The Governance and Politics of Social Problems 2021/2022
Lecturers: André Krouwel and Bram Verhulst
Lecture 1: 01 november 2021
Introduction to Governance and Politics of Social Problems
Input legitimacy (democracy and participation), policy decisions – throughput legitimacy
(process), state action – output legitimacy (performance and effectiveness), policy results
Course objectives are the differences and similarities of political science and the study of
governance and public administration, political/governmental systems, manners in which
common challenges are faced
Analysis of current social problems
Influence of social problems on governance and politics
Normative dimensions (right and wrong)
Comparative approach, interconnectedness and distinctiveness of European democracies,
focus on Europe, not the EU! Thread of the lectures
Lecture 2: Capitalism, crises, governance: why social problems demand government
action
Lecture 3: “The executive branch”, the mechanism of democratically legitimate
governance, how is governance formed, how do they do it?
Lecture 4: But where is the executive branch? A confrontation with complexity
Lecture 5: The governance of social problems, or the social problem of governance?
Discretion and the principal-agent impasse
Lecture 6: What remains to be done? Good governance in an improvising society
Lecture 7: Back to the future? Boutellier’s improvisation and the renewed relevance of
Aristotle, the comparison
Lecture 8: Political side, comparing political systems
Lecture 9: Representation deficit? Democracy, political parties and voting in European
democracies
Lecture 10: Euroscepticism and political trust, national and supranational politics
Lecture 11: Populism and mobilization of discontent, what happened in the US
presidential elections and why? Presidential system
Lecture 12: Inequality, taxation welfare state, retrenchment and labor markets
Introduction to the course substance, democracy and Europe, polarization and discontent and
welfare states, how do these collaborate?
Democracy, world citizens living under different political regimes (colony, autocracy, closed
anocracy, open anocracy or democracy). Different now, in the 1970’s half of Europa lived
under the communist dictatorship.
The fact that the vast majority of countries in Europe are now functioning, stable democracies
is quite remarkable. It also highlights the fact that nothing is permanent and we should not
automatically assume that European democracy will continue to flourish
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, We are currently in the midst of dramatic political changes, traditional party
systems and political conventions are being overturned
Liberal democracy, power of government is constrained by constitutional rules
which are upheld by an independent judicial system
Populism, populists frame the elite and traditional institutions as ‘enemy of the people’. What
is the logic of populism?
- Anti-establishment and anti-experts or intellectualism
- Pro ‘common sense’, gebruik je ‘boerenverstand’
- Simple (and immediate) solutions, they see complex problems as simple
- Out-group derogation
Out-group derogation is a main cause of societal polarization. The division between us and
them and meaningful party competition can increase participation and trust. Yet, portraying
opponents as ‘enemies; undermines democratic values and practices.
Traditional politics is ‘replaced’, does the moderate centre hold? Critics characterized it as a
‘party cartel’, where principled opposition became replaced with consensus and cooperation
among the major parties,
Overeenkomst tussen partijen om de onderlinge concurrentie te verminderen
(kartel)
Post-war era showed general consensus on free market policies and commitment to
regional integration (EU), capitalism
Not anymore: significant differences emerged between political parties and voters
Causes of populism: the global economic crises (2008), increasing inequality within and
between nations and accompanying anti-immigrant sentiments. The film in lecture 2 ‘blame
the immigrants and poor people’: inequality.
From inequality to welfare states, they are meant to reduces inequality. European
governments tend to engage in relatively high levels of economic redistribution and typically
provide extensive social protection supports such as pensions and unemployment assistance to
their populations.
Economic distribution, taking money from the people who can miss it and give it
to the people who really need it (taxes)
Politics is about conflict between competing interests and goals, and across Europe politics is
far more polarized and contentious now than it has been for a long time. Populism is a push-
back, from no longer wanted consensus and increased uncertainty.
Lecture 2: 04 november 2021
Capitalism, crises and governance: why social problems demand government action.
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,Welfare state: mediator of capitalism and inequality. After crises (e.g., 2008, and 1970/1980):
a welfare state retrenchment (bezuinigingen).
Why ‘governance’?
- Mitigating capitalism and inequality: governance
- What is governance?
- Why governance? – The Big Short
- How do we organize governance legitimately?
C&R chapter 12: politics and markets. Capitalism is not just capitalism… ‘welfare states were
to define European capitalism in ways that were often different to American capitalism.
Welfare state is a defining factor of a certain model of capitalism.
Anglo-Saxon, UK
Continental, Germany
Nordic, Norway
Mediterranean, Italy
Important factors in capitalism: markets. How do government interact with markets? Vraag
en aanbod. Demand falls, supply rises (price falls) or the demand rises and the supply falls
(price rises). Communism (government does everything) versus pure competition
(government does nothing) or hybrid.
Important factors in capitalism: taxes. How and where do governments levy taxes? Most are
income taxes, BTW and national insurance taxes. High corporate tax or low corporate tax?
Important factors in capitalism: relations in industry. How are relations between employer
and employees organized? What is the role of government in that organization?
Role of government might be having employer pay part of the unemployment
benefits if employee gets the sack…
Collective labor agreements for employees
Flexible or variable, partnership regulated or weak unionization
Important factors in capitalism: welfare state. But… how are benefits like these organized?
