Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Historical-Institutionalism in Political Science and the Problem of Change

  • Chapter
Understanding Change

Abstract

For nearly a century ‘change’ per se was not regarded as a pressing problem in political science. Scholars studying politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were mainly concerned with the normative and procedural bases of politics, and tended to focus on constitutions — and, especially, the juridical principles embodied therein. Neither the politics of making constitutions nor the impact of these constitutions on everyday political life were particularly emphasized, although, to be sure, many writers in the tradition of Montesquieu also analysed the ‘goodness-of-fit’ between these formal, legal documents and the particular societies or cultures they had been drafted to govern.

This essay was presented in rough form at the conference Paradigms of Change, held at the Center for Development Research in Bonn from 23 to 25 May 2002, and at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg on January 30, 2003.1 thank the participants in these meetings for their comments, but especially the late Georg F.lwert, Reinhart Koessler, Alfred Ncuwcn and Andreas Wimmer. The final draft was written while in residence at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg as a Fellow, an opportunity for which I am very grateful. 1 thank Isabelle Schulze for help with the graphic and the references.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 109.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 139.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography Primary sources

  • ARAB (Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliothek). Protokoll, Social Demokatiska Partisytrelsen, 1948–1968. (Minutes of the Meetings of the Executive Council of the Swedish Social Democratic Party).

    Google Scholar 

  • ARAB (Arbetarrörelsens Arkiv och Bibliothek). Protokoll, Social Demokatiska Riksdagsgruppen, 1948–1968. (Minutes of the Meetings of the Parliamentary Group of the Swedish Social Democratic Party).

    Google Scholar 

Secondary sources

  • Abbott, A. (2001) Event Sequence Analysis: Methods. International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier Science 4966–9.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, Andrew (1990) ‘Conceptions of time and events in social science methods: causal and narrative approaches’. Historical Methods 23 4 (Autumn) 140–50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, Andrew (1991) ‘History and sociology: the lost synthesis’. Social Science History. 2. (Summer) 201–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Abbott, Andrew (1992) ‘From causes to events: notes on narrative positivism’. Sociological Methods & Research. 20 4 (May) 428–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Almond, Gabriel A. & Coleman, James S. eds. (1960) The Politics of the Developing Areas.. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, Perry (1974) Lineages of the Absolutist State. London: Verson Editions.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendix, Reinhard (1969) Nation-Building and Citizenship. Studies of Our Changing Social Order. Garden City, New York: Anchor Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, Suzanne (1981a) ‘Introduction’. In: Berger, Suzanne ed. Organizing Interests in Western Europe: Pluralism, Corporatism and the Transformation of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berger, Suzanne ed. (1981b) Organizing Interests in Western Europe: Pluralism, Corporatism and the Transformation of Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boudon, Raymond & Bourricaud, Francois (1994) ‘Historizismus’. In: Boudon, Raymond & Bourricaud, Francois eds. Soziologische Stichworte: Ein Handbuch.. Opladen: Westdeutscher Verlag 205–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bridges, Amy (2000) ‘Path dependence, sequence, history, theory’. Studies in American Political Development. 14 (Spring) 109–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buchanan, James M. & Vanberg, Viktor (1989) ‘A Theory of leadership and deference in constitutional construction’. Public Choice 61 15–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, Craig (1991) ‘The problem of identity in collective action’. In: Huber, Joan ed. Macro-Micro Linkages in Sociology. Newbury Park (NJ)/London/New Delhi: SAGE Publications 51–75.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, Craig (1994) ‘Social theory and the politics of identity’. In: Calhoun, Craig ed. Social Theory and the Politics of Identity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers 9–36.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calhoun, Craig (1996) ‘The rise and domestication of historical sociology’. In: McDonald, Terrence J. ed. The Historic Turn in Social Sciences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 305–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collier, Ruth Berins & Collier, David (1991) Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement, and Regime Dynamics in Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Colomer, Joseph M. (2001) ‘Disequilibrium institutions and pluralist democracy’. Journal of Theoretical Politics 13 3 (July) 235–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cutler, David M. & Johnson, Richard (2001) ‘The birth and growth of the social-insurance state: explaining old-age and medical insurance across countries’. Working Paper RWP 01–13. Kansas City: FRB.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahl, Robert A. (1961) Who Governs?: Democracy and Power in an American City. New Haven, London: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Easton, David (1965) A Systems Analysis of Political Life. New York: John Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edgington, Dorothy (1995) ‘On conditionals’. Mins 104 (April) 414 235–329.

