Browsing Working Papers (DBP) by Year Published
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How? How much?Nedergaard, Peter (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Mutual learning among the Member States is the primary purpose of the employment policy of the European Union. The two most important questions in this regard are how learning occurs and how much learning takes place. In this article I argue that the existing analyses of the effects of learning in the European employment strategy have been either determined by the sender’s interests or have underestimated how mutual learning between countries takes place. In stead the article develops a constructivist approach to learning and uses it to generate some concrete hypothesis about when learning in committees is most likely to take place. Afterwards, this constructivist approach is used to analyse the institutional framework surrounding the European employment strategy in order to evaluate whether the potential for learning is optimal. Finally, the article concludes that even though some basic premises for learning is fulfilled, the potential for mutual learning could and should be increased by implemented at range of concrete institutional reforms. Firstly, a range of professional and autonomous sub-committees which reports to the EMCO should be established. Secondly, the EMCO should be given more time to discuss the national action plans in meetings which more loosely defined agendas. Thirdly, the cooperation should be concentrated around the areas where the differences in terms of policy performances among the Member States are greatest. Fourthly, the president of the EMCO should be given a more prominent role at the expense of the Commission. Finally, the members of the EMCO should to a higher extent come from the directorates in the Member states rather than the minister’s departments. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7332 Files in this item: 1
working paper_40_pn_mutual learning.pdf (138.4Kb) -
Om analysen af den økonomisk-politiske integration i EUNedergaard, Peter (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Artiklen diskuterer anvendelige teorier for analysen af den økonomisk-politiske integration i EU’s politiske system, som i dag er langt den vigtigste reguleringsramme om virksomhederne i EU. I den forbindelse foreslår artiklen en såkaldt socialkonstruktivistisk rational choice-teori, hvor socialkonstruktivismen tager sig af de ændrede politiske præferencer og rational choice-teorien sig af de langt mere konstante politiske institutioner. Den foreslåede teori anvendes til forklaring af de politiske resultater af tre vigtige reformer af EU’s landbrugspolitik i 1984, 1992 og 2003. Den viser sig i stand til både at forklare indarbejdelsen af mere postmoderne præferencer i reformerne og at det er de svagt organiserede grupper som forbrugerne og (i stigende grad) skatteyderne, der betaler regningen for EU’s landbrugspolitik uanset, hvordan den reformeres. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7354 Files in this item: 1
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On the Operational Dynamics and Social Dimensions of Public-Private PartnershipsWeihe, Guri (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Drawing upon extant alliance literature, this article substantiates the argument that we need to look beyond mere structural and formative aspects of cooperation in order to fully understand the performance antecedents of public-private partnerships. Currently, scholarly work on operational processes and behavioural dimensions is practically non-existent. This article tries to remedy the current gap in the literature by reviewing research findings on interfirm collaboration (alliances). On that basis a conceptual framework for analyzing partnership processes is developed. Finally, the antecedents of collaborative advantage are theoretically examined, and the organizational competences contributing to collaborative success are identified. The conclusion is that operational processes and social dynamics are vital drivers of collaborative advantage. Another significant conclusion is that public management research can benefit from drawing upon existing alliance research. Alliance scholars have during the past couple of decades accumulated an impressive amount of knowledge on different aspects of inter-firm cooperation, and therefore the learning potential for public management scholars seems to be quite enormous. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7380 Files in this item: 1
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Seabrooke, Leonard (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-1998 the International Monetary Fund (the Fund) has been embroiled in an international crisis of legitimacy. Assertions of a crisis are premised on the notions that the Fund’s voting system is unfair, and that the Fund enforces homogenous policies onto borrowing member states and that loan programs tend to fail. Seen this way, poor institutional and policy design has led to a loss of legitimacy. But institutionalised inequalities or policy failure is not in itself sufficient to constitute an international crisis of legitimacy. This article provides a conceptually-driven discussion of the sources of the Fund’s international crisis of legitimacy by investigating how its formal "foreground" institutional relations with its member states have become strained, and how informal "background" political and economic relationships are expanding in a way that the Fund will find difficult to re-legitimate. The difference between the Fund's claims to legitimacy and how its member states, especially borrowers, act has led to the creation of a "legitimacy gap" that is difficult to close. However, identifying the sources of the Fund's international crisis of legitimacy allows us to explore what avenues are available to resolve the crisis. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7321 Files in this item: 1
wp35_imf_ls.pdf (172.3Kb) -
