The uneven effects of EU membership conditionality on Eastern European reforms continue to puzzle the research community. Sometimes, the research focus has been too large, considering EU membership conditionality as a policy implemented uniformly across policy areas. Other efforts take a too narrow approach by trying to explain the effects of EU membership conditionality in single sectors. I suggest studying this phenomenon through a set of mid-level theories in a cross-country, cross-sectorial approach. I argue that both the intensity of EU membership conditionality and reform outcomes are contingent upon the policy sector context; hence, we should take a sectorial contextual approach in studying them. Reform outcomes result from the interplay between EU’s and domestic leaders’ interests in a particular sectorial reform. I assume domestic leaders to be rational, power driven actors. I argue that, since they act in some weakly institutionalized political environments such as Eastern European societies, they represent the principal actors in the power game. I assume the EU to be a rational actor as well; yet, differently from Eastern Europe, the role of individual leaders is less distinguishable in the highly institutionalized EU political theatre. In this case, EU institutions are the primary political agents. They are interested in maintaining and enlarging the Union as a stable democracy. Expanding an earlier argument that views the EU as established through consociational practices, I argue that EU membership conditionality is a tool to impose institutional reforms in the EU aspirant countries, so their institutions can be receptive to the EU consociational practices once they join the Union. In these countries, the consociational character of conditionality is more visible, since it seeks to impose in aspirant countries the same practices that have brought democratic stability in some member states. The EU does not impose consociational practices on unified societies, but simply seeks to make their institutions receptive to the EU consociational practices. I test these arguments with the cases of institutional reforms in postcommunist Albanian and Macedonia. I conclude that, generally, EU membership manages to change Eastern European leaders’ interests in institutional reforms, but when it cannot, the reforms are almost impossible.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

Submitted by Pedro Henrique Giocondo Guerra (pedrogiocondoguerra@gmail.com) on 2014-03-31T18:28:41Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_de_mestrado_Pedro_Guerra.pdf: 1750136 bytes, checksum: 780ca20cad31dcd4db57da366f768bd8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by PAMELA BELTRAN TONSA (pamela.tonsa@fgv.br) on 2014-03-31T18:31:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_de_mestrado_Pedro_Guerra.pdf: 1750136 bytes, checksum: 780ca20cad31dcd4db57da366f768bd8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-03-31T18:36:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_de_mestrado_Pedro_Guerra.pdf: 1750136 bytes, checksum: 780ca20cad31dcd4db57da366f768bd8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-27 / The work offers a historical analysis of the recent measures adopted by the Brazilian federal government for the development of the railways sector, with an aim to verify if the Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento, PAC, represented a paradigm shift. We conclude that the PAC itself did not represent a shift from the paradigm inaugurated with the privatization of the sector that occurred between 1996 and 1998. Nonetheless, it represented the strengthening of the state in its planning role, which had started with the PNLT, in its entrepreneurial role, with the strengthening of Valec and, indirectly, in its regulating role, with the edition of resolutions by ANTT, which aimed to integrate the railway networks under the care of private companies and make them more competitive. / O trabalho analisa historicamente as recentes medidas do governo federal para o desenvolvimento do setor de ferrovias, buscando verificar se o PAC representou uma mudança de paradigma. Conclui-se que o PAC, em si, não rompeu com o paradigma inaugurado pela desestatização do setor, ocorrida entre 1996-1998. No entanto, reforçou o papel do Estado como planejador, iniciado com o PNLT, como empresário, com o fortalecimento da Valec e, de maneira indireta, como regulador, com o a edição de novas resoluções pela ANTT, em resposta a seus objetivos de integrar as malhas ferroviárias concedidas e de torná-las mais competitivas.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

Concept en vogue ou novlangue, la gouvernance est devenue une équation, ces dernières années, notamment pour les États africains en quête de légitimité à la faveur de la démocratisation. Ainsi, à travers cette thèse, nous choisissons, après avoir situé le concept, de décrire les repères à la fois historiques et actuels du Mali dans sa construction épistolaire, de visualiser les réseaux d'acteurs et les différentes distanciations empiriques qui ont marqué la construction et la déconstruction du système politique ou de l'idéal étatique. Cette démarche nous a conduit à situer de fortes antinomies qui font que nous qualifierons la gouvernance au Mali de « gouvernance d'identification ». L'analyse du contexte nous conduira alors à nous pencher sur le paradigme de la gouvernance sous l'angle de l'appropriation ou « gouvernance d'appropriation ». Les pistes de réflexion mises en perspective concernent, ainsi, à la fois l'établissement d'une congruence entre la gouvernance et les réformes institutionnelles et la prise en compte de la crédibilité de la gouvernance , aux niveaux national et