reflective Analysis

This article examines the idea of institutions and the elements of the process of institutionalisation, using the features of and experiences in an independent research organisation, which was established in 1998, in India. The author, using her experience of heading this organisation for nearly 13 years, and drawing from the Scott’s three pillar approach, reflects on the aspects of why and how an organisation becomes an institution, and what the joys and challenges of leading the process of institution building are. She argues that institution-building is a continuous process where Scott’s three pillars support each other, and change over time and space. The real test of an organisation in becoming an institution is in the capacity to respond to the emergent needs both inside the organisation, and to the external environment, while managing to work as per the vision and perceived mandate, maintain order and stability, within given resources and legal frameworks that guide the functioning of the organisation. Using her own experiences, she identifies plurality as the most important principle that helped in the process of institutionalisation in this case.

Understanding the search for more autonomy in Greater Manchester: an alternative perspective on the politics of devolution in England

Critical social scientific accounts of the confused and inconsistent process of “devolution” in England in recent years have rightly emphasized the place that Greater Manchester and, most recently, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, has occupied at the forefront of UK metropolitan institutional reform. They typically give little credit, however, to the long-running, independent processes of mobilization and institution-building that have resulted in Greater Manchester achieving this vanguard position. This article challenges the idea that contemporary metropolitan governance in Greater Manchester can be seen merely as a pawn in the hands of a regressive, centralist state or else as an undemocratic vehicle designed to enable a city elite to dominate its metropolitan neighbors. In taking a longer historical perspective than is common to critical accounts, the article demonstrates that metropolitanization in England has not followed a coherent centralizing script and neither has the current Combined Authority been constrained, or chosen, to adopt the narrow economic development logic its critics allege. The latter is exemplified by an empirical examination of the work done in Greater Manchester on the theme of work and health. The article concludes with an assessment of how a fragile and very English form of devolution might develop in the difficult context in which the UK now finds itself, arguing that social scientific analysis can perform much better in identifying ways in which further enhancements of sub-national autonomy can support the realization of progressive social and environmental goals.

The Resources of Institutional Entrepreneurs in Different Structural Settings

As agents of strategic institutional change, institutional entrepreneurs (IEs) draw resources from their structural environment to alter the structural context in which they are embedded. In this article, we explore which resources IEs mobilize in different structural settings. We distinguish between (positional or free) field resources and personal resources, all of which may be material, cultural, social, symbolic or political in kind. Our review of leading case studies of institutional entrepreneurship shows that centrally positioned IEs draw primarily on organizational positional resources. By contrast, peripherally positioned IEs rely mainly on the skilful mobilization of free resources as well as on the personal resources of individuals. Also the field’s degree of institutionalization has an impact on IEs’ resources: in emerging fields where field positions and field boundaries are not yet defined, resources must be imported from mature fields. Furthermore, although resource-poor peripheral IEs may set off institution-building processes in emerging fields, they are usually superseded by central organizational actors during later stages of institution-building.

Evolucija prekogranične saradnje u Evropskoj uniji - izazovi i mogućnosti

The importance of cross-border cooperation systems along the external and internal borderlines of the European Union has been increasing since the last enlargements (in 2004 and 2007, 2013). Cross-border cooperation forms gained greater importance in the Hungarian national policy, in the cohesion policy of the European Union as well as in the formation of neighbourhood policy. In the last few years, however, the three most recent crises of the European Union-the 2015 migration crisis, the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war-and the socioeconomic impacts of all these crises have resulted in the re-discovery of borders. The European discourse changed fundamentally: instead of the elimination of borders and border obstacles, the issue of security has come to the fore, resulting in reclosing of borders, construction of new borders and application of more stringent border control. The aim of the study is to examine the institution-building process of cross-border territorial cooperation processes in the European Union. Analysing the legal framework for cross-border cooperation established by the Council of Europe and European Union can be recognised as a response to the lack of legal and institutional instruments of cross-border cooperation.

Using the Constitutionality Framework to Understand Alliances, Collective Action, and Divisions Between Indigenous and Peasant Communities in the Chaco Salteño

This article analyzes bottom-up institution-building processes in a region considered deforestation and environmental degradation hotspot. Utilizing the constitutionality approach developed by Haller, Acciaioli, and Rist (2016), we examine two recent cases of bottom-up institution-building in the department of Rivadavia, Chaco Salteño, Argentina. We highlight the similarities and differences between both constitutionality processes and identify various weaknesses in the two cases. We argue that constitutionality, understood as a process, has occurred to different (incomplete) degrees in each case. Finally, we show that external catalyzing agents play a decisive role in enabling or hampering the constitutionality process. Our study contributes to the literature on common-pool resource governance by highlighting how collective action can lead to participatory-development processes.

