The Consequences of Bureaucratic Autonomy for International Administrative Influence

官僚自治对国际行政影响力的后果

• 批准号: 239760601
• 负责人: Professor Dr. Michael W. Bauer
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Lehrstuhl für vergleichende Verwaltungswissenschaft und Policy-Analyse
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Units
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2013-12-31 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/239760601?language=en
• 关键词: Consequences; Bureaucratic; Autonomy; International; Administrative

There is general consensus that international public administrations (IPAs) wield independent influence on the adoption and application of the policies of international organizations (IOs). While the impact of organizational structures on policy-making is regularly studied in national political systems, such research questions have only recently been posed at the level above the nation state. When studying the influence of IPAs in IOs, scholars have identified several functional, power-related, and structural factors that might be relevant for influence to occur. However, a more integrative approach that allows for the systematic analysis of several explanatory factors under a common analytical framework has not emerged. In view of this research gap, this project builds on the insights concerning differences in the dimensions of structural bureaucratic autonomy gained during the first phase of the project in order to evaluate whether, under which conditions, and how IPAs are able to use their structural autonomy to influence the output of IOs´ policy-making. To this end, the project will proceed in three steps. First, we aim to assess whether IPAs can influence specific policy outputs of IOs. We thus collect information on 32 cases of policy output (of both a substantive and an institutional nature) in four IOs in order to assess the influence exercised by the respective IPA in each policy case. The degree of IPA influence is the central phenomenon to be explained by the project. Second, the conditions under which structural autonomy leads to IPA influence will be identified by means of Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA). This will allow us to assess if autonomous IPAs are particularly influential and help us to identify the (functional and power-related) context conditions that mediate this relationship. Third, we use the results of this analysis to select those cases for in-depth analysis that are particularly informative for identifying the causal mechanisms leading to the occurrence of IPA influence (so-called typical cases and deviant cases). In this last step, the project will use process tracing to examine the causal mechanisms behind successful IPA influence. In order to study these mechanisms, we focus on the administrative toolkit for policy-related action available to IPAs and identify strategies of successful administrative influence. In sum, the project can be expected to substantially advance our knowledge about the impact of international administrative features on policy-making processes in IOs. Beyond the relevance of the results for the particular policy cases covered here, the project further substantiates the contours of an emerging administrative governance perspective on IOs and may, in particular, advance a more consistent theory of the influence of IPAs.

普遍的共识是，国际公共行政对国际组织政策的通过和实施具有独立的影响力。虽然组织结构对决策的影响经常在国家政治体系中进行研究，但这种研究问题直到最近才在民族国家以上的层面上提出。在研究投资促进机构对国际组织的影响时，学者们已经确定了几个功能性、权力相关和结构性因素，这些因素可能与影响的发生有关。然而，还没有出现一种更综合的办法，可以在一个共同的分析框架下对几个解释性因素进行系统分析。鉴于这一研究空白，本项目以项目第一阶段期间获得的关于结构性官僚自治各方面差异的见解为基础，以评估投资促进机构是否、在何种条件下以及如何能够利用其结构性自治影响国际组织决策的产出。为此，该项目将分三个步骤进行。首先，我们的目标是评估投资促进机构是否能够影响国际组织的具体政策产出。因此，我们收集了32例政策产出（实质性和机构性）在四个国际组织的信息，以评估各自的IPA在每个政策案例中发挥的影响力。IPA的影响程度是该项目要解释的主要现象。第二，将通过定性比较分析（QCA）确定结构自主导致IPA影响的条件。这将使我们能够评估自主的投资促进机构是否特别有影响力，并帮助我们确定调解这种关系的（功能和权力相关的）背景条件。第三，我们使用这种分析的结果，选择那些情况下进行深入分析，特别是信息识别的因果机制，导致IPA的影响发生（所谓的典型案例和偏差的情况）。在这最后一步中，该项目将使用过程跟踪来研究IPA成功影响背后的因果机制。为了研究这些机制，我们侧重于投资促进机构可利用的政策相关行动的行政工具包，并确定成功的行政影响战略。总之，该项目有望大大提高我们对国际组织决策过程中国际行政特点的影响的认识。除了这些结果与本报告所述具体政策案例的相关性之外，该项目还进一步证实了一种新出现的关于国际组织的行政治理观点的轮廓，特别是可能提出一种关于投资促进机构影响力的更加一致的理论。