Are there any? Is there a safety net, is the welfare state strong, inclusive or minimum?
All models mean government interference to some degree. Governments issue governance in
congruence with model of capitalism. These structures have a certain continuity, states don’t
switch models that often. They are part of a political system.
What governments do is in line with the model of capitalism they are in
But then what is governance??
And later on, why do we need governance? Or more specifically why do we need
government intervention?
The easiest explanation is intervention through policy. The act of governing, mostly by state,
but term also other organizations (bedrijfsvoering). Not controlling but intervening in what is
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,happening. A model of capitalism is a form of structural state intervention is a pattern of
consistent governance, it is in a certain sense predictable how a government will act in certain
situations
Now that we have established what governance is, why do we need governance at all? More
specifically, why do we need state/government intervention? Are there any reasons for state
intervention? And why no anarchy?
The why of governance: state intervention should guarantee certain (morally) desired
outcomes, the desired outcomes and the models of capitalism correlate. A pattern of what we
think is right and what we need to act upon and what not to act upon.
A state’s model of capitalism serves as a structural way of trying to attain that
outcome, ‘a responsible financial sector’
How? E.g., the Continental model: morally desired outcome guaranteed via state
intervention: desired outcome is collective good
How? E.g., the Anglo-Saxon model: desired outcome guaranteed via free market
and free choice: desired outcome is traits of individualistic cultures
But the catch: internationalization and neoliberalism. The idea that different models of
capitalism continue to exist in Europe has been questioned in recent years as European
economies have been subject to increased pressure from the international economy. Classic in
social thought: Manuel Castells’ The Rise of the Network Society: all is connected, nothing is
centrally controlled. All economies are interwoven.
Increasingly, varieties of capitalism appear less as different forms of capitalism and more as
different types of neoliberalism
Neoliberalism refers to the free market economic ideas that are often associated
with the Angelo-Saxon model: privatization, deregulation and less state spending
Neoliberalism is the very same as the consensus discussed in the last lecture, the
fall of communism
Trust in free market, everywhere on earth, upheld/enforced politically
The financial crisis in Europe
- Less regulation and oversight, less political influence
- Increase of economic traffic and increasing interdependence of financial institutions
- “Let’s make some money, what do you say?”, fraudulent CDOs
- Implosion and crisis of the system
Taking over banks “too big to fail” knows 3 problems: failure of regulation and protection (no
insight in politics), euro as common currency flawed process (integration without taking
differences in account), preservation of system the bankers state (taxpayers) took over debts.
Austerity followed. Well-known Dutch word: ‘bezuinigingen’ (soberheid). But... why
decrease government spending? More competitiveness, less debt means, more international
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,investment, jobless people find a job (pro). But on the other hand, it takes money out of
economy, hits the poorest the hardest, debt can be paid back as soon as economy is getting
back (anti)
In the end… the outcome of the financial crisis: Neoliberalism prevailed. The bank bailouts
and austerity politics post-crisis have shown that there has been no move towards changing
the neoliberal system of economic governance.
Now, can states/governments still guarantee certain (morally) desired outcomes in the now
hugely interdependent, international and neoliberal context?
Or has power shifted away from them too much in this context and can they only
go with the flow?
First step: find out how interventions come about and how governance comes about
Lecture 3: 08 november 2021
The Executive Branch
Who’s all about governance? The mechanics of democratic governance: how does the state
system work? Central themes and questions:
What is/ constitutes the executive branch?
How does the executive branch generally work?
What shift are we witnessing today?
What are the boundaries of these executives? (Anticipating next lectures)
The separation of powers from Montesquieu (1748), named as the trias politica. Adopted
by all modern democracies in some way. The idea that one power is separated into three
different ones: the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.
The executive, administration
The judiciary, court, lawyers and judges
The legislature, the parliament (Eerste en Tweede Kamer) bi-cameral
Example: Louis IVX as the absolute monarch. Trias politica, among other reasons, was
invented to prevent that anyone ever again has all the power. Louis IVX only died 33 years
before Montesquieu came up with the separation of powers.
So, what is the executive branch? “The executive branch is composed of two different types
of actors: those who are part of the political executive and those who form part of the civil
service (ambtenaren).
Discussing the relation between politics and policy implementation/ execution of
public administration
The political executive: president, vice-president, cabinet (ministers)
The civil service: justice, labor, education, defense, transportation, health services
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, The political executive often also called ‘government’ on its own (in the book too). But…
government contains BOTH parts of the executive branch.
The role of the political executive is to govern a country by making policy.
It sets strategic priorities, develop policy initiatives, draft corresponding legislation,
issue government order, mobilize support and oversee policy implementation
The political executive is the institution that translates voter choices into policy, it
is the nexus by which democracies funnel representation into governance
The political executive’s composition differs by constitutional format
The political executive: different constitutional formats in Europe
- Parliamentary: voters in parliamentary democracies are represented by parliament
alone, to which the government is exclusively responsible
- Semi-presidential: these democracies can be defined as systems where a popularly
elected president complements the government and prime minister who are
responsible to parliament
The difference: one has a popularly elected president within the political executive and one
has not (in the book on page 144).
Different formats: some semi-presidential democracies make the president so powerful that he
or she has constitutional primacy over the prime minister as formal head of the executive.
France is a case in point.
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