Reconfiguring Institutions across Time and Space: Syncretic Responses to Challenges of Political and Economic Transformation (Political Evolution and Institutional Change)

265 Pages·2007·0.73 MB·English

by  Dennis Galvan

Reconfiguring Institutions Across
Time and Space
Political Evolution and Institutional Change
Bo Rothstein and Sven Steinmo,editors
Exploring the dynamic relationships among political institutions,attitudes,behaviors,and
outcomes,this series is problem-driven and pluralistic in methodology.It examines the
evolution of governance,public policy and political economy in different national and
historical contexts.
It will explore social dilemmas, such as collective action problems, and enhance
understanding of how political outcomes result from the interaction among political
ideas-including values,beliefs or social norms-institutions,and interests.It will promote
cutting-edge work in historical institutionalism,rational choice and game theory,and the
processes of institutional change and/or evolutionary models of political history.
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Edited by János Kornai,Bo Rothstein,and Susan Rose-Ackerman
Building a Trustworthy State in Post-Socialist Transition
Edited by János Kornai and Susan Rose-Ackerman
The Personal and the Political:How Personal Welfare State Experiences
Affect Political Trust and Ideology
By Staffan Kumlin
The Problem of Forming Social Capital:Why Trust?
By Francisco Herreros
States and Development:Historical Antecedents of Stagnation and Advance
Edited by Matthew Lange and Dietrich Rueschemeyer
The Politics of Pact-Making:Hungary’s Negotiated Transition to Democracy in
Comparative Perspective
By John W.Schiemann
Post-Communist Economies and Western Trade Discrimination:Are NMEs Our Enemies?
By Cynthia M.Horne
Corporate Social Responsibility and the Shaping of Global Public Policy
By Matthew J.Hirschland
Reconfiguring Institutions Across Time and Space:Syncretic Responses to Challenges of Political
and Economic Transformation
Edited By Dennis Galvan and Rudra Sil
Reconfiguring Institutions
Across Time and Space
Syncretic Responses to Challenges
of Political and Economic
Transformation
Edited by
Dennis Galvan
and
Rudra Sil
RECONFIGURINGINSTITUTIONSACROSSTIMEANDSPACE
© Dennis Galvan and Rudra Sil,2007.
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published in 2007 by
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ISBN-13:978–1–4039–7817–2
ISBN-10:1–4039–7817–4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reconfiguring institutions across time and space :syncretic responses to
challenges of political and economic transformation / edited by Dennis
Galvan and Rudra sil.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 1–4039–7817–4 (alk.paper)
1.Social institutions.2.Social change.3.Organizational change.4.
Culture and globalization.I.Sil,Rudra,1967– II.Galvan,Dennis Charles.
HM826.R43 2007
306.09172'4—dc22 2006051379
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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First edition:April 2007
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C O N T E N T S
Acknowledgments ix
Notes on Contributors xi
List of Abbreviations xiv
Introduction
One The Dilemma of Institutional Adaptation and
the Role of Syncretism 3
Dennis Galvan and Rudra Sil
Political Institutions
Two Syncretism and Local-Level Democracy in
Rural Senegal 33
Dennis Galvan
Three Institutional Syncretism and the Chinese
Armed Forces 61
Thomas J.Bickford
Four Syncretism in Argentina’s Party System and
Peronist Political Culture 83
Pierre Ostiguy
Five (En)Durable Syncretism:Hizballah in
the “Space Between” 114
Stacey Philbrick Yadav
viii Contents
Economic and Social Institutions
Six The Dynamics of Institutional Adaptation and
the Fruitful Emergence of Managerial Syncretism
in Japan 139
Rudra Sil
Seven Legal Syncretism and Family Change in
Urban and Rural China 164
Neil J.Diamant
Eight Working is Celebrating:The Syncretic
Politics of Labor Transformation in
Rural Zambia 188
Parakh Hoon
Nine Pathways of Institutional Diffusion
under Leninism:A Historical Comparison
of Romania and Hungary 205
Cheng Chen
Ten Brazil’s 1964–67 Economic Stabilization
Plan as Institutional Syncretism 225
Christine A.Kearney
Index 245
A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S
We trace the roots of this volume to an exchange late in our time as
graduate students at Berkeley,in which we discovered,somewhat to our
surprise,that we were both using a concept each of us thought we had
uniquely deployed in our respective projects:“syncretism.”Although we
studied different regions and different issue areas, we both found the
concept of institutional syncretism an ideal analytic tool for interpreting
and comparing the creative transformation of institutions across temporal
and spatial divides.
Perhaps it was something in the East Bay water or in the atmosphere
of Barrows Hall that led us along similar intellectual journeys. More
likely it was the inspiration of teachers and mentors like Ernst Haas,
Reinhard Bendix, Peter Evans,Andrew Janos, Ken Jowitt, Bob Price,
Guiseppe Di Palma,David Leonard,Ruth Berins Collier,and others at
Berkeley.Whatever the case, we both found ourselves drawn toward a
somewhat Weberian style of thinking about the varied modes and
sources of institutional change,and about the creativity and motivations
of actors seeking meaning in their respective contexts.
Over the course of many years,following many conversations,some
distractions and an APSA panel,a larger collective endeavor crystallized
featuring a number of new scholars and research projects.In the process,
we all benefited from seeing how each of us made use of the notion of
syncretism in capturing aspects of institutional change.We also received
extremely useful feedback and encouragement from other colleagues,
students and friends, in particular,Tadashi Anno, Gerald Berk,Thomas
Callaghy, Goran Hyden, Ian Lustick, Craig Parsons, Lloyd Rudolph,
Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, James Scott, Sven Steinmo, and Crawford
Young,among others.
In addition, two anonymous reviewers from Palgrave Macmillan
offered invaluable suggestions to improve the final version of the volume.