Evolutionary Government: Origins and Consequences of Structural Change in Government

Introduction

Why do government structures change? Traditionally, the answer refers to political parties exercising control over a state bureaucracy. Yet government structures have been changing ever since they emerged alongside the modern state and thus already before parties existed.

Context

The recent decline of party government worldwide also begs the question of whether other actors and mechanisms matter that have been underestimated so far. Meanwhile, it has become a truism that “structure shapes policy,” but existing research focuses on other effects of structural change in government, such as democratic and economic outcomes or cabinet governance.

Research Gap

We lack systematic analyses of how structural change affects government policy. To address these gaps, STATE-DNA studies the change of units inside ministries and agencies as the ‘building blocks’ of the modern state.

Theory Development

It submits a novel theory of evolutionary government that regards structural change in government as an interplay between a unit’s structural features and its organizational and environmental environment. This notion of multiple levels allows for the study of more than ‘party-centric’ causes of change and, for the first time, to analyze the effects on government policy explicitly, as evolutionary consequences managed by distinct units.

Methodology

STATE-DNA breaks new ground by applying genetic measures to assess structural change in government, establishing the most comprehensive data set, which begins with the ‘primordial soup’ of the early 19th century when government structures fragmented (~150,000 units, six countries, 1815–2025).

Data Sources

For the empirical analyses, existing (historical) data on legislative activity, organizational, and environmental features will be used and extended.

Innovations

STATE-DNA will exploit methodological advancements in biology, such as data assimilation techniques, to analyze the origins and consequences of structural change in government and to forecast such change, thereby injecting a predictive notion into government studies.