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Actor-centered theories: II. The role of the state Lecture 5

Actor-centered theories: II. The role of the state Lecture 5. Health Politics Ana Rico Room L4-46, rico@bmg.eur.nl. OUTLINE OF THE SESSION. 1. Introduction A. Concepts Actors, organizations, institutions B. Actor-centred theories Theses and arguments Types of actor-centered theories

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Actor-centered theories: II. The role of the state Lecture 5

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  1. Actor-centered theories:II. The role of the stateLecture 5 Health Politics Ana Rico Room L4-46, rico@bmg.eur.nl

  2. OUTLINE OF THE SESSION 1. Introduction A. Concepts • Actors, organizations, institutions B. Actor-centred theories • Theses and arguments • Types of actor-centered theories 2. State-centred theories • Concepts: state, government, political system • Theses and arguments • Evidence • Criticisms • Policy implications (3. State-society theories, L6)

  3. CONCEPTS (1): Actors The word “actor” has two (slightly contradictory) connotations... • 1. Capable of independent action. Actor, doer, worker - A person who acts and gets things done; - One who takes part; a participant - Law. One, such as the manager of a business, who acts for another. • 2. Playing a part or role as pre-specified in an script Policy and political actors • Organizations, groups and individuals who actively participate in politics/policy-making Distinguish between: • State actors = those political actors who hold formal (constitutional or legal = institutional) power to make, take and enforce decisions which affect the whole society (=policy) • Stakeholders/(challengers) = social and sociopolitical actors who try to influence policy by exerting pressure from outside

  4. CONCEPTS (1): Actors The most important characteristics of actors are: • 1. Preferences = interests  How are they defined (+/- democratic/centralized process)?  To what extent are they private (less inclusive, more short-term) or public (more inclusive, more long-term)? • 2. Capacity=? amount of power (for) and other resources (money, knowledge, personnel) Action: (independent or not) is supposed to be directly derived from each actor’s caracteristics NOTE: Actor-centred theory defends that policy results from actors who have capacity (power for) to act independently; and so (=) able to impose their preferences on other actors (power over)

  5. CONCEPTS (2): Organizations In politics, collective actors are more relevant than individuals • A collective actor can be: • An organization; elites represent members and act for them • An organization representing a social group: elites represent, and act for, both members (inside) and supporters (outside) • A coalition of organizations and/or social groups, led by elites • A social group led by some elites (no organization) • Organizations are actors by the law: legal persons with property rights over capital, knowledge and connections... ... However, other analytical traits of an “actor” can be missing: • A collective who behaves as an individual (as army in battle)  Not all organizations can be considered a (unitary) actor

  6. CONCEPTS (2): Organizations • Organizations can be defined differently (depending on authors and research goals): • Collective actors: Emphasis on similarities with individuals, independent actors. MACRO – Rational choice, State-centred • Institutions: A set of institutional rules which determines the behaviour of the members of the organization. MACRO - Institutionalist • ‘Political systems’: Set of internal coalitions (linked to outside social groups) which struggle to influence organizational decisions and rules. MESO – State-society theories, Power-centred action theories NOTE: To define organizations as institutions confuses players with rules of the game, and involves determinism

  7. Organizations as collective actors • Governed by representatives often not subject to mandate... • Able to act outside the norms • ... And to change the rules of the game... • ...But subject to liability, accountable to shareholders and the courts: legal persons

  8. CONCEPTS (3): Institutions informal = cultural norms + social control • YES: Rules and norms formal = laws & rules + courts & police with special normative & symbolic features; or a long history • NO: = Organizations (they are also but not only institutional rules) • Which produce the rules and regulations (=with power to change institutions by enacting new policy); • With special normative and simbolic features; or a long history  Organizations versus groups: weight of formal vs informal norms

  9. CONCEPTS (3): Institutions • The main functions of institutions in politics are: • To allocate power (and money) across actors • To regulate behaviour: what is allowed/forbidden • Two types of formal institutions are relevant: • Political institutions: Constitutional distribution of powers across state actors. E.g.: Electoral system, Executive/Parliament power, Federal/Unitary • Organizational rules and structures: Internal rules of operation in organizations which regulate the distribution of power within the organization + the behaviour of its members and elites NOTE: Often the term “structures” is used as synonymous of institutions  BUT confusion with socioeconomic structure

  10. Organizations as institutions • Sets of formal/informal rules of power & norms of behaviour... • ... which structure social interaction within organizations • Operating within a network of contracts with others.... • ... and a broader regulatory environment ... + pools of resources (= as organisms)

