Institutions

Readings and class materials for Thursday, September 18, 2025

Readings

•  Chapter 1 in Douglass C. North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

•  Chapters 1, 11, and 12 in Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (New York: Crown Business, 2012).

•  Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” American Sociological Review 48, no. 2 (April 1983): 147–60, https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101.

•  Lee J. Alston, “Beyond Institutions: Beliefs and Leadership,” The Journal of Economic History 77, no. 2 (June 2017): 353–72, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050717000523.

Really good but optional

•  Chapter 2 in Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).

Article discussion reminder

How to discuss an article in a seminar

• Who wrote the article? What’s their background?
• General summary of the article
• Strengths
• Weaknesses
• How does it connect to other readings?
• How does it connect to the broader course themes?
• How does it connect to current events?
• What does it add to our Global Bureaucracy Toolkit^™?

Plan for the day

• Defining and measuring governance

  • Francis Fukuyama, “What Is Governance?” Governance 26, no. 3 (July 2013): 347–68, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12035.
  • Sören Holmberg, Bo Rothstein, and Naghmeh Nasiritousi, “Quality of Government: What You Get,” Annual Review of Political Science 12, no. 1 (June 2009): 135–61, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-100608-104510.

• Legitimacy and governance and impartiality

  • Bo Rothstein, “Creating Political Legitimacy,” American Behavioral Scientist 53, no. 3 (November 2009): 311–30, https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764209338795.
  • Bo Rothstein and Jan Teorell, “What Is Quality of Government? A Theory of Impartial Government Institutions,” Governance 21, no. 2 (April 2008): 165–90, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0491.2008.00391.x.
  • Christoph Jindra and Ana Vaz, “Good Governance and Multidimensional Poverty: A Comparative Analysis of 71 Countries,” Governance 32, no. 4 (October 2019): 657–75, https://doi.org/10.1111/gove.12394.

• Playing with actual governance-related data (see here for a full tutorial!)

  • Quality of Government (QoG) Institute data (R package)
  • Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) Institute data (R package; R example)
  • World Bank data (R package; R example)
  • The World Bank’s Worldwide Bureaucracy Indicators database
  • The Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) project
  • Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI)

• Overview of different conceptions of institutions

• Institutions and comparative public administration

  • North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance.
  • Acemoglu and Robinson, Why Nations Fail.
  • DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited.”
  • Alston, “Beyond Institutions.”

---

R code example: Posit.cloud example (V-Dem doesn’t work though)

---
title: "Examples of working with governance-related data"
---

```{r setup, warning=FALSE, message=FALSE}
library(tidyverse)

# remotes::install_github("ropengov/rqog")
library(rqog)

# remotes::install_github("vdeminstitute/vdemdata")
# library(vdemdata)

library(WDI)
```

# Quality of Government (QoG) project

```{r}
qog_basic <- read_qog(which_data = "basic", data_type = "time-series")
```

```{r}
afg_alb <- qog_basic |> 
  filter(cname %in% c("Afghanistan", "Albania")) |> 
  filter(year >= 2007, year <= 2020)

ggplot(data = afg_alb,
       mapping = aes(x = year, y = wbgi_gee, color = cname)) +
  geom_line()
```


# Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem) project

```{r}
vdem_small <- vdem |>
  select(country_name, country_text_id, year, region = e_regionpol_6C,
         public_sector_corruption = v2x_pubcorr, impartial_pa = v2clrspct) |>
  filter(country_name %in% c("Afghanistan", "Albania")) |>
  filter(year >= 2007, year <= 2020)

ggplot(data = vdem_small,
       mapping = aes(x = year, y = impartial_pa, color = country_name)) +
  geom_line()
```


# World Bank data

```{r}
wdi_raw <- WDI(
  country = "all",
  # indicator = c("NY.GDP.PCAP.KD", "BI.PWK.PUBS.FE.ZS"),
  indicator = c("NY.GDP.PCAP.KD"),
  start = 2007,
  end = 2020,
  extra = TRUE
)

wdi_small <- wdi_raw |> 
  filter(country %in% c("Afghanistan", "Albania"))

ggplot(data = wdi_small,
       mapping = aes(x = year, y = NY.GDP.PCAP.KD, color = country)) +
  geom_line()
```