Western And Chinese Development Engagements In Uganda’s Roads Sector: An Implicit Division of Labour

Abstract How has the process of institution and governance building in Africa, a domain traditionally subject to western development interventions, been changed by Chinese-led development? Taking Uganda’s roads sector, and particularly its main implementing agency the Ugandan National Roads Authority as a case study, I argue that traditional donors’ influence on sectorial institution building has not been replaced or dislodged by China’s growing presence. This presence primarily took the form of Chinese construction companies operating as profit-driven contractors interested mainly in quick project turnaround rather than in systematically shaping sectorial governance in the host country. Moreover, not only did traditional donors’ development financing remain dominant vis-à-vis China, but the ways in which their interventions were designed, exercised, and monitored in the post-conditionality regime characteristically differed from their Chinese counterparts, ensuring their embedded and enduring role in the reforming of sectorial state institutions. As such, a tacit division of labour took shape between Chinese and western engagements in Uganda’s roads sector: China focused on ‘hard’ physical road construction whilst traditional donors on the ‘soft’ aspects of sectorial governance and policy. The availability of both forms of development engagements with their distinctive foci enables issue-specific agency for Uganda to develop its roads sector, and yet they together appear to create favourable conditions for the Ugandan leadership’s increasing authoritarianism.

Regional Integration Challenges in South East Europe: Banking Sector Trends

This study reviews and evaluates a particular aspect of the institution building process in the transition countries of Southeast Europe. The focus is the development of the banking sector. It is argued that banking sector development plays an integral and pivotal role in the successful completion of the transition process. It functions as a very strong integrating force contributing to the broader institution building process and as a pillar of future growth and development in the new market environment of the Balkan economies. This study concentrates on three main issues. First, it undertakes a brief literature review of regional integration approaches in the Balkans. Second, it provides an overview of the most significant changes that have taken place in the banking sector. Third, it reviews some structural characteristics and performance indicators, all of which point to considerable advancements made in this sector in recent years. Empirical evidence is provided showing that a substantial harmonisation of ownership structures and performance indicators has been achieved in the banking sectors of these countries initiating a convergence process toward EU banking structures and functions. In this regard, this study complements the findings of other studies focusing on various sectors of economic activity, which clearly show that a de facto regional and, even more so, continental integration of the Southeast European countries is under way.

The impact of skills and training on local development

The impact of skills and training on local development

Continuing Revelation and Institutionalization: Joseph Smith, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charismatic Leadership in Antebellum America

Nineteenth-century North American religious history is filled with divinely inspired people who received and recorded new revelations. This article presents Joseph Smith Jr and Ralph Waldo Emerson as charismatic prophets who promoted the idea of continuing revelation. Drawing on Max Weber's concept of charismatic authority, it will contrast their forms of new sacred writing with one another to show how both had experienced encounters with the divine. The second part will then explore how different conceptualizations of revelation led to opposing concepts of religious authority, with consequences for the possibility of institution-building processes. While Smith would reify revelation in hierarchy, Emerson eventually promoted extreme spiritual individualization by rejecting the idea of an exclusive institution as the centre of revelatory authority.

Luigi Luzzatti and the making of the Italian monetary system

After unification (1861) Italy had to face a badly integrated and oddly struc-tured financial system as well as some fragmented or lacking institutions. The fi-nancial position of the country was characterised by double deficit in public and external balance. That caused several monetary and financial difficulties. In par-ticular, monetary and banking institutions had to be step-by-step integrated and reorganised to support economic development in this new economic space. Luigi Luzzatti has been one of the main protagonists of this process of institution build-ing. Besides his commitment with trade tariff negotiation and a variety of initiative in industry and environmental protection, he dedicated a wide effort to monetary institutions. He was one of the main supporters of the "Latin Monetary Union", which lasted from 1865 to 1928 and contributed to reforms dealing with the prob-lem of the plurality of emission banks and of their control. Luzzatti also engaged in the development of "popular banks" to contribute to the structuring of the credit system from the bottom.

