Jenna Bednar
Biographic Data
| ID | 1227129 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Jenna Bednar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Jenna |
| FAMILY NAME | Bednar |
| SIGNATURE | BEDNAR J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0840-3782 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 136 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 20 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Institutions and cultural capacity
Complex systems approaches to 21st century challenges
Governance for Human Social Flourishing
Government has become something that happens to us in service of the economy rather than a vehicle driven by us to realize what we can achieve together. To save the planet and live meaningful lives, we need to start seeing one another not as competitors but as collaborators working toward shared interests. In this essay, I propose a framework for human social flourishing to foster a public policy that rebuilds our connections and care for one ano…
When Order Affects Performance
Evidence suggests that the cultural context influences the performance of laws, policies, and political institutions. Descriptive accounts reveal that outcomes and behaviors often depend on the array of historical institutions. This article presents a multi-institutional framework that can account for those findings through path-dependent behavioral spillovers. Individuals learn equilibrium behaviors when interacting in a new institutional settin…
Complex Adaptive Systems and Comparative Politics
Adoption as a social marker
Social identities are among the key factors driving behavior in complex societies. Signals of social identity are known to influence individual behaviors in the adoption of innovations. Yet the population-level consequences of identity signaling on the diffusion of innovations are largely unknown. Here we use both analytical and agent-based modeling to consider the spread of a beneficial innovation in a structured population in which there exist …
Prosociality, Federalism, and Cultural Evolution
Constitutions are more than their text; a constitution is also a set of conventions, or expectations that constituents have about one another's behavior. That is, constitutions have a culture. The coherence between the constitutional law and constitutional culture determine a constitution's success. Constitutional culture and constitutional law co-evolve; by understanding the influence of multiple institutions, one may make predictions about the …
Revised-Path Dependence
In this article, we define a class of revised path—dependent processes and characterize their basic properties. A process exhibits revised-path dependence if the current outcome can revise the value of a past outcome. A revision could be a change to that outcome or a reinterpretation. We first define a revised path—dependent process called the accumulation process: in each period, a randomly chosen past outcome is changed to match the current out…
The Political Science of Federalism
This article highlights political science's interest in the distribution of authority between federal and state governments. The authority boundaries are studied (a) as mechanism design problems, where authority is allocated optimally to achieve social goals; (b) as problems in positive political theory, because the authority distribution creates competitive interests; (c) as an institutional design problem, where the boundaries are maintained by…
Nudging Federalism towards Productive Experimentation
Formal constitutional amendment can be difficult to achieve and, without the confidence of experience, may introduce changes that too quickly and too rigidly alter the balance of authority between federal and state governments. Therefore, in federal systems it is preferable to experiment with alterations prior to formal adoption. In this article I address how federal systems encourage two types of policy experimentation that are either unlikely t…
Emergent cultural signatures and persistent diversity
Empirical evidence demonstrates that cultures exist, they differ from one another, they're coherent and yet diversity persists within them. In this paper, we describe a multi-dimensional model of cultural formation that produces all of these properties. Our model includes two forces: an internal desire to be consistent and social pressure to conform. When both forces operate, the society converges to a coordinated behavior that is consistent acro…
The Robust Federation
The Robust Federation offers a comprehensive approach to the study of federalism. Jenna Bednar demonstrates how complementary institutions maintain and adjust the distribution of authority between national and state governments. These authority boundaries matter - for defense, economic growth, and adequate political representation - and must be defended from opportunistic transgression. From Montesquieu to Madison, the legacy of early institution…
Structuring the State
Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism. By Daniel Ziblatt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 288p. $42.00. Federal “solutions” are bandied about by armchair constitutional designers, their purported benefits for Iraq or elsewhere debated on talk shows and in academic conferences. At times, the support for federalism seems based on its apparent middling position between unitary government …
Responses to Rubin and Feeley
Journal Article Responses to Rubin and Feeley Get access Samuel H. Beer Samuel H. Beer **Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 38, Issue 2, Spring 2008, Pages 192–210, https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjn005 Published: 11 February 2008