    Google Scholar 

  • Elwert, G. (2001) Boas, Franz (1858–1942). International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier Science 1266–70.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Frank, Andre Gunder (1978) Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment. London: Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Genschel, Philipp (2001) ‘Pfadabhängigkeit: Metapher oder Erklärungsansatz’. Unpublished Paper. Cologne: Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Peter (2003) ‘Aligning ontology and methodology in comparative politics’. In: Mahoney, James & Rueschemeyer, Dietrich eds. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 373–406.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R. (1996) ‘Political science and the three new institutionalisms’. Political Studies. 5 936–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hattam, Victoria C. (2000) ‘History, agency, and political change’. Polity 32 3 (Spring) 333–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hedström, Peter & Swedberg, Richard eds. (1998) Social Mechanisms: An Analytical Approach to Social Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ikenberry, John G. (1988) ‘Conclusion: an institutional approach to American foreign economic policy’. International Organization 1 (Winter) 219–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ikenberry, John G. (1994) ‘History’s heavy hand: institutions and the politics of the state’. Prepared for The New Institutionalism, University of Maryland 14–15 October, 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  • Immergut, Ellen M. (1998) ‘The theoretical core of the new institutionalism’. Politics and Society. 26 1 (March) 5–34.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Immergut, Ellen M. (2002) ‘The Swedish constitution and social democratic power: measuring the mechanical effect of a political institution’. Scandinavian Political Studies. 25 3 231–57.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jupille, Joseph, Caporaso, James A. & Checkel, Jeffrey T. (2003) ‘Integrating institutions: theory, method, and the study of the European Union’. Comparative Political Studies. 36 1/2 (February/March) 7–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katznelson, Ira (1992) ‘The State to the rescue?: political science and history reconnect’. Social Research. 4 (Winter) 719–37.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katznelson, Ira (1997) ‘Structure and configuration in comparative politics’. In: Lichbach, Mark Irving & Zuckerman, Alan S. eds Comparative Politics: Rationalit. ’ Culture, and Structure. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 81–112.

    Google Scholar 

  • King, Gary, Keohane, Robert O. & Verba, Sidney (1994) Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kitschelt, Herbert (1986) ‘Political opportunity structures and political protest: anti-nuclear movements in four democracies’. British Journal of Political Science. 16 57–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krasner, Stephen D. (1989) ‘Sovereignty: an institutional perspective’. In: Caporaso, James A. ed. The Elusive State: International and Comparative Perspective. Newsbury Park: Sage Publications 69–96.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuran, Timur (1998) ‘Ethnic norms and their transformation through reputational cascades’. Journal of Legal Studies 2. 623–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • LaPalombara, Joseph ed. (1966) Political Parties and Political Development. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lebow, Richard Ned (2000) ‘What’s so different about a counterfactual?’ World Politics. 52 (July) 550–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lehmbruch, G. (2001) Corporatism: International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevier Science 2812–16.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lewis, David (1993) ‘Causation’. In: Sosa, Ernest & Tooley, Michael eds. Causation.. Oxford: Oxford University Press 193–04.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, James (2000) ‘Path dependence in historical sociology’. Theory and Society. 29 507–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mahoney, James & Rueschemeyer, Dietrich (2003) ‘Comparative historical analysis: achievements and agendas’. In: Mahoney, James & Rueschemeyer, Dietrich eds. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 3–40.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Maier, Charles S. ed. (1987) Changing Boundaries of the Political: Essays on the Evolving Balance between the State and Society, Public and Private in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, James G. & Olsen, Johan P. (1984) ‘The new institutionalism: organizational factors in political life’. American Political Science Review. 78 3 (September) 734–49.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March, James G. and Olsen Johan P. (1986) ‘Popular sovereignty and the search for appropriate institutions’. Journal of Public Policy 4 (Oct.-Dec.) 341–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • March, James G. & Olson, Johan P. (1989) Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore, Barrington Jr (1966) Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy: Lord and Peasant in the Making of the Modern World. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Offe, Claus (1996) ‘Designing institutions in East European transitions’. In: Goodin, Robert E. ed. The Theory of Institutional Design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 199–226.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Orren, Karen & Skowronek, Stephen (1994) ‘Beyond the iconography of order: notes for a “new” institutionalism’. In: Dodd, Lawrence C. & Jillson, Calvin eds. The Dynamics of American Politics: Approaches and Interpretations. Boulder: Westview Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, Talcott (1951) The Social System. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, Guy B. (2001) Institutional Theory in Political Science: The ‘New Institutionalism’.. London: Continuum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, Paul (2000a) ‘Dr. Seuss and Dr. Stinchcombe: a reply to the commentaries’. Studies in American Political Development. 14 (Spring) 113–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, Paul (2000b) ‘Increasing returns, path dependence, and the study of politics’. American Political Science Review. 94 2 251–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, Paul (2000c) ‘The limits of design: explaining institutional origins and change: governance’ An International Journal of Policy and Administration 13 4 (October) 475–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, Paul (2000d) ‘Not just what, but when: timing and sequence in political processes’. Studies in American Political Development 14 1 (Spring) 72–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poggi, Gianfranco (1978) The Development of the Modern State: A Sociological Introduction.. Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Powell, Walter W & DiMaggio, Paul J. eds. (1991) The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pye, Lucian W. ed. (1965) Political Culture and Political Development. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riker, William H. (1980) ‘Implications from the disequilibrium of majority rule for the study of institutions’. American Political Science Review. 74 432–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roberts, Clayton (1996) The Logic of Historical Explanation. Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rokkan, Stein ed. (1970) Citizens Elections Parties. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein, Bo (1998) ‘Political institutions — an overview’. In: Goodin, Robert E. & Klingemann, Hans-Dieter eds. A New Handbook of Political Science. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ruin, Olof (1990) Tage Erlander: Serving The Welfare State, 1946–1969. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabel, Charles F. & Zeitlin, Jonathan (1997) ‘Stories, strategies, structures: rethinking historical alternatives to mass production’. In: Sabel, Charles F. & Zeitlin, Jonathan eds. Worlds of Possibility: Flexibility and Mass Production in Western Industrialization.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1–36.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitter, Philippe & Lehmbruch, Gerhard eds. (1979) Trends Towards Corporatist Interest Intermediation. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sewell, William H. Jr (1985) ‘Ideologies and social revolutions: reflections on the french case’. Journal of Modern History. 57 1 (March) 57–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sewell, William H. Jr. (1996) ‘Three temporalities: toward an eventful sociology’. In: McDonald, Terrence J. ed. The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press 245–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepsle, Kenneth A. (1986) ‘Instituitonal equilibrium and equilibrium institutions’. In: Weisberg, Herbert F. ed. The Science of Politics. New York: Agathon Press 51–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepsle, Kenneth A. (1989) ‘Studying institutions: some lessons from the rational choice approach’. Journal of Theoretical Politics 1 2 131–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shepsle, Kenneth A. (2001) ‘A comment on institutional change’. Journal of Theoretical Politics 13 3 (July) 321–5.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shepsle, Kenneth A. & Weingast, Barry R. (1981) ‘Structure-induced equilibrium and legislative choice’. Public Choice 37 503–19.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skocpol, Theda (1979) States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Somers, Margaret R. and Gloria D. Gibson (1994) ‘Reclaiming the epistemological “other”: narrative and the social constitution of identity’. In: Calhoun, Craig ed. Social Theory and the Politics of Identity. Oxford/Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers 37–99.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stjernquist, Nils (1996) Tvåkammartiden: Sveriges riksdag 1867–1970. Stockholm: Sveriges Riksdag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tarrow, Sidney (1994) Power in Movement: Collective Action, Social Movements and Politics.. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tetlock, Philip B. & Lebow, Richard Ned (2001) ‘Poking counterfactual holes in covering laws: cognitive styles and historical reasoning’. American Political Science Review. 95 4 (December) 829–43.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, Kathleen (1999) ‘Historical institutionalism in comparative politics’. Annual Review of Political Science. 2 369–404.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, Kathleen (2000) ‘Timing and temporality in the analysis of institutional evolution and change’. Studies in American Political Development. 14 (Summer) 101–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, Kathleen (2003) ‘How institutions evolve: insights from comparative historical analysis’. In: Mahoney, James & Rueschemeyer, Dietrich eds. Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 208–40.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Thelen, Kathleen & Steinmo, Sven eds. (1992) Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles ed. (1975) The Formation of National States in Western Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tilly, Charles (1978) From Mobilization to Revolution. London: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.