  11. ACTOR-CENTERED THEORIES • Thesis: Policy change results from the capacity of the most powerful political actors to be autonomous from social pressures • Research question: Are political actors (eg the state, political parties, public opinion, policy experts, the media) capable of independent action (from context & IGs) which advances citizens’ welfare? • Relevance: Ultimately a question about... • Democracy  Does the state represents citizens?; and • Autonomy of politics from society: Can politics advance the general interest, rather than reflect the private interests of priviledged social groups? • Different types of actor-centred theories focus on different actors: • 1) State actors • 2) Political parties • 3) Policy experts • 4) Public opinion • 5) Mass media • 6) Corporatist organizations STATE-CENTRED STATE-SOCIETY

  12. SOCIAL & POLITICAL THEORIES L7 L3 1950s/60s: SOCIAL CONTEXT OLD INSTITUTIONALISM Formal political institutions SOCIAL PRESSURES L2, L4 SOCIAL ACTORS (IGs: dependent on social pressures) L5 POLITICAL ACTORS (STATE: independent of social pressures) 1970s/1980s: ACTOR-CENTRED L6 SOCIOP. ACTORS (STATE-SOCIETY: interdependent) 1990s: INSTITUT-IONALISM (+state-society) L7 NEW INSTITUTIONALISM (state institutions & state/PPs/IGs’ organization) L9 L4, L9 L7, L9 2000s: ACTION THEORIES POWER-CENTRED THEORIES (interactions among collective actors & social structure) RATIONAL CHOICE (interactions among individuals ACTOR-CENTERED INSTITUTIONALISM (interactions among institutions & elites)

  13. CONTEXT IGs/PPs ACTOR-CENTRED State-centred State-Soc. ACTION ACTOR-CENTRED THEORIES INSTITUTIONALISM

  14. STATE-CENTRED THEORIES I. Research questions • Are state actors capable of independent action which changes policy?; Do they respond to citizens (public interest) or private interest groups? II. Main concepts - definitions • State, state actors, government, political system III. Thesis and arguments • Policy change depends on the capacity of state actors, which make them autonomous from social pressures IV. Antitheses & criticisms V. Aplications – evidence • Accounting for American excepcionalism VI. Policy implications • To foster policy change we should help develop state actors´capacity (=resources??), as this would increase their autonomy vis-a-vis IGs

  15. CONCEPTS (4): The state Political system (=regime): aggregate of actors & institutions: • Organizations, groups and individuals who actively participate in politics • Set of institutional rules which regulate rights, power and behaviour State: • Set of political organizations with the ultimate power to take collective decisions which are binding for the whole of society; and to impose them upon it (through monopoly of the legitimate use of force) • Parliament + committees (deliberate, decide on rights, control gov.) • Government (adopts policy) + Bureaucracy (designs/implements policy) • Courts + Police (implements policy & guarantee compliance) • Elected (PPs’ elites) vs appointed officials (civil servants and policy experts) Government: • General: Activity of taking collective decisions • Specific: Political organization, with a key role within the state, with the power to take most policy decisions

  16. CONCEPTS (4): The state • SOCIAL CONTEXT: The state as a ‘transmission belt’ of social pressures • STATE-CENTRIC: The state as a unitary, independent actor with formal monopoly of (residual) power over policy-making • STATE-SOCIETY: The state as a set of political representatives and policy experts with preferences and action partly independent, and partly determined by a wide range of social actors’ pressures • INSTITUTIONALIST: The state as a set of political institutions; or as a set of elites with preferences and actions mainly determined by institutions • ACTION: As a set of political organizations which respond to context, sociopolitical actors and institutions; and which compete and cooperate (=interact) to make policy

  17. STATE-CENTERED THEORY • MAIN THESIS: State autonomy is the main determinant of policy change, and depends on the capacity of state actors vis-a-vis other policy actors • ARGUMENTS: • 1) Policy experts and bureaucrats are the main state actors in the policy-making; (+political parties), politicians just set policy goals • 2) History (= Policy legacies) model the institutional structure & resources of states, making some of them more capable (= independent) than others • 3) Pro-state policies are the result of capable states  weak states are captured, as they have to rely on IGs to expand state intervention • 4) Social/sociopolitical actors as well as citizens play only a minor role under strong, capable states, because: • “the organizational structures of the state indirectly influence the meanings and methods of politics for all groups in society”

  18. ANTECEDENTS (1) • Neo-marxist actor-centred theories (1) • Social context: Structuralism. Miliband 1969 • Politics is an unequal struggle between powerful capitalists (who directy rule the state), and a weak working class, unorganized and excluded from politics  pro-rich, pro-market status-quo • (Action) Policy only changes during crisis, as capitalists stop compiting and jointly use & expand the state to protect capitalism • Social actors: power resources theories. Fred Block 1977 • State actorsdepend for their fiscal resources on capitalists, so they will be against significant policy change • Policy changes as a result of organized working class pressures ofunions and socialists/SD parties on state actors

  19. ANTECEDENTS (2) • Neo-marxist actor-centred theories (2) • State-centred. Poulantzas 1973 • “The state is a relatively autonomous entity”, “capable of transcending the parrochial interests of specific capitalists and specific class factions” • “The capitalist state best serves the interests of the capitalist class only when members of this class do not participate directly in the state aparatus” • (Action) An organized and mobilized working class reinforces state autonomy

  20. ANTECEDENTS (3) • Old political institutionalism • Formal centralization of decision-making power makes political regimes, states and organizations stronger & more efficient • State powers are more centralized when: • Democratic Institutions: Majoritarian (vs proportional) electoral systems; Unitary (vs federal) states; Executive dominance (+/- = parliamentarism vs. presidentialism); • Sociopolitical organizations:Single-party (vs coalition) government; Corporatism (vs pluralism); Party discipline and organization • Social groups: Single (=class) vs multiple cleavages in the soc. struct. seen as causes of institutions • Single/multiple cleavages  biparty/multiparty system  single party/coalition gov.  centralized democratic institutions

  21. CAUSAL MAPS Social context & social actors theories Proposals of politically active groups Changing class structure & new social needs Socioeconomic & cultural changes Government action/Policy change State-centered theories How state organizations & parties operate Government action/Policy change State formation (bureaucratization, democratization Changing group and social needs What politically active groups propose Source: Orloff & Skocpol, 1984

  22. ANTI-THESES Policy is “a vector diagram in which a series of pressures are brought to bear on the state which then moves in the direction it is pushed by the strongest societal forces”(Hall, 1993) SOCIAL CONTEXT • 1) CONVERGENCE: as GDP grows (following industrialization), democratic societies age, and the WS expands • 2) CULTURAL THEORY: countries with liberal (anti-statist) national cultures have underdeveloped WSs • 3) STRUCTURAL THEORIES (Working class strength): “the WS is a product of the growing strength of labour in civil society” (Stephens, 1979:89; quoted by Orloff & Skocpol, 1984) SOCIAL ACTORS: When capitalists are strong/the working class weak, private IGs are strong/Unions & SD parties are weak, and the WS is weak

  23. CRITICISMS (1) CONCEPTS - “The state at which we are now looking largely remains a black box” (Hall, 1993) - Political parties considered as state actors, independent from society ANALITYCAL - It disregards society - “The stark dichotomy between state & society... should be revised to allow a significant role to the political system defined as the complex of political parties and interest intermediaries that stand in the intersection between state and society in democratic politics” (Hall, 1993) - It mixes actor-centred arguments with institutional (and policy-feedback) arguments without differenciatng

  24. CRITICISMS (2) EMPIRICAL • “How it is that an state with an unchanging structure often seems to be more autonomous from societal pressure at some times or in some fields than others?” (Hall, 1993) • US 1930s enacts WS pensions but HC reform fails • Deviant case & the comparative method: • In the UK (Jacobs, 1992), same anti-state policy legacies (culture) but NHI 1945 (due topublic opinion changes) • In Canada (Maioni, 1997), weaker state than US but NHI: - the WS historically weaker than in the US (policy legacies -), - federalism was stronger (weak state institutions -), BUT (against state-centred theory)  - universal NHI was approved in the 1960s (but failed in the US)

  25. Policy implications • NOTE: Radically different policy implications of social context, actor-centred theory (state-centred A.) and institutionalist theory (state-centred B.) • DIAGNOSIS: • * 1. SOCIAL CONTEXT: Weak WS due to unfavourable economic growth, social structure and national culture • * 2. STATE-CENTRED A.: Weak WS due to weak (=little resources, divided), captured (=corrupted) state actors and political parties • * 3. STATE-CENTRED B: Weak WS due to weak political institutions (Constitution) and policy legacies (history) • POLICY ADVICE: • * 1. Modify the social structure (eg through redistribution), and national cultures (through policy campaigns & improved state performance) • * 2. Strengthen the capacity of state actors and policy experts (eg research, training, recruitment, tax policies, party discipline) • * 3. Reform the Constitution  difficult; + history  unchangeable

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