Valuing Exit Options
This article examines an important aspect of federalism: the effect of a secession threat on the union's productivity. Productivity requires a compliance maintenance regime with credible punishment. An exit option gives a government the alternative of opting out of the union rather than suffer the disutility of a punishment. Equilibria are characterized over a continuous range of exit option values. The results indicate that only exit options tha…
Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture
The hallmarks of cultural behavior include consistency within and across individuals, variance between populations, behavioral stickiness, and possibly suboptimal performance. In this article, we build a formal framework within which these behavioral attributes emerge from the interactions of purposive agents. We then derive mathematical results showing these behaviors are optimal given our assumptions. Our framework rests on two primary assumpti…
Is Full Compliance Possible
Games of public good provision, collective action, and collusion share concern for the free rider that shirks on its obligations. According to the folk theorem, the free rider problem can be resolved through punishment mechanisms. Versions of the folk theorem have been applied when monitoring is imperfect. Empirical evidence contradicts this theory: while often subjects cooperate significantly, rarely is all shirking eliminated. To reconcile theo…
Federalism as a Public Good
Judicial Predictability and Federal Stability
Institutions structure incentive environments for strategic actors. What is the effect of a flawed institution - one that is not perfectly predictable - on strategic behavior? This paper focuses on the influence of the judiciary on inter-governmental rivalry in a federation, in particular considering how shifts in judicial predictability affect federal opportunism. Results of the model indicate that governments in a federation challenge one anoth…
Authority Migration in Federations
Why does one federation succeed while another fails? Federations may fail for exogenous reasons: foreign invasion, collapse of its currency, or global market forces. If we focus on endogenous factors, the possible reasons for failure include diversity, where populations drift apart or clash too often, or jealousy from redistributive asymmetry, with unequal shouldering of costs or dispersion of benefits, and, of course, corruption and insurrection…
Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture
The hallmarks of cultural behavior include consistency within and across individuals, variance between populations, behavioral stickiness, and possibly suboptimal performance. In this article, we build a formal framework within which these behavioral attributes emerge from the interactions of purposive agents. We then derive mathematical results showing these behaviors are optimal given our assumptions. Our framework rests on two primary assumpti…
The Political Science of Federalism
This article highlights political science's interest in the distribution of authority between federal and state governments. The authority boundaries are studied (a) as mechanism design problems, where authority is allocated optimally to achieve social goals; (b) as problems in positive political theory, because the authority distribution creates competitive interests; (c) as an institutional design problem, where the boundaries are maintained by…
When Order Affects Performance
Evidence suggests that the cultural context influences the performance of laws, policies, and political institutions. Descriptive accounts reveal that outcomes and behaviors often depend on the array of historical institutions. This article presents a multi-institutional framework that can account for those findings through path-dependent behavioral spillovers. Individuals learn equilibrium behaviors when interacting in a new institutional settin…
Is Full Compliance Possible
Games of public good provision, collective action, and collusion share concern for the free rider that shirks on its obligations. According to the folk theorem, the free rider problem can be resolved through punishment mechanisms. Versions of the folk theorem have been applied when monitoring is imperfect. Empirical evidence contradicts this theory: while often subjects cooperate significantly, rarely is all shirking eliminated. To reconcile theo…
Judicial Predictability and Federal Stability
Institutions structure incentive environments for strategic actors. What is the effect of a flawed institution - one that is not perfectly predictable - on strategic behavior? This paper focuses on the influence of the judiciary on inter-governmental rivalry in a federation, in particular considering how shifts in judicial predictability affect federal opportunism. Results of the model indicate that governments in a federation challenge one anoth…
Revised-Path Dependence
In this article, we define a class of revised path—dependent processes and characterize their basic properties. A process exhibits revised-path dependence if the current outcome can revise the value of a past outcome. A revision could be a change to that outcome or a reinterpretation. We first define a revised path—dependent process called the accumulation process: in each period, a randomly chosen past outcome is changed to match the current out…
Nudging Federalism towards Productive Experimentation
Formal constitutional amendment can be difficult to achieve and, without the confidence of experience, may introduce changes that too quickly and too rigidly alter the balance of authority between federal and state governments. Therefore, in federal systems it is preferable to experiment with alterations prior to formal adoption. In this article I address how federal systems encourage two types of policy experimentation that are either unlikely t…