The International Monetary Fund and Policy Reform Surveillance in Small Open EconomiesSeabrooke, Leonard; Broome, André (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The International Monetary Fund spends most of its time monitoring its member states' economic performance and advising on institutional change. While much of the literature sees the Fund as a policy enforcer in "emerging market" and "frontier" economies, little attention has been paid to exploring the Fund’s bilateral surveillance of its Western member states. This article proposes that "seeing like the IMF" provides a dynamic view of how the Fund frames its advice for institutional change. It does so through "associational templates" that do not blindly promote institutional convergence, but appeal for change on the basis of like-characteristics among economies. Many Western states, particularly small open economies, consider the Fund's advice as important not only for technical know-how, but because Fund assessments are significant to international and domestic political audiences. This article traces the Fund's advice on taxation and monetary reform to two coordinated market economies, Denmark and Sweden, and two liberal market economies, Australia and New Zealand from 1975 to 2004. It maps how the Fund advocated "policy revolutions" and "policy recombinations" during this period, advice that coincided with important institutional changes within these small open economies. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7323 Files in this item: 1
wp37_imf_denmark_ls.pdf (203.9Kb) -
Three Fevers and Two Tonics from Historical SociologySeabrooke, Leonard (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Much of the literature in political economy seeks to capture an essential insight into the evolution of political and economic systems to provide a foundation for policy advice. This article suggests that attempts to nut out the kernels of change often restrict rather than expand policy imagination. Three "fevers" are identified as involved in the narrowing of policy imagination and two "tonics" are offered to widen it. The three fevers are: 1. viewing the present as natural; 2. seeing history as overtly path dependent; and 3. viewing history as driven by "Great Men". These fevers limit our capacity to see political, social, and economic changes that do not conform to conventional theories, as well as distorting our understanding of how the contemporary world works. What policymakers want, more than prediction or recitation of conventional theories, is context to understand how policy can be implemented. Historical sociology provides a way to generate information about contextual constellations through two "tonics": intentional rationality and social mechanisms. With the assistance of these tonics, historical sociology widens political economy's policy imagination. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7327 Files in this item: 1
wp36_historical_sociology_ls.pdf (103.8Kb) -
Towards Enabling Welfare states and experimentalist Business SystemsKristensen, Peer Hull (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7330 Files in this item: 1
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Protectors of Achieved Rights or Active Co-Constructors of the Future?Kristensen, Peer Hull; Rocha, Robson (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7334 Files in this item: 1
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Institutionalizing Agents and Institutionalized AgencyKristensen, Peer Hull; Morgan, Glenn (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7342 Files in this item: 1
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Greve, Carsten (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper consists of Carsten Greve’s inaugrial lecture as new professor with special responsibilities for the areas public-private relationships and public management. First, the talk gives a view of how public-private partnerships have been defined in the literature. Then the talk focuses on the business of PPPs, including the way markets develop and are structured. The talk moves on to focus on the politics of PPPs, including the political processes in forming a policy on PPPs. The talk then discusses the interrelationship between business and politics within a political economy framework and institutional theory. The talk ends by considering the international perspective and the comparative research agenda. The conclusions highlight the research challenges for the future which include examining the stability and change in the use of market mechanisms in the delivery of public services in a historical-institutional perspective. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7347 Files in this item: 1
wp38_intl_ppp.pdf (194.4Kb) -
Lessons to be learned from the "hidden” committees of the Nordic Council of MinistersNedergaard, Peter (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In spite of their long history and extensive activities, the international committees of the Nordic Council of Ministers have not hitherto been subject to scholarly examination. This paper demonstrates that valuable lessons can be learned about policy learning in practise and theoretically by analysing the cooperation in the committees of the Nordic Council of Ministers. Using the Advocacy Coalition Framework as the starting point, fifteen hypotheses on policy learning are tested. Among other things, it is concluded that in order to maximise policy learning in international committees, committees should avoid fragmentation into coalitions, be open to public opinion, participants in committees should be driven by a sense of purpose rather that material interest, empirical data should be made available to committees, a neutral presidency should be present in order to act as an authoritative persuader, and neutral scientists should participate, although not necessarily scientists from consultancy firms. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7353 Files in this item: 1
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The role of the state in the development and reproduction of "the Danish model”Kaspersen, Lars Bo; Schmidt-Hansen, Ulrich (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In the literature on the establishment and development of the Danish variant of corporatism, emphasis has most often been on the role of the social partners. Scholars rarely stress the crucial role which the state has played in the development of the system. We argue that several actors contributed to the development of the ‘Danish model’, but that these actors were often orchestrated by the state. At crucial moments the direction of these different actors was even determined by the state. In the first part of the article, it is argued that the state has been under-theorized and to some extent neglected in corporatist theory. In particular, we draw upon a conceptualization of the state developed by Michael Mann and Eric Nordlinger’s different forms of state autonomy. We propose a state-centered theoretical focus enabling us to grasp the role of the state in the dynamics of the corporatist system. In the second part of the article, we present an analysis of the establishment and evolution of the Danish corporatist system seen from this distinctively state-centered perspective. In the third part we look into the current system during the last decade of the 20th century. By newly- conducted empirical research, we examine the role of the state in the corporatist system during the 1990s in the labour market and within immigration integration policy. We conclude that due to its autonomous power, the state is still a key player in the corporatist system. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7362 Files in this item: 1
