Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-21T22:50:24.735Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Popular Sovereignty and the Search for Appropriate Institutions *

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

James G. March  and
Johan P. Olsen
James G. March
Affiliation:
Management, Stanford University
Johan P. Olsen
Affiliation:
Administration, University of Bergen
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper is about criteria for assessing alternative political institutions in a society committed to popular sovereignty. The issues are classic, and we do not attempt a comprehensive review of the ways in which they run through political and economic thought since Aristotle. An aggregative perspective on political institutions, which describes politics in terms of aggregating exogenous, prior preferences of citizens, is contrasted with an integrative perspective, which describes politics more in terms of the development of preferences within a framework of rights and norms. The evaluation of aggregative processes and institutions highlights questions of efficiency, preferences, and endowments. The evaluation of integrative institutions focuses on questions of competence and integrity. Many of the most influential contemporary discussions of political institutions are based on an aggregative framework that is relatively inattentive to issues of political integration. This contemporary emphasis on metaphors of aggregation, however, represents a phase in a history of oscillation between aggregation and integration in politics and political theory, and there are signs that the emphasis may shift in the next few decades to a greater consciousness of integration. Although the cyclic process is not escaped through awareness of it, such awareness may provide a basis for a more thoughtful approach to the search for appropriate institutions within a political system dedicated to popular sovereignty.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Public Policy , Volume 6 , Issue 4 , October 1986 , pp. 341 - 370
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Allardt, E. et al. 1981. Nordic Democracy. Copenhagen: Dct Danske Selskab.Google Scholar
Allison, G. T. 1971. Essence of Decision. Boston, MA: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Andenæs, K. 1985. Domstolene – Statsmakt på nedtur. Hefte for Kritiskjuss 3/4:48–51.Google Scholar
Anderson, C. W. 1979. The Place of Principles in Policy Analysis. American Political Science Review, 73:711–723.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arendt, H. 1958. The Human Condition. Chicago: Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Arrow, K. 1974. Limits of Organization. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Balbus, I. 1971. The Concept of Interest in Pluralist and Marxian Analysis. Politics and Society, 1:151–174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barker, A., ed. 1982. Quangos in Britain. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berki, R. N. 1979. State and Society: An Antithesis of Modern Political Thought. In Hayward, J. E. S. and Berki, R. N., eds., State and Society in Contemporary Europe. Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Birnbaum, P., Lively, J., and Perry, G.. 1978. Democracy, Consensus and Social Contract. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Black, D. 1958. The Theory of Committees and Elections. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Briggs, A. 1961. The Welfare State in Historical Perspective. Achieves Europëennes de Sociologie, 2:221–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, S. 1927. Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Canovan, M. 1985. Politics as Culture: Hannah Arendt and the Public Realm. History of Political Thought, 6:617–642.Google Scholar
Christensen, T. 1985. Styrt cndring og planlagtc konsekvenser: en oranisasjonsanalyse av omorganiseringen i den sentrale helseforvaltning, 1982–1983. Tromsø: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Cohen, M. D., and March, J. G.. 1986. Leadership and Ambiguity, 2nd ed.Boston: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Cohen, M. D., March, J. G., and Olsen, J. P.. 1972. A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17:1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crespigny, A. de and Wertheimer, A., eds. 1970. Contemporary Political Theory. London: Nelson.Google Scholar
Crick, B. 1982. In Defence of Politics. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin.Google Scholar
Crozier, M., Huntington, S. P. and Watanuki, J.. 1975. The Crises of Democracy: Report on the Govemability of Democracies to the Trilateral Commission. New York: New York University Press.Google Scholar
Cyert, R. M. and March, J. G.. 1963. A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Dahl, R. A. 1977. On Removing Certain Impediments to Democracy in the United States. Political Science Quarterly, 92:1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, R. A. 1980. The Moscow Discourse: Fundamental Rights in a Democratic Order. Government and Opposition, 15:3–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dahl, R. A. 1986 Democracy, Liberty, and Equality. Oslo: Norwegian University Press.Google Scholar
Dahl, R. A. and Lindblom, C. E.. 1953. Politics, Economics, and Welfare. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Dalberg-Larsen, J. 1984. Retsstaten, velfœrdsstaten og hvad så? Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Google Scholar
Dallmayr, F. R., ed. 1978. From Contract to Community. New York/Basel: Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Dan-Cohen, M. 1986. Rights, Persons, and Organizations: A Legal Theory for Bureaucratic Society. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
