Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Bureaucratic model'

PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO
COORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
A investigação procurou discutir três reformas administrativas realizadas no Brasil que, na literatura especializada, aparecem com destaque. A primeira delas se desenvolveu durante o primeiro governo Vargas, a segunda ocorreu no governo Castelo Branco, em 1967, e a última, implantada durante o governo Fernando Henrique Cardoso, em 1995, a única ocorrida em regime democrático. A análise sobre as reformas administrativas é norteada por três principais eixos analíticos. O primeiro diz respeito à definição do papel do Estado e de sua relação com o mercado. O segundo trata do desdobramento da reforma administrativa sobre o sistema federativo, especialmente se privilegiou a centralização ou descentralização. O terceiro se refere à complexa relação entre governo e sociedade, mais especificamente à convivência entre aspectos clientelistas e a busca pelo universalismo de procedimentos. Concluiu-se que durante o governo Vargas teve início o ciclo de reformas administrativas, com a tentativa de implantar o Estado burocrático racional-legal. Neste momento, predominou a ênfase na centralização política e intensa predominância da atuação estatal na economia. No governo Castelo Branco, o Decreto-lei número 200, de 1967, procurou fortalecer a administração indireta, em contexto de intensa centralização no governo federal e de ainda expansão do Estado nacional-desenvolvimentista. A reforma administrativa de 1995 pretendia substituir a administração burocrática por modelos pós-burocráticos. Não logrou êxito, em razão da perspectiva fiscal que prevalecia à época, entretanto, promoveu redefinição das funções do Estado por meio da realização de privatizações e da criação de agências reguladoras, assim como procurou abrir algum espaço para a descentralização.
The investigation intends to discuss three administrative reforms that took place in Brazil and that are shown with distinction in specialized literature. The first of them developed during the first Vargas administration, the second during the Castelo Branco administration in 1967, and the last was implemented during the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration in 1995, the only one occuring in a democratic regime. The analysis about the administrative reforms is guided by three main analytical axis. The first one concerns the definition of the role to be played by the State and of its relation to the Market. The second deals with the unfolding of the administrative reform over the federal system, more specifically if it prioritized centralization or decentralization. The third refers to the complex relationship between government and society, more specifically to the interactions between clientelistic aspects and a more universal approach towards general proceedings. It was concluded that during the Vargas administration a cycle of administrative reforms began with the intent to implement a bureaucratic rational-legal authority. In this particular moment, the emphasis in political centralization and in an intense presence of the State in the economy prevailed. In the course of the Castelo Branco administration, the 1967 decree-law number 200 intended to strengthen the indirect administration amid a moment of intense political centralization in the hands of the federal government and a parallel expansion of the national-developmentist State. The 1995 administrative reform intended to replace the bureaucratic administration models by post-bureaucratic ones. It did not succeed due to the fiscal perspectives that were predominant at the time. However, it provided a redefinition of the functions of the State by promoting privatizations and creating regulatory agencies, and aiming to find some space for decentralization.

