How institutional culture trumps tier effects: evidence from government responsiveness to FOI requests

Poole, Ed Gareth ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9817-5014 2019. How institutional culture trumps tier effects: evidence from government responsiveness to FOI requests. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 29 (2) , pp. 210-226. 10.1093/jopart/muy039

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Abstract

Claims that decentralization could improve government accountability and responsiveness led to its adoption as a policy objective across the globe. But recent empirical work finds little evidence of ‘tier effects’ in practice; instead, significant variation exists even between most-similar bodies. Recognizing the value of FOI in facilitating large-scale data collection, and that the UK’s institutional diversity offers an important source of between- and within-tier variation, I compile a large new dataset by emailing two separate FOI requests to 812 UK public bodies with an executive function. Identifying significant variation in timeliness and quality between UK territories, I argue that differing foundational motives can help explain patterns of responsiveness between institutions established by transparency-facing reforms and those designed to resolve conflict. A lack of evidence that by lower-tier governments are generally more responsive reaffirms the recent challenges to the more fundamental claims about decentralization that informed academic debate and real-world practice.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Cardiff Law & Politics Law Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR)
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
ISSN:	1053-1858
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	20 July 2018
Date of Acceptance:	17 July 2018
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 05:16
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/113343

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