Theory Of Institutional Change Research Articles

Cultural Identity of Malaysian Chinese language education Formed under the Influence of Two-Way Institutional Changes in Contrasting Perspectives, 1950s - 1980s

Malaysia is the Southeast Asian country with the most complete retention of Chinese language education after independence. In the face of the nationalist policies after the Second World War, why is Malaysian Chinese language education unique from other Southeast Asian countries? With such a question, this paper intercepts the development of Chinese language education in Malaysia and the Philippines during the early period of independence of Southeast Asian countries in the 1950s - 1980s, by comparing and combining the theory of two-way institutional change. It is found that there existed a Chinese education organization in Malaysia during this period that was able to compete with the government's nationalistic policy, thus under the two-way game movement of top-down institutional change by the government and bottom-up institutional change by the Chinese education organization, the survival of Chinese schools and national cultural identity became possible. This will serve as a reference for the construction and development of language schools in foreign countries and the maintenance of national cultural identity.

Calibrating the Conatus in Morphogenetic Régulation: Towards a Problématique of Perseverance

AbstractThe intersection between Critical realism, complex system thinking and Luhmannian autopoiesis has been subject to various debates. By showing how a complex system necessitates a trans‐immanent philosophical foundation, Knio proposed in a previous article a problématique of calibration which seeks to bring back to the fore the importance of considering a complex causality generated by environments onto boundaries and systems in an iterative, recursive, and emergentist way. The next step is to understand the motivation behind the actions of a trans‐immanent system. This paper contributes to this discussion by operationalizing the motivation behind action in terms of the Spinozian conatus. In so doing, this research shows how trans‐immanent systems such as people and society not only objectify (socially construct) but objectivate (create) objects behind desire. Finally, the forgoing shows how systemic persistence is not a simple matter of inertia or imitation but it is a matter of empowering reflexivity or, perseverance. This is shown through a thorough overview of the different interpretations of the conatus, followed by their application to several case studies within pre‐existing and prominent theories of institutional change within capitalism. As a result, the conatus as based on a trans‐immanent system offers great potential in institutional analysis; exemplified in the Critical Realist model of social change: Morphogenetic Régulation. This research contributes not only to political, economic, social, and cultural analyses of institutional change but analyses of complex and open systems as a whole, and thus understandings of human empowerment.

Explaining Value Capture Implementation in New York, London, and Copenhagen: Negotiating Distributional Effects

Value capture (VC) is widely cited as a method for local authorities to provide urban public goods to their cities in the face of fiscal stress. Its application in practice however remains limited. In this article, we aim to explain the implementation process of VC as a strategy to fund public transportation infrastructure through case studies in London, New York, and Copenhagen. Adopting a theory of gradual institutional change, we argue that the implementation of VC depends on the capacity to change distributional institutions that are inherently contested. Particularly relevant is the role of the beneficiary, whose support of VC is necessary but not likely. Our results show that a strategic urban development project can act as a driver to overcome this barrier, but that this driver can, simultaneously, also hinder the institutionalization potential of a VC strategy. We therefore suggest that, for VC strategies to become more commonplace, sharing value uplifts among beneficiaries must become more commonplace too.

Building Sustainable Village-Owned Enterprises: The Institutional Change of Microfinance in Banyuwangi Regency

of a government-driven program, namely involving the transformation of DBM (Dana Bergulir Masyarakat) into Village-Owned Enterprises (BUMDesa). This research will hopefully help in developing the best transformation model to enhance policy effectiveness and empower BUMDesa as the primary pillar in the spirit of partnership, by taking into account BUMDesa policy after the publication of the village law and its derivative regulations in the face of complex policy challenges. The Nawacita agenda, recognition-subsidiarity principle, and granting local autonomy at the village scale were the core principles of the preceding BUMDesa policy shift. BUMDesa’s current job is to change the government-centric agenda into practices that reflect the delegation of local power at the village scale, at both the village and rural area levels. Understanding the Berdesa tradition is essential for the broader policy agenda to promote village economic enterprises so that it is carried out in practice and still recognizes, respects, and elevates communities in Indonesia. Elinor Ostrom (1990) provides a thorough understanding of institutions in the management of common goods to achieve sustainability, and her work complements the conceptual framework developed by Douglass C. North and Bromley to understand the relationship between institutions and policies in the context of resource management. This study is guided by the theory of institutional change, and uses a qualitative approach with a case study design.
 Keywords: institutiional transformation, village credit agency, microfinance institution

Progress and Institutional Challenges on Local Governments Performance Accountability System Reform in Indonesia

This study analyses, firstly, the achievement of local governments’ reform based on their Performance Accountability System (SAKIP) as part of the national administrative reform program in Indonesia. Secondly, this paper examines factors that have been affecting reform output. The study uses a mixed method perspective by analyzing the whole population of local governments from SAKIP data (2016–2019; quantitative) and applies the qualitative method of in-depth interviews with key informants. The study finds that, although there were improvements in the performance accountability system, the improvement processes have been slow and dominated by formalism at provincial and regency/city levels. Several determining factors affected the implementation of the local government performance accountability system, that is, the regulations’ arrangements, the norms, the cognitive culture, and management problems. Thus, this study confirms the theory of institutional change that considers cultural factors, political commitment, and organizational aspects that influence the dynamic of bureaucratic reform implementation.