It is attempted with this dissertation to draw an explanatory interdisciplinary framework to clarify the causes of systemic corruption. Following an intense review of political sciences, economics, and sociology literatures on the issue, a complex systems theoretical model is constructed. A political system consists of five main components: Society, interest aggregators, legislative, executive and private sector, and the human actors in these domains. It is hypothesized that when the legitimacy level of the system is low and morality of the systemic actors is flawed, selected political, social and economic incentives and opportunities that may exist within the structure of the systemic components might -individually or as a group- trigger corrupt transactions between the actors of the system. If left untouched, corruption might spread through the system by repetition and social learning eventually becoming the source of corruption itself. By eroding the already weak legitimacy and morality, it may increase the risk of corruption even further. This theoretical explanation is used to study causes of systemic corruption in the Turkish political system. Under the guidance of the complex systems theory, initial systemic conditions, -legacy of the predecessor of Turkey Ottoman Empire-, is evaluated first, and then political, social and economic factors that are presumed to be breeding corruption in contemporary Turkey is investigated. In this section, special focus is given on the formation and operation of amoral social networks and their contribution to the entrenchment of corruption within the system. Based upon the findings of the case study, the theoretical model that is informed by the literature is reformed: Thirty five system and actor level variables are identified to be related with systemic corruption and nature of the causality between them and corruption is explained. Although results of this study can not be academically generalized for obvious reasons; the analytical framework proposed here can be referenced by policy makers who are willing to trace the roots of systemic corruption in developing countries.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Gestão e Políticas Públicas
Para realização da dissertação final de Mestrado em Gestão e Políticas Públicas, desenvolveu-se uma investigação que visa compreender e avaliar as Opções de Reforma do XIX Governo Constitucional para saber em que medida se aproximam de algum dos Modelos de Governação da Administração Pública tidos em consideração na investigação a desenvolver (Modelo Burocrático, Modelo da Nova Gestão Pública e o Modelo da Governança Pública). Para tal, foi definida como pergunta de partida: “As opções de reforma do XIX Governo Constitucional aproximam-se de que modelo de gestão da Administração Pública?” Para se conseguir responder a essa pergunta de partida, foram formuladas 3 hipóteses que, através da sua validação ou rejeição, pretendem auxiliar a alcançar as conclusões pretendidas. Essas hipóteses serão testadas através de Análise de Conteúdo, tendo como corpus documentos potencialmente reveladores das opções de reforma do Governo (Programa Eleitoral, intervenções do Primeiro-Ministro, Guião para a Reforma do Estado, e o Memorando de Entendimento.
To perform the final dissertation of Master in Management and Public Policy, it was developed a research that aims to understand and evaluate the Reform Options of the XIX Constitutional Government, to understand they’re approach to any of the Public Administration Governance Models taken into account in research (Bureaucratic Model, Model of New Public Management and Public Governance Model). To do this, was set as the starting question: "The reform options XIX Constitutional Government approach that management model of public administration". To be able to answer the question of departure, were formulated three hypotheses, that through its validation or rejection, are intended to help reach the desired conclusions. These hypotheses will be tested through content analysis, with the corpus relevant documents and revealing of the government's reform options (Electoral Program, interventions of the Prime Minister, Script for State Reform, and Memorandum of Understanding).

Since the millennium shift the Swedish public administration has, in a successive and significant way, been moving towards an electronic government. By analyzing policy goals formulated by the Swedish government, this essay aims to describe e-government as an administration model and subsequently answer the question if e-government challenges the traditional Swedish public administration. Based on three different ideal types; The bureaucratic model, The user-oriented model and New Public Management, this essay also aims to relate the policy goals of e-government to the ideal types. The analysis shows that the Swedish e-government is based on ideas which can be related to all three ideal types. While the analysis is not able to unequivocally answer the question if e-government challenges the traditional Swedish public administration, it yet indicates that, reversibly, the traditional Swedish public administration challenges e-government.

This research project assesses the continued utility of Allisonâ s three policy-making models in analyzing contemporary foreign policy problems. It also explores the effect of cultural considerations on Allisonâ s concepts by delving into the unique themes of Japanese politics. The climate in which this policy decision is made is framed through a discussion of the strategic environment and Japanese defense policy following the Cold War and 9/11. The rational actor, organizational process, and bureaucratic politics models are applied to Japanâ s 2003 decision to field a missile defense system through a qualitative analysis of English-language secondary hard-copy and online sources. Some Japanese government materials are reviewed as well; the Japanese language, however, presented challenges to research. Despite the expectation that the rational actor model best describes the Japanese approach to missile defense, this project shows the true value of Allisonâ s theories lies in their capacity to expose issues relevant to policy problems from varying perspectives. Japanâ s missile defense policy likely resulted from a combination of the three models, each influenced in varying degrees by the cultural aspects of Japanese politics.
Master of Arts

This work asserts that bureaucratic organization is not only an inevitable part of the modern administrative state, but that a high quality bureaucracy within a strongly empowered executive branch is an ideal mechanism for running government in the modern era. Beginning with a philosophical inquiry into the purpose of American government as we understand it today, this paper responds to criticisms of the role of expanded government and develops a framework for evaluating the quality of differing government structures. Following an evaluation of the current debate surrounding bureaucracies (from both proponents and critics), this thesis outlines the lessons and principles for structuring and managing an efficient bureaucracy. Finally, this paper concludes with two case studies – Puerto Rican bureaucratic failures and Japanese/Chinese national development – to consider the effects of compliance and non-compliance to the lessons outlined in this work. The inquiry finds that principles such as specialization, political autonomy, effective information systems, higher accountability standards, and managerial emphasis on policy implementation are all critical to superior bureaucratic governance.

