Neo-Statecraft Theory, Historical Institutionalism and Institutional Change

James, Toby S.

doi:10.1017/gov.2014.22

Cited by 26 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…This addresses a key issue at the heart of political astuteness—the extent to which political astuteness reflects and works within proper organizational procedures and the extent to which outcomes are achieved through flexible, but sometimes illegitimate (or perceived to be illegitimate) means. The tipping point (see also James ) captures this, sometimes fine, balancing act between legitimacy and illegitimacy; transparency and obscurity, even secrecy.…”

Section: Political Astutenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Jim Bulpitt's (, ) statecraft theory is particularly relevant here, whereby statecraft is a basic focus on the art of governing and practical politics. More contemporary, decentred analysis of the nature of governance has seen a revision of Bulpitt's approach, as it identifies context‐dependent regularities in, for instance, centre–periphery arrangements (Ayres et al ) and the influence and scope of ‘creative’ agency in governance (James ).…”

Section: Political Astutenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link

Hartley

Sancino

Bennister

et al. 2019

Public Administration

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Both leadership and public value are increasingly seen as concepts highly relevant to public administration, not only because of complex societal challenges but also as ways to address pluralistic interests in society. This article explores in detail the varied conceptualizations of public value and of public leadership. Furthermore, we argue that political astuteness provides an important conceptual linkage between leadership and public value, enabling actors to read, understand and foster coalitions around diverse and sometimes competing interests. In this introduction to the symposium, we analyse the different conceptualizations of public value, of leadership, and also show how the six articles explicitly or implicitly draw on the linking concept of political astuteness. The article assesses how the six articles of the symposium contribute to each of these three concepts.

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Section: Political Astutenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Political Astutenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link

Hartley

Sancino

Bennister

et al. 2019

Public Administration

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The findings of this research might also be attributed to the institutionalist discussions on the concept of 'change'. In particular, the explanation of 'change' remains an important puzzle for new institutionalism (James, 2016). In this regard, as noted above, new institutionalist assumptions mainly focus on exogenous shocks to explain institutional change.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

China’s OBOR as a Geo-Functional Institutionalist Project

Kaplan

2017

Baltic Journal of European Studies

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This study analyses the feasibility of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative from an institutionalist perspective. The initiative is undertaken as a ‘geo-functional institutionalist’ project, and this strengthens its feasibility. Firstly, the initiative aims to institutionalize a new international structure paralleling the existing Western-dominated one through which China could re-organize its position as an ‘agenda entrepreneur’ in the world without any clash with the West. Secondly, the initiative follows a functionalist strategy. It offers a ‘win-win’ functionalist framework without any hegemonic ambition; thus, the initiative attracts the attention of the rest of the world. China also follows a pure functionalist and bilateral/regional way to deal with the heterogeneity problem among the target countries. However, China’s institutionalization attempt might be isomorphic with the existing Western-dominated system in terms of its hegemonic structure due to the cognitive limitations in finding alternatives, and this might ruin the feasibility of the initiative.

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“…Such a model, applied to the UK premiership, shares much in common with James’ (2016) account of neo-statecraft theory as historical institutionalism. Both present macro, polity-wide perspectives cognisant of historical context, critical junctures and context dependent regularities.…”

Section: Models Of Prime Ministerial Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

Byrne

Randall

Theakston

2016

The British Journal of Politics and International Relations

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This article contributes to the developing literature on prime ministerial performance in the UK by applying a critical reading of Stephen SkowronekÕs account of leadership in Ôpolitical timeÕ to evaluate David CameronÕs premiership. This, we propose, better understands the inter-relationship of structure and agency in prime ministerial performance than existing frameworks, particularly those based on GreensteinÕs and BulpittÕs approaches. We identify Cameron as a disjunctive prime minister but find it necessary to significantly develop the model of disjunctive leadership beyond that offered by Skowronek. We identify the warrants to authority, strategies and dilemmas associated with disjunctive leadership in the UK. We argue that Cameron was relatively skilful in meeting many of the challenges confronting an affiliated leader of a vulnerable regime. However, his second term exposed deep fractures in the regime which proved beyond CameronÕs skills as a disjunctive leader. Research highlights This article:¥ Contributes to the debate about the best theoretical frameworks for evaluating prime ministerial performance in the UK. ¥ Argues that an historical institutionalist framework is able to address the major shortcoming of existing frameworks, namely evaluating prime ministerial performance in the structural context of the political environment in which holders of that office act. ¥ Adapts Stephen SkowronekÕs account of the performance of US presidents to the constitutional, institutional and political circumstances of the UK polity and significantly develops SkowronekÕs account of regime vulnerability and the characteristics and constraints of disjunctive leadership ¥ Applies this adapted model for the purposes of a systematic evaluation of David CameronÕs premiership. This identifies that although Cameron was relatively successful in negotiating the challenges and constraints of disjunctive prime ministerial leadership in his first term he made commitments which, in his second term, exposed key fault lines in the regime and proved beyond CameronÕs skills as a disjunctive leader to manage.2

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Neo-Statecraft Theory, Historical Institutionalism and Institutional Change

Cited by 26 publications

References 69 publications

Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link

Leadership for public value: Political astuteness as a conceptual link

China’s OBOR as a Geo-Functional Institutionalist Project

Evaluating British prime ministerial performance: David Cameron’s premiership in political time

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