What explains the degree of e-participation? A comparison of the adoption of digital participation platforms in Oslo, Melbourne and Madrid

E-participation research has mainly been concerned with the spread of e-participation technologies, but less with why some government organizations choose to use digital tools to consult citizens (e-consultation) whereas others go further and include them in the decision-making processes (e-decision making). This article is an in-depth, comparative case-study of the adoption of e-participation platforms in Oslo, Melbourne and Madrid, and develops an alternative explanatory framework using theories of institutional entrepreneurship and change. It shows that conventional adoption theory – focusing on resource slack, socio-economic development, competition and top-down mandates – is not able to account for the differences between these cases, and argues that the degree of e-participation should be understood as an outcome of the type and agenda of change agents, the level of institutional discretion, the strength of institutional defenders, and the resources of the change agents.

Digital Literacy and E-Governance Adoption for Service Delivery in Cross River State Civil Service

The study used a case study technique to investigate why the implementation of e-governance and ICT in government service provisioning has not resulted in a commensurate improvement in service delivery in Cross River State, Nigeria. It specifically investigates the effect of in-service training on civil servants' digital literacy, the consequent impact of e-governance implementation, and service delivery. The study finds that there was inadequate in-service training, which was partly caused by the cognitive disposition of civil servants who did not fully cooperate with the implementation of the e-governance reform. The study aligns with existing theories of institutional and organisational change which requires that organisational change requires realignment of beliefs and behavioral norms of organization members. The study recommends that the implementation of e-governance can only yield better results in effective service delivery if the civil servants are made to accept the reform and their digital literacy levels are significantly enhanced through appropriate in-service training.

Talkin' Bout a Revolution? Institutional Change in the EU Recovery and Resilience Facility: The Case of Climate Policy

AbstractThe European Union (EU) post‐COVID‐19 investment and reform programme, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), has been hailed as novel and ambitious, both as a fiscal instrument and as a lever for accelerating progress towards EU climate commitments. Yet, its design also exhibits strong path dependency, drawing on existing processes and commitments. Adapting theories of institutional change and models of hard/soft governance, we argue that the RRF is an example of significant yet gradual change – of evolution rather than revolution – taking place via layering and conversion of existing frameworks, and alteration of their logics of action. We show how the RRF repurposes the European Semester and track continuity and change in climate policy, a key priority area. Our findings suggest that the literature on institutional change should give greater consideration to the interplay between layering and conversion as a mechanism of gradual yet transformative evolution.

Securing urban water supply through reservoir reoperation–An analysis of power resources and equity in cases from India, Spain and the USA

This paper examines intersectoral water allocation, in particular how cities secure water vis-à-vis rural users, and assesses the equity of this (re)allocation. We use the distribution theory of institutional change, and argue that urban water providers mobilize power resources (positional, financial and informational) to secure water. We adapt the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to study this empirically, with case studies from India, Spain and the United States that centre around a large reservoir and its reoperation. Results show the importance of financing power in all cases, and also suggest that cities may lack the positional power needed to implement drinking water priorities. The ‘hybrid equity approach’ reveals the diversity of equity considerations on rural-to-urban water reallocation, both in terms of local perspectives and also regarding universal equity principles. Finally, it is fruitful to study power and equity together, as the former generally has profound distributional and procedural implications which are at the heart of equity.

Understanding transformations in the marine coastal realm: The explanatory potential of theories of institutional change

Marine and coastal areas currently face an unprecedented level of multiple and interdependent anthropogenic and natural drivers of change. Increasing demand for use of marine and coastal space largely driven by the blue economy paradigm presents a myriad of sustainability challenges that require governance transformations and institutional innovation. Various institutional forms have already emerged in this realm, but recent processes will increase the spate of institutional change taking place. This calls for a comprehensive understanding of institutional change in the marine coastal realm; thus, an overview of the tools available for understanding such changes. In this paper, we assess the analytical potential of seven theories of institutional change in relation to the contextual features of marine and coastal systems. By applying the propositions of the various theories to empirical studies of institutional change in this arena, we aim to provide a repertoire of theories of institutional change to help marine social scientists understand and guide change in the marine coastal arena. The analysis reveals that all the theories have some relevance for understanding institutional change in the marine coastal realm, but the analytical strength of each theory depends on the specific institutional features, resource system, context, and scale of governance. Due to the material and institutional characteristics of the marine coastal area, no single theory is sufficient for understanding institutional change in this realm. The combination of multiple theories or the use of analytical frameworks provides better lens to illuminate institutional change in marine and coastal systems.

