Neoinstitutionalism social science Britannica PDF

Preview

Summary

interesting reading material...

Description

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA

) Search Britannica Categories

(

Features

(

!

Contents

Introduction History

Biographies

On This Day

Login

Subscribe Now

Quizzes

Neoinstitutionalism

" ARTICLE

SOCIAL SCIENCE

# INFO

$

PRINT

% CITE

&

FEEDBACK

'

SHARE

Neoinstitutionalism SOCIAL SCIENCE

Streams of neoinstitutionalism Rational choice institutionalism

WRITTEN BY: Marijke Breuning, John T. Ishiyama

Sociological institutionalism

See Article History

Historical institutionalism

Alternative Titles: NI, neo-institutionalism, new institutionalism

Neoinstitutionalism, also spelled neoinstitutionalism, also called new institutionalism, methodological approach in the study of political science, economics, organizational behaviour, and sociology in the United States that explores how institutional structures, rules, norms, and cultures constrain the choices and actions of individuals when they are part of a political institution. Such methodology became prominent in the1980s among scholars of U.S. politics. That so-called new institutionalism combined the interests of traditionalist

Neoinstitutionalism

scholars, who focused on studying formal

QUICK FACTS

institutional rules and structures, with behavioralist scholars, who examined the

RELATED TOPICS

Governance

actions of individual political actors.

Social structure Social institution

History From the 1930s through the 1950s, traditionalist scholars dominated political science as a discipline, especially in the United States. Those scholars were most i t https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

t di

i i

th f

l Page 1 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

interested in examining the formal structures and rules that were the foundation of political and governmental institutions such as the executive, legislative, and judicial branches. Traditionalist studies were often descriptive in nature, used mostly qualitative methods, and usually did not use broad theories to ground their observations in a larger theoretical perspective. Often, traditionalist scholars were quite normative in their desire to describe how political institutions ought to function, as opposed to the empirical study of how things actually worked in practice. Beginning in the 1960s, political scientists began to move away from focusing on political institutions and instead almost exclusively studied the actions of individual political actors. That so-called behavioral or behavioralist revolution strove to make the study of politics more scientific, and quantitative methods came to predominate in political science. Behavioralists would, for example, focus on specific decisions of individual judges or choices made by individual members of Congress rather than on the rules and structures of the courts and the role of Congress in the broader system of government. The hope was that political scientists would develop broad theoretical approaches that would be validated by quantitative empirical methods, thus moving political science away from the disciplines of history, law, and philosophy and instead bringing it closer to the scientific approaches of economics, sociology, and psychology.

By the mid-1980s many political scientists h db https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

t

ti

h th

th Page 2 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

had begun to question whether the discipline should continue to ignore the traditionalist interest in political institutions—but without abandoning what behavioralists had learned in examining the choices of individuals. They also worried that behavioralism could bring the field only so far and that perhaps nothing more could be learned from that approach. Therefore, a “postbehavioralist” movement, neoinstitutionalism, arose, designed in part to bring the study of institutions back into the discipline. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today

The new institutionalist approach has its roots in the early to mid-1980s. Often considered two of the leading founders of the new institutionalism, American political scientist James G. March and Norwegian political scientist Johan P. Olsen published a very influential piece, “The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life” (1984), followed by a book, Rediscovering Institutions: The Organizational Basis of Politics (1989). They continued to argue for further institutional analysis in Democratic Governance (1995). In each piece, March and Olsen argued that political scientists needed to rediscover institutional analysis in order to better understand the behaviour of individual political actors within political institutions. In other words, according to those authors, studying individual political behaviour without examining institutional t https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

i t

th t b h

i

i i Page 3 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

constraints on that behaviour was giving scholars a skewed understanding of political reality.

Streams Of Neoinstitutionalism One of the reasons that there is no single agreed-on definition of a political institution is that the neoinstitutionalist approach encompasses a wide variety of complementary, but clearly different, methodologies. There are at least three branches of neoinstitutionalism: rational choice institutionalism, sociological institutionalism, and historical institutionalism.

Rational choice institutionalism Rational choice institutionalism, which has its roots in economics and organizational theory, examines institutions as systems of rules and incentives. Rules are contested so that one group of political actors can gain leverage over another. Political decision making is explained through modeling assumptions and game theory, as challengers and holders of political power pit themselves against one another. Thus, rational choice scholars often focus on a single institution in a specific time frame, lth https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

h

l

k ti

tit ti Page 4 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

although some look at institutions across time.

Sociological institutionalism This stream, which has its roots in sociology, organizational theory, anthropology, and cultural studies, stresses the idea of institutional cultures. Scholars of this stream view institutional rules, norms, and structures not as inherently rational or dictated by efficiency concerns but instead as culturally constructed. They tend to look at the role of myth and ceremony in creating institutional cultures, as well as the role of symbol systems, cognitive scripts, and moral templates. At times they take on a normative (usual and customary) approach to the study of political institutions, and they tend to blur the line between institutions and culture. Their work often focuses on questions of the social and cultural legitimacy of the organization and its participants.

Historical institutionalism Historical institutionalism is the hardest of the three streams to define because it includes so many different scholars and so many different methodological approaches. It is based on the assumption that institutional rules, constraints, and th https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

t th

th l

t Page 5 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

the responses to them over the long term guide the behaviour of political actors during the policy-making process. Historical institutionalism mixes the quantitative analysis of the rational choice stream with the idea- and culture-based thought of the sociological stream. It includes an eclectic group of scholars with a wide variety of research agendas.

SIMILAR TOPICS

Despite the differences, there are some

·

Environmentalism

common notions in this line of research.