(Un)settling the precedent: Contrasting institutionalisation dynamics in the spitzenkandidaten procedure of 2014 and 2019

The article analyses the application of the spitzenkandidaten procedure as instances of a larger institution building process in which the European Parliament and the European Council try to enact competing rules. The Treaty of Lisbon introduced a new clause on how to appoint the Commission President. While in 2014 the European Parliament successfully realised its interpretation according to which the winning spitzenkandidat became Commission President, in 2019 the Council succeeded in deciding not only who would take the Commission presidency but also other key positions. We consider both appointments as cases of decision-making in a natural arena that lack stable institutions about how to appoint the Commission president. Accordingly, the single decisions pended on the case-specific strategic use of resources. While the analysis of the two single cases does not allow us to predict what the institutional rules for future appointments will be, we can identify key resources and strategies that will determine how the institutional rules will be shaped in the elections to come and thus further the understanding of the institutionalisation in the making.

서양의 미술가들과 일본의 공부미술학교 : 일본 메이지 시대 초기, 미술교육 제도의 수립과정에 관하여

일본의 메이지 정부가 서양의 국가들과 대등한 근대국가 만들기를 위해 내건 근대화 프로젝트의 슬로건은 식산흥업과 부국강병을 통한 서양화와 문명개화의 완성이었다. 이를 위해 메이지 정부가 추진한 근대화 프로젝트는 일본 미술계에도 커다란 변화를 불러온다. 그러한 가운데 메이지 정부가 가장 먼저 손을 댄 사업이 ‘미술교육’에 대한 서양화이었으며 이를 제도화하는 것이었다. 이를 통하여 메이지 정부가 실현하고자 한 것은 서양의 정통한 미술을 습득하여 국가에 유용한 전문인력을 양성하 는 일이었다. 그 결과 1876년, 일본의 첫 근대적 미술교육기관으로 공부미술학교가 문을 열게 되고, 미술교육의 근대적 개혁을 위해 서양으로부터 미술가를 불러와 서양의 미술을 섭취하고자 하는 신속 한 움직임을 보여준다. 이런 점에서 일본의 근대미술은 미술교육의 제도적 개혁에서 비롯되었다고 할 수 있다. 이 글은 메이지 정부가 추진한 미술의 근대화 프로젝트를 공부미술학교를 통해 살펴보고 그 서양미술의 이식과정에서 서양의 미술가들이 어떠한 역할을 발휘하였으며, 그들로부터 교육받은 일본의 근대미술가들이 일본 근대미술의 발전과정에 미친 영향은 무엇이었는지를 되짚어보는 데 그 목적이 있다. 그럼으로써 한국 근대미술 연구에 또 다른 지표를 마련하고자 하는 것이다.

Constitutionality and the Co-Management of Protected Areas: Reflections from Cameroon and Myanmar

This article discusses the co-management experiences of two tropical protected areas – the Korup National Park (KNP) in Cameroon, and the Natma Taung National Park (NTNP) in Myanmar. The discussion is anchored on the constitutionality construct and opens up reflections to guide future management processes and outcomes for protected areas. Based on a review of articles and institutional reports, complemented by interviews and focus group discussions, we comparatively analyze the manifestations of two constitutionality principles in co-management around the KNP and NTNP, and discuss future co-management perspectives. The paper concludes with reflections on how local level institutions could be activated in protected area management, especially with respect to enforcing catalyzing agents and improving state motivation and recognition of local institutional processes. The results do not only provide necessary ingredients to improve the institution-building process if co-management must become adaptive, but equally opens up new research avenues in the context of local power play and social learning. We argue that further studies should seek to understand conditions, under which catalyzing agents and the state could support and recognize endogenous institution-building processes to improve resource management outcomes.

Performance Management System in Higher Education-An Empirical Study

Performance management system in recent times has gained immense popularity irrespective of nature and control of institution. Performance management system is considered critical for improving individual performance and increasing institutional competitiveness. In higher educational context, performance management system is widely discussed and debated among academicians and policy makers as it is been regarded as one of the vital factor for institution building. This study aimed to examine the perception of teaching personnel towards performance management system prevailing in sample select universities. It further, aims to study employee's perception towards performance management system across demographic variables like gender, age and experience. The study gathered responses from 282 teaching personnel from within the state of J&K. The data whatsoever collected was analyzed using SPSS 20 version. The results of the study revealed that teaching personnel of sample select universities have shown above average satisfaction level with respect to existing performance management system prevailing in their respective universities. Moreover, it was found that gender did not have any significant effect on the satisfaction level of teaching personnel while as demographic variables like age and experience had a significant effect on the perception level of teaching personnel prevailing in sample select universities. The findings of the study regarding performance management system in sample select universities have certain policy implications which if addressed can make them to function and perform more effectively. Therefore, it calls for improving the performance management system of academic staff through identifying and developing their talent and enriching the process of appraisal system which eventually will help in their individual development and would also lead towards enriching institution building process.