The House Freedom Caucus, Kevin McCarthy’s Race for Speaker, and the Fate of Rules Reform in the 118th Congress

Abstract For the first time in one hundred years, the 118th Congress began with a prolonged Speaker’s race that required fifteen ballots to elect a Speaker. The contentious Republican debate displayed a level of personal animosity between a faction – the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) – and the majority party’s chosen leader – Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) – but it also revealed a series of significant divisions within the majority party over policy, and legislative norms and practices. How do different strategies shape the capacity of factions to spur formal changes to legislative institutions? How do party leaders respond to the demands of factions that raise issues threatening to party unity and their own leadership position? In this article, I analyze the composition of defectors in the Speaker’s race, the status of their rule and procedural reform agenda, and the response by McCarthy, including to committee assignments and early use of restrictive rules in the 118th Congress. I conclude with a discussion of the consequences of the HFC strategy for the contemporary U.S. House, and an emerging need to expand theories of institutional change to better integrate the behavior of both party leaders and factions.

Research on the Application and Experience of Policy Tools in China's Grassroots Governance since the Reform and Opening-up --Taking Zhuanglang County of Gansu Province as an example

This paper takes 376 policy texts issued by Zhuanglang County government from 1979-2022 as the research object, and uses content analysis to sort out the use of policy tools and the history of changes in the process of grassroots governance in Zhuanglang County after reform and opening up. In terms of the types of approaches, the use of coercive tools, hybrid tools and voluntary tools in grassroots governance is comprehensive, but there is an imbalance in the use of policy tools in stages: overflow of coercive tools and lack of hybrid and voluntary tools; the types of policy tools tend to be concentrated and lack of innovation; and insufficient nesting and synergy among policy tools. In terms of evolutionary logic, the overall shift from confrontational to cooperative instruments follows a gradual contraction of coercive and confrontational elements and a steady expansion of flexible and synergistic elements. Among them, the development of voluntary policy tools is highly valued, and the participation of common subjects in policy networks becomes a new trend in grassroots social governance. In addition, through the analysis of the historical stages of policy tools, with the help of the theory of institutional change and the theory of synergetic governance, this paper summarizes the experience of the use of policy tools: paying attention to the flexibility and diversity of the use of policy tools; Pay attention to the innovation of policy tools and establish dynamic adjustment mechanism; Adhere to the logic of gradualism and the principle of bounded rationality. "History, reality and future are interlinked". The summary of experience is to better look forward to the future. We should adhere to the pertinence, comprehensiveness and synergy of the use of policy tools to achieve the modernization of grass-roots governance.

Health care reform and financial crisis in the Netherlands: consequences for the financial arena of health care organizations.

Over the past decade, many health care systems across the Global North have implemented elements of market mechanisms while also dealing with the consequences of the financial crisis. Although effects of these two developments have been researched separately, their combined impact on the governance of health care organizations has received less attention. The aim of this study is to understand how health care reforms and the financial crisis together shaped new roles and interactions within health care. The Netherlands - where dynamics between health care organizations and their financial stakeholders (i.e., banks and health insurers) were particularly impacted - provides an illustrative case. Through semi-structured interviews, additional document analysis and insights from institutional change theory, we show how banks intensified relationship management, increased demands on loan applications and shifted financial risks onto health care organizations, while health insurers tightened up their monitoring and accountability practices towards health care organizations. In return, health care organizations were urged to rearrange their operations and become more risk-minded. They became increasingly dependent on banks and health insurers for their existence. Moreover, with this study, we show how institutional arenas come about through both the long-term efforts of institutional agents and unpredictable implications of economic and societal crises.

Legitimizing the game: how gamers' personal experiences shape the emergence of grassroots collective action in esports

PurposeThis paper studies early stages of actor mobilization for institutional change within Swedish esports.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employ interpretative phenomenological analysis.FindingsThe authors’ findings explain how actors become motivated to act in critical reflections linked to conflicting legitimacy judgments and emotionally charged personal struggles. Moreover, the findings show how, as actors get activated in collective action, they identify efficacy lines around valid domains and experience emotionally charged collective endeavors. Furthermore, the findings explain how particularities in early experiences project legitimacy aspirations that orient collective action toward validity ends and particular values and ideals shaping actors' grassroots movements.Originality/valueThis study adds to legitimacy and institutional change theory through individual actors' perspectives, providing key insights into how they are motivated, activated, and oriented. This study is the first to investigate grassroots activists' personal stories in esports.

