Johan P. Olsen

A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice

Organized anarchies are organizations characterized by problematic preferences, unclear technology, and fluid participation. Recent studies of universities, a familiar form of organized anarchy, suggest that such organizations can be viewed for some purposes as collections of choices looking for problems, issues and feelings looking for decision situations in which they might be aired, solutions looking for issues to which they might be an answer, and decision makers looking for work. These ideas are translated into an explicit computer simulation model of a garbage can decision process. The general implications of such a model are described in terms of five major measures on the process. Possible applications of the model to more narrow predictions are illustrated by an examination of the models predictions with respect to the effect of adversity on university decision making.

The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life

Contemporary theories of politics tend to portray politics as a reflection of society, political phenomena as the aggregate consequences of individual behavior, action as the result of choices based on calculated self-interest, history as efficient in reaching unique and appropriate outcomes, and decision making and the allocation of resources as the central foci of political life. Some recent theoretical thought in political science, however, blends elements of these theoretical styles into an older concern with institutions. This new institutionalism emphasizes the relative autonomy of political institutions, possibilities for inefficiency in history, and the importance of symbolic action to an understanding of politics. Such ideas have a reasonable empirical basis, but they are not characterized by powerful theoretical forms. Some directions for theoretical research may, however, be identified in institutionalist conceptions of political order.

The Institutional Dynamics of International Political Orders

The history of international political orders is written in terms of continuity and change in domestic and international political relations. As a step toward understanding such continuity and change, we explore some ideas drawn from an institutional perspective. An institutional perspective is characterized in terms of two grand issues that divide students of international relations and other organized systems. The first issue concerns the basic logic of action by which human behavior is shaped. On the one side are those who see action as driven by a logic of anticipated consequences and prior preferences. On the other side are those who see action as driven by a logic of appropriateness and a sense of identity. The second issue concerns the efficiency of history. On the one side are those who see history as efficient in the sense that it follows a course leading to a unique equilibrium dictated by exogenously determined interests, identities, and resources. On the other side are those who see history as inefficient in the sense that it follows a meandering, path-dependent course distinguished by multiple equilibria and endogenous transformations of interests, identities, and resources. We argue that the tendency of students of international political order to emphasize efficient histories and consequential bases for action leads them to underestimate the significance of rule- and identity-based action and inefficient histories. We illustrate such an institutional perspective by considering some features of the coevolution of politics and institutions, particularly the ways in which engagement in political activities affects the definition and elaboration of political identities and the development of competence in politics and the capabilities of political institutions.

The Many Faces of Europeanization

Is ‘Europeanization’ as disappointing a term as it is fashionable? Should it be abandoned, or is it useful for understanding European transformations? Five uses are discussed and it is argued that research need not be hampered by competing definitions as long as their meaning, the phenomena in focus, the simplifying assumption used, the models of change and the theoretical challenges involved, are clarified and kept separate. The research challenge is one of model building, not one of inventing definitions. While it is premature to abandon the term, its usefulness may be more limited than its widespread use could indicate. Europeanization may be less useful as an explanatory concept than as an attention–directing device and a starting point for further exploration.

The institutional dynamics of the (European) University

The aim of this essay is to contribute to an improved comprehension of the university’s dynamics of change, as part of a larger transformation of the relationships between society’s key institutions. A distinction is made between seeing the University as an institution and as an instrument, and four visions of university organization are outlined. These are: the University as a community of scholars , an instrument for national purposes , a representative democracy , and a service enterprise embedded in competitive markets – four stylized models based on respectively (i) constitutive rules, (ii) command and hierarchy, (iii) bargaining and majority votes, and (iv) market prices and competitive selection. The essay then attends to one important type of environmental change: the emergence of European-level debates and policy making processes that take University dynamics beyond the frame of single universities and nation states. Do these environmental actors and forces generate imperatives for universities or do they point universities in different directions? Next, the significance of University actors, structures, legacies and dynamics are considered. How much discretion is there, what are the dilemmas facing the University, and does the ideal of the University as a fiduciary arrangement dedicated to academic excellence and freedom have a future? The last part suggests that an improved comprehension of University dynamics may depend on a better understanding of how institutional success, confusion and crisis can be related.

Change and continuity: An institutional approach to institutions of democratic government

While it is commonplace to argue that political institutions are a source of inertia and resistance to change and that the New Institutionalism is unable to explain change, this paper takes the opposite view. First, the problem of change is reformulated and it is observed that institutions have a role in generating both order and change and in balancing the two. Second, the concepts of institution and institutionalization are elaborated. Third, institutional sources of change and continuity are explored. Fourth, some implications for how democratic change and order can be conceived are spelled out, and, finally, some future challenges are suggested. This article has later been published in European Political Science Review (2009), 1 : 3-32

European Debates on the Knowledge Institution: The Modernization of the University at the European Level

The European University, as a key institution, is under stress. It has become commonplace to argue that urgent and radical reforms are needed. The claim is that while environments are changing rapidly, universities do not learn, adapt and reform themselves fast enough. Reform plans comprise the purposes of universities, i.e. definitions of what the University is, can be and should be, criteria for quality and success, the kinds of research, education and services to be produced, and for whom. Reform plans also include the universities’ organization and financial basis, their governance structures, who should influence the future dynamics of universities, and according to what principles. In contrast, it can be argued that the currently dominant reform rhetoric is only one among several competing visions and understandings of the University and its dynamics. What is at stake is “what kind of University for what kind of society” and which, and whose values, interests and beliefs should be given priority in University governance and reforms? The paper presents a framework for analyzing ongoing ‘modernization’ reforms and reform debates that take place at various governance levels, not least the European level. It is part of a forthcoming book on ‘University Dynamics and European Integration’.

“Europe of Knowledge:” Search for a New Pact

The subject of this paper is the institutional dynamics of the European University. How is this key institution affected by ongoing processes of European integration? What attempts are undertaken at the European level to build up institutional capacity in the areas of higher education and research policy? How do these emerging European capacities relate to the traditional national policy making responsibilities and arrangements in these areas? How is the organization and functioning of the European University influenced by the adding of a new governance layer with respect to higher education and research? How do the developments with respect to European higher education and research policy compare to the situation in other countries, especially the USA? The paper discusses five lessons presented as possible starting points for developing analytical frameworks capturing historical and contemporary university dynamics, the core of which is an interpretation of the ongoing dynamics of change in the European University as a search for a new foundational pact This is followed by a presentation of four themes for an empirical long-term research agenda addressing the above questions. The paper is part of a forthcoming book on “University Dynamics and European Integration”.

Organizing European Institutions of Governance … a Prelude to an Institutional Account of Political Integration

For half a century, Europeans have (again) explored the possibility of new forms of political order and unity. This time change in western Europe has been non-violent and there have been comprehensive and possibly lasting changes in the (west) European institutions of governance. Still, students of European political integration face a partial and emerging polity, with institutions of governance in change and not in a stable equilibrium.

EUROPEAN CHALLENGES TO THE NATION STATE

In the mid-1980s there was a surprising revitalization of Western European cooperation. The Single European Act and the (Maastricht) Treaty on European Union were seen by many as representing a new stage in European integration. In addition, the collapse of Communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe stimulated belief in the possibility of a major transformation of the European political order.