Managing Mixed Economies

Abstract

The impact of the institutions of party government on the determination of public policy is an area of research which must be regarded as a crucial component of democratic political analysis. Its significance is immediately apparent if we pose questions linking the key institutional structure of western democratic societies with the major policy issues confronting those societies: Are party government regimes more or less successful than others in dealing with issues such as inflation, unemployment, welfare, the security of the realm and environmental pollution? Yet, despite its significance, the nexus between institutions and policy outcomes has, until recently, been largely ignored by academic political science. Policy determination has been analysed without reference to the institutional matrix within which it occurs, and government institutions have been discussed without reference to their ability to formulate policies. In this way, a most important problem of political analysis has been largely overlooked. To understand the fundamental nature of modern societies and the role of government within them, we need to ask how diverse governmental institutions differ in their ability to cope with "problems" and what determines their capacity to resolve those problems.