Institutional Dynamics in Policy: Convergence, Coordination, and Governance Under Complexity

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Public organizations are operating in environments characterized by increasing uncertainty, interdependence, and rapid technological change. From disaster response, transboundary watershed governance, to algorithmic decision-making in healthcare - policymakers are facing rising pressure to coordinate across jurisdictions, integrate new technology, and adapt institutional arrangements to complex governance demands. This panel brings together four empirical studies that examine how institutions converge, coordinate, and evolve under these conditions, and how computational text analysis, network modeling, and LLMs can help us understand institutional dynamics that have traditionally been difficult to understand at scale.
The first paper examines institutional isomorphism in local emergency management. Using semantic text analysis on a national corpus of county emergency activation plans, it measures document-to-document similarity across counties and identifies geographic proximity, political alignment, population size, and fiscal capacity as drivers of convergence, providing new evidence on policy diffusion in local emergency management. The second paper discusses whether reform changes coordination. Using Social Network Analysis and Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM), it compares Yushu (2010) and Dingri (2025) earthquake responses in China's Tibetan Plateau, showing how institutional reforms reshaped clustering, the importance of local authority as coordination hubs, and civil-military integration over a fifteen-year period, providing insights on when formal reorganization might become coupled with effective coordination. The third paper extends the Narrative Policy Framework, Narrative Attention Theory, and the Issue-Attention Cycle to transboundary watershed governance, by undertaking a comparative analysis of Lake Taneycomo (Missouri) and Beaver Lake (Arkansas). By analyzing news coverage using content coding and LLMs, it shows how narratives and attention cycles shape the mobilization of coalitions under different state regulatory regimes. The fourth paper theorizes algorithmic isomorphism in healthcare provider organizations, arguing that AI systems increasingly function as governance infrastructure rather than mere decision-support tools, quietly restructuring authority, accountability, and compliance beyond traditional oversight.
Using new, innovative methods like semantic similarity, ERGMs, and LLM-assisted coding, the panel provides insights on institutional dynamics – including convergence, coordination, and governance under complexity. The findings are useful for emergency managers, watershed planners, healthcare regulators, and AI policymakers seeking to understand when institutional change produces substantive rather than symbolic changes in governance.

Policy Area

• Politics, Media, and the Policy Process

Chair

• Indira Dhananjaya Patil, Purdue University

Discussants

• Rachel M. Krause, University of Kansas

• Daniel S. Schiff, Purdue University

Organizer

• Indira Dhananjaya Patil, Purdue University

Individual Presentations

• Institutional Isomorphism in Local Emergency Management: Evidence from U.S. County Emergency Activation Plans - Presenting Author: Ali Khaleghinia, University of Kansas

• Does Reform Change Coordination? A Comparative Network Analysis of Two Earthquake Responses in China’s Tibetan Plateau - Presenting Author: Wu Chen, Nanjing University

• A Two State Analysis of Narratives, Attention, and Policy in Transboundary Water Governance - Presenting Author: Ryan James Ramaker, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville

• Algorithmic Isomorphism and System-Driven Convergence in Healthcare Provider Organizations - Presenting Author: Pedro Robles, Pennsylvania State University