The thesis has three objectives: to assess the experience of decentralisation in Karnataka to answer questions about the relationship between decentralisation and development; to test the validity of Dunleavy's bureau-shaping model; and to make recommendations about how development planning and administration can be made more effective. The thesis analyses the responses of state government bureaucrats to decentralised rural development planning and administration in Karnataka, South India, from 1987 to '91 within the parameters of Dunleavy's bureau-shaping model's outline of bureaucrats' preferred work conditions. The thesis presents the benefits and short-comings of decentralisation identified by (A)control agency officers and (B)delivery agency officers from different departments and ranks at both state and district levels. The thesis hypothesises that if the distinction drawn between agency types and ranks of officer under the bureau-shaping model holds, delivery agency officers' attitudes to decentralisation should be (1)unrelated to changes in their agencies' programme budgets; (2)closely correlated with rank, with senior (state-level) officers greatly in favour and lower (district-level) officers averse; and (3)similar to those of control agency officers of similar rank. The thesis findings disprove all three hypothesis threads. The analysis concludes with modifications to the bureau-shaping model required to make it fully descriptive of decentralisation in India, and an evaluation of the extent to which a decentralised system of rural development planning and administration can be made more effective. The thesis concludes development needs to bring together two elements: (1)the organised expertise of the bureaucracy and (2)the consent, support and participation of the people. Both democracy and bureaucracy are essential to development. The Karnataka experiment with decentralisation from 1987 to '91 was of a particular type, teaching important lessons.

Aux lendemains de l'indépendance, les stratégies de développement mises en œuvre par les autorités camerounaises ont consacré le rôle primordial des entreprises publiques dans la recherche de la croissance économique. Instruments de politique économique et sociale, les entreprises publiques ont également été associées à l'œuvre de construction d'un espace d'accumulation primitive indissociable du travail de redéfinition sociale de la hiérarchie. La technologie de l'organisation bureaucratique centralisée a ainsi servi de matrice importante à l'affirmation d'une différenciation politique et culturelle dans les milieux de travail. Désormais confrontées à la récession économique que traverse le Cameroun depuis une quinzaine d'années, les entreprises publiques n'ont cessé d'adapter les ensembles humains et les structures qui les constituent aux contraintes revendiquées par les exigences de rentabilité et de performance. De nouveaux modes de gestion et de nouvelles approches concernant la recherche de qualité, de productivité ou de synergie décisionnelle sont apparus pour sauvegarder le projet économique, politique, social et fondamentalement politique initié après l'indépendance. Les reformes des années 1990 ont conduit à la recherche d'une autre forme de rapports sociaux capables de transformer la nature de l'ordre organisationnel et social. D'une légitimité hiérarchique doublement circonscrite à l'univers procédural et règlementaire des fonctions ainsi qu'aux obligations manducatrices de la notoriété sociale, on est passe à une autorité construite sur la reconnaissance du fond rentable des décisions c'est à-dire de l'avantage réel et fondamental des relations de travail dans un environnement précarisé sur le plan de l'insertion familiale, sociale, urbaine ou nationale. Toutefois, à prolonger l'observation, les transformations constatées confirment l'idée d'une modernisation conservatrice qui bien que dynamique sur les perceptions habituelles du secteur parapublic camerounais, n'aboutissent pas à un désenchantement des comportements de travail. Il s'agit ainsi d'une fragilisation de la légitimité dont le principal est une symbiose entre des variations, des rebondissements des modes locaux de hiérarchisation ou entre différentes façons de traduire le changement dans la pratique.