territorial, pour une meilleure réforme institutionnelle. Enfin, nous ouvrons des perspectives sur la situation post-crise au Mali qui demandent à intégrer les leçons à tirer par tous les acteurs, afin d'éviter que le Mali ne retombe dans une situation similaire à celle qui a prévalu avant l'intervention de la « force serval ». / Popular concept or contemporary “jargon”, governance has become in recent years an issue mainly for African states seeking legitimacy through democratization. So through this thesis, we define the concept, describe the references from history and present perspectives in Mali in its epistolary construction, stakeholder networking, different empirical distancing that marked the construction and deconstruction of the ideal state or the political system. This approach enables us to situate the strong antinomies for which we refer to governance in Mali as “governance of identification”. The analysis of the context will help us study the paradigm of governance under the prism of ownership or “ownership governance”. The perspective lines of reasoning concern both the establishment of the congruence between governance and institutional reforms and the taking into account of the credibility of governance at national and territorial levels for a better institutional reform. Finally we open perspectives for the post crisis situation in Mali which require to take into account the lessons learnt by different actors in order to avoid that Mali falls back again in a similar situation to the one prevailing before “serval force” intervention.

A década de 1990 foi marcada por importantes transformações de caráter estrutural ocorridas no ambiente econômico e institucional brasileiro que estiveram ligadas tanto ao novo conjunto de políticas macroeconômicas adotado, quanto à implementação de reformas de cunho liberalizante. O objetivo das medidas adotadas era de estabelecer condições para a retomada do crescimento da economia, de forma a que a crise da década anterior fosse superada. Apesar de um grande salto no crescimento não ter sido observado, houve uma relativa recuperação das taxas de crescimento na década de 1990 e no início dos anos posteriores. Com foco nas reformas liberalizantes que foram implementadas, esta dissertação procura investigar a maneira e os meios pelos quais as mudanças verificadas nas principais áreas reformadas geraram impacto sobre o desempenho econômico do país. Para tanto, utiliza-se dois referenciais teóricos: (i) a nova economia institucional, que fornece o substrato para a interpretação do caráter institucional das reformas; e (ii) a teoria de crescimento econômico com base nos modelos de crescimento neoclássicos, que permitem a investigação empírica acerca dos efeitos das reformas sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia. A análise empreendida verificou, primeiramente, que, de acordo com o exercício de decomposição da taxa de crescimento realizado para o período considerado de 1960 a 2005, o elemento cuja variação mais contribuiu para a variação da taxa de crescimento dos anos em questão foi a produtividade total dos fatores descontada da fronteira tecnológica (PTFD). Com base neste resultado, realizou-se a aplicação de um modelo econométrico em que a PTFD foi a variável dependente e os índices de reforma construídos as variáveis explicativas. O resultado final a que se chegou mostrou que apenas a abertura comercial e a reforma do setor financeiro nacional, dentre as quatro áreas reformadas aqui consideradas, estiveram associadas ao comportamento da PTFD no período analisado, especialmente na década de 1990, indicando que um meio pelo qual essas duas reformas geraram impactos sobre a taxa de crescimento da economia parece ter sido a PTFD. / The 1990's were characterized by important structural changes in the economic and institutional Brazilian environment, and these changes were associated to a new macroeconomic policy regime and to the implementation of economic reforms based on a liberal set of rules. The main objective behind the measures that were taken was to establish basic conditions to foster economic growth rate recovery. Although a great increase in the growth rate had not been verified, there was a relative recovery of the economic performance in the 1990's and in the beginning of following years. This thesis focus on the analysis of liberalization reforms implemented in the 1990's, and investigates the ways through which they had affected economic growth in Brazil. In this way, the study was build upon two theoretical bases: (i) the new institutional economics, which gives us the substratum to the interpretation of the institutional nature of reforms; and (ii) the economic growth theory on the bases of neoclassical growth models, which allows the empirical inquiry concerning the impact of the reforms on the rate of economic growth. The undertaken analysis in this research has shown, first of all, that, in accordance to the growth rate decomposition exercise, carried out through the years of 1960's to 2005, the element whose variation rate had most significant contribution to the variation of growth rate was the total factor productivity discounted by the technological frontier (TFPD). Based on this preliminary result, the econometric analysis took into account a model in which TFPD was the dependent variable, and the structural reforms indicators the independent variables. The final result showed that only opening trade and financial reforms, amongst the four reformed areas considered in this study, had been associated to the behavior of TFPD in the analyzed period, especially in the 1990's, indicating that the way through which these two reforms had affected the economic performance seems to have been the TFPD.

