Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key terms, analytical frameworks, and theoretical approaches from Peter A. Hall and Rosemary C. R. Taylor's paper on the three new institutionalisms.

Historical Institutionalism

An analytical school developed in response to group theory and structural-functionalism that defines institutions as the formal or informal procedures, routines, norms, and conventions embedded in the organizational structure of the polity or political economy.

Rational Choice Institutionalism

An analytical school originating from studies of American congressional behavior that posits actors have fixed preferences and behave strategically, viewing institutions as rules that solve collective action dilemmas by structuring choices and interactions.

Sociological Institutionalism

An analytical school arising in organization theory that defines institutions broadly to include symbol systems, cognitive scripts, and moral templates, emphasizing that organizations adopt practices to gain social legitimacy rather than formal means-ends efficiency.

Calculus Approach

A framework for understanding institutional impact assuming that actors behave strategically to maximize exogenous preferences, where institutions affect action by providing information, enforcement mechanisms, and certainty about others' behavior.

Cultural Approach

A framework for understanding institutional impact emphasizing that behavior is bounded by worldviews and routines, where institutions provide cognitive and moral templates, scripts, and routines that shape interpretation, identity, and preferences.

Path Dependence

A perspective on historical development asserting that identical operative forces will produce different outcomes depending on contextual and institutional features inherited from the past, pushing history along specific trajectories.

Critical Junctures

Moments of substantial institutional change, often precipitated by crises or conflicts, that create branching points from which historical development moves onto new persistent paths.

Collective Action Dilemmas

Situations where individuals acting to maximize their own preferences produce an outcome that is collectively sub-optimal, such as the prisoner's dilemma or tragedy of the commons, due to a lack of coordinating institutions.

Logic of Social Appropriateness

A principle highlighted in sociological institutionalism proposing that actors embrace institutional forms or practices because they are culturally valued and enhance social legitimacy, contrasted with a logic of instrumentality.

Logic of Instrumentality

A perspective where institutions or actions are evaluated and chosen primarily based on their direct means-ends efficiency and utility in serving the material goals of actors.

Focal Points

Cultural norms, ideas, or shared beliefs provided by an institutional environment that enable rational actors to coordinate and converge on a single outcome when multiple equilibria exist in strategic games.

Institutional Isomorphism

The phenomenon wherein organizations within a field or across nations adopt strikingly similar structures, procedures, and practices, often driven by cultural diffusion, professionalization, or regulatory authority rather than pure task efficiency.