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the managerial â actionâ of public administrators in the management of their organizations within the brazilian context. It seeks to understand the relationships between managers and formal management mechanisms by exploring the complementary nature of the effective managerial action in the face of structural deficiencies and flaws, considering the possibility of overcoming the structuralism-subjectivism dichotomy present in the construction of the Theory of Organizations. Initially, the study provides a review of the literature on organizational design. It highlights the â goodness of fitâ proposition on strategic choice issues concerning the main organizational variables design and organizational goal attainment. It also calls special attention to the emerging interest of designing theorists on interpretivist aproachs to the matter, such that of Karl Weick. A review of the the administrative reforms in Brazil is made from the perspective of the main stream organizational design conceptual framework. It highlights the complex dynamics of a constant search for differenciation and flexibilization subject to patherns of advances and reversals, due to the centrality, streng and pervasiveness of the bureaucratic model. It is concluded that in no single given moment, a public manager and his team, may count on a formal organizational design wich attends the â congruencyâ criteria, devised by organizational design conceptual frameworks, to explain organizational results in different environmental sets. Although this conclusion may explain failure at the public sector, it can not provide understanding on the many instances of significative success attained by government operations in spite of inadequate formal administrative structures. This point calls for a better understanding from the interpretivist aproach, on how public administrators, strongly associated with good organizational results, engage into transformative action, in order to superate administrative structures flaws and disfuncional cultural patherns of conduct, structurally present and constantly reproduced, in vigorous develloping countries, such as Brazil. The dissertation transcribes the testimony of four outstanding public administrators, doing a deep incursion in the managerial real world of public administration, as subjectivelly defined by them and transformed by their engagement into action.Through the thematic version of the Oral History methodology, full segments of the complete enterviews are cathegorized into the thirty two managerial strategies captured wich are presented on a recathegorized manner under eight main strategies: (1) Interchanging Frames of Reference; (2) Exploring the Formal Limits; (3) Playing the Bureaucracy Game; (4) Inducing the Inclusion of Others (5)Promoting Internal Cohesion; (6) Creating Shields against Transgressions; (7) Overcoming Internal Restrictions; (8) Letting the Structures Blossom. Each one of these eight blocks of strategies presented, deserves further reflexive interpretation by the author, on the light of the interpretivist aproach to organizational design. A final effort is made, now on theory building, for improuving understanding on the matter. In order to find a significant meaning underlining all the strategies extracted from the â practical constiounessâ of the enterviweers as revealed in their report, the author resort to a methafor. This methafor helps to: (1) better describe and understand a not adequately treated phenomenon, namely, good results under inadequate structural social and organizational conditions; (2) reveal the logic and the meaning underlining all the strategies adopted to generate results under these unfaithfull conditions; (3) name, accordingly to the nature of the managerial transformative social action envolved, an open ended class of managerial interventions of a pragmatic sort driven by an ethics of results much common to good managers, that is, the concept of â managerial equalizationâ ; and (4) give back to public administrators, represented by the enterviwees, to be incorporated in their â discursive counciousnessâ , something the most effective and experienced public managers already have as tacit knowledge built in their â practical counsciousnessâ , and so, help the education and development of new talents.
Ph. D.

碩士
國立交通大學
管理科學學程碩士班
91
This thesis focuses on integration of system theory, organization theory, leadership theory to compose a “Bureaucratic Organization Leadership System Model,” and apply it to a law enforcement agency — the police department. Interviews and discussions carried out are recorded and analyzed which in turn verified the proposed model’s applicability. In addition, this model provides each management level a different view at the overall leadership organization and explain the phenomenon in bureaucratic leadership. This, in turn, can achieve prediction and control of organizational behavior. From interviews, we have found a cyclical organization system arising from different perspectives of each level. If the leadership in each level understands the benefits of working out differences to achieve creative teamwork and utilize organization’s positive/negative factors, then the efficiency and satisfactory performance will be enhanced. The need for respect, fairness, and trust by the members under the bureaucratic organization leadership was found in all interviewees, which reflects yet another important issue!

The Reagan Administration took office in 1981 and began to implement against the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), what became known as the Reagan Doctrine. The was an effort to break with previous the previous presidential administration’s policies toward the USSR and would involve the rollback of Communism, instead of simply just co-existing with Communism (Détente) or containing the spread of it. Part of the area that was subject to the Reagan Doctrine included the volatile southern African region, which had two Marxist-Leninist Regimes, namely Angola and Mozambique. Using Graham Allison’s bureaucratic political model, this study attempts to answer the question: “Even when all the prerequisites were met, why was there a decision to only implement a modified form of the Reagan Doctrine in Mozambique, instead of a full-blown effort, such as in, for example Angola or Afghanistan?” As will be shown in the research, the Reagan Doctrine was not a written doctrine, but had many different facets, as will be shown. The most significant part of the Reagan Doctrine was the recognition and arming of insurgents who confronted the Soviet backed regimes including RENAMO. There have been claims that the US Government did not recognize RENAMO. This is false as will be shown by the fact that President Reagan urged FRELIMO to negotiate with the RENAMO resistance. The real significance of this is that even if all prerequisites were met, why was there such reluctance to apply the doctrine with the veracity as compared to the effort in Angola and Afghanistan in arming RENAMO. Was the United States Government still trapped in the “Vietnam Syndrome”? Did the Mozambique National Resistance (RENAMO) have the 3 same political and charismatic qualities as the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA)? Were special interests or lobbyists influencing government bureaucrats to view decisions in a specific way? A significant part of this study is devoted to the question of how much influence did the bureaucracy and the politicians (both appointed and career) had on the important national security decision-making process involving Mozambique. Another question that could be asked is: Was the doctrine indirectly applied through third parties? In 1989 when the Reagan Administration ended, did President Reagan and the Reagan Administration achieve their objectives toward Mozambique. If so, was this due to the Reagan Doctrine or other factors? If not, did any actors or events interfere with the strategy?
Political Sciences
M.A. (International Politics)

