Overview

"New institutions don't come into being by themselves: They have to be organized. On the basis of research from a decade-long, multi-site study of efforts to transform freshwater management in Brazil, Practical Authority asks how new institutional arrangements established by law become operational in practice. The book explores how this happens by putting both agency and structures in motion. It looks at what actors in complex policy environments actually do to get new institutions off the ground. New configurations of authority in a policy area very often have to be produced relationally, on the ground, in practice. New organizations have to acquire problem-solving capabilities and recognition from others, what the authors call ""practical authority."" The story told here has a multiplicity of protagonists, many of whom are normally invisible in political studies, such as the state officials and university professors who struggled to move water reform forward. The book explores the interaction between their efforts to influence the design and passage of new legislation and the hard labor of creating the new water management organizations the laws called for. It follows three decades of law making at the national and state level and examines the creation of sixteen river basin committees throughout the country. By bringing together state and society actors around territorially specific problems, these committees were expected to promote a new vision of integrated water management. But none of the ones examined here followed the trajectory their organizers expected. Some adapted creatively to challenges, circumventing roadblocks encountered along the way; others never got off the ground. Rather than explain these differences on the basis of the varying conditions actors faced, the authors propose a focus on the process, and practice, of institution building."

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9780199985272

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Reviews

Practical Authority is simply an outstanding and tremendously important work. It can be expected to quickly become the basis for a great deal more research in environmental policy and natural resource management, and I expect it will also become the foundation for new fieldwork in a variety of areas in political science and political economy. * Alfred P. Montero, Latin American Studies * Abers and Keck draw on a decade of research in Brazil to conceptualize policy formalization as a social experiment in building capacity and authority. Their account weaves together extensive national surveys and intensive case studies ... their investigation yields important clues about the nature of democracy building in the Americas. * Katie Meehan, Latin American Research Review *

Abers and Keck combine innovative concepts of how actors make and use institutions with a rich body of empirical material. The result is an intriguing story of how actors have created, shaped, and used institutions that are 'entangled' in a particularly complex environment. The authors show the importance of agency, of viewing institutions dynamically, and of following the messy process of creating the practical authority with which to govern. -Ken Conca, author of Governing Water An attractive, compelling, and theoretically ambitious pragmatic account of agentic political actors struggling to construct new governance arrangements that span state, industry, and civil society, and balance the demands of environment, development, and fairness. This book will reward those seeking to understand the strategic and structural dynamics of institutional reform efforts. -Archon Fung, Harvard Kennedy School In the hands of the authors, the emergence of innovative water management institutions in Brazil becomes an unparalleled opportunity to question how people construct new institutions. The authors generate a powerful response by combining a carefully crafted, highly original theoretical framework with a treasure chest of empirical observations. Everyone from theoreticians to policy makers and activists will find this book invaluable. -Peter Evans, UC Berkeley

Practical Authority is simply an outstanding and tremendously important work. It can be expected to quickly become the basis for a great deal more research in environmental policy and natural resource management, and I expect it will also become the foundation for new fieldwork in a variety of areas in political science and political economy. Alfred P. Montero, Latin American Studies

Author Information

RA: Adjunct Professor, Institute of Political Science, University of BrasíliaMK: Professor of Political Science, Johns Hopkins University

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