LIST OF WORKSHOPS

Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, Donald Trump in the US, Viktor Orbán in Hungary, Andrzej Duda in Poland, to mention a few: what do these current and former leaders have in common? Most political analysts would point to their conservative agendas, their populist styles, and their embracement of an anti-pluralist agenda that, along with autocratic legalism (Sá e Silva, forthcoming), erodes the democratic principles of their countries. What analysts and scholars are still beginning to address is how those leaders have profoundly affected the functioning of state institutions and the very public policies produced by their states (Bauer, Peters & Pierre, 2021).

In the last decade, elected populists and illiberal politicians have been contesting democracy and political pluralism. In this regard, scholars have claimed that some countries live in a context of democratic regress or backsliding (Haggard and Kaufman, 2021). In a recent publication, Bauer et al. (2021) were the first to look at the deleterious impacts of populists not only on democracy but also on the constitutive (and often taken-for-granted) foundations of the state. This workshop proposal seeks to add to this critical conversation opened by Bauer et al. (2021), looking within public administration and examining the specific consequences of democratic backsliding for state capacity and public policies.

The authors initially convened in this proposal have gathered around the concept of policy dismantling to understand the policy changes happening in countries under the administration of democratic backsliders. The concept of policy dismantling emerged in the works of Michael Bauer and colleagues, who were then trying to grapple with processes of policy reduction happening in Europe due to fiscal constraints and reforms. Policy dismantling was then defined as:

“a change of direct, indirect, hidden or symbolic nature that either diminishes the number of policies in a particular area, reduces the number of policy instruments used and/or lowers their intensity. It can involve changes to these core elements of policy and/or it can be achieved by manipulating the capacities to implement and supervise them” (Bauer et al., 2012, p. 35).

In developing countries, where building policy capacity has been of particular importance for promoting socio-economic development, capacity dismantling emerges both as a possible cause and a possible consequence of policy dismantling. Policy capacity is understood here as “the organizational and bureaucratic ability to implement public policies” (Centeno et al., 2017). Capacity dismantling connects to policy dismantling at various levels. Under the stress of seeing important policies being dismantled, for instance, bureaucrats tend to exit their agencies and look for workplaces where they feel protected or less frustrated (Morais de Sá e Silva, forthcoming).

In this framework, this workshop proposal is dedicated to convening scholars who have been dedicated to examining policy and capacity dismantling in countries that have experienced democratic backsliding or the rise to power of anti-liberal populists in their governments. It is hoped that the ensemble of empirical studies will allow for the consolidation of a new body of literature that  can provide a conceptual framework for those analyzing dismantling in the context of democratic backsliding in various countries.

The following questions will be of relevance to workshop papers and discussions:

1.     What has been the nature of policy change in contexts of democratic backsliding?

2.     Do backsliders consistently resort to policy and capacity dismantling? Are policy and capacity dismantling a defining feature of democratic backsliding?

3.     Does policy dismantling occur under distinct drivers, and does it produce particular effects in situations of democratic backsliding? 

4.     Do democratic backsliders produce new policies while they dismantle old ones?

5.     In dismantling policies, what impact is created on the institutions once responsible for implementing them and on state capacity?

6.     What is the role of public bureaucracies on observed policy resilience or dismantling?

7.     What are the conditions and causal mechanisms that characterize policy and capacity dismantling in the context of democratic backsliding?

8.     Are there common patterns that can be identified across different countries?

It is expected that workshop discussions will allow for the construction of relevant conceptual frameworks that will move the needle in understanding policy change in contexts of democratic backsliding.

