The DOI matches its Crossref record; 85 of the 85 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Do We Really Need a New ‘Constructivist Institutionalism’ to Explain Institutional Change?
Abstract
Rational choice, historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism are under criticism from a new ‘constructivist institutionalism’ – with critics claiming that established positions cannot explain institutional change effectively, because agents are highly constrained by their institutional environments. These alleged problems in explaining institutional change are exaggerated and can be dealt with by using a suitably tailored historical institutionalism. This places active, interpretive agents at the centre of analysis, in institutional settings modelled as more flexible than those found in ‘sticky’ versions of historical institutionalism. This alternative approach also absorbs core elements of constructivism in explaining institutional change. The article concludes with empirical illustrations, mainly from Australian politics, of the key claims about how agents operate within institutions with ‘bounded discretion’, and how institutional environments can shape and even empower agency in change processes.
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Cites
Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance
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Pierson, P. (2000) · American Political Science Review · doi:10.2307/2586011 · Cited by 8,094
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Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies
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HISTORICAL INSTITUTIONALISM IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS
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Discursive Institutionalism: The Explanatory Power of Ideas and Discourse
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Realist Social Theory: The Morphogenetic Approach
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Cited by
Explaining divergent national responses to Covid-19: An enhanced state capacity framework
Weiss, L., & Thurbon, E. (2022) · New Political Economy · doi:10.1080/13563467.2021.1994545 · Cited by 61
Why Women Own Less, And Why It Matters More in Rural China’s Urban Transformation
Sargeson, S. (2012) · China Perspectives · doi:10.4000/chinaperspectives.6025 · Cited by 26
The Strategic Partnership Agreement between the EU and Japan: the pitfalls of path dependency?
Gilson, J. (2016) · Journal of European Integration · doi:10.1080/07036337.2016.1176027 · Cited by 19
Metadata
- Authors
- Bell, S.
- Venue
- British Journal of Political Science
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011-06-09
- Volume
- 41
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 883-906
- ISSN
- 0007-1234 (ISSN-L)
- 1469-2112
- OpenAlex
- W2091839741
- Cited by
- 320
- References
- 85
- FWCI
- 27.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
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