RAPID: Democratic State Capacity and Organizational Adaptation in Crisis Conditions

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

This study investigates how government organizations manage and adapt to crisis situations, and how organizational decisions affect outcomes. Specifically, the project will assess adaptation to insurgent activity in Ukraine during the 2014 snap parliamentary election, focusing on the role of election administration, by conducting a survey of election officials and an analysis of personnel and results data. The survey will provide critical insights into how civil servants perform their duties in crisis conditions. Personnel data and elections returns will permit an analysis of government effectiveness and election quality. Developing a better understanding of how government organizations adapt to crises will advance theoretical knowledge about state capacity and organizational behavior. The research also has direct applications for US foreign policy, especially in the development of democratic practices during and after conflict situations. The research team, consisting of scholars and practitioners in the United States and Ukraine, will conduct a pre- and post-election survey, gather personnel data prior to the election, and collect official election results at the level of polling stations following the election. The survey will include approximately 2,000 public servants involved in managing election processes. The sample will be designed to reflect the distribution of polling station features (e.g., size, location) and individual features (e.g., gender, partisanship). Personnel data for public servants assigned to all of the polling stations (approximately 33,000) will be collected during the pre-election period and subsequently coded. Once synthesized, the data will permit the researchers to analyze several outcomes, including: 1) how staff and officers are distributed across the country; 2) how staffing decisions and political instability affect election outcomes and the quality of election practices; and 3) how well officials manage elections under varied conditions. The project will contribute, theoretically and empirically, to research streams in Political Science and the Science of Organizations.