The thesis investigates corruption and the anti-corruption strategies. Focusing on the case study of Ukraine, it is shown how corruption can affect society and what particular measures can be undertaken for tackling this phenomenon. It is illustrated that the current level of corruption in Ukraine is high in all fields of public management: the customs and taxation systems, law enforcement agencies, the judicial system, business, and so on. The analysis of the Ukrainian government's anti-corruption strategies reveals that they are based primarily on deregulation, demonopolization, the creation of a strong institutional environment, and digitalization. In recent years, Ukraine has been able to achieve institutional advancements through the creation of new anti-corruption bodies and has initiated digitalization as a new strategic direction against corruption. However, none of these activities have brought tangible results so far. The thesis analyzes why the government's anti-corruption strategies have been fruitless to date and how the situation might develop in the future. Keywords anti-corruption strategies, bribery, corruption, European Union, institutional reforms, public officials, Ukraine. Abstrakt Práce zkoumá korupci a protikorupční strategie se zaměřením na případovou studii Ukrajiny. Je...

Electoral systems have an enormous importance on how political power is distributed, on governability and the dynamics of representation of any given democratic society. Political science has traditionally considered electoral systems to be stable institutions and has paid more attention to understand how political parties adapt to the electoral rules than to how “electoral institutions themselves are adapted by political parties” (Benoit 2004). However, given their importance, unveiling the factors that influence the change and the choice of electoral rules is crucial and an increasing number of studies has addressed the issue since the 1990s. <p>This dissertation lies at the crossroads between traditional explanations of the stability of electoral systems and the more recent interpretations of electoral system change. Through three empirical parts, this thesis shows how these literatures are reconcilable and complementary. This study encompasses a comprehensive set of explicative factors at the micro, meso and macro levels that shed light on the incentives and barriers to reform electoral systems. Methodologically, the large-N approach of this thesis goes beyond the usual case studies and small-N analyses that characterize the field of electoral system change. Besides, the consideration of cases of reforms and cases of stability contributes to a better understanding of the determinants of electoral system change. While traditional accounts of electoral system change are predominantly based on political parties’ self-interest, this study demonstrates that the context matters. In this regard, this dissertation has three main findings. <p>Firstly, this study calls into question the body of literature addressing the change of electoral institutions by analyzing the impact of different barriers in the success of reform debates. At the party level, it shows how intraparty division can constitute an important factor to explain institutional inertia. The analysis is based on the responses of Irish Members of Parliament (Teachtaí Dala, or TDs) to a number of survey items designed to measure their evaluations of the current electoral system. The study discusses how the heterogeneity of preferences within parties over this issue may act as a barrier for reform. Besides, at the micro level, it sheds light on the determinants of individuals’ incentives to support reform. Beyond the classical power-seeking motivations, individual legislators also appear to be driven by values and attitudes about the quality of democracy.<p>Secondly, this thesis focuses on institutional contexts. This study analyzes the capacity of institutions to deter reforms using empirical evidence of the occurrence of reforms and the duration of electoral systems in 17 European countries. Drawing on Lijphart’s framework of the patterns of democracy, this research analyzes the extent to which the elements that differentiate between majoritarian and consensus democracies can hinder electoral reforms. On the one hand, it shows the impact of individual institutions on the occurrence of reform and the duration of electoral systems. It demonstrates that higher numbers of veto players, more proportional electoral systems, limited vested interests of the incumbent parties, constitutional rigidity and the existence of judicial review can reduce the likelihood of reform. On the other hand, this study demonstrates that the different combinations of institutional elements provide important explanatory leverage on the duration of electoral systems. In this regard, contrary to what is often assumed, it is shown that the occurrence of electoral reforms is linked to the incumbents’ capacity to develop their preferred policies. Those systems in which power is more concentrated, that is majoritarian systems, appear to be those in which electoral systems reforms are more frequent. <p>Finally, the thesis explores the impact of external shocks on the likelihood of reform. On the basis of an analysis of a dataset of electoral reforms that have been enacted in Europe since 1945, this study demonstrates that economic crises and citizens’ dissatisfaction with democracy are related to the introduction of electoral reforms. However, the mechanism is mediated by the existence of new parties that capitalize on this dissatisfaction and that can threaten the established parties. In these circumstances, restrictive reforms – those that aim at hindering the entry of new parties - are more likely to be introduced, though too late to prevent the entry of these newcomers.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La tesi è stata intitolata “Change the System From Within”. La participatory democracy e le riforme istituzionali negli Stati Uniti degli anni Sessanta e si compone di cinque capitoli. Nel primo capitolo si riprende l’idea di participatory democracy emersa in seno alla New Left e ai movimenti sociali dei lunghi anni Sessanta. In questo contesto il concetto di participatory democracy assunse due principali accezioni: da una parte rappresentava la rivendicazione politica di un maggior coinvolgimento attivo della cittadinanza nelle politiche - locali, statali e federali - frutto della crisi di legittimità che la democrazia americana stava attraversando in quegli anni; dall’altra, il concetto venne adottato come principio organizzativo all’interno dei gruppi stessi di attivisti, con la funzione di prefigurare quelle riforme politico-istituzionali cui gli stessi militanti aspiravano. Dalla stessa temperie di contestazione sorse del resto anche la critica che alcuni studiosi mossero alla teoria liberale pluralista e alla sua esemplificazione nella coeva democrazia americana. Nel primo capitolo si mostra proprio come da quelle rielaborazioni critiche degli anni Sessanta emerse anche il primo modello di participatory democracy in seno alla teoria politica, sviluppato pienamente negli anni Settanta e Ottanta da Carole Pateman, Crawford B. Macpherson e Benjamin Barber. Questa parte del lavoro di tesi si propone quindi di accostare alle pratiche partecipative introdotte dai movimenti anche la ricostruzione dello sviluppo graduale di una teoria politica della participatory democracy. Tale riflessione è completata da un’analisi storica di ampio raggio, necessaria a meglio contestualizzare il fenomeno e ad includere le nuove richieste democratiche nell’ambito di una tradizione democratico-rappresentativa già dotata di istituti partecipativi di democrazia diretta. Chiarito il quadro storico-politico degli anni Sessanta, il secondo capitolo analizza la ricezione dell’idea di participatory democracy nelle politiche federali. A questo proposito si illustra come il principio di citizen participation fosse stato recepito già con la War on Poverty promossa da Lindon B. Johnson alla metà degli anni Sessanta e fu mantenuto, con esiti istituzionali differenti, almeno fino alla fine della presidenza Carter. Si dimostra inoltre che, malgrado il dettato legislativo federale fosse spesso approssimativo sulle modalità operative, quel principio ebbe in realtà un notevole impatto sulle relazioni intergovernative. Tale principio favorì ad esempio l’intraprendenza di molti amministratori locali nel promuovere il decentramento amministrativo e politico su base di quartiere. Nel terzo capitolo l’analisi affronta le principali trasformazioni in senso partecipativo avvenute nei sistemi di governo statali e locali negli anni Settanta, mettendole in relazione anche alle dinamiche intergovernative di più lungo periodo. Il capitolo è strutturato in modo tale da evidenziare il tendenziale recupero e rafforzamento di istituti già esistenti, come l’initiative, i public hearing e gli school district come strumenti di rivendicazione del community control in alcune città di grandi dimensioni. Mentre il secondo e terzo capitolo tendono a osservare le riforme istituzionali degli anni Settanta in senso partecipativo in seno al governo federale, statale e locale, i due successivi capitoli mirano ad osservare l’impatto della participatory democracy nel confronto tra attivismo militante e pratiche amministrative tradizionali degli anni Settanta. Il quarto capitolo è infatti dedicato all’ingresso della nuova generazione di politici progressisti nelle amministrazioni locali e statali fra la fine degli anni Sessanta e la prima metà degli anni Settanta. Per analizzarlo si è deciso di analizzare come principale caso di studio la Conference on Alternative State and Local Policy (CASLP), una organizzazione e forum nazionale che mirava proprio ad unire alle istanze dei progressisti una expertise di governo. Nell’ambito della CASLP, la cosiddetta Coalizione progressista di Berkeley, CA, fornì un caso esemplare di strategia di confronto con le istituzioni locali e per questo il capitolo le dedica una attenta disanima. La pluriennale esperienza di azione collettiva dei progressisti di Berkeley nell’arena istituzionale è infatti rilevante sia per l’innovazione nella strategia istituzionale, sia per attestare una evoluzione dell’idea di participatory democracy nel tempo. Il quinto capitolo ricostruisce ed analizza la carriera politica di Tom Hayden negli anni in cui passò dall’attivismo alla politica istituzionale, con la campagna elettorale per diventare Senatore della California in Congresso (1975-1976) e la successiva Campaign for Economic Democracy (1976-1982), confermando la spiccata propensione del leader all’innovazione istituzionale in senso partecipativo. In particolare, nella campagna elettorale per il Senato del Congresso del 1976 Hayden riuscì a implementare forme di decision-making partecipato in seno allo staff. Nella gestione del personale cercò inoltre di favorire l’empowerment di volontari e cittadini senza perdere di vista i requisiti essenziali per la sopravvivenza della campagna: fundraising e propaganda. In linea con la sua battaglia contro le distorsioni economiche del big business, scelse di non accettare fondi da corporation e banche e riuscì nell’intento di essere sostenuto per gran parte da small donors. Hayden dunque introdusse pratiche di participatory democracy in seno alla campagna elettorale e continuò a rivendicare la sua fiducia nella forza dei movimenti grass-roots. L’analisi storica, ad ogni modo, evidenzia anche le criticità che derivavano dall’uso di pratiche partecipative nella governance della campagna elettorale. Atttraverso l’analisi teorica e politico-istituzionale della democrazia partecipativa americana fra gli anni Sessanta e Settanta su vari livelli istituzionali (federale, statale e locale), questo progetto di ricerca tenta quindi di colmare un vuoto storiografico e, al tempo stesso intende contribuire alla definizione storico-istituzionale della participatory democracy in seno alla democrazia rappresentativa degli Stati Uniti. Infine, la presente ricerca mira a inserirsi nel dibattito pubblico contemporaneo sulla participatory democracy, offrendo una visione storico-istituzionale importante per meglio comprendere il fenomeno e che, finora, non ha ricevuto l’attenzione che meriterebbe. / Chapter 1 retrieves the idea of participatory democracy stemmed from the Long 1960s New Left and the following social movements. Indeed, the concept of participatory democracy mainly acquired two slightly different shapes in that historical framework. From one hand, it meant the broad political call for common citizens’ greater involvement in the policy-making - at the local, state and federal level. That request was in fact a reply to the ongoing crisis of the American democracy, in terms of political legitimacy and social representation of minorities and poor people. In the other hand, participatory democracy represented the organizing principle adopted by most of the grass-roots groups of that period, with a clear prefigurative function. Indeed, making the activist groups’ inner decision-making participatory was a way for the collectives to anticipate the institutional changes they aspired to. In the meantime, because of the same disaffection against the raising social and political inequalities, some political science scholars elaborated a critique to the pluralist version of the liberal democracy - then the most praised one, as well as credited as it was embodied in the American democracy. Those 1960s critiques were eventually used to conceive the first political theory of participatory democracy in the 1970s and 1980s, as Chapter 1 shows. The participatory democracy’s canon was in fact mostly developed by Carole Pateman, Crawford B. Macpherson and Benjamin Barber. Beside the intellectual history of participatory democracy from 1960s to 1980s, Chapter 1 allows to contextualize ideas and practices of common citizens’ participation into the wider history of the American Political Development. According to that, chapter 1 also provides a detailed analysis of the participatory political institutions that were traditionally part of the United States representative democracy. Chapter 2 verifies whether the 1960s idea of participatory democracy actually affected the federal public policies of the late 1960s and 1970s. Indeed the principle of “citizen participation” was introduced in some of the War on Poverty legislations, promoted by Lyndon B. Johnson since the mid-1960s. Although the heterogeneous institutional effects, that principle was maintained in some grant-in-aid projects until the end of the Carter administration, through the Nixon and Ford administrations. Therefore, the political meanings assumed by the idea of “citizen participation” and its institutional consequences from 1964 to 1980 are carefully analyzed in chapter 2. Moreover, chapter 2 shows that the principle of citizen participation had such a strong impact on the intergovernmental relations. It thus brought forward, for instance, the local public officers’ entrepreneurship towards the local devolution, shifting the administrative and political power base from the center to the neighborhood. Chapter 3 deals with the 1970s main institutional reforms aimed at introducing the common citizens’ participation in the government decision-making at the state and local levels. Those reforms are deeply related to some long-lasting intergovernmental dynamics and this relationship is also argued. The same chapter’s lay-out is vowed to underline the 1970s general trend of retrieval and enhancing of traditional institutions, such as the initiative (direct democracy), the public hearings and the school districts. The school board was indeed reevaluated and reshaped as a means of community control in the biggest cities. As chapters 2 and 3 aim at exploring the implementation of participatory reforms in the federal, state and local level of government, chapters 4 and 5 aim at inquiring the participatory democracy’s impact on the 1970s boundary of polity - the space where activism meets political institutions. Chapter 4 inquires the new generations of progressive politicians entering the local and state administrations from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. To frame that national phenomenon, the historical analysis use the Conference of Alternative States and Local Policies (CASLP) as a case study. CASLP was indeed a national organization born in 1975 to give voice to the progressive public officers around the country and allowed them sharing their government experiences for a more effective institutional impact. Inside CASLP, the progressive coalition of Berkeley, CA (called Berkeley Citizens’ Action, BCA) was especially spotted for its exemplary strategy to confront local political institutions. The 1970s BCA’s political actions are thus specifically analyzed. In fact, the institutional approach of the Berkeley progressive coalition resulted to be innovative in terms of strategy as well as successful in introducing new forms of participatory democracy into the local government, assessing the 1970s evolution of the participatory democracy political theory and practices. Chapter 5 retraces the political career of the former New Left leader Tom Hayden during the years of turning from activism to institutional politics. Especially, the analysis focuses on the 1975-1976 U.S. Senate Campaign and the following Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), a coalition project and organization led by Hayden with the goal of mobilizing activists and public officers around the issues of economic justice, environmental and economic public policies (1976-1982). That period - just before Hayden was elected representative at the California Legislature in 1982 - is thus analyzed as a testing ground to verify his long-lasting commitment towards participatory democracy. The historical and political analysis, based on original archival findings, confirms Hayden’s inclination for institutional innovation in the participatory realm. In particular, during the 1975-1976 electoral campaign for the U.S. Senate in California Hayden introduced participatory forms of decision-making involving staff people, volunteers and supporting grass-roots groups. Moreover, that campaign’s staff and people management was conceived in order to directly empower citizens and volunteers, without losing track of the campaigning basic requirements (e. g. fundraising and propaganda). As he stood against big business and economic inequalities, he chose to reject fundings from corporations and banks. Therefore his electoral campaign was mostly sustained by small donors. Hayden successfully made the campaigning more open, accountable and participatory and kept on sponsoring his trust in community organizing and grass-roots social movements even in his following political endeavour, CED. Eventually, the investigation casts lights on the strengths, as well as the critical issues, produced by the Hayden’s participatory governance of campaigning. By the means of analysing the intellectual history and the institutional implementation of participatory democracy during late 1960s-1970s United States, this research project firstly aims at making up the lack of historiography about the topic. In the second stance, grounding the institutional and political history of participatory democracy in the United States representative democracy - where the concept was born - this research project intends to provide a first genealogy of the participatory democracy’s institutional implementation. In this sense, the research projects wants also to contribute to the contemporary debate on the participatory democracy. It is indeed a compelling and popular issue in many worldwide political arenas, but it is still rarely defined by its historical and institutional terms.