The international diffusion of reform

ideas

Jens Jungblut (jungblut@stv.uio.no)

Lecture 9 in the course STV 2420

23.03.2020
 Key questions / learning goals
• Why and how did the idea of “organization” spread
around the world in recent years?
• In how far can we see convergence in
administrative reforms and how can we explain it?
• What difference is there between the spread of
ideas and the spread of practices?
• What role do international organizations play in the
process of spreading reform ideas?
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 The world-wide spread of “organization”

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 The spread of organization
• Society around the world are more and more filled
with formal organizations in many different social
sectors
• Rationalization of social activities as a key driver
behind this development and more parts of
everyday life become organizational
• Internal structures of organizations are also
expanding and formalizing
• Very macro theory
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 The spread of organization
• Move towards more formal organization driven by
many developments which all grow out of a
worldwide cultural change based on 3 elements
– Scientization
– Rights of the individual
– Education
• These cultural changes are transmitted to local
settings, turn organizations into org. actors
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 Global cultural Rationalization
• Process driven by globalization
• Started in the “West” but expanded throughout the
globe
• Focus on science, education and human rights /
rights of the individual
• Limiting other forms of authority and exerting
pressure on organizations / societies

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 Scientization
• Since WW2 scientific ideas and ideology have
spread and acquired authority throughout the world
• Developed strong base of legitimacy
• Provides general explanations independent of
contexts both for physical and social phenomena
• Supports expansion of formal organization

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 Individual Rights
• Nation state lost legitimacy while individual rights
have been strengthened following WW2
• Liberal understanding that individual as the locus
of rights & action → human rights regime
• Empowered humans as the building block for a
new world of organizing
• Organizations as a way to collect human agency

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 Education
• Expansion of science and individual rights also led
to an expansion of education
• Primary and secondary education becoming more
and more taken-for-granted and even higher
education is being massified
• Educational institutions are remarkably similar
around the world & carry on the ideas of scientism
and human empowerment
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 Rationalized environment
• The three previously described processes
influence organizational complexity directly but
they also get transmitted through 3 vehicles:
– Professionalization (trained individuals in formal
professions)
– Law-like agreements (expanding legal rule to new
social/policy areas)
– Accounting and Counting (control and assess activities
by organizations / societies)
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 Overview

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Global spread of reform ideas in the public
sector

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 Ideas behind the global spread
• Organizational theory / neo-institutional theory
• Rationalization, myth and ceremony (Meyer /
Bromley & Meyer)
• Isomorphism in global organizational fields
• Globalization

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 Ideas behind the global spread
• Globalization promotes cultural meaning, myths
and globalized standards
• New identities emerge and value systems change
→ taken-for-grantedness
• Where do standards come from? → Emerge from
cultural-institutional processes and spread via
networks
• Role of key actors such as int. org or consultants
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 Ideas behind the global spread
• Norms are also contextualized in a local setting
• Norms can stay on the surface of organizations
and not influence actual activities
• Problems are increasingly global and
interconnected → need for international solutions &
organizations

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 The spread of NPM
• Disagreement in the literature whether there is a
global convergence towards NPM → two sides
looking at the same phenomenon, one sees
convergence, one sees divergence
• Arguments for convergence have different roots:
• Functionalist
• Globally deterministic
• Both
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 The spread of NPM
• Convergence argument has several short-comings
(continuing existence of differences, how strong
are global pressures?)
• Isomorphism as a way to explain the spread:
• Coercive isomorphism (e.g. pressure by int. org.)
• Mimetic isomorphism (e.g. copy “success stories”)
• Normative isomorphism (e.g. spread of ideas)

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 The spread of NPM
• What is actually converging?
• Difference between (see Brunsson):
• Convergence talk
• Convergence decision
• Convergence action
• Differences are not always a failure but lossnes
between them can help as ambiguity makes
changes easier
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 The spread of NPM
• Dominant but loosely-specified set of reform ideas,
which can be applied to many different public
sectors
• If this move is taken for granted it is hard to object,
as the new doctrine serves as a general
prescription of what is useful → lossely-coupled
talk and walk make it easier to get agreement

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 The spread of NPM
• Different types of convergence
• Type A: reforms out into action and produce a
convergence of results and outcomes (highest form)
• Type B: although results may not be converging, actual
practices become more similar
• Type C: Similar external labels are used for reforms
although sustentative content differs
• Type D: Convergence is confined to talk (conferences,
reports etc.)
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 Who is more affected – public vs private
• Organizational theory has often seen public
organizations as catalyst or trigger for reforms in
other organizations
• Regulations, oversight, accreditation etc. give
public organizations influence over private ones
• Private organizations / NGOs are seen to be more
susceptible to isomorphic pressure than public
organizations
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 Who is more affected – public vs private
• Newer studies find that:
• Institutional pressures do not affect all types of
organizations in the same way
• Governmental organizations seem to be more
vulnerable to institutional pressures than for-profit
organizations; non-profit organizations somewhere in
between
• Pressure on public organizations may rival internal
control mechanisms and open the door for structural
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transformation (questioned more than for-profits) 23
 The role of international organizations in
spreading administrative reforms

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 The spread of research councils
• State bureaucracies for the administration of
science have spread significantly since the 1960s
• Their job usually is the distribution of public
research funding
• They usually do not conduct research themselves
but they are a key actor in a state’s science policy
• In Norway this function is fulfilled by NFR

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 The spread of research councils
• Finnemore first studies in how far functional /
structural explanations can explain the spread of
this type of bureaucracy around the world in a
rather short time period
• In this, she focuses on research spending, number
of scientists, national wealth and defense spending
• None of these factors seems to be a commonality
among the countries that created such a
bureaucracy
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 The spread of research councils
• She also presents another explanation that
highlights the role of UNESCO in spreading this
type of administrative body

• Why is UNESCO actively spreading the idea of a

science council?

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 The spread of research councils
• Role of scientists / academics in the UNESCO
• Importance of science in the modern post WW2
world / responsibility of science (atom bomb)
• Science as national resource vs science as a
resource for humanity (without borders)
• Science left to scientists vs. science in the national
interest
• Move from scientists to science bureaucrats
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 The spread of research councils

• Which tools did UNESCO use to spread the idea?

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 The spread of research councils
• Knowledge provision
• Best practice examples
• Studies
• Experts
• Conferences
• Writing legislation
• Lobbying
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 The spread of research councils
• While first science councils might have been
created due to demand
• Once UNESCO picked up the policy as something
desirable it became promoted through their supply
• Good example how policies / reforms diffuse
through the work of international organizations
• Can you think of other examples of such work?

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 Summary
• There is a global trend towards more organization
• This process also has an effect on public sector
reforms
• There are different drivers of reforms
(isomorphisms) and there is a difference between
“talk and walk” → different types of convergence
• Public and private organizations are affected in
different ways
• International organizations play an important role
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 Thank you and have a great day!

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