Valuing Exit Options
This article examines an important aspect of federalism: the effect of a secession threat on the union's productivity. Productivity requires a compliance maintenance regime with credible punishment. An exit option gives a government the alternative of opting out of the union rather than suffer the disutility of a punishment. Equilibria are characterized over a continuous range of exit option values. The results indicate that only exit options tha…
Federalism as a Public Good
Adoption as a social marker
Social identities are among the key factors driving behavior in complex societies. Signals of social identity are known to influence individual behaviors in the adoption of innovations. Yet the population-level consequences of identity signaling on the diffusion of innovations are largely unknown. Here we use both analytical and agent-based modeling to consider the spread of a beneficial innovation in a structured population in which there exist …
Authority Migration in Federations
Why does one federation succeed while another fails? Federations may fail for exogenous reasons: foreign invasion, collapse of its currency, or global market forces. If we focus on endogenous factors, the possible reasons for failure include diversity, where populations drift apart or clash too often, or jealousy from redistributive asymmetry, with unequal shouldering of costs or dispersion of benefits, and, of course, corruption and insurrection…
Emergent cultural signatures and persistent diversity
Empirical evidence demonstrates that cultures exist, they differ from one another, they're coherent and yet diversity persists within them. In this paper, we describe a multi-dimensional model of cultural formation that produces all of these properties. Our model includes two forces: an internal desire to be consistent and social pressure to conform. When both forces operate, the society converges to a coordinated behavior that is consistent acro…
Complex Adaptive Systems and Comparative Politics
Structuring the State
Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism. By Daniel Ziblatt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 288p. $42.00. Federal “solutions” are bandied about by armchair constitutional designers, their purported benefits for Iraq or elsewhere debated on talk shows and in academic conferences. At times, the support for federalism seems based on its apparent middling position between unitary government …
Responses to Rubin and Feeley
Journal Article Responses to Rubin and Feeley Get access Samuel H. Beer Samuel H. Beer **Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 38, Issue 2, Spring 2008, Pages 192–210, https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjn005 Published: 11 February 2008
Institutions and cultural capacity
Governance for Human Social Flourishing
Government has become something that happens to us in service of the economy rather than a vehicle driven by us to realize what we can achieve together. To save the planet and live meaningful lives, we need to start seeing one another not as competitors but as collaborators working toward shared interests. In this essay, I propose a framework for human social flourishing to foster a public policy that rebuilds our connections and care for one ano…
Judicial Predictability and Federal Stability
Institutions structure incentive environments for strategic actors. What is the effect of a flawed institution - one that is not perfectly predictable - on strategic behavior? This paper focuses on the influence of the judiciary on inter-governmental rivalry in a federation, in particular considering how shifts in judicial predictability affect federal opportunism. Results of the model indicate that governments in a federation challenge one anoth…
Authority Migration in Federations
Why does one federation succeed while another fails? Federations may fail for exogenous reasons: foreign invasion, collapse of its currency, or global market forces. If we focus on endogenous factors, the possible reasons for failure include diversity, where populations drift apart or clash too often, or jealousy from redistributive asymmetry, with unequal shouldering of costs or dispersion of benefits, and, of course, corruption and insurrection…
Federalism as a Public Good
Is Full Compliance Possible
Games of public good provision, collective action, and collusion share concern for the free rider that shirks on its obligations. According to the folk theorem, the free rider problem can be resolved through punishment mechanisms. Versions of the folk theorem have been applied when monitoring is imperfect. Empirical evidence contradicts this theory: while often subjects cooperate significantly, rarely is all shirking eliminated. To reconcile theo…
Responses to Rubin and Feeley
Journal Article Responses to Rubin and Feeley Get access Samuel H. Beer Samuel H. Beer **Harvard University Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Volume 38, Issue 2, Spring 2008, Pages 192–210, https://doi.org/10.1093/publius/pjn005 Published: 11 February 2008
Valuing Exit Options
This article examines an important aspect of federalism: the effect of a secession threat on the union's productivity. Productivity requires a compliance maintenance regime with credible punishment. An exit option gives a government the alternative of opting out of the union rather than suffer the disutility of a punishment. Equilibria are characterized over a continuous range of exit option values. The results indicate that only exit options tha…
Can Game(s) Theory Explain Culture
The hallmarks of cultural behavior include consistency within and across individuals, variance between populations, behavioral stickiness, and possibly suboptimal performance. In this article, we build a formal framework within which these behavioral attributes emerge from the interactions of purposive agents. We then derive mathematical results showing these behaviors are optimal given our assumptions. Our framework rests on two primary assumpti…
The Robust Federation
The Robust Federation offers a comprehensive approach to the study of federalism. Jenna Bednar demonstrates how complementary institutions maintain and adjust the distribution of authority between national and state governments. These authority boundaries matter - for defense, economic growth, and adequate political representation - and must be defended from opportunistic transgression. From Montesquieu to Madison, the legacy of early institution…
Structuring the State
Structuring the State: The Formation of Italy and Germany and the Puzzle of Federalism. By Daniel Ziblatt. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006. 288p. $42.00. Federal “solutions” are bandied about by armchair constitutional designers, their purported benefits for Iraq or elsewhere debated on talk shows and in academic conferences. At times, the support for federalism seems based on its apparent middling position between unitary government …
Emergent cultural signatures and persistent diversity
Empirical evidence demonstrates that cultures exist, they differ from one another, they're coherent and yet diversity persists within them. In this paper, we describe a multi-dimensional model of cultural formation that produces all of these properties. Our model includes two forces: an internal desire to be consistent and social pressure to conform. When both forces operate, the society converges to a coordinated behavior that is consistent acro…
The Political Science of Federalism
This article highlights political science's interest in the distribution of authority between federal and state governments. The authority boundaries are studied (a) as mechanism design problems, where authority is allocated optimally to achieve social goals; (b) as problems in positive political theory, because the authority distribution creates competitive interests; (c) as an institutional design problem, where the boundaries are maintained by…
Nudging Federalism towards Productive Experimentation
Formal constitutional amendment can be difficult to achieve and, without the confidence of experience, may introduce changes that too quickly and too rigidly alter the balance of authority between federal and state governments. Therefore, in federal systems it is preferable to experiment with alterations prior to formal adoption. In this article I address how federal systems encourage two types of policy experimentation that are either unlikely t…
Prosociality, Federalism, and Cultural Evolution
Constitutions are more than their text; a constitution is also a set of conventions, or expectations that constituents have about one another's behavior. That is, constitutions have a culture. The coherence between the constitutional law and constitutional culture determine a constitution's success. Constitutional culture and constitutional law co-evolve; by understanding the influence of multiple institutions, one may make predictions about the …
Revised-Path Dependence
In this article, we define a class of revised path—dependent processes and characterize their basic properties. A process exhibits revised-path dependence if the current outcome can revise the value of a past outcome. A revision could be a change to that outcome or a reinterpretation. We first define a revised path—dependent process called the accumulation process: in each period, a randomly chosen past outcome is changed to match the current out…
Complex Adaptive Systems and Comparative Politics
Adoption as a social marker
Social identities are among the key factors driving behavior in complex societies. Signals of social identity are known to influence individual behaviors in the adoption of innovations. Yet the population-level consequences of identity signaling on the diffusion of innovations are largely unknown. Here we use both analytical and agent-based modeling to consider the spread of a beneficial innovation in a structured population in which there exist …
When Order Affects Performance
Evidence suggests that the cultural context influences the performance of laws, policies, and political institutions. Descriptive accounts reveal that outcomes and behaviors often depend on the array of historical institutions. This article presents a multi-institutional framework that can account for those findings through path-dependent behavioral spillovers. Individuals learn equilibrium behaviors when interacting in a new institutional settin…
Governance for Human Social Flourishing
Government has become something that happens to us in service of the economy rather than a vehicle driven by us to realize what we can achieve together. To save the planet and live meaningful lives, we need to start seeing one another not as competitors but as collaborators working toward shared interests. In this essay, I propose a framework for human social flourishing to foster a public policy that rebuilds our connections and care for one ano…
Institutions and cultural capacity
Complex systems approaches to 21st century challenges
Economics (15 works) · Political science (13 works) · Law (11 works) · Politics (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Law and economics (9 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Federalism (7 works)