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进行调查以及对人员和结果数据进行分析，评估对2014年议会临时选举期间乌克兰叛乱活动的适应情况，重点是选举管理的作用。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的见解。人事数据和选举结果将有助于分析政府的效力和选举质量。更好地理解政府组织如何适应危机将推进国家能力和组织行为的理论知识。该研究还直接应用于美国的外交政策，特别是在冲突期间和冲突后的民主实践的发展。 该研究小组由美国和乌克兰的学者和从业人员组成，将进行选举前和选举后的调查，在选举前收集个人数据，并在选举后收集投票站一级的正式选举结果。调查将包括参与管理选举进程的约2 000名公务员。样本的设计将反映投票站特征的分布（例如，尺寸、位置）和各个特征（例如，性别、党派性）。在选举前期间将收集分配到所有投票站（约33 000个）的公务员的人事数据，然后加以编码。一旦综合，数据将允许研究人员分析几个结果，包括：1）工作人员和官员如何分布在全国各地; 2）人员配置决定和政治不稳定如何影响选举结果和选举实践的质量;以及3）官员如何在不同条件下管理选举。该项目将有助于，理论和经验，在政治学和组织科学的研究流。

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.