Assiste-se a uma nova agitação no regime jurídico do sistema educativo português, com a aplicação do Decreto-Lei n.º 55/2018 de 6 de Julho, onde o conceito de flexibilidade curricular ganha centralidade, aliado ao dogma repetido da autonomia das escolas que desta vez surge acompanhado pelos documentos de referência das aprendizagens essenciais e do perfil dos alunos à saída da escolaridade obrigatória. Neste cenário de mudança existe um certo consenso na ideia de que os actores educativos são peças mestras para decidir o fado das políticas educativas. Assim, para que as injunções normativas sejam capazes de ter um impacto real no terreno educativo, têm de conseguir que os professores se apropriem das reformas, lhes encontrem significado. Como tal, torna-se imperativo articular as novas orientações legais, com uma liderança pedagógica transformacional e distribuída, que reforce o papel dos órgãos de gestão intermédia, como o caso do representante de grupo disciplinar, e em que os líderes escolares promovam relações comunitárias, apoiem normas de colegialidade e a construção de uma visão compartilhada. Neste seguimento procurou-se, analisar e compreender, a posição estratégica que o representante de grupo disciplinar ocupa num referencial escolar, marcado por uma matriz burocrática e por jogos de poder, típicos da “arena política”, que foram acentuados por uma política de prestação de contas
Within the recent legislative innovations in Portuguese educational framework, the concept of curricular flexibility becomes essential, along with the repeated dogma of school autonomy. This time, it is accompanied by the reference documents regarding essential learning and the student profile in the end of the compulsory education. In this changing scenario, there is a certain consensus that educational actors are of the crucial importance in deciding the successfulness of educational policies. Thus, for the normative injunctions to be able to have a real impact in the educational field, teachers must assume ownership of reforms, in order to find meaning in them. As such, it is necessary to articulate the new legal orientations with a transformational and distributed pedagogical leadership that reinforces the role of middle management, such as a teaching group delegate, and where school leaders promote community relations, support collegiality standards, and design a shared vision. Within this framework, we attempted to analyze and understand the strategic position which the teaching group delegate occupies in a school system, imprinted by a bureaucratic matrix and power games, typical for the “political arena”, which were accentuated by an accountability policy.

Intervention in Libya is an anomaly in President Barack Obama's foreign policy during his eight years in the office. This thesis aims to analyze the decision-making process leading to this unprecedented step. Using Graham Allison's Bureaucratic Politics Model, the purpose of this analysis is to investigate the influence of some presidential advisors and allies on his final decision. Data for this study were collected using President Obama's public statements, biographies of several members of the administration, and secondary academic sources. After some general context, the thesis closely examines the selected period from the first protests in Libya on February 15 to the beginning of the Operation United Protector on March 31. This timeframe of forty-five days is further divided into the week-by-week process tracing analyses. The development on the ground in Libya is merged with changes of attitude in the American administration and changing alliances among the members of the advisory team of the President. The Bureaucratic Politics Model is used to analyze specific tactics used by American officials to impose their preferred scenario. The study also tests the applicability of several new methodological approaches within the Bureaucratic Politics Model like the palace politics perspective,...

