The Political Dynamics of Bureaucratic Turnover

2017 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 823-836 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Dahlström ◽  
Mikael Holmgren
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Research Note ◽  
Political Control ◽  
The Political ◽  
Partisan Politics ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Selection Strategies ◽  
Screening Strategies ◽  
Policy Objectives ◽  
Unique Dataset

This Research Note explores the political dynamics of bureaucratic turnover. It argues that changes in a government’s policy objectives can shift both political screening strategies and bureaucratic selection strategies, which produces turnover of agency personnel. To buttress this conjecture, it analyzes a unique dataset tracing the careers of all agency heads in the Swedish executive bureaucracy between 1960 and 2014. It shows that, despite serving on fixed terms and with constitutionally protected decision-making powers, Swedish agency heads are considerably more likely to leave their posts following partisan shifts in government. The note concludes that, even in institutional systems seemingly designed to insulate bureaucratic expertise from political control, partisan politics can shape the composition of agency personnel.

Getting to the Future

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-128
Author(s):  
Michael K. MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
The Political ◽  
Collective Decision Making ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
The Future ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Electoral Cycles ◽  
Shared Futures ◽  
Deliberative Processes

This chapter makes three arguments in support of the claim that we need inclusive deliberative processes to shape the future in collectively intentional, mutually accommodating ways. First, inclusive collective decision-making processes are needed to avoid futures that favour the interests of some groups of people over others. Second, deliberative processes are needed to shape our shared futures in collectively intentional ways: we need to be able to talk to ourselves about what we are doing and where we want to get to in the future. Third, deliberative exchanges are needed to help collectivities avoid the policy oscillations that are (or may be) associated with the political dynamics of short electoral cycles. Effective processes of reciprocal reason giving can help collectivities maintain policy continuity over the long term—when continuity is justified—even as governments and generations change.

Decisionism and Humanitarian Intervention: Reinterpreting Carl Schmitt and the Global Political Order

2005 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 443-460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven C. Roach
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Rights ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Carl Schmitt ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Level ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Humanitarian Interventions

International legal scholars and political scientists have devised many alternative proposals to legalize politically legitimized humanitarian interventions. While many of these alternative legal mechanisms have addressed the limits to the UN Charter and the political and economic consequences of intervention, they also have exposed the need for more theoretical analysis of the shift in political responsibilities and decision making from the state to international level. In this article, I draw on Carl Schmitt's theory of decisionism in order to understand the legitimacy and political dynamics of global decisionism. I argue that more theoretical analysis of the political substance of global authority is needed in order to understand the revolutionary content of a human rights enforcement regime.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Michael K. MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Future Selves ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Electoral Cycles ◽  
Democratic Systems

This chapter outlines four interrelated but conceptually distinct claims that have been made by proponents of the democratic myopia thesis. It has been argued that democratic systems are functionally short-sighted because of (1) the myopic preferences of voters; (2) the political dynamics of short electoral cycles; (3) the fact that future others who will be affected by our decisions cannot be included in our decision-making processes; and (4) the reality that democratic processes are often captured by powerful actors with dominant short-term objectives. When taken together these four arguments make a persuasive case for why democracies might be functionally short-sighted. This chapter—and the book as a whole—argues that we do not need to choose between our normative commitments to democracy and the well-being of our future selves and future others, because there are democratic responses to each of these components of the democratic myopia thesis.

Why Japan Signed the Mine Ban Treaty: The Political Dynamics behind the Decision

Asian Survey ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 397-413 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenki Adachi
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations ◽  
Mine Ban Treaty

This article clarifies the dynamics of Japan's decision-making process regarding its signing of the Mine Ban Treaty, analyzing the influence of non-governmental organizations on policymakers. It will demonstrate that this case was atypical in the Japanese decision-making process and that NGOs, with the support of domestic and international public opinion, can overcome entrenched bureaucratic policies.

Women in Power and Decision making Positions : Conditions and Restraints

1970 ◽  
pp. 53-57
Author(s):  
Azza Charara Baydoun
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Policies And Procedures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
Slow Progress

Women today are considered to be outside the political and administrative power structures and their participation in the decision-making process is non-existent. As far as their participation in the political life is concerned they are still on the margins. The existence of patriarchal society in Lebanon as well as the absence of governmental policies and procedures that aim at helping women and enhancing their political participation has made it very difficult for women to be accepted as leaders and to be granted votes in elections (UNIFEM, 2002).This above quote is taken from a report that was prepared to assess the progress made regarding the status of Lebanese women both on the social and governmental levels in light of the Beijing Platform for Action – the name given to the provisions of the Fourth Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. The above quote describes the slow progress achieved by Lebanese women in view of the ambitious goal that requires that the proportion of women occupying administrative or political positions in Lebanon should reach 30 percent of thetotal by the year 2005!

The Brunanburh Campaign: A Reappraisal

2005 ◽  
Vol 84 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-148 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kevin Halloran
Keyword(s):  
The Political ◽  
Variant Form ◽  
Political Dynamics ◽  
Battle Of Brunanburh

Modern accounts of the battle of Brunanburh have generally suggested a location in the Northumbrian-Mercian borderlands east or west of the Pennines, a conclusion based in part on analysis of the aims and strategy of Anlaf Guthfrithson, Viking king of Dublin. This article re-examines the political dynamics of the coalition against Athelstan, taking account of the territorial and political ambitions of the kings of Alba and Strathclyde, and proposes a radically different interpretation of the campaign of 937. It also questions the reliability of the variant form Brunanburh as a guide to the battle's location and concludes that the most likely site was Burnswark in Annandale.

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