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Are formal institutions always the rules of the game? In hybrid regimes, the surprising answer is no. Formal institutions regularly fail to shape actor expectations and guide behavior. As a result, gaps between formal rules and their actual implementation or longer term effects are a typical feature of these regimes in the gray area between democracy and authoritarianism. Such gaps occur and persist depending largely on the level of government control, the strength of the institutional environment, and the existence of informal institutions. They affect various actors and can present important governance dilemmas for NGOs and the state. This study draws on extensive field work, semistructured interviews, document retrieval, and participant observation to explain the sources and implications of gaps by comparing the two policy fields of social protection and criminal justice in post-Soviet Armenia and Georgia. The arguments resulting from the systematic analysis of the four in-depth case studies are extended by a comparison of gaps across regime types, and a discussion of gap varieties in hybrid regimes as diverse as Malaysia, Kenya, and Russia. By proposing a middle-range theory on institutional gaps in hybrid regimes, this research advances institutional theory by counterbalancing the empirical emphasis on advanced capitalist democracies with insights from hybrid regimes.
It also contributes to NGO research by suggesting a context-sensitive approach to organizational behavior and extends a nascent research agenda on the day-to-day governance of hybrid regimes.
Few would underestimate the role of nondemocratic governments in controlling and steering NGOs. However, this article highlights that in hybrid regimes, the rules for NGO–government and interorganizational relations are not simply dictated from above but actively shaped and sustained by NGOs themselves. Building on data from two policy fields in competitive authoritarian Armenia, this article illustrates that the government sent ambiguous signals to NGOs, thereby cultivating divisions between them. It then shows that, surprisingly, NGOs themselves amplified these divisions. They did so by (1) avoiding confrontation with the government, (2) claiming ownership of their own policy initiatives or ties to government, and (3) distancing themselves from other NGOs. The article explains this behavior by focusing on the institutional environment and perceived uncertainty. In view of a worldwide trend toward increasingly contradictory policy environments for civil society, the approach and findings of this article are of relevance beyond Armenia and beyond competitive authoritarian regimes.
“Weak Institutions and the Governance Dilemma is especially important and welcome since it offers a very incisive analysis of the role of NGOs in transitional democracies and the effect of institutional setting on NGO effectiveness in representing citizen interests. This book offers a very creative conceptual framework and timely, penetrating case studies which provide valuable insights on NGO strategy, governmental capacity, and the possibilities for social change.” Steven Rathgeb Smith, Executive Director, American Political Science Association, and Georgetown University, USA
This book provides a novel analytical perspective on policymaking, policy effects and NGOs in hybrid regimes. It examines the sources and patterns of gaps between formal rules, political practice and longer term effects, and explores how NGOs navigate the tension-laden environments that gaps represent. The book shows how weak institutions and malfunctioning policies turn NGOs into ambivalent actors. Empirically, it covers criminal justice and social protection policies in post-Soviet Georgia and Armenia. The findings from the in-depth case studies are then extended by a discussion of gaps in hybrid regimes as diverse as Malaysia, Kenya and Russia. The book’s approach and findings will appeal to scholars, students and practitioners interested in NGOs, institutional theory and public policy. Mariella Falkenhain is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany. Her work examines how individual and collective actors are shaped by and try to shape the institutional environment in which they operate. Her research has appeared, among others, in Voluntas, Global Policy, and the Journal of Civil Society.
Armenien
(2020)
Der vorliegende Band 5 bildet den Abschluss der Handbuchreihe zur Verfassungsgeschichte im 20. Jahrhundert. Beginnend mit den Umwälzungen von 1989/90 veranschaulicht er bis in die 2010er-Jahre hinein das Spannungs- und Wechselverhältnis zwischen der einzelstaatlichen Verfassungsentwicklung sowie der Ausbildung einer supranationalen Verfassungsebene. Die Herausgeber betrachten neben formalen und materiellen Aspekten auch die faktische Ausprägung der Verfassungen.
Die 48 Länderbeiträge decken das gesamte geografische Europa einschließlich Russlands, der zentralasiatischen Nachfolgestaaten der Sowjetunion, der Türkei und der EU-Institutionen ab. Dabei eröffnet das einheitliche Gliederungsschema einen vergleichenden Zugang zur europäischen Verfassungsentwicklung seit der Wiedervereinigung Deutschlands und legt somit den Grundstein für künftige komparatistische Forschungen.