SOCS3100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Amen, Big Data, Lewis F. Powell Jr.
25 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SOCS3100
Policy Development, Program Management, and Evaluation
March 7, 2018
WEEK 2
Institutions and Actors
PART 1: Institutions
Institutions – interpersonal laws, rules, strongly embedded customs
• Marriage
Actors
• People, groups, organizations that act within and outside institutions
Institutions shape actors. Actors shape institutions.
Actor / Institution distinction can be a matter of perspective.
Ex. ACOSS
Employee perspective – institution, governs their lives
Government policy officer perspective – actor, lobbies for things
Institutional Architecture
• Nations/organizations can have different structures and features
o Unwritten VS Written constitutions
▪ Rules that govern way organization proceeds
o Unitary VS Federal government
▪ Unitary
• England
▪ Federal
• Lower levels of government
• Constitutional rights to exist
• Their own independence
• Can’t be dissolved by federal government
• Some matters belong to state, some to Commonwealth
o Parliamentary VS Presidential government
▪ Parliamentary
• Executive part of parliament system
o Department of Trade and Foreign Affairs, Family and
Community Services
• Sit in Cabinet (deciding body)
• Elect which is PM, Senior Executive
▪ Presidential
• President not member of parliament
o Appoints Secretaries
• Congress separate
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o Electoral systems
▪ Majoritarian
▪ Consensus
o Dependent VS Independent judiciary
Institutional architecture has major effect on policy coherence and capacity
Facilitate policy decisiveness
Provide ways to resist policy momentum
• Unitary
• Unwritten constitution
• No judicial review of constitution
(can bring radical change more
quickly)
• Parliamentary
• Majoritarian voting system (51%,
winner takes all, *Australian uses
both)
• Federal
• Written constitution
• Judicial review
• Presidential (Can have gridlock)
• Consensual voting system
Unitary
Federal
• Lower levels are only
administrative, can be
restructured/abolished by level of
government above
• National level government can
impose policies and budgets on
lower admin levels
• EXAMPLES: UK, NZ, Sweden,
France
• 2 or more levels of government,
constitutionally independent
• Lower level cannot be abolished
by above level
• Lower level can have sole/greater
constitutional power over some
policy areas
• State/local governments may have
legal/financial power to resist
national level pressures
• EXAMPLES: Australia, USA,
Canada, Germany
Parliamentary
Presidential
• Elected executive
• All ministers sit in Parliament
• Legislature should control
Executive, but Executive controls
legislature
Whip
• Elected executive is separate from
legislative
• Exec does not control legislature in
theory or practice
• President not member of Congress
• Ministers/secretaries chosen by
president do not need to be
members of Congress
• President is elected in a diff way to
Congress
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Institutions interpersonal laws, rules, strongly embedded customs: marriage. Actors: people, groups, organizations that act within and outside institutions. Actor / institution distinction can be a matter of perspective. Community services: sit in cabinet (deciding body, elect which is pm, senior executive, presidential, president not member of parliament, appoints secretaries, congress separate, electoral systems, majoritarian, consensus, dependent vs independent judiciary. Institutional architecture has major effect on policy coherence and capacity. Provide ways to resist policy momentum: unitary, unwritten constitution, no judicial review of constitution (can bring radical change more quickly, parliamentary, majoritarian voting system (51%, winner takes all, *australian uses both) Unitary: lower levels are only administrative, can be restructured/abolished by level of government above, national level government can impose policies and budgets on lower admin levels, examples: uk, nz, sweden, Parliamentary: elected executive, all ministers sit in parliament, legislature should control. Whip: federal, written constitution, judicial review, presidential (can have gridlock, consensual voting system.