Below is a preliminary list of expected workshop participants and the provisional titles of their papers:

1.     Unpacking governance spheres in Brazilian agro-commodity chains: Policy dismantling, patterns of interaction and implications for sustainability

Almut Schilling Vacaflor , Osnabrück University

Benedetta Cotta, Universita Ca Foscari Venezia

Andrea Lenschow, Osnabrück University

Maria-Therese Gustafsson, Stockholm University

Niels Soendergaard, INSPER

Edward Challies, University of Canterbury

Cristina Yumie Aoki Inoue, Radboud University

Jens Newig, Leuphana University

2.     The policy effects of democratic backsliding: The case of environmental policy in Hungary

Aron Buzogány, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna

3.     Dismantling and resilience of socio-environmental and territorial development policies in Brazil

Carolina Milhorance, Center for International Development and Agricultural Research (CIRAD)

Jean François Le-Coq, Center for International Development and Agricultural Research (CIRAD)

4.     Action and Reaction: how bureaucrats cope with different forms of political oppression

Gabriela Lotta, Getulio Vargas Foundation and University of Oxford

Michelle Fernandez, University of Brasilia

Mariana Costa, Getulio Vargas Foundation

5.     Paranoia, Populism, and Politicization:  The Decline of Policy Capacity in the United States

Guy Peters, University of Pittsburgh

6.     The Effects of Bureaucratic Dismantling on Public Service Motivation: Evidence from US Federal Agencies

João V. Guedes-Neto, University of Pittsburgh

7.     Policy and capacity dismantling in the context of democratic backsliding: a proposed framework of analysis

Alexandre Gomide, Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA)

Michelle Morais de Sa e Silva, University of Oklahoma

8.     Policy dismantling by demobilization and deterioration of analytical capacity

Natalia Koga, Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA)

Discussants:

Michael Bauer, European University Institute

Alexandre Gomide, Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA)

Michelle Morais de Sá e Silva, University of Oklahoma

Expected publication: The editor of Politics and Public Policy at Palgrave Macmillan, Stewart Beale, has indicated an interest in publishing the set of revised workshop papers as an edited volume.

References

Bauer, M. W., Peters, B. G., Pierre, J., Yesilkagit, K., & Becker, S. (Eds.). (2021). Democratic backsliding and public administration: How populists in government transform state bureaucracies. Cambridge University Press.

Bauer, M; Peters, G.; Pierre, J. (2021). Pathways to administrative resilience: Public bureaucracies ruled by democratic backsliders as a transnational challenge. Publications Office. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2870/752884

Bauer, M. W., Green-Pedersen, C., Héritier, A., & Jordan, A. (2012). Dismantling public policy: Preferences, strategies, and effects. Oxford University Press.

Centeno, M. A., Kohli, A., & Yashar, D. J. (2017). Unpacking states in the developing world: Capacity, performance, and politics. In States in the developing world, Cambridge University Press, 1-34.

Haggard, S., & Kaufman, R. (2021). Backsliding: Democratic Regress in the Contemporary World. Cambridge University Press.

Pierson, P. (2006). Public policies as institutions. Rethinking political institutions: The art of the state, 114-31.

Sá e Silva, Fabio C. (forthcoming). Law and Illiberalism: A Sociolegal Review and Research Roadmap. Annual Review of Law and Social Science, 2022, vol 18.

Mahoney, J., & Thelen, K. (2010). A theory of gradual institutional change. In Explaining institutional change: Ambiguity, agency, and power, 1, 1-37.

Wu, X., Ramesh, M., & Howlett, M. (2018). Policy capacity: Conceptual framework and essential components. In Policy capacity and governance (pp. 1–25). Springer.

In the last decade, elected populists and illiberal politicians have been contesting democracy and political pluralism. In this regard, scholars have claimed that some countries live in a context of democratic regress or backsliding (Haggard and Kaufman, 2021).  This workshop aims to address the effects of this context in the functioning of state institutions, particularly on state capacity and on the continuity of public policies, allowing for the consolidation of a new body of literature that can provide a conceptual and analytical framework.

In a recent publication, Bauer et al. (2021) were the first to look at the deleterious impact of illiberal populists not only on democracy, but also on the constitutive (and often taken-for-granted) foundations of the state. This workshop proposal seeks to add to this critical discussion, looking within public administration and examining the specific consequences of democratic backsliding for state capacity and public policies.

We invite scholars who have been dedicated to examining policy and capacity dismantling in countries that have experienced the rise to power of illiberal populists to present research papers. Proposed papers, preferably of an empirical nature, can use different methodological and theoretical approaches.