The Fall of Urdu and the Triumph of English in Pakistan: A Political Economic Analysis

In this paper, we investigate both how the use of language in higher education in Pakistan has evolved and why the medium of instruction remains a contested terrain. We focus on the struggle between advocates for the use of Urdu and the use of English in higher education. By examining the repeated failed attempts by high political authorities to replace English with Urdu, we demonstrate the usefulness of evolutionary theories of path-dependent institutional change while placing language struggles in the context of national and class stratification.

Institutional change and the quality of rules in ensuring economic growth

The quality of existing rules, as well as their change, impacts on economic growth. Meanwhile, numerous scientific contributions paint a very truncated picture of this influence. The study aims to identify the relationship between institutional change, the quality of rules, and economic growth through the construction of a theoretical model. The theory of economic growth, North and Olson’s theory of institutional change as well as the author’s theory of malfunctions constitute the methodological basis of the research. The methods include taxonomic analysis and modeling. The study demonstrates that the quality of institutions, and moreover, the institutional environment, can be assessed by measuring their malfunction, as well as using standard methods from the field of economics of quality. As a result, the paper grounds that in essence, both approaches are models of the quality of institutions, and therefore, the quality assessment itself can be to a certain degree inaccurate. At the same time, the study identifies two basic types of institutional change: those produced by the governing body (corrections) and those occurring spontaneously. A constraint on the rate of institutional change for economic growth is also obtained. In addition, the paper illustrates that the classical criteria for welfare assessment does not take into account the impact of these changes. This modifies the generally accepted approach in the field of welfare theory, turning the latter into an institutional theory. The final conclusion is that the policy of growth pursued in the conditions of changing institutions leads to even more unbalanced distribution of benefits between groups of economic agents, which imposes stricter requirements for institutional planning.

Prolegomena to an Evolutionary Theory of Development Banking for a Sustainable Future

This article argues that an evolutionary theory of development banking should focus on its double role as provider of long-term financing for sustainable development and vehicle of institutional change. In this sense, Commons’ “reasonable value” theory provides a comprehensive approach to the lender-borrower relationship which takes into account public purpose. Besides, his view of reform in the presence of limiting factors renders the institutional connotation of development banks’ lending more explicit. Furthermore, Veblen’s theory of institutional change in the interaction between technological change, institutions, and habits of thought sheds light on the role of public development banks in institutional development and change with social and ecological concerns. Hence, an evolutionary theory of development banking transcends mainstream allegations of inefficiency and integrates economic development with social and ecological sustainability.

Degrowth and the Global South? How Institutionalism can Complement a Timely Discourse on Ecologically Sustainable Development in an Unequal World

The goal of this article is twofold: first, it assesses the current state of collaboration between institutionalist economics and the academic degrowth discourse on the topic of global inequalities. Since a systematic literature review of the current degrowth discourse shows that the level of such collaboration is limited, the second goal of the article is to outline avenues through which institutionalist scholars could contribute to the current academic degrowth discourse. These include the provision of theories of institutional change, a methodological reflection of selected formal models, and substantive insights on the co-evolution of institutions and technological change.

Chile’s Tobacco Strategy: A Scoping Review of Tobacco Measures Over Time

Chile currently has a relatively robust tobacco control policy approach. Nonetheless, it has one of the highest tobacco consumption prevalence rates among adults worldwide. Better knowledge regarding changes in tobacco control policy over time may provide a comprehensive understanding of the observed changes in the prevalence of tobacco consumption. We aimed to carry out a scoping review to explore the evolution of Chile’s tobacco control consumption policies. We searched legal instruments, including laws and decrees, in the Chilean National Library of Congress from inception to December 2018. One author screened potential legal instruments; two authors independently systematized research records found. We included any legal instrument issued by the President of the Republic or the Chilean National Congress. We used the MPOWER strategy as a guideline to classify interventions. The institutional change theory proposed by van der Heijden and Kuhlmann was applied to interpret policy changes. We identified 499 legal instruments related to tobacco. Of these, three laws and ten decrees were included for analysis. We observed an uneven implementation of measures recommended by the WHO over time. The dimensions Protect, Warn, and Enforce showed consistent progress, measures in the Monitor and Raise dimensions were unsustained, and no measures for the dimension Offer were found. In Chile, measures to tackle tobacco consumption over the last three decades have focused predominantly on regulating individual choices rather than on the tobacco industry. Future research assessing the effects of Chile’s tobacco control consumption policies should account for their multifaceted and heterogeneous implementation.

FACTORS AND VECTOR OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF INSTITUTIONS IN THE SME SECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

One of the main policies of the Government of the Republic of Uzbekistan is to stimulate the development of the small business sector. Despite the improving business environment, there are problems affecting the national entrepreneurial sector. The aim of the study is to analyze the factors and directions of development of institutions related to small business, to identify patterns and predict their transformation. The paper uses the methodology of the theory of institutional change to describe, explain and recommend changes in the system of small business institutions.