Lecture 7 Flashcards
Old institutionalism
▪ The core activity was the description of constitutions,
legal systems and government structures
▪ As well as their comparison over time and across
countries.
▪ Origins in law. Is the study of law a social science?
▪ Institutions defined as: formal political arrangements,
i.e. government organizations, constitutions, legal
systems..
▪ Arena view of politics
Foundations old institutionalism
▪ Not concerned with defining their ontology,
epistemology, methodology
▪ Proto-theoretical outlook:
* normative * structuralist
* historicist * legalist (law
* holistic * functionalist
Criticisms of old institutionalism
▪ Too much emphasis on formal rules,
procedures, and organizations (what about
the behavior of people?)
▪ Too much focus on government (what about
the governance process?)
▪ Too static (what about change?)
▪ Too descriptive (what about explanation?)
▪ Lacking methodological rigor (what about
scientific method?)
Mainstream political science timeline
Old institutionalism
▪ Descriptive
▪ Formal/legalistic
Responses
▪ Behaviouralism (1950s,1960s-)
▪ Rational choice (1970s,1980s-)
Response (revival)
▪ Neo-institutionalism(s)
(1980s-)
New institutionalism
▪ Asks how:
– institutions shape political behavior
– institutions are shaped by human action
▪ Looks at interactions between institutions
(structure) and individuals (agents)
▪ But also inter- and intra-institutional
interactions
New institutionalist strands (not exhaustive)
▪ Normative institutionalism
▪ Rational choice
institutionalism
▪ Historical institutionalism
▪ Empirical institutionalism
▪ International
institutionalism
▪ Sociological
institutionalism
▪ Network institutionalism
▪ Constructivist
institutionalism
▪ Feminist institutionalism
New institutionalism; concepts
▪ What is an institution?
–Rules of the game
– Formal and informal (Convention? Customs?
Tradition? Culture? Habits? Norm? Value?
Standard operating procedure?)
– If institution means everything, then it means
nothing…
▪ How will I recognize an institutions when I
see one?
Institutions as rules, not organizations
▪ “…a set of ‘rules’ that guide and constrain
the behavior of individual actors” (LMS 61)
▪
“Institutions provide the ‘rules of the
game’ while organizations, like individuals,
are players within that game” (LMS 61)
▪
“stable, valued and recurring patterns of
behavior” (Huntington in LMS 62)
Institutions as informal as well as formal
Informal rules can be just as important as formal
rules.
They can reinforce, compliment, co-exist,
compete with, substitute, and/or override formal
rules
What are informal rules?
▪ Unwritten, tacit rules that define roles and
behavior
▪ Collectivelysharedandaccepted,
Institutions as dynamic as well as stabilizing
▪ Institutions are generally stable (by definition):
they set expectations for behaviour
▪ BUT: Not all follow the rules / keep following the
rules
▪ Therefore, stability cannot be taken for granted
▪ Incremental, gradual process of adaptation or
revolution?
Institutions as embodying values and power
▪ Seemingly neutral procedures and
arrangements embody particular values,
interests and identities (LMS 62)
▪
“institutions […] must reflect some relatively
common set of values if incentives are to
function equally for all participants” (LMS 62)
▪ “…inclusion or exclusion of different actors and
selection of instruments – is not value neutral
but embedded in and sustains political values”
(LMS 63)
Institutions as contextually embedded
Institutions are considered autonomous, yet they
are…
▪ “… not independent entities, existing outside of
space and time” (LMS 63)
Three dimensional contextual nesting:
▪ Time
▪ Hierarchy
▪ Spatially (political and non-political)
Hall & Taylor, 3 new institutionalisms
▪ Rational choice institutionalism – incentivebased (logic of consequence)
▪ Normative institutionalism – norm-based
(logic of appropriateness)
▪ Historical institutionalism – both (as most
strands!)
–Ask why institutions persist/change
Main cleavage
Rational-choice
institutionalism (RCI)
▪ Logic of consequence
▪ Incentive-based
behavior
▪ More likely to
emphasize formal
rules
Normative
institutionalism (NI)
▪ Logic of
appropriateness
▪ Norm-based behavior
▪ More likely to
emphasize informal
rules
Logic of consequence (RCI) assumptions
Assumption 1: all individuals are rational
Assumption 2: all individuals are self-interested
1. What are my preferences/options (given institutional
setting)?
2. What are the benefits and consequences of these
options (given institutional settings)?
3. Select option which best meets preferences in this
situation
