In recent years evaluation has become a very important element in the public administration. The Swedish state administration to a significant extent both evaluates and is evaluated. This means that the evaluating state is at the same time the evaluated state. In this dissertation the institutionalization of evaluation is studied in a field within which this development has been particularly lively and interesting, namely the field of higher education. The dissertation focuses on evaluation activity that has been carried out in conjunction with central public authorities within higher education: the Office of the Chancellor of the Universities and Colleges in Sweden, the National Swedish Board of Universities and Colleges, and the Office of the University Chancellor, and encompasses the period 1964-1995. A newly revived research tradition within political science – historical institutionalism – is used as a perspective and a methodology. Since the application of this tradition has not yet been fully tested, another purpose is to examine the practical utility of this analytical tool and the kind of knowledge that it produces. The dissertation thereby combines the fields of education policy, evaluation research and institutional theory. The beginning of the institution has been dated to the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s. In the dissertation the forces behind the initiation of the institution are taken up. Events and developments in the field that have influenced the further development of the institution have been identified and analyzed. Developments reveal that the institution has been stable during the entire period of time under study, despite some changes. The use of historical institutionalism as a perspective and methodology has proven satisfactory on a general level. However, special solutions have been required as problems and ambiguities have arisen. The dissertation concludes with reflections on the practical utility of historical institutionalism in political science research.

It is generally acknowledged that economic activity continues apace and at the expense of social and ecological integrity while the course of economic development remains far from any approximation of sustainability. Few would dispute the fact that since 1992 little has been accomplished in practical terms to meet Agenda 21 objectives. Many would agree that Agenda 21-inspired local visions and goals have not translated into actual local change in part because of the complex and the multi-faceted nature of the issues involved. Policy work on ecological modernization and sustainability needs to be explicit on the question of scale and the role of governments. The central challenge for policy makers, action takers, and researchers is to determine the appropriate territorial (physical, social, economic, and political) scale at and through which government power needs to be deployed to effect transition to sustainable modes of regulation. This question is particularly relevant given the current discourse on regionalization / globalization. Adopting a 'post-disciplinary' approach this thesis examines how institutional inter-relations shape the outcome of plans to meet policy objectives on sustainable development at the local (municipality) scale. In-depth analysis of interview and secondary data reveals that numerous factors 'regulate' what occurs at local and other scales in relation to sustainable development. This thesis concludes with exploring the policy and future research implications of the findings.

The chief purpose of this study is to develop a theoretical framework which can contribute to a broader theoretical understanding of the actions of the U.N. Security Council and its members. The framework rests upon a rationalistic foundation and it is set up with two different models of explanation; a first with focus on power and security and the second which is an institutional explanation. The framework is then applied on a case study in which the behavior of theUnited Statesand theUnited Kingdomin the Security Council are explained. The outcome of the paper is worth mentioning that the member nations have find the Security Council to be an important institution and that there is an apprehension of the precedential power of the institution. The study also points out that a permanent member is more likely to use its veto when there are strong national reasons of so doing. In general the developed theoretical framework seems to be well appropriate to explain states behavior in the Security Council and may provide a foundation for further theoretical studies on the subject.

Focusing on a community-policing pilot-project initiated in Kikuyu, a suburb of Nairobi, Kenya, the current paper seeks to create an understanding concerning local premises for community-policing implementation. It is based on a field study that combined participatory observations and semi-structured interviews to investigate how the management of the pilot-project on the one side and the local police officers on the other side perceives the latter’s professional duty in Kikuyu. These perceptions and their correlation were analyzed through an institutional approach, involving regulative, normative and culture-cognitive perspectives. Initially, the findings show that intentions held within the management about how to change police practice in Kikuyu correlated to a large degree with the understanding local police officers already posses concerning their professional duty. However, applying the institutional approach, possible discrepancies were found. Concerning this, while the regulative and normative aspects of how to police Kikuyu seem to correlate between the two groups, differences on the culture-cognitive level indicate that the management and the local police officers have differing perceptions concerning police practice. Conclusively, following a distinction between a proactive approach to policing, expressed by the management, and a reactive approach to policing, expressed by the local police officers, the paper issues a warning regarding how historical and current social structures might result in a misinterpretation and misuse of community-policing on the side of the local police officers, which could lead to contradictive and counterproductive end results following the continued implementation of community-policing.

The reform of the European Commission has been on the EU agenda for more than three decades. The attempts to introduce an overhaul of the Commission’s institutional structure has been motivated predominantly by the fact that the efficiency of the functioning of the European Commission has been in decline. Despite the striking need to restore the Commission's efficiency, which has become even more urgent in the last decade, the attempts to improve its modus operandi have been marked by many obstacles, difficulties and delays. This thesis aims to analyze and explain why the process of reforming the European Commission has been so problematic. In order to achieve this goal, the theoretical framework of historical institutionalism has been utilized. More precisely, we mainly build on the work of Paul Pierson, whose concepts help us understand the reasons behind the failure of a number of reform plans regarding the Commission and clarify why the institutional structure of the European Commission is characterized by a high degree of stability.

It is generally acknowledged that economic activity continues apace and at the expense of social and ecological integrity while the course of economic development remains far from any approximation of sustainability. Few would dispute the fact that since 1992 little has been accomplished in practical terms to meet Agenda 21 objectives. Many would agree that Agenda 21-inspired local visions and goals have not translated into actual local change in part because of the complex and the multi-faceted nature of the issues involved. Policy work on ecological modernization and sustainability needs to be explicit on the question of scale and the role of governments. The central challenge for policy makers, action takers, and researchers is to determine the appropriate territorial (physical, social, economic, and political) scale at and through which government power needs to be deployed to effect transition to sustainable modes of regulation. This question is particularly relevant given the current discourse on regionalization / globalization. Adopting a 'post-disciplinary' approach this thesis examines how institutional inter-relations shape the outcome of plans to meet policy objectives on sustainable development at the local (municipality) scale. In-depth analysis of interview and secondary data reveals that numerous factors 'regulate' what occurs at local and other scales in relation to sustainable development. This thesis concludes with exploring the policy and future research implications of the findings.

With background in the acknowledgement of the current period of major change in the characteristics of traditional Swedish foreign policy, considering the membership in the European Union, as well as the new contextual scenarios that Sweden has been situated in after the end of the cold war, this thesis aims at scrutinizing the Swedish Foreign Policy from 1991 to 2010. The purpose of the thesis is further to localize continuity and change in the ideas which Sweden has explicitly stated in its foreign policy. Based on the theory of institutionalism, the thesis also aims to bring forward plausible explanations built on the main empirical findings. This has been done by identifying different types of goals and means within realism and liberalism as well as categorizing each theory within three ideal types. The chosen research method has been a qualitative text analysis with focus on an ideational analysis. The material on which the descriptive analysis is based upon is constituted by the annual statements of government policy in parliamentary debates on foreign affairs. The results of the thesis show that the ideas that are related to solidarity, consensus and active foreign policy are constant through the period of examination. The ideas of neutrality and non-alignment could, based on the conducted analysis, be understood to continue to go through great changes, of which the engagement in the Common Foreign and Security Policy within the European Union is the most obvious example.

Fonogramsavtalet är ett avtal som sluts mellan en artist och ett skivbolag där artisten överlåter exploateringsrätten till sitt framförande till skivbolaget för en ersättning. Detta avtal grundar sig på de rättigheter som upphovsrättslagen ger en artist och på avtalsrätt, men hur dessa avtal bör utformas i praktiken är till stor del upp till de båda parterna (Stannow, Åkerberg, Hillerström 2002). Friheten kring utformandet är med andra ord stor vilket borde resultera i många kreativa sätt att lösa denna fråga. Varje artist är unik i fråga om musikalisk genre vilket påverkar det sätt som denna artist bör presenteras på marknaden. Dessutom är varje skivbolag unikt i sitt sätt att arbeta samt i fråga om resurser och kompetens. Detta borde leda till en myriad av lösningar på hur dessa parter skall samarbeta och detta borde därmed likaså resultera i lika många olika avtalsutformningar. Det har dock utvecklats en standard gällande fonogramsavtalets utformning som gör att slående många avtal inom branschen är närmast identiska. Jag anser därmed att det är av vikt att undersöka denna standard samt hur den sprids inom musikbranschen. Detta därför att det är viktigt att inse de förutfattade meningar och de rationaliserade myter som ligger till grund för ens handlande. Aktörerna inom musikbranschen har enligt mig en tendens att fokusera på detaljnivå när de utformar ett fonogramsavtal och överser att ifrågasätta varifrån de får den mall de utgår ifrån. Mycket av de viktigaste punkterna inom avtalet ifrågasätts aldrig och rättfärdigas med uttryck likt ”så har vi alltid gjort” och ”så funkar det i branschen”. Detta är en grogrund för ett institutionaliserande av rationella myter och måste därför ifrågasättas så att aktörerna inom branschen kan frigöra sig från dessa myter och införa en vilja till nytänkande. Powell och DiMaggios isomorfismbegrepp ligger till grund för hur jag ämnar beskriva fonogramsavtalsstandardens spridning inom musikbranschen (DiMaggio, Powell 1983/1997). Kortfattat kan man säga att fonogramsavtalsstandarden sprids genom att musikbranschen är en relativt liten och homogen bransch. Interaktion mellan de olika aktörerna möjliggör att nya recept på tillvägagångssätt inom denna avtalsfråga sprids och befästs tämligen snabbt. Musikbranschen är dessutom en bransch som är mycket trendkänslig på grund av att man arbetar med en produkt vars kommersiella gångbarhet är jämförelsevis kort. Detta leder enligt mig till att aktörerna inom musikbranschen är vana vid att följa och imitera varandra vilket leder till ett likstämmigt beteende. De olika intresseorganisationerna inom branschen arbetar alla med att hjälpa sina medlemmar att lösa frågor angående fonogramsavtal. Dessa organisationer jobbar dessutom aktivt med olika utbildningsprojekt för att höja deras medlemmars kunskap om branschen. Jag anser därmed att deras agerande leder till att en standard kring upprättandet av fonogramsavtal sprids bland deras medlemmar. Skivbolag med större ekonomiska resurser anlitar också ofta juridisk expertis vid upprättandet av deras fonogramsavtal. Dessa experter måste förutom det juridiska kunnandet även besitta kunskaper om musikbranschen. Jag vill hävda att eftersom det finns relativt få konsulter som besitter denna expertis så tenderar ett fåtal individer sitta vid flertalet betydande förhandlingar inom musikbranschen. Detta leder till att dessa personer sprider sitt tillvägagångssätt inom branschen vilket i sin tur sprider och befäster fonogramavtalets standard ytterligare. Eftersom fonogramsavtalet är en produkt av förhandlingar så är avtalet likaså en produkt av de båda parternas maktposition jämte varandra. Denna inbördes maktkamp mellan de båda parterna är dessutom en produkt av de maktelement som reglerar musikbranschen som helhet. Därför så ämnar jag beskriva dessa maktelement med hjälp av Michael Porters strukturella analysmodell samt redogöra för hur förändringar inom dessa element påverkar fonogramsavtalsstandarden (Porter 1985). Jag hävdar att skivbolagens maktposition håller på att urholkas något i takt med den digitala revolutionen vilken på sikt säkerligen kommer att göra Internet till den dominerande distributionskanalen för musik. Denna revolution har gjort att inträdesbarriärerna inom branschen har krympt på grund av att distributionen har förenklats. Jag anser att detta kommer leda till att de stora dominerande skivbolagen tappar kontrollen över distributionen och därmed även tappar sin makt över branschen. Artisten kommer följaktligen att få mer att säga till om vid en fonogramsavtalsförhandling, frågan är bara om detta också kommer att förändra fonogramsavtalsstandarden. / The Phonorecord contract is a contract that lets an artist sign away his right to exploit his performance to a record company for the sake of both parties financial benefit. This contract is based upon the copyright act, but how this contract should be formed is very much left to the discretion of the involved parties. This freedom to individually construct the design of the contract should therefore produce an array of different formats, each constructed to fit the artist and the record company’s individual situation. Artists are an individual and therefore unique when it comes to their musical heritage and commerciality. Record companies are also a product of their unique circumstance of economical clout and competence, which should result in many creative ways of designing a phonorecord contract. Still, the music industry has developed a standard when it comes to designing this agreement which has conformed the industries contracts to be very similar in content and design. Therefore I feel it is important to analyze this standard and how this standard is traveling within the industry. This because I see a need to shed some light upon the preconceived notions and rationalized myths, that form the actions of the actors within the music business. These actors tend to focus their attention on details instead of seeing the overall picture and the rationalized myths that constitute their actions. A bulk of the content in the phonorecord contract never even gets questioned and gets rationalized by expressions like “this is the way in which we always operated” and “this is boiler-plate”. This is a telling sign of an industry that rely heavily on institutionalized rational myths. These myths should be questioned to free the industry actors of their narrow minded thought processes and to open up for the possibility of creative thinking. I have based my analysis on Powell and DiMaggios isomorphis concept and used their three kinds of isomorphesis to depict the traveling of the standard in regards to the phonorecord contract (DiMaggio, Powell 1983/1997). To put it briefly, you can narrow down my results by stating that the music business is a very homogenized and small business sector. The daily interaction between the actors within the industry facilitates a fast and easy spread of ideas that quickly becomes standardized. I would also like to claim that the music industry is a very trend sensitive industry since their main product enjoys a very brief commercial lifespan. This makes the actors in the industry accustomed to interact and to keep a close eye on each other, a behavior that leads to the actors copying each other to a vast extent. The different trade groups within the industry work extensively to help their members in resolving different issues revolving the phonorecord contract. These trade groups also undertake different educational projects to educate their members. I think that their willingness to take this active role within the industry helps to spread the perceived standard within the phonorecord contract to their members. Record labels with large economical clout tend to hire legal experts to design their phonorecord contracts. Since there are few legal experts that work on a contractual basis and that also possesses a deep knowledge of the music industry the same consultants tends to be hired on a regular basis. Not only do they get hired by the same companies again and again, but also to a large extent by different companies. Making these consultants take part in several different phonorecord contract negotiations within the industry. These actors therefore help in spreading the standard regarding this issue. Since a phonorecord contract is a product of negotiations, the contract will also be a product of the power relations between the invested parties. This power relationship between the parties also reflects the power relations within the industry as a whole. Therefore I tend to describe these power relations using Michael Porters Structural Analysis model, and by doing so shedding some light upon how this power struggle effects the negotiations between artist and record company. I claim that the record companies’ advantage when it comes to their power position is slowly eroding as a result of the digital revolution within the industry. A digital revolution brought on by that the main way of distribution a phonorecord in the future probably will be through the internet and not through a record store. This revolution has made the entry barriers into the industry smaller because the distribution process has been made easier. The major record companies therefore loose the control of the distribution channels witch in turn erodes their power position. The artist might therefore get a much better position when negotiating with a record company; the question is if this also will lead to a change in the standard in regards to the phonorecord contract.

In 2002, the euro as a common currency did replace the national currencies in the EU member-states that did choose to take part in the EMU. It was then viewed as one of the greatest accomplishments ever to be made by the EU. However, during the latest years, the economic situation has deteriorated in several EMU member-states. This affected the whole euro-area and the current situation is referred upon as the euro-crisis. In 2011, at the time of the euro-crisis, the Heads of State or Government of the euro-area did reaffirm their full commitment to strengthen EMU. This essay seeks to answer why the EMU is maintained despite severe economical difficulties. The purpose of this essay is to reveal that path dependence is seen in the EU decision-making about the EMU. To fulfill the purpose the method used is process-tracing. To study the EU decision-making this essay applies the theoretical framework provided by Allison and Zelikow. This theoretical framework studies decision-making from three different vantage points. The findings of this essay reveal that in each vantage point an institution can be found that shape behavior and results in path dependence.

This thesis researches the development process of financial certificate in Taiwanese banking. In recent years, financial certificate is an important phenomenon in the workplace of finances. Previous studies focused on the impact of the certification, discuss the formation of financial certificate less. In this article, the view of institutional change regards the banking certificate institution as long duration to consider state, the different period of capital and other actor that have different mechanisms of their interactions in institutional formation process. The research method of this thesis adopt analysis of historical documents and interview to understand the formation of financial certification. Study found that the development of the banking certificate can be divided into three stages: the first stage is incubation. Financial employees in the era of state-owned banking had quasi-public servant status, and rely on the apprenticeship training skills through examinations. In the financial liberalization policy, the new banks joined the market so that employee turnover was high; with college increasing rapidly, in the past through internal training structure had become break down. At the same time, the state proposed the Asia Pacific Financial Center from the traditional conservative financial policy to active, established Taiwan Academy of Banking & Finance (TABF) to handle related business of financial certificate, and created the precedent of certification. The second stage is after that establishment of financial holding companies. The finances boundaries are broken. The banking business is more and more complexity. Securities certificate institution having long been customary in securities industry is further stable. The number of banking certificate increased sharply in this stage. The third stage is Institutionalization. TABF develop new certificate continuously, make kinds of banking business certificated, but employees tend to lukewarm response, examinees turned down sharply. At this time, certification is an institutionalization action to pursuit of legitimacy, rather than respond to real needs. This article affirms the view of new institutionalism, and point out the initial of institutional formation indeed response to new financial development. However, at a later stage the action of institutionalization is only for pursuing legitimacy.