Dissertação de mestrado em Relações Internacionais
Neste trabalho analisamos a Rússia no período compreendido entre 1998 e 2015, fazendo para isso uso da Teoria da Dependência e do modelo de análise do “sistemamundo” de Immanuel Wallerstein. Considera-se que esta teoria irá contribuir para esclarecer o poder e o potencial deste país no seio das Relações Internacionais hodiernas, pois oferece uma visto destas numa perspectiva “centro”/”periferia”, em que o poder é um reflexo das relações de produção. O fim da URSS em 1991 marcaria um período de periferização da Rússia que se alastraria até ao ano de 1999, tendo um importante impacto do ponto de vista socioeconómico e político. Isto significou um aumento da “dependência” face ao “centro”, e em particular ao “centro hegemónico” do “sistema-mundo”, através de um processo de enfraquecimento das suas estruturas produtivas e políticas. Procuramos estudar aqui a actual posição da Rússia no sistemamundo e qual a tendência que regista, considerando as alterações após 1999 com a chegada de Vladimir Putin ao poder. A dependência russa das exportações de petróleo e gás natural são o factor fundamental na sua relação com o sistema-mundo e da divisão internacional do trabalho a ele associada. Coloca-se a hipótese de a Rússia se encontrar numa posição “semi-periférica”, registando uma tendência de melhoria da sua condição sistémica rumo ao centro, ainda que com fragilidades e contradições associadas à sua estrutura económica e política, que limitam o seu desenvolvimento e acção. O nosso modelo de análise retoma os cinco níveis de “imperialismo” (e “dependência” a eles associada) apontados por Johan Galtung. Ou seja, a nível económico, comunicativo, cultural, militar e político. Também será aqui argumentado que a actual elite dominante na Rússia assume características semelhantes àquelas encontradas nos regimes da América Latina entre os anos de 1960-90, a que alguns autores denominaram de “burocrático-autoritários”, caracterizadas pelas suas perspectivas objectivistas, racionalistas e tecnocráticas. No entanto, é exactamente este regime que suporta a Rússia enquanto “semi-periferia”, que a impede de ascender a centro. Palavras-chave: imperialismo; teoria da dependência; sistema-mundo; desenvolvimento; semi-periferia; modelo burocrático-autoritário; Rússia.
In this work, Russia is analyzed in the period from 1998 to 2015, using the Theory of Dependency and the “world-system” analysis model of Immanuel Wallerstein. We consider that this theory will contribute to clarify the power and potential of this country in today's International Relations, since it offers a vieа of these in a “core”/”periphery” perspective, in which power is a reflection of the relations of production. The end of the USSR in 1991 would mark a period of Russia’s peripherization that would spread until the year 1999, having a significant socio-economic and political impact. This meant an increase in “dependence” on the “core”, and in particular on the “hegemonic core” of the “world-system”, through a process of weakening its productive and political structures. We are trying to study here the current position of Russia in the worldsystem and what trend it is taking, considering the changes after 1999 with the arrival of Vladimir Putin to power. Russia’s dependence on oil and natural gas exports is the key factor in its relationship with the world-system and the international division of labor associated with it. It is hypothesized that Russia will find itself in a “semi-peripheral” position, with a tendency to improve its systemic condition towards the core, although with weaknesses and contradictions associated with its economic and political structure, which limit its development and action. Our analysis model will make use of the five levels of “imperialism” (and “dependency” associated with them) pointed out by Johan Galtung. That is, economic, communicative, cultural, military and political. It will also be argued here that the current ruling elite in Russia assumes characteristics similar to those found in Latin American regimes between the 1960s and 1990s, which some authors have called bureaucratic-authoritarian, characterized by their objectivist, rationalist and technocratic perspectives. It is, however, exactly this regime that supports Russia as a “semi-periphery”, that prevents it from ascending to core.

In this thesis I investigate three situations in which a principal must make a public decision. The optimal decision from the principal's point of view depends on information held only by agents, who have different preferences from the principal about how the information is used.

In the first two situations (Chapters 2 and 3) the principals and agents - legislatures and bureaus, respectively - are each part of the government and interact to create public policy. In Chapter 2 the bureau has private information about the cost of a public project, performed for multiple legislative principals who can each seek out cost information through oversight. The multiplicity of principals can cause the level of oversight to be inefficiently low due to a collective action problem. Further, the inefficiency becomes more likely as oversight becomes a more important part of the principals' utility functions, and as the oversight technology becomes more effective. For some parameters an increase in the effectiveness of the auditing technology reduces the welfare of the principals collectively.

In Chapter 3 the bureau has substantive expertise about the effects of various policy choices. The principal can delegate policy making authority to the bureau to tap its expertise, but bureaus are imperfectly controlled by statutory restrictions. On the other hand, the scope for delegation can be reduced endogenously if the legislature chooses to acquire its own substantive expertise. I examine how strategic accounting for both bureaucratic subversion and costly development of legislative expertise affect the legislature's delegation decision. I also show that legislatures may in fact want subversion to be "cheap," while bureaucrats may want their own authority constrained and subversion to be costly.