The following questions will be of relevance to workshop papers and discussions:

1.     What has been the nature of policy change in contexts of democratic backsliding?

2.     Do backsliders consistently resort to policy and capacity dismantling? Are policy and capacity dismantling a defining feature of democratic backsliding?

3.     Does policy dismantling occur under distinct drivers, and does it produce particular effects in situations of democratic backsliding? 

4.     Do democratic backsliders produce new policies while they dismantle old ones?

5.     In dismantling policies, what impact is created on the institutions once responsible for implementing them and on state capacity?

6.     What is the role of public bureaucracies on observed policy resilience or dismantling?

7.     What are the conditions and causal mechanisms that characterize policy and capacity dismantling in the context of democratic backsliding?

8.     Are there common patterns that can be identified across different countries?

Main Topics:

•          Democratic backsliding

•          Institutional resilience

•          Policy change

•          Policy dismantling

•          Public Bureaucracy

•          State policy capacity

In the last decade, elected populists and illiberal politicians have been contesting democracy and political pluralism. In this regard, scholars have claimed that some countries live in a context of democratic regress or backsliding (Haggard and Kaufman, 2021). The proposed workshop aims to address the effects of this context in the functioning of state institutions, particularly on state capacity and the continuity of public policies – especially those related to civil liberties, minorities and human rights, the environment, social inequality and related fields. In countries where state bureaucratic and organizational capacity has been a condition for promoting socio-economic development, capacity dismantling emerges both as a possible cause and a possible consequence of policy dismantling. Workshop participants will be invited to address the following questions: What has been the nature of policy change in contexts of democratic backsliding? Are policy and capacity dismantling a defining feature of democratic regress? Does policy dismantling occur under distinct drivers, and does it produce particular effects in situations of democratic backsliding? What impact has been observed on the state institutions once responsible for implementing dismantled policies? Under the stress of seeing policies being dismantled, how do bureaucrats react? Are there common patterns that can be identified across different countries? The empirical studies presented in the workshop are to be gathered around the concepts of policy dismantling (Bauer et al., 2012), institutional resilience (Pierson, 2006), institutional change (Mahoney and Thelen, 2010), state and policy capacity (Centeno et al., 2017; Wu, Ramesh, and Howlett, 2018), and bureaucratic reactions (Bauer et al., 2021). It is hoped that the ensemble of papers will allow for the consolidation of a new body of literature that can provide a conceptual and analytical framework for those addressing policy and capacity dismantling in the context of democratic backsliding.

Michelle Morais de Sa e Silva is Assistant Professor in International and Area Studies at the Department of International and Area Studies, University of Oklahoma. Previously, she had been Head of Graduate Programs and professor at Brazil’s National School of Public Administration (Enap). Dr. Morais was also Coordinator General for International Cooperation at Brazil’s Ministry of Human Rights between 2011 and 2014. Before that, she had been a UNESCO staff member for six years. She has worked in countries as diverse as Angola, Colombia, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Mozambique and Russia, besides Brazil. She got her PhD from Columbia University and an MA in Development Studies from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, The Netherlands. In 2015, she did a year of post-doctoral research at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Her research agenda has been mostly focused on issues of public policy, international cooperation for development, human rights, and international comparative education. She is the author of “Poverty Reduction, Education, and the Global Diffusion of Conditional Cash Transfers” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017).

Alexandre de Avila Gomide has been a tenured researcher at Brazil’s Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA) since 1997. He holds a doctorate in Public Administration and Government from Fundação Getulio Vargas, São Paulo, with a doctoral fellowship in the Department of Political Science at UC Berkeley. In 2019-2020, he was a Visiting Scholar at the School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) at the University of California, San Diego.  Dr. Gomide is also a permanent professor of the Professional Master's Degree in Public Policy and Development at IPEA and the Professional Master's Degree in Public Administration at the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development, and Research (IDP).  He has also held senior management and advisory positions at IPEA, Brazilian federal government ministries, and subnational governments. He currently coordinates research projects on state capacity, bureaucracy, and public policy. His research papers have been published in books and several academic journals, such as Governance, International Review of Administrative Sciences, Public Utilities, Revista de Administração Pública, and Revista de Sociologia Política.