Governance Capacity

The capacity of democratic institutions to deliver services, regulate markets, and uphold accountability depends on a resilient administrative state. Historically, this subsystem has provided stability and continuity over time, serving as a buffer against shocks and disruptions while adapting incrementally to reform. As the implementation arm of government the administrative state is accountable to the chief executive officer as well as legislative and judicial powers, and also exercises self-organization and depends on feedback from internally and externally driven accountability standards. When subject to drastic, politically motivated disruptions, its ability to fulfill democratic mandates may be weakened or substantially transformed. Consistent standards for describing, measuring, and evaluating changes in capacity are therefore needed.

The Governance Capacity CoP of ARRC will advance definitional, evaluative, and summative understanding of administrative capacity in democratic states. Questions addressed by the Governance Capacity CoP of ARRC include:

• How is the administrative capacity of governments operating under the pretext of liberal democracies defined and operationalized?  Is the standardization and classification of terms and constructs possible?

• How is administrative capacity effectively measured?  What data exists on administrative capacity?  What data needs to be collected?  

• Are there early warning signals or "leading indicators" of capacity erosion that can be built into performance management systems?  

• How can we identify when administrative capacity has been lost versus shifted either to another level of government or to the nonprofit or private sector?

• What constitutes responsible reforms of administrative capacity in the context of democratic accountability standards?  

• What role does federalism play in sustaining or eroding administrative capacity under democratic accountability standards?

• How best to define and capture the relationship between administrative capacity and policy impacts?  How do we presume causality?