Doctoral Dissertation Research: Traditional Institutions and the Modern State

博士论文研究：传统制度与现代国家

• 批准号: 1747322
• 负责人: Thad Dunning
• 金额: $ 2.22万
• 依托单位: University of California-Berkeley
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2018
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2018-07-15 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1747322&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Traditional; Institutions

Mayors of some rural municipalities in Latin America have only limited revenue to produce infrastructural projects, but they can sometimes compensate for this dearth of resources by partnering with leaders of communal landholding institutions, or communities which operate at the sub-district level. Community leaders can mobilize unpaid labor from community members through traditional institutions called "labor corvees." Through collaboration with these leaders, mayors can provide public works more efficiently by avoiding the highest input cost for infrastructure projects' labor, and using the resources of the municipality, community leaders can provide higher quality public works for their communities. Despite the potential benefits for both sides, such cooperation has become increasingly rare. This project examines the conditions under which these cooperative arrangements emerge, focusing specifically on the strategic interaction between community leaders and mayors. The proposed research contributes to a long-standing debate in political science on whether traditional and state institutions substitute for or complement one another. This research develops a theoretical framework that reconciles these two approaches, showing the conditions under which states and traditional institutions are complements as opposed to substitutes. In contrast to much of the existing literature on this topic, which relies heavily on qualitative and observational data, the work uses field experiments and natural experiments to evaluate the theory. More broadly, the results of this research will shed light on causes of intra-district inequality. Communities have varying levels of access to the local government and its resources, and this project will shed light on important sources of this inequality. A deeper understanding of these dynamics may assist central governments globally in targeting programs and resources to areas that are not normally prioritized by, or accessible to, local state officials.This project examines the conditions under which states reinforce or undermine traditional institutions. An early literature on the subject argued that state institutions would either crowd out or mostly disrupt traditional institutions. A separate literature, which is more recent, has argued that traditional and state institutions are complementary, and that through cooperation or delegation, state officials can take advantage of opportunities presented by traditional institutions. This project develops a theoretical framework that attempts to reconcile these two approaches by examining when cooperative relationships emerge between state officials and leaders of traditional institutions. To explore this question, the study uses two main strategies. First, it exploits a natural experiment from early twentieth century in Peru to test how variation in initial exposure to state institutions affected the long-term persistence of traditional institutions of unpaid labor. Second, the study uses a regression kink design with contemporary data to examine when mayors direct state resources to traditional institutions of unpaid labor. To supplement these analyses of main effects and to test for mechanisms, the author relies on a multi-method strategy, which includes archival research, interviews with state officials and community leaders, a field experiment with over 100 mayors, and a conjoint experiment and behavioral game with over 300 current and former community presidents.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

拉丁美洲一些农村市镇的市长只有有限的收入来生产基础设施项目，但他们有时可以通过与社区土地持有机构或在分区一级运营的社区的领导人合作来弥补这一匮乏的资源。社区领导人可以通过传统的被称为“劳动教养”的机构动员社区成员的无偿劳动。通过与这些领导人的合作，市长可以通过避免基础设施项目劳动力的最高投入成本来更有效地提供公共工程，并利用市政当局的资源，社区领导人可以为他们的社区提供更高质量的公共工程。尽管对双方都有潜在的好处，但这样的合作已经变得越来越罕见。该项目审查了这些合作安排出现的条件，特别侧重于社区领导人和市长之间的战略互动。这项拟议中的研究有助于政治学中一场长期存在的辩论，即传统机构和国家机构是否相互替代或互补。这项研究开发了一个调和这两种方法的理论框架，展示了国家和传统制度是互补而不是替代的条件。与这一主题的许多现有文献严重依赖定性和观测数据不同，这项工作使用现场实验和自然实验来评估该理论。更广泛地说，这项研究的结果将有助于揭示地区内不平等的原因。社区获得当地政府及其资源的程度各不相同，这个项目将揭示这种不平等的重要来源。对这些动态的深入了解可能有助于全球中央政府将项目和资源定向到地方政府官员通常不优先考虑或无法获得的领域。这个项目研究了国家加强或破坏传统机构的条件。关于这一主题的早期文献认为，国家机构要么会排挤传统机构，要么会在很大程度上扰乱传统机构。另一份较新的文献认为，传统机构和国家机构是相辅相成的，通过合作或授权，国家官员可以利用传统机构提供的机会。这个项目开发了一个理论框架，试图通过审查国家官员和传统机构领导人之间何时出现合作关系来调和这两种方法。为了探讨这一问题，本研究使用了两种主要策略。首先，它利用20世纪初秘鲁的一项自然实验，测试国家机构初始风险敞口的变化如何影响传统无偿劳动制度的长期持久性。其次，这项研究使用了带有当代数据的回归扭结设计来检验市长何时将国家资源引导到传统的无偿劳动机构。为了补充这些对主要影响的分析并测试机制，作者依靠了一种多方法策略，其中包括档案研究、对州官员和社区领导人的采访、对100多名市长的实地实验、以及与300多名现任和前任社区主席的联合实验和行为游戏。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。