Governing through Institution Building

This book is about political organization and organizing. It is about the role of formally organized political institutions in contemporary democracies and the democratic‐instrumental vision that citizens and their representatives might and ought to decide how they shall be organized and governed. The main argument is that to the extent that the future of democracies depends on the quality of their political institutions and deliberate institution-building capabilities, there is a need for an improved theoretical understanding of political institutions. There is a need for a better comprehension of the nature, architecture, dynamics of change, performance, and effects of institutions, and the possibilities and limitations of achieving intended, anticipated, and desired effects through institutional design and reform. The aspiration is to contribute to such an understanding. The book addresses the organization of government and public administration, the mechanisms through which these institutions change and the mechanisms through which they make a difference—in particular how institutions contribute to organized rule, orderly change, civilized coexistence, and the ability to accommodate and continuously balance rather than eliminate what John Stuart Mill called 'standing antagonisms'. The book offers an organization theory‐based institutional approach and assumes that a fruitful route to improved understanding is to observe large-scale institutional reforms. The primary source of insight is the grand experiment in political integration through institution building and polity formation in Europe—the European Union. Yet the book relates to century‐long controversies concerning what is good government and how best to organize common affairs.