Political+Science+and+the+Three+New+Institutionalisms

// Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms // Peter A. Hall and Rosemary C. R. Taylor //Political Studies// (1996), XLIV, 936-957 Key idea: New Institutionalism is not a unified body of thought. Instead it is at least three different approaches: **I.** **Historical Institutionalism** **a.** Influences **i.** Taken from group theory: conflict among rival groups over scarce resources is key to understanding politics **ii.** Taken from structural functionalism: polity is an overall system of overlapping parts **iii.** Taken from pluralist and neo-Marxist debates: state is not a neutral broker but a complex of institutions that shapes the character and outcomes of group conflict **b.** Definition of Institution: “the formal or informal procedures, routines, norms and conventions embedded in the organizational structure of the polity or political economy” (938). **c.** Distinctive Features **i.** Conceptualize the relationship between institutions and individual behavior in broad terms (calculus v. cultural approach on p.939) **ii.** Emphasize asymmetrics of power associated with institutions **iii.** View of institutional development based on path dependency **iv.** Integrate institutional analysis with other factors (i.e. ideas) **d.** Strengths/Weaknesses **i.** Commodious conception of the relationship between institutions and individuals **ii.** Have not studied how institutions affect behavior **iii.** Depends on induction **II.** **Rational Choice Institutionalism** **a.** Influences **i.** The study of American congressional behavior: rules of procedure and committees structure the choices of members of Congress **ii.** Analytical tools from the “new economics of organization” **iii.** Theories of agency: principals can monitor and enforce compliance on agents **b.** Distinctive Features **i.** Rational actors have a fixed set of preferences, and strategically behave so as to maximize attainment of these **ii.** Politics is a series of collective action dilemmas, where people end up making sub-optimal choices (i.e. Prisoner’s Dilemma) **iii.** Role of strategic interaction in determination of political outcomes (people not driven by history but strategy) **iv.** Actors create institutions to attain some value, participation is voluntary. **c.** Strengths/Weaknesses **i.** More precise concept of the relationship between institutions and individual behavior **ii.** Highly generalizable set of concepts (lend themselves to theory building) **iii.** Able to highlight key aspects of politics **iv.** Able to explain origins of institutions well **v.** Depends on deduction **III.** **Sociological Institutionalism** **a.** Influences **i.** Arose within the subfield of organizational theory **ii.** Against rationalism: institutions are culturally-created **b.** Distinctive Features **i.** Define institutions in terms of symbol systems, cognitive scripts, and moral templates that provide frames of meaning guiding human action **ii.** The relationship between institutions and individual actions is guided by culture. Individuals have also been socialized into “roles.” Rational action is socially constituted. **iii.** Institutions are formed because they enhance the social legitimacy of the organization or of the participants **c.** Strengths/Weaknesses **i.** Ignores the role of power