Doctoral Dissertation Research in Political Science: Social Networks and Public Goods: How the Type of Network Affects the Pattern of Government Expenditures

政治学博士论文研究：社交网络与公共物品：网络类型如何影响政府支出模式

• 批准号: 0720405
• 负责人: David Leblang
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Colorado at Boulder
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-08-01 至 2008-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0720405&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Political; Science

Primary Investigators: David A. Leblang and Jessica C. TeetsTitle: Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Networks and Public Goods: How the Type of Network Affects the Pattern of Government Expenditures0720405AbstractThis research focuses on the informal ways in which social groups articulate interests and monitor local officials in non-democracies. Unlike democracies, autocracies lack formal institutional mechanisms for citizen participation in the policy process. However, this does not mean, as some theorists have assumed, that these citizens lack interests or avenues of articulation. Through social groups such as business associations, environmental protection NGOs, clubs, and ethno-linguistic or lineage groups, citizens informally articulate preferences to local officials. Social groups embed and encircle members of a community, including local officials, and serve to set standards of appropriate behavior. These social groups allow access to local officials, as well as make available social mechanisms of monitoring and enforcing community preferences. While the researcher argues that in some cases these informal social groups can serve as substitutes for formal channels of interest articulation, these social institutions are not necessarily preferable to formal institutions. In fact, this research seeks to show how different types of social groups influence varied policy outcomes (i.e., different types of spending decisions), ranging from the capture of state resources by one group to the provision of high levels of public goods to the whole community. To show how the characteristics of social groups influence policy outcomes, the researcher tests a typology using a mixed methods approach consisting of time-series statistical analysis of public spending in 40 countries over 25 years, and a natural experiment. Constructing a natural experiment, using local government statistics and interviews from three different prefectures in China's Yunnan province, allows the researcher to hold formal institutional variables constant and vary the type of social group prevalent in each case to show the effect and weighting of each variable. The broader impact of this research is that it creates an empirical and theoretical starting point for scholars to understand how social networks operate in non-democracies as a substitute for formal mechanisms of citizen expression and accountability, which are essential for good governance.

主要研究者：David A. Leblang 和 Jessica C. Teets 标题：博士论文研究：社交网络和公共物品：网络类型如何影响政府支出模式0720405摘要本研究重点关注非民主国家中社会群体表达利益和监督地方官员的非正式方式。 与民主国家不同，独裁国家缺乏公民参与政策过程的正式制度机制。 然而，这并不像一些理论家所假设的那样，意味着这些公民缺乏利益或表达途径。 通过商业协会、环保非政府组织、俱乐部和民族语言或宗族团体等社会团体，公民非正式地向地方官员表达自己的偏好。 社会团体嵌入并包围社区成员，包括地方官员，并致力于制定适当的行为标准。 这些社会团体允许接触地方官员，并提供监督和执行社区偏好的社会机制。 尽管研究人员认为，在某些情况下，这些非正式的社会群体可以替代正式的利益表达渠道，但这些社会机构并不一定比正式机构更可取。 事实上，这项研究旨在展示不同类型的社会群体如何影响不同的政策结果（即不同类型的支出决策），从一个群体攫取国家资源到向整个社区提供高水平的公共产品。 为了展示社会群体的特征如何影响政策结果，研究人员使用混合方法测试了类型学，其中包括对 40 个国家 25 年来公共支出的时间序列统计分析和自然实验。 通过使用当地政府的统计数据和对中国云南省三个不同地区的采访，研究人员构建了一个自然实验，使正式制度变量保持不变，并改变每种情况下普遍存在的社会群体类型，以显示每个变量的影响和权重。 这项研究更广泛的影响在于，它为学者们理解社交网络如何在非民主国家运作作为公民表达和问责的正式机制的替代品创造了一个实证和理论起点，而这对于良好的治理至关重要。