Democratic GovernanceIn this thought-provoking new work, long-term collaborators James March and Johan Olsen construct a brilliant foundation for thinking about the broad theoretical concerns of democratic governance. Building on the work that began with their seminal essay on The New Institutionalism in The American Political Science Review in 1984 and continued in Rediscovering Institutions, March and Olsen challenge key aspects of standard contemporary thinking. While conventional thought is based primarily on the premises of individualism and self-interest, the authors argue that exchange theories of democracy are incomplete, reflecting only a partial view of history and human action. Going beyond democratic theory, March and Olsen draw on social science to examine how political institutions create and sustain democratic solidarity, identities, capabilities, accounts, and adaptiveness; how they can maintain and elaborate democratic values and beliefs-- and how governance might be made honorable, just, and effective. They show how democratic governance is both proactive and reactive-- creating interests and power as well as responding to them-- and how it shapes not only an understanding of the past and an ability to learn from it, but even history itself. By exploring how governance transcends the creation of coalitions that reflect existing preferences, resources, rights, and rules, the authors reveal how it includes the actual formation of these defining principles of social and political life. Which institutions serve democracy best? March and Olsen do not offer neat answers. Instead, while recognizing the complications involved in fulfilling democratic ideals, they ask how individuals and societies can achieve institutions that can make politics civil, accountable, capable, and transformative. In what is likely to be received as a seminal work, March and Olsen have established a comprehensive framework for discussion and debate that will continue to be read in management, political science, education, psychology, and sociology into the 21st century. |
Contents
PERSPECTIVES ON GOVERNANCE | 7 |
DEVELOPING POLITICAL IDENTITIES | 49 |
DEVELOPING POLITICAL CAPABILITIES | 91 |
Copyright | |
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Common terms and phrases
accounts action adaptation agenda alternative ambiguous appropriate attention authority autonomy behavior beliefs BIASED SAMPLES cials citizens and officials civil collective competence conceptions conflict consequences constraints construction contemporary context countable create culture define democracy democratic governance democratic political depends discourse economic effective emphasize environment European Union example exchange experience experiential learning experimentation exploration failure false consciousness groups human idea implementation individual interests interpretation interpretive communities knowledge lead learning litical March and Olsen ment modern Morengo nation-state norms organizational organized outcomes particular political actors political capabilities political competition political institutions political system popular sovereignty possible practices preferences problems procedures processes PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIA ratic reform requires responsibility result role rules self-interested Selznick shared short-run social society solidarity stable story structuralist structures success sustain tend theories tions tive traditions understandings values vidual winning coalitions World Bank zens