In the third situation (Chapter 4) the information desired by the principal is the valuation of an excludable public good for each member of society. I experimentally compare three collective choice procedures for determining public good consumption and cost shares. The first, Serial Cost Sharing, has attractive incentive properties but is not efficient; the other two are "hybrid" bidding procedures that never exclude any agents but are manipulable. I characterize Bayesian Nash equilibria in the hybrid mechanisms, and prove some more general properties as well. Serial Cost Sharing tends to elicit values successfully, but is outperformed on several efficiency criteria by a hybrid mechanism - despite its incentive problems and coordination problems due to multiple equilibria.

Tese no âmbito do Doutoramento em Relações Internacionais – Política Internacional e Resolução de Conflitos, apresentada à Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra.
Esta tese centra-se na política dos EUA em relação à República Islâmica do Irão (RII) durante as administrações de G. W. Bush e Obama. Em particular, investiga o processo de tomada de decisão que levou à rejeição de uma solução abrangente para as negociações diplomáticas relativas ao programa nuclear iraniano em 2003, mas oferecendo depois uma abertura a Teerão em 2009. O acordo foi aceite pelo regime iraniano e negociado gradual e bilateralmente entre Teerão e Washington até novembro de 2012, altura em que passou a quadro diplomático multilateral, os chamados “Cinco mais Um”, composto por cinco membros permanentes do Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas mais os da União Europeia e da RII. Estas negociações diplomáticas levaram ao acordo final de julho de 2015, o “Plano de Ação Conjunta Global”. Esta investigação teve necessariamente em conta a história das relações Teerão-Washington, cuja natureza mudou durante a Administração Carter em consequência da transformação do Irão numa república islâmica. A documentação consultada revela que uma linha de comunicação secreta entre Washington e os novos governantes islâmicos existiu sempre desde a revolução de 1979, permitindo a ambos os países uma cooperação mutuamente benéfica no curto prazo. O argumento central desta tese é que, desde 2002, a forma como os EUA têm lidado com Teerão e com o seu programa nuclear se têm caracterizado por políticas de poder, mais do que por objetivos de resolução de conflitos. De facto, durante a administração Bush várias soluções possíveis para a resolução do impasse nuclear foram prejudicadas pela existência de uma fação dentro do Poder Executivo dos EUA convencida de que, para obtenção da supremacia americana na região do Médio Oriente – Golfo Pérsico, não se deveria conceder a Teerão a possibilidade de alcançar o estatuto de player regional. Em contrapartida, durante a administração Obama esse mesmo objetivo de longo prazo deu-se via o reforço e reconhecimento de um papel regional para os Iranianos. Desta forma, a disputa nuclear foi central para qualquer uma destas abordagens opostas das duas sucessivas administrações dos EUA. Em relação ao quadro teórico de análise, foram consideradas as Teorias de Politica Externa, uma vez que esta abordagem teórica permite enquadrar a tomada de decisão de política externa, como um processo multicausal, num referencial de modelo burocrático de políticas. Relatos da política dos EUA em relação a Teerão, escritos por ex-funcionários, bem como documentos tornados públicos pelos meios de comunicação, nos anos de 2006-2007, dando conta da “grande negociação” que teria sido feita entre os EUA e a RII em 2003, forneceram uma riqueza de fontes primárias. A presente investigação pretende trazer essencialmente duas contribuições. Em primeiro lugar, aumentar o conhecimento sobre a forma como as estratégias dos atores envolvidos, juntamente com outras variáveis estruturais internas e internacionais, interagem para produzir resultados na forma de políticas externas. Em segundo lugar, permitir uma melhor compreensão da influência dos grupos de interesse no processo de tomada de decisão da política externa dos Estados Unidos, em particular em relação à Republica Islâmica do Irão.
This thesis primarily focuses on US policy towards the Islamic Republic of Iran during the G. W. Bush and Obama administrations. In particular, it investigates the decision-making process which led to reject a comprehensive solution to the diplomatic negotiations regarding the Iranian nuclear program – known as “Iran Nuclear Deal” – in 2003, whilst offering an opening to Tehran in 2009. The Deal was accepted by the Iranian regime and was negotiated gradually and bilaterally by Tehran and Washington until November 2012 when it turned into a multilateral diplomatic framework, the so-called “Five plus One”, consisting of five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus the European Union and the IRI. Such diplomatic negotiations led to the provisional agreement known as “Joint Plan of Action” in March 2013 and, then, to the final signature, the “Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action”, on July 15, 2015. This research has mandatorily handled the history of the Tehran-Washington relationship, whose nature changed during the Carter administration and the transformation of Iran into an Islamic republic ruled by a multi-layered religious-secular system of power. Documents reveal that, contrary to the prevailing view, a covert line of communication between Washington and the new Islamic rulers had existed since the 1979 revolution, allowing both countries mutually beneficial short-term cooperation. The core argument of this thesis is that since 2002 the US dealing with Tehran and its nuclear program has been characterized by power politics more than conflict resolution goals. During the Bush Administration, in fact, a number of possible solutions to the nuclear stalemate had been hindered by a faction inside the US executive branch which was convinced that, in order to pursue American supremacy in the Middle East-Persian Gulf region, the US could not allow Tehran to acquire regional player status. Contrarily, during the Obama Administration, that same long-term goal was considered achievable by means of an enhanced, acknowledged Iranian regional role. Thus, the nuclear dispute was central to any of these opposing approaches by the two successive US administrations. Regarding the theoretical apparatus applied to the thesis, middle-range foreign policies theories have been taken into consideration as such a theoretical approach frames foreign policy decision-making as a multi-causal process, in a referential context of bureaucratic politics model. Accounts of U.S. policy towards Tehran written by former officials, such as Zbignew Brzezinski, Lawrence Wilkerson, Flynt Leverett, and Ben Rhodes, as well as documents made public during the media campaign which in the years 2006-2007 unveiled the “grand bargain” between the U.S. and the IRI proposed in 2003 have provided a wealth of primary sources. This study intends to essentially make two contributions. Firstly, it enhances our knowledge about how actors’ strategies, together with other domestic and international structural variables, interact to produce outcomes in the form of foreign policies. Secondly, it provides a better understanding of the influence played by interest groups on the US foreign policy decision-making process, particularly that one regarding the Islamic Republic of Iran.