Europeanization in a Difficult Environment

This article examines the impact of the process of Europeanization on the consolidation of political systems and on the pace of European Union (EU) accession in very difficult transitional environments like those of Croatia and Albania. Croatia, a post-socialist and a post-conflict state, and Albania, heavily burdened with the consequences of its recent isolationist history (which is unprecedented among other post-socialist states), were intentionally selected for this research as atypical cases. Acknowledging the lack of consensus about the Europeanization phenomena in the academic community, the authors decided to rely on indicators that focus not only on institution-building and policy-making processes in the technical sense, but also in the processes of construction and diffusion of formal and informal rules, procedures, styles and shared beliefs, norms and identities that are being transmitted from the European to the national level. Based on qualitative research comparing the two countries – that is, Albania and Croatia – and using a number of indicators, the authors conclude that while Europeanization is an important part of European politics in general and the EU accession process in particular, it does not result in having a uniform impact on different candidate countries. On the contrary, the pace of integration depends on the specific domestic political context, on the role of the institutions, and on the processes of adaptation to the European political environment.

Water Justice and Integrated Water Resources Management: Constitutionality Processes Favoring Sustainable Water Governance in Mexico

This research analyzes four ongoing water conflicts in Jalisco state, Mexico, through the lens of constitutionality. Constitutionality refers to a bottom-up institution building process based on the activation of emic perceptions of people who are often marginalized in policymaking, as well as on alliances with external actors, with the aim of achieving recognition by the state of self-created institutions. Results show that the constitutionality concept helps to link analysis of local people’s resistance movements against top-down water policies with an emerging process of institutional innovation that aims for more sustainable water governance. Local institutional innovations embody the principles of water justice; these are recognized by the state as being part of its own Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) policy, and thus find their way into state policy arenas. This analysis provided the basis for the formulation of a conceptual framework that integrates water conflicts, water justice, and IWRM into the concept of constitutionality.

Moving Territories: Strategic Selection of Boundary Concepts by Indigenous People in the Bolivian Amazon - an Element of Constitutionality?

In this case study, we analyse to what extent the establishment of the Pilon Lajas Indigenous Territory and Biosphere Reserve in the Bolivian Amazon reflects the six elements of the concept of constitutionality. Our analysis elucidates what happened during the second phase of establishment, in which land rights of lowland indigenous peoples were extended to collective territorial rights including highland indigenous peoples and peasants. The case adds a dynamic perspective on the constitutionality framework by providing a longitudinal analysis of a bottom-up institution building process for natural resource governance.

Beyond Ethnic Relations: Racial Politics and the Origins of the Welfare State in Republican France

ABSTRACTTo explain racial fissures in France today, one must revisit the structural and ideological failings in the origin of key Republican institutions. This article analyzes how the symbolic and material significance of labor structures imposed on black French citizens in the Third Republic produced differentiation in the value of labor to the nation. The production of social patterns and belief systems based on racial inequality were integrated into the structure of the French welfare state. The experience of black political actors, Hégésippe Légitimus, Blaise Diange, Lamine Senghor, and the state illustrates how the welfare state, as an engine of assimilation, defined a differential and racialized status for blacks during the process of crucial institution building. Although the majority of blacks in the French Empire were subjects during the Third Republic, the experience of those who were citizens indicates contradictions related to incorporation and race.

Crafting Our Own Rules: Constitutionality as a Bottom-Up Approach for the development of By-Laws in Zambia

This paper details the process of bottom-up crafting of by-laws to the state fishery laws in Zambia, the initial empirical case informing the development of the constitutionality concept. It explores the historical, political as well as environmental and economic conditions on which the process of sense of ownership of the institution building process came to be. The role of the researchers as well as the process of crafting new rules in a situation of an absent state but which is ideologically present as the owner of the resource are discussed. Furthermore, we underline that for this process the issue of bargaining power in communities that are very heterogeneous is a major challenge to a fair process for the crafting of institutions. The paper explains the main factors leading to what Haller et al. have labeled “constitutionality” addressing these power disparities. However, a clear examination of the process of the by-law crafting, including the content of the by-laws themselves, reveals that newly crafted institutions developed by local actors a) go beyond pure resource governance issues to include other areas related to fisheries (health and sanitation), b) address vital gender and power relations, and c) show high innovation potential to interrelate governance issues that are locally important but not addressed in fragmented state governance.