    Google Scholar 

  • Truman, David B. (1971 [1951]) The Governmental Process: Political Interests and Public Opinion. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • van Parijs, Philippe (1982) ‘Perverse effects and social contradictions: analytical vindi cation of dialectics?’ The British Journal of Sociology. 33 4 (December) 589–603.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanberg, Viktor & Buchanan, James M. (1989) ‘Interests and theories in constitutional choice’. Journal of Theoretical Politics 1 1 49–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vanberg, Viktor J. & Buchanan, James M. (1996) ‘Constitutional choice, rational igno rance, and the limits of reason.’ In: Soltan, Karol Edward & Elkin, Stephen L. eds. The Constitution of Good Society. University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University 39–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voigt, Stefan (1997) ‘Positive constitutional economics: a survey’. Public Choice 90 11–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Sydow, Björn (1989) Vägen till enkammarriksdagen: Demokratisk författningspolitik i Sverige 1944–1968. Stockholm: Tidens förlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wallerstein, Immanuel (1974) The Modern World-System I: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World-Economy in the Sixteenth Century. New York/London: Academic Press, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weber, Max (1978) ‘Objective possibility and adequate causation in historical explanation’. In: Shils, Edward A. ed. The Methodology of the Social Sciences. New York: The Free Press 165–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weingast, Barry R. (1996) ‘Political institutions: rational choice perspectives’. In: Klingemann, Hans-Dieter and Goodin, Robert eds. A New Handbook of Political Science. London/Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press 1–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zald, Mayer N. & McCarthy, John D. (1987) Social Movements in an Organizational Society. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zucker, Lynne G. (1991) ‘The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence’. In: Powell, Walter W. & DiMaggio, Paul J. eds. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press 83–107.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Ellen M. Immergut
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, UCLA, USA

    Andreas Wimmer (Professor) (Professor)

  2. Department of Sociology, University of Münster, Germany

    Reinhart Kössler (Adjunct Professor) (Adjunct Professor)

Copyright information

© 2006 Ellen M. Immergut

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Immergut, E.M. (2006). Historical-Institutionalism in Political Science and the Problem of Change. In: Wimmer, A., Kössler, R. (eds) Understanding Change. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230524644_17

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation