RECAP OF LECTURES SO FAR (We have covered):

• Marxist-inspired perspectives gives us some tools and understanding of the state
• Feminist approaches to the state
• Decolonising state/politics
• How we view the state today: non-western governance and public administration

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KEY TAKE AWAYS FROM WEEK 3:

• Context and conditions are key variables for the state and institutions (especially considering systems change)
• De facto and De jure power are two variables that allow us to better understand context and condition of change
• There are two perspectives to think about institutions > and a good piece of context to layer into any systems thinking exercise that is carried out… the role of power, where is it coming from and how will it impact any interventions?
• (Rational-choice) Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interaction (Douglass North)
• Historical institutionalism argues that institutions emerge from and are sustained by features of the broader political and social context

Explained:

Key frameworks for how economy and politics interact:

• Rational choice: competition for limited resources
• Historical institutionalism: creative destruction creates new resources and sources of power (see also AJ “Power and Politics” for which they didn’t receive Nobel but is much more important)

Key frameworks of policy and system analysis

• Rational choice assumptions guide us to search for optimal solutions; this can be codified in CBA (cost-benefit analysis) and various econometric analyses, but also RCTs, different ideas of experimentation
• Historical institutionalism assumptions guide us towards systemic effects (Pareto efficiency vs dynamic efficiency)