Institutional Change within Governmental Organizations

Project Leader

Prof. Dr. Edgar Grande

Participating Scientists

Martina McCowan, M.A.

Department

Political Science

Project Summary

The research project builds on the assumption that in the course of the transnationalisation, nation states are confronted with adaptive pressure. It is to be assumed that an ‘external transnationalisation’ correspondingly results in an ‘internal transnationalisation’ of nation states. This demand for adaptation is further intensified through global crises, as currently observable by the Global Financial and the subsequent Euro Debt Crisis. The goal of the project is to analyse differences and similarities in state responses in the form of institutional change in national administrations.

Theoretically the project links the research strands of institutionalism in political science and organisation theory by building on the New Institutionalism as formulated by March and Olsen (1989, 2005), the recent literature on different types of gradual institutional changes by Streeck and Thelen (2005), as well as on the literature on different modes of governance. On this basis, assumptions are formulated on the flexibility and the resulting patterns of adaptation in government organisations.

The project concentrates empirically on the analysis of institutional changes in Ministries of Finance, which are active in highly transnationalised policy areas and are thus confronted with increased adaptive pressure compared to other ministries. The German and Danish Ministries of Finance are used as examples to examine whether organisational adaptation occurred in response to transnationalisation and crisis, and if so, which forms adaptations take. More specifically it is of interest if we can observe adaptations in the organisational dimensions of structure, capacity and coordination, both of a formal and informal nature. Methodologically the study represents a qualitative study, which encompasses both document analysis and semi-structured interviews with representatives of both organisations.