Institutionalisms — An Overview

Abstract

Attempts at classifying the political phenomenon have taken on different theoretical forms over the years. Political Science, as we know it today, was previously viewed as part of philosophical, historical and even legal deliberations — all of which have been unable to sufficiently shed light on the nuances of a given political system. Political Science has, to a large extent, been based on the study of sovereign, territorial states and the Westphalian state system. However, the hierarchical role that the political centre plays within each state and its interactions with different bodies of governance continue to undergo major transformations from genesis to institutional consolidation. This trend therefore implies that there is a need for new ways of describing how authority, rights, obligations, interactions, experiences and resources are organized, beyond mere hierarchies and markets. To this end, this chapter will analyse the historical trajectory of institutionalism, starting with Old Institutionalism (OI), and then map the evolution of the Behavioural and Rational Choice (RC) Schools to the New Institutionalism (NI) revolution. This neoinstitutionalist counter-revolution has evolved into a broad church of thinking in itself, as one can easily distinguish nowadays between seven or nine variations across all fields.