·

Institutionalism

Historical institutionalists seek to define

·

Sustainability

and explain specific real-world political

·

Functionalism

outcomes, such as an election, using the

·

Education

historical legacy of institutional structures

·

Political system

and feedbacks available to them. They

·

Library

also view politics as a competition over

·

Slavery

scarce resources and highlight differences

·

Modernization

in political power between institutions,

·

Social science

such as between the courts and the legislature. They consider decision trees and path dependence, terms of art meaning the effects that one decision has to limit the available future choices for any political actor or institution. Historical institutionalists note that institutions do not perform with perfect efficiency (because they were designed in earlier times) and institutional rules (such as the insistence on supermajorities or unanimity in voting) are slow to change, and, thus, those factors must be taken into account in any analysis. John T. Ishiyama Marijke Breuning The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles: governance: The new institutionalism https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

Page 6 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

An institutional approach dominated the study of the state, government, public administration, and politics until about the 1940s. Scholars focused on formal rules, procedures, and organizations,… development theory: The neoclassical counterrevolution …of the neoclassical counterrevolution called new institutionalism. The basic premise of this perspective is that development outcomes d d i tit ti h t i ht organizational analysis: Challenges to… The school known as neoinstitutionalism revived the institutionalist view tha

HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Sign up here to see what happened On This Day, every day in your inbox! Subm

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice.

*

Professionalism

" ARTICLE

# INFO

$

PRINT

% CITE

&

FEEDBACK

'

SHARE

Professionalism WRITTEN BY: Julia Evetts See Article Hist https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

Page 7 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

See Article History

Professionalism, the standards, practices, or motivations associated with a profession.

READ MORE ON THIS TOPIC

football: Professionalism The development of modern football was closely tied to processes of industrialization and urbanization in Victorian Britain. Most of the…

The concepts of professionalism, profession, and professionalization have received considerable and sometimes critical attention in sociology. In early British and American analyses, professionalism was identified as an

Professionalism

occupational value that was important for the stability and civility of social systems. In those interpretations, professional relations were characterized as collegial, cooperative, and mutually supportive. Relations of trust

RELATED TOPICS

Due diligence Society

characterized practitioner-client and practitioner-management interactions, as competence was assumed to be guaranteed by education, by training, and sometimes by licensing. However, a second, more cynical interpretation of professionalism grew out of the more critical literature on professions that was prominent in AngloAmerican analyses in the 1970s and ’80s. During that period, professionalism came to be dismissed as a successful ideology and professionalization as a process of dominance over an occupation or a market. Professionalization, according to that interpretation, was intended to promote professionals’ own occupational self-interest with respect to salary, status, and power, as well as monopoly protection of an occupational jurisdiction. Professionalization was a process largely initiated and controlled by the practitioners themselves through their professional institutions and associations in order to promote and protect their own interests.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

Page 8 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

A third and later development involved the analysis of professionalism as a discourse of occupational change and control, especially in work organizations in which such discourse was increasingly applied and utilized by managers. There is an important difference between the discourse of professionalism as constructed “from within” (by the occupational group itself) and as constructed “from above” (by managers in work organizations). When the discourse is constructed from within, the benefits to the group can be substantial. The occupational group uses the discourse to construct its occupational identity, promoting its image with clients and customers, and in bargaining with states to secure and promote the occupational control of work by practitioners. In contrast, when the discourse is constructed from above, it is usually false or selective and used to facilitate occupational change and rationalization. The effects are not the occupational control of work by the practitioners but rather control by the organizational managers and supervisors. Organizational objectives define practitioner-client relations and set achievement targets and performance indicators. Organizational objectives regulate and replace occupational control of practitioner-client work interactions, thereby limiting the exercise of discretion and undermining the service ethic that has been important in professional work.

Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Subscribe today

Professionalism as an occupational value can be threatened by the imperatives of efficiency and effectiveness emphasized by the managerial control of work. The American sociologist Talcott Parsons argued that the professions, by means of their collegial organization and shared identity,

demonstrated an alternative to the managerial hierarchy of organizations. St di

d

t d i th

l 21 t

https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

t

d

t

t d th t Page 9 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

Studies conducted in the early 21st century demonstrated that professionalism presents advantages for both clients and practitioners over other ways of organizing work in contemporary societies (such as managerial or market-based organization). Those studies highlighted the importance of maintaining professionalism—along with trust, competence, and discretion—as the main organizing principles for service work in modern societies.

Julia Evetts The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

LEARN MORE in these related Britannica articles: football: Professionalism The development of modern football was closely tied to processes of industrialization and urbanization in Victorian Britain. Most of the new working-class inhabitants of Britain’s industrial towns and cities gradually lost their old bucolic… sociology Sociology, a social science that studies human societies, their interactions, and the processes that preserve and change them. It does this by examining the dynamics of constituent parts of societies such as institutions, communities, populations, and… India India, country that occupies the greater part of South Asia. It is a constitutional republic consisting of 29 states, each with a substantial degree of control over its own affairs; 6 less fully empowered union territories; and the Delhi national capital…

HISTORY AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

Sign up here to see what happened On This Day, every day in your inbox! Email address

Submit

By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Notice.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

Page 10 of 11

Neoinstitutionalism | social science | Britannica

2020/2/9, 6 :26 PM

LOAD NEXT ARTICLE

+ Inspire your inbox – Sign up for daily fun facts about this day in history, updates, and special offers.

Enter your email

STAY CONNECTED About Us & Legal Info

SUBSCRIBE

!

Partner Program

"

#

Contact Us

$

%

,

Privacy Notice

!

Te

Step back in time with Britannica's First Edition!

©2020 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/neoinstitutionalism

Page 11 of 11...