The Federalist Papers and Institutional Power in American Political Development

LOYAL TO THE ExECUTIVE: THE EFFECT OF STATE CAPACITY ON LOCAL HORIZONTAL ACCOUNTABILITY

“…Less damaging options may come from the design of local electoral processes. For example, ward-base elections may help, providing a more direct link between citizens and councilors, thus helping them to secure the constituent support Wirls (2015) deemed essential for empowering state agencies (Devas and Delay 2006;Rakodi 2004). Similarly, limiting reelection (as Chile has recently done) may help by reducing the unyielding loyalty of bureaucrats that long-timer mayors can cultivate (especially given their de facto discretionary power in hiring firing bureaucrats), and reduce the influence of electoral incentives in these regards.…”

“…The relationship between these variables was investigated following Wirls's (2015) institutional power model. Three paired relationships were considered in this analysis: councilors-communities; councilors-executives; and communities-executives.…”

Loyal to the Executive: The Effect of State Capacity on Local Horizontal Accountability

“…and, therefore, their ability to perform their accountability duties depend on the support they receive from their constituencies (Moreno, Crisp, and Shugart 2003;Wirls 2015). Highly capable and usable bureaucracies can isolate accountability agents, rendering them irrelevant for decisionmaking processes, and making them dependent on the executive branch to obtain constituent support.…”

“…The effect of bureaucracies on the dependent variable was investigated adapting Wirls's (2015) institutional power model, which allows analyzing the influence of one state agent over another and the policy outcomes of the system within which it operates. According to the author, this influence depends primarily on the three constitutive components of state agents.…”