De Jouvenal, B. 1949. On Power. New York: Viking Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. 1985. Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory. New Haven, CT: Unpublished ms.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P., and Powell, W. W.. 1983. The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields. American Sociological Review, 48:147–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Downs, A. 1957. An Economic Theory of Democracy. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Dyson, K. 1980. The State Tradition in Western Europe. Oxford: Martin Robertson.Google Scholar
Eckhoff, T. 1976. The Relationship Between Judicial and Political Branches ofGovernment,Jahrbuch fur Rechtssoziologie und Rechts Theorie, 4:14–23.Google Scholar
Eckhoff, T. and Jacobsen, K. D.. 1960. Rationality and Responsibility in Administrative and Judicial Decision-Making. Copenhagen: Munksgaard.Google Scholar
Eckstein, H. 1982. The Idea of Political Development: From Dignity to Efficiency. World Politics, 34:451–486.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edelman, M. 1964. The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Egeberg, M. and Stigen, I.. 1985. The Management of Competing Norms and Decision Principles: The Organizational Context of Norwegian Directorates. Oslo: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. 1958. Bureaucracy and Bureaucratization. Current Sociology, 7:99–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. 1964. Institutionalization and Change. American Sociological Review, 29:235–247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eisenstadt, S. N. 1965. Essays on Comparative Institutions. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Elster, J. 1983a. Offentlighet og Deltakelse. In Bergh, T., ed., Deltakerdemokratiet. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Elster, J. 1983b. Sour Crapes: Studies in the Subversion of Rationality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fama, E. F. 1980. Agency Problems and the Theory of the Firm. Journal of Political Economy, 88:288–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finer, H. 1941. Administrative Responsibility in Democratic Government. Public Administration Review, 1:335–350.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Follett, M. P. 1918. The New State. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith.Google Scholar
Fried, C. 1978. Right and Wrong. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedrich, C. J. 1940. Public Policy and the Nature of Administrative Responsibility. In Friedrich, C. J. and Mason, E. S., eds., Public Policy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Galbraith, J. K. 1967. The New Industrial State. London: Hamish Hamilton.Google Scholar
Goodin, R. E. 1982. Freedom and the Welfare State: Theoretical Foundations. Journal of Social Policy, 2:149–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Habermas, J. 1975. Legitimation Crisis. Boston: Bacon.Google Scholar
Hague, D. C., Mackenzie, W.J.M. and Barker, A.. 1975. Public Policy and Private Interests, the Institutions of Compromise. London: Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hansot, E. 1974. Perfection and Progress: Two Modes of Utopian Thought. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Heclo, H. 1978. Issue Networks and the Executive Establishment. In King, A., ed., The New American Political System. Washington, D.C.: American Enterprise Institute.Google Scholar
Hernes, G. 1978. Forhandlingsokonomi og blandingsadministrasjon. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Hood, C. C. 1986. The Hidden Public Sector: The Quangocratization of the World. In Kaufman, F. X., Ostrom, V., and Majone, G., eds., Guidance, Control and Performance Evaluation in the Public Sector. Berlin: deGruyter.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, K. D. 1960. Lojalitet, nøytralitet og faglig uavhengighet. Tidsskrift for Samfunnsforskning, 1:231–248.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, K. B. 1964. Teknisk hjelp og politisk struktur. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Jacobsson, B. 1984. Hur styrs forvalningen – myt och verklighet kring departmentenes styming av ämbetsverken. Stockholm: EFI – Studentlitteratur.Google Scholar
Jordan, A. G. 1981. Iron Triangles, Woolly Corporatism and Elastic Nets: Images of the Policy Process. Journal of Public Policy, 1:95–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalberg, S. 1980. Max Weber's Types of Rationality: Cornerstones for the Analysis of Rationalization Processes in History. American Journal of Sociology, 85:1145–1178.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, D. B., Gutek, A., Kahn, R. L. and Barton, E.. 1975. Bureaucratic Encounters: A Pilot Study in the Evaluation of Government Services. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Institute for Social Research.Google Scholar
Kaufman, H. 1956. Emerging Conflicts in the Doctrine of Public Administration. American Political Science Review, 50:1057–1073.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kingdon, J. W. 1984. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Kingsley, D. 1944. Representative Bureaucracy. Yellow Springs, OH: Antioch Press.Google Scholar
Krislov, S. 1974. Representative Bureaucracy. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Krislov, S. and Rosenbloom, D. H.. 1981. Representative Bureaucracy and the American Political System. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Lægreid, P. and Olsen, J. P.. 1978. Byrakrati og beslutninger. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Le Grand, J., and Robinson, R.. 1984. Privatisation and the Welfare State. London: Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Lehmbruch, G. 1985. Neo Corporatism in Western Europe: A Reassessment of the Concept in Crossnational Perspective. Konstanz: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Levene, C. H. and Hansen, M. G.. 1985. The Centralization–Decentralization Tug-of-war in the New Executive Branch. Paris: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Lindblom, C. E. 1977. Politics and Markets. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Lowi, T.J. 1969. The End of Liberalism. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
March, J. G. 1971. The Technology of Foolishness. Civiløkonomen, 18:4, 4–12.Google Scholar
March, J. G. 1978. Bounded Rationality, Ambiguity, and the Engineering of Choice. Bell Journal of Economics, 9:587–608.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. 1981a. Decisions in Organizations and Theories of Choice. In Van de Ven, A. and Joyce, W., eds., Perspectives on Organizational Design and Performance. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
March, J. G. 1981b. Footnotes to Organizational Change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26:563–577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. 1987a. Ambiguity and Accounting: The Elusive Link Between Information and Decision Making. Accounting, Organizations, and Society, 12: forthcoming.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. 1987b. Preferences, Power, and Democracy. Stanford, CA: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P.. 1976. Ambiguity and Choice in Organizations. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P.. 1983. Organizing Political Life: What Administrative Reorganization Tells Us About Government. American Political Science Review, 77:281–297.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P.. 1984. The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life. American Political Science Review, 78:734–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. and Olsen, J. P.. 1986. Garbage Can Models of Decision Making in Organizations. In March, J. G. and Weissinger-Baylon, R., eds., Ambiguity and Command: Organizational Perspectives on Military Decision Making. Cambridge: MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Marshall, T. H. 1950. Citizenship and Social Class and Other Essays. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mashaw, J. L. 1985. Prodelegation: Why Administrators Should Make Political Decisions. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1:81–100.Google Scholar
Mayntz, R. 1979. Public Bureaucracies and Policy Implementation. International Social Science Journal, 31:632–645.Google Scholar
Mayntz, R. 1983. The Conditions of Effective Public Policy: A New Challenge for Policy Analysis. Policy and Politics, 11:123–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merton, R. K. 1957. The Latent Functions of the Machine. In Merton, R. K., Social Theory and Social Structure. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. W. and Rowan, B.. 1977. Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83:340–363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mill, J. S. 1838. Bentham. Reprinted in Mill on Bentham and Coleridge. London: Chatto and Windus, 1950.Google Scholar
Miller, D. 1982. Evolution and Revolution: A Quantum View of Structural Change in Organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 19:131–151.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nas, T. F., Price, A. C., and Weber, C. T.. 1986. A Policy-Oriented Theory of Corruption. American Political Science Review, 80:107–119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newsletter. 1986. The Study Group on the Structure and Organization of Government, Vol. 1,No. 1.Google Scholar
Nonet, P. and Selznick, P.. 1978. Law and Society in Transition: Towards Responsive Law. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
OECD. 1983. Positive Adjustment Policies: Managing Structural Change. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Offerdal, A. 1985. Om del rasjonelle og det rimelige. Bergen: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Olson, J. P. 1970. Local budgeting: Decision making or a ritual act? Scandinavian Political Studies, 5:85–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, J. P. 1972. ‘Voting’, ‘Sounding Out’, and the Governance of Modern Organizations. Acta Sociologica, 15:267–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olsen, J. P. 1981. Integrated Organizational Participation in Government. In Nystrom, P. G. and Starbuck, W. H., eds., Handbook of Organizational Design, Vol. 2. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Olsen, J. P. 1983. Organized Democracy. Bergen: Universitetsforlaget.Google ScholarPubMed
Olsen, J. P. 1987. Administrative Reform and Theories of Organization, to appear in Campbell, C. and Peters, B. G., eds., Organizing Governance. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Olson, M. 1982. The Rise and Decline of Nations. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Øystese, O. 1980. Staten i en skjebnetime. Oslo: Lunde.Google Scholar
Pateman, C. 1985. Participation and Democratic Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Patcman, C. 1985. The Problem of Political Obligation. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Pattanaik, P. K. 1971. Voting and Collective Choice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Peters, B. G. 1984. The Politics of Bureaucracy, 2nd ed.New York: Longmans.Google Scholar
Pfeffer, J. 1982. Organizations and Organization Theory. Boston: Pitman.Google Scholar
Pitkin, H. 1967. The Concept of Representation. Berkeley: University ofCalifornia Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pitkin, H. 1981. Justice: On Relating Private and Public Political Theory. Political Theory, 9:327–352.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Poggi, G. 1978. The Development of the Modern State. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Przeworski, A. Forthcoming. Popular Sovereignty, State Autonomy, and Private Property. To appear in des Archives Europeennes de Sociologie.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riker, W. H. 1962. The Theory of Political Coalitions. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Rose, R. 1984. Understanding Big Government. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Ross, S. A. 1973. The Economic Theory of Agency: The Principal's Problem. American Economic Review, 63:134–139.Google Scholar