博士
國立中興大學
國際政治研究所
102
The importance of the study is expressed in the view that peacekeeping intervention is a tool that strengthens or fulfills China’s policy goals in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), the UN Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), and the UN Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). China has considerable interests at stake in Africa, in terms of promoting economic cooperation or gaining access to natural resources. In order to maintain these efforts, it is imperative that a secure and stable environment is created, not only to maintain diplomatic relations with its African partners, but also to express the harmonious worldview and peaceful development concepts, which rose to prominence under the presidency of Hu Jintao. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the extent to which peacekeeping intervention contributes to China’s relations with these countries. Two models are employed to shed light on this thesis. The rational actor model (RAM) developed by Graham Allison is used in the first instance to explain the goals for each country, the options considered to reach the goals, the consequences or outcomes of choice that will ensure whether a particular option is chosen, and then selecting the option that has the consequences that rank the highest in the leadership’s payoff function. The bureaucratic politics model (BPM) is used in the second instance to show the bargaining, competing and compromising positions of the bureaucracy that produces results in decisionmaking. The main finding of the RAM is that the same set of explanatory tools produces different results in each country which makes the model situation specific. In Liberia peacekeeping reinforces economic diplomacy, in the DRC peacekeeping impacts the Sino-DRC strategic and military relationship, and in Sudan peacekeeping builds a foundation for mutual economic development. The main findings of the BPM are: Ambassadors from the MFA and officers from the PLA influenced peacekeeping decisionmaking through departmental positions. The MFA advanced departmental interests by taking credit for the actions performed by the peacekeepers. The special representative for African Affairs used his bargaining skills to promote personal interests, and the PLA and MFA had competing preferences on the goals and missions of PKOs. These findings show mixed results in the countries analyzed.

O presente trabalho contém algumas reflexões sobre o papel da advocacia de Estado, na qual está inserida a Advocacia-Geral da União e seus membros de carreira, no desenvolvimento e implementação de políticas públicas e projetos do Governo Federal brasileiro, especificamente sob o enfoque da gestão pública e dos movimentos de modernização do Estado e reformulação do modelo burocrático. Com foco na fase de modelagem do leilão para compra de energia elétrica, de acordo com o novo modelo do setor elétrico, examina-se a atuação do órgão de consultoria e assessoramento jurídico do Ministério de Minas e Energia e o papel que desempenha.
This paper contains some reflections on the role of State advocacy, which comprises the Attorney General’s Office and its career members, in developing and implementing public policies and projects by the Brazilian Federal Government, particularly under the focus of public management and of movement for state modernization and reform of the bureaucratic model. With a focus on the modeling phase of the auction to purchase electric power, bided according to the new model of the electric sector, it examines the role of the legal consultancy and assistance body of the Ministry of Mines and Energy.