RAPID: Democratic State Capacity and Organizational Adaptation in Crisis Conditions

本研究探讨政府组织如何管理和适应危机情况，以及组织决策如何影响结果。具体而言，该项目将通过对选举官员的调查以及对人员和结果数据的分析，评估2014年乌克兰议会提前选举期间对叛乱活动的适应情况，重点关注选举管理的作用。这项调查将对公务员在危机情况下如何履行职责提供重要见解。人事数据和选举结果将有助于分析政府效率和选举质量。更好地理解政府组织如何适应危机将推进有关国家能力和组织行为的理论知识。这项研究也直接适用于美国的外交政策，特别是在冲突期间和之后的民主实践的发展。由美国和乌克兰的学者和实践者组成的研究小组将进行选举前和选举后的调查，在选举前收集个人资料，并在选举后收集投票站一级的正式选举结果。参与选举管理工作的约2000名公务员参加了此次调查。抽样的设计将反映投票站特征的分布（例如，大小、地点）和个别特征（例如，性别、党派）。分配到所有投票站的公务员的个人资料（大约33 000人）将在选举前期间收集，然后进行编码。一旦合成，数据将允许研究人员分析几个结果，包括：1)如何在全国范围内分配工作人员和官员；2)人事决策和政治不稳定如何影响选举结果和选举实践的质量；3)官员如何在不同条件下管理选举。该项目将在理论和经验上为政治学和组织科学的研究流做出贡献。

This study investigates how government organizations manage and adapt to crisis situations, and how organizational decisions affect outcomes. Specifically, the project will assess adaptation to insurgent activity in Ukraine during the 2014 snap parliamentary election, focusing on the role of election administration, by conducting a survey of election officials and an analysis of personnel and results data. The survey will provide critical insights into how civil servants perform their duties in crisis conditions. Personnel data and elections returns will permit an analysis of government effectiveness and election quality. Developing a better understanding of how government organizations adapt to crises will advance theoretical knowledge about state capacity and organizational behavior. The research also has direct applications for US foreign policy, especially in the development of democratic practices during and after conflict situations. The research team, consisting of scholars and practitioners in the United States and Ukraine, will conduct a pre- and post-election survey, gather personnel data prior to the election, and collect official election results at the level of polling stations following the election. The survey will include approximately 2,000 public servants involved in managing election processes. The sample will be designed to reflect the distribution of polling station features (e.g., size, location) and individual features (e.g., gender, partisanship). Personnel data for public servants assigned to all of the polling stations (approximately 33,000) will be collected during the pre-election period and subsequently coded. Once synthesized, the data will permit the researchers to analyze several outcomes, including: 1) how staff and officers are distributed across the country; 2) how staffing decisions and political instability affect election outcomes and the quality of election practices; and 3) how well officials manage elections under varied conditions. The project will contribute, theoretically and empirically, to research streams in Political Science and the Science of Organizations.