Rueschemeyer, D. and Evans, P. B.. 1985. The State and Economic Transformation: Toward an Analysis of the Conditions Underlying Effective Intervention. In Evans, P. B., Rueschemeyer, D., and Skocpol, T., eds., Bringing the State Back In. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Salamon, L. M., and Abramson, A.J.. 1984. Governance: The Politics of Retrenchment. In Palmer, J. L. and Sawhill, I. V., eds., The Reagan Record. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Sarason, S. B. 1986. And What is the Public Interest? American Psychologist, 41:899–905.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savas, E. S. 1982. Privatizing the Public Sector: How to Shrink Government. Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.Google Scholar
Scharpf, F. W. 1977. Public Organization and the Waning of the Welfare State: A Research Perspective. European Journal of Political Research, 5:339–362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scharpf, F. W. 1986. Policy Failure and Institutional Reform: Why Should Form Follow Function? International Social Science Journal, 37:179–189.Google Scholar
Schmitter, P. C. and Lehmbruch, G., eds. 1979. Trends Toward Corporatist Intermediation. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Scott, W. R. 1981. Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Sejersted, F. 1984. Demokrati og rettsstat. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. 1957. Leadership in Administration. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Selznick, P. 1968. Law: The Sociology of Law. In Sills, D., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York: Macmillan and Free Press.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1970. Collective Choice and Social Welfare. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1982. Choice, Welfare, and Measurement. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Sen, A. K. 1985. Goals, Commitment, and Identity. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1:341–355.Google Scholar
Sharkansky, I. 1979. Whither the State? Chatham, NJ: Chatham House.Google Scholar
SOU. 1985: 40. Regeringen, myndigheterna, och myndighelemas ledning.Google Scholar
Stinchcombe, A. 1986. Reason and Rationality. Bergen: Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Streeck, W. and Schmitter, P. C.. 1985. Community, Market, State – and Associations? The Prospective Contribution of Interest Government to Social Order. In Strceck, W. and Schmitter, P. C., eds., Private Interest Government: Beyond Market and State. London: Sage.Google Scholar
Study of Power and Democracy in Sweden. 1985: 1936. Committee Instructions. Stockholm: Study of Power and Democracy in Sweden.Google Scholar
Tarchys, D. and Eduards, M.. 1975. Petita: Hur svenska myndigheter argumenterar för högre anslag. Stockholm: Liber.Google Scholar
Taylor, M. 1975. The Theory of Collective Choice. In Greenstein, F. I. and Polsby, N. W., eds., Handbook of Political Science, Vol. 3. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Taylor, S. 1984. Making Bureaucracies Think. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Teubner, G. 1983. Substantive and Reflexive Elements in Modern Law. Law and Society, 17:239–285.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teubner, G. 1984. After Legal Instrumentalism? Strategic Models of Post-regulatory Law. International Journal of the Sociology of Law, 12:375–400.Google Scholar
Thompson, D. F. 1980. Moral Responsibility of Public Officials: The Problem of Many Hands. American Political Science Review, 74:905–916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thompson, J. D. and McEwen, W. J.. 1958. Organizational Goals and Environment. American Sociological Review, 23:23–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolbert, P. S. and Zucker, L. G.. 1983. Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880–1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28:22–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tribe, L. H. 1985. Constitutional Choices. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Tullock, G. 1967. Toward a Mathematics of Politics. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Von, Beyme K., 1985. The Role of the State and the Growth of Government. International Political Science Review, 6:11–34.Google Scholar
Walzer, M. 1983. Spheres of Justice. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Weber, M. (1924) 1978. Guenther Roth and Claus Wittich, eds. Economy and Society. Translated by Fischoff, Ephraim et al. from Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Weinberg, M. W. 1977. Managing the State. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Wildavsky, A. 1987. Choosing Preferences by Constructing Institutions: A Cultural Theory of Preference Formation. American Political Science Review, 81:3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, O. E. 1975. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. E. 1985. The Economic Institutions of Capitalism. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Wilson, H. T. 1985. Political Management: Redefining the Public Sphere. Berlin:de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, J. Q., ed. 1980. The Politics of Regulation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Winston, G. C. 1985. The Reasons for Being of Two Minds, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 1:375–379.Google Scholar
Wolin, S. 1960. Politics and Vision. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
Zucker, L. G. 1977. The Role of Institutionalization in Cultural Persistence. American Sociological Review, 42:726–743.CrossRefGoogle Scholar