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Kristensen, Peer Hull; Morgan, Glenn (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This article discusses how institutional competitiveness and multinationals are mutually enriching concepts. Seen from the perspective of Multinationals, institutional competitiveness becomes expressed at two levels. At the level of corporate HQs institutional competitiveness proves itself by forming firms capable of expanding internationally. At the level of subsidiaries as providing institutional back up for these firms’ abilities to fight for survival and growth within the frame of rivalling subsidiaries of the MNC. The article discusses at these two levels the comparative institutional competitiveness of Liberal Market Economies and Coordinated Markets Economies under the current competitive regime. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7325 Files in this item: 1
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Seabrooke, Leonard; Hobson, John (, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Our everyday actions have important consequences for the constitution and transformation of the local, national, regional and global contexts. How, what, and with whom we spend, save, invest, buy and produce in our ordinary lives shapes markets and how states choose to intervene in them. The political, economic, and social networks with which we associate ourselves provide us not only with meaning about how we think economic policy is made, but also constitute vehicles for how economic policy, both at home and abroad, should be made. And while elite actors in politics and economics obviously have more direct influence, this should not obscure the point that peripheral actors can challenge the legitimacy of how power is exercised. Nor should it obscure the point that such actors have a good deal more agency in terms of determining their own life experiences as well as those of others through their everyday actions than is commonly recognised. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7912 Files in this item: 1
WP CBP 2006-26.pdf (156.3Kb) -
A Survey of the FieldSeabrooke, Leonard (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
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Competency and Change in Public Sector Work PracticesHull Kristensen, Peer; Bojesen, Anders (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper invites to discuss the processes of individualization and organizing being carried out under what we might see as an emerging regime of change. The underlying argumentation is that in certain processes of change, competence becomes questionable at all times. The hazy characteristics of this regime of change are pursued through a discussion of competencies as opposed to qualifications illustrated by distinct cases from the Danish public sector in the search for repetitive mechanisms. The cases are put into a general perspective by drawing upon experiences from similar change processes in MNCs. The paper concludes by asking whether we can escape from a regime of competence in a world defined by a rhetoric of change and create a more promising world in which doubt and search serve as a strategy for gaining knowledge and professionalism that improve on our capability for mutualism. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7376 Files in this item: 1
organizing process.pdf (581.6Kb) -
Nedergaard, Peter (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to address two normative and interlinked methodological and theoretical questions concerning the Open Method of Coordination (OMC): First, what is the most appropriate approach to learning in the analyses of the processes of the European Employment Strategy (EES)? Second, how should mutual learning processes be diffused among the Member States in order to be efficient? In answering these two questions the paper draws on a social constructivist approach to learning thereby contributing to the debate about learning in the political science literature. At the same time, based on the literature and participatory observations, it is concluded that the learning effects of the EES are probably somewhat larger than what is normally suggested, but that successful diffusion still depends on a variety of contextual factors. At the end of the paper a path for empirical research based upon a social constructivist approach to learning is suggested. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7364 Files in this item: 1
eu-coordination.pdf (183.4Kb) -
A Social Constructivist ApproachNedergaard, Peter (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper is structured as follows: Section 2 summarizes the recent debate in the political science literature on analytical approaches to learning, which has gradually developed in a direction of being less and less individualistic. Section 3 follows up on this development and introduces a social constructivist approach to learning that redefines learning as changes in language-constituted relations to others. In section 4 this argument is elaborated into a model for mutual learning. Section 5 contains a qualitative analysis of the organisation of the EES in practice with regard to the possibilities of policy diffusion of the EES learning processes as predicted in the model in section 4. Section 6 deals with the conflictual views on the size and character of the learning processes of the EES in recent studies and proposes a new methodological path to investigate the mutual learning processes based upon a social constructivist approach. Section 7 is the conclusion of the article which sums up the examination of the both the various approaches to learning analysed in the paper and the evaluation of the possibilities of policy diffusion resulting from the learning processes. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7328 Files in this item: 1
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Hull Kristensen, Peer (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7363 Files in this item: 1
danmarks_innovationsstyrker_phk.pdf (93.14Kb)