Historical institutionalism (HI) is a
new institutionalist social science approach that emphasizes how timing, sequences and
path dependence
Path dependence is a concept in the Social science, social sciences, referring to processes where past events or decisions constrain later events or decisions. It can be used to refer to outcomes at a single point in time or to long-run equilibria ...
affect
institutions
An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and ...
, and shape social, political, economic
behavior
Behavior (American English) or behaviour (British English) is the range of actions of Individual, individuals, organisms, systems or Artificial intelligence, artificial entities in some environment. These systems can include other systems or or ...
and
change
Change, Changed or Changing may refer to the below. Other forms are listed at
Alteration
* Impermanence, a difference in a state of affairs at different points in time
* Menopause, also referred to as "the change", the permanent cessation of t ...
.
Unlike
functionalist theories and some
rational choice approaches, historical institutionalism tends to emphasize that many outcomes are possible, small events and flukes can have large consequences, actions are hard to reverse once they take place, and that outcomes may be inefficient. A
critical juncture may set in motion events that are hard to reverse, because of issues related to path dependency.
Historical institutionalists tend to focus on
history
History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
(longer temporal horizons) to understand why specific events happen.
The term "Historical Institutionalism" began appearing in publications in the early 1990s, although it had been used in the late 1980s. The most widely cited historical institutionalist scholars are Peter Hall,
Paul Pierson,
Theda Skocpol
Theda Skocpol (née Barron; May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical- ...
,
Douglass North, and
Kathleen Thelen.
Prominent works of historical institutionalist scholarship have used both sociological and rationalist methods.
Due to a focus on events involving causal complexity (
equifinality, complex
interaction effects and
path dependency),
historical institutionalist works tend to employ detailed
comparative
The degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs are the various forms taken by adjectives and adverbs when used to compare two entities (comparative degree), three or more entities (superlative degree), or when not comparing entities (positi ...
case studies.
Old and new institutionalism
Kathleen Thelen and Sven Steinmo contrast New Institutionalism with "Old Institutionalism", which was overwhelmingly focused on detailed narratives of institutions, with little focus on comparative analyses. Thus, the Old Institutionalism was unhelpful for comparative research and explanatory theory. This "Old Institutionalism" began to be undermined when scholars increasingly highlighted how the formal rules and administrative structures of institutions were not accurately describing the behavior of actors and policy outcomes.
Works, such as Karl Polanyi's
''The Great Transformation'', Theda Skocpol's ''
States and Social Revolutions'', Philippe Schmitter's ''Still a Century of Corporatism?'', Barrington Moore's ''Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy'', and Evans, Ruschemeyer and Skocpol's ''Bringing the State Back In'' have been characterized as precursors to Historical Institutionalism,
spawning a new
research program
A research program (British English: research programme) is a professional network of scientists conducting basic research. The term was used by philosopher of science Imre Lakatos to blend and revise the normative model of science offered by K ...
.
Historical institutionalism is a predominant approach in research on the
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the State (polity), state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal oppor ...
. In the field of
International Relations
International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...
, John Ikenberry's ''After Victory'' and Abraham Newman's ''Protectors of Privacy'' are prominent works of historical institutionalist scholarship.
The treatment of history
Unlike most western scholars who preceded them, including
classical liberals,
classical Marxists,
empiricists,
dialectic
Dialectic (; ), also known as the dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argument. Dialectic resembles debate, but the ...
al thinkers and
positivists, historical institutionalists do not accept that
history necessarily develops in a straightforward, linear fashion. Instead, they examine the conditions under which a particular trajectory was followed and not others, a phenomenon that
Gabriel Almond refers to as the "historical cure". As a consequence, specifying why particular paths were ''not'' taken is as important as specifying the actual trajectory of history.
As opposed to the old institutionalists, they postulate that history will not necessarily lead to a "happy" outcome (i.e. "
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
or
democracy
Democracy (from , ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which political power is vested in the people or the population of a state. Under a minimalist definition of democracy, rulers are elected through competitiv ...
as the end of history").
Historical institutionalist works tend to reject
functionalist accounts of institutions.
Therefore, they are suspicious of explanations for the emergence of institutions that work backwards from the functions of institutions to their origins.
Historical institutionalists tend to see origins behind the creation of institutions as the result of conflict and contestation, which then gets locked in and persists, even if the circumstances that resulted in the institution change.
Mechanisms of institutional stability
The concept of
path dependence
Path dependence is a concept in the Social science, social sciences, referring to processes where past events or decisions constrain later events or decisions. It can be used to refer to outcomes at a single point in time or to long-run equilibria ...
is essential to historical institutionalist analyses. Due to path dependence, institutions may have considerable stability and "stickiness", even in situations when the institutional leads to suboptimal arrangements. For
Paul Pierson, path dependence entails that “outcomes at a ‘critical juncture’ trigger feedback mechanisms
egative or positivethat reinforce the recurrence of a particular pattern into the future.” Thus, path dependence makes it harder to reverse once a certain path has been taken, because there are increased costs to switching from the path. These paths may lead to outcomes are inefficient, but nonetheless persist, because of the costs involved in making substantial overhauls. An example of this is the QWERTY keyboard layout, which was efficient for typewriters to prevent jams in the 19th century and was implemented in computer keyboards in the 20th century. However, the
QWERTY
QWERTY ( ) is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six Computer keyboard keys#Types, keys on the top letter row of the keyboard: . The QWERTY design is based on a layout included in the Sh ...
keyboard is arguably not as efficient as a computer keyboard could be, but the keyboard layout has persisted over time due to the costs involved in overhauling computer keyboards.
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson argue that other approaches to institutions may fall guilty of treating politics as if it were the film ''Groundhog Day'' where each day the participants just start over; in reality, past politics and policy legacies shape the interests, incentives, power and organizational abilities of political actors.
According to Paul Pierson, the following factors contribute to institutional stability:
* Large setup costs: actors may stick with existing institutions because there are large setup costs associated with creating new ones
* Learning effects: actors may stick with existing institutions because it is costly to learn about procedures and processes in new institutions
* Coordination effects: actors may stick with existing institutions because it is too complex to coordinate multiple actors into creating new institutions
* Adaptive expectations: actors may expend resources on an institution over another because it is likely to stay or become the dominant institution
These factors entail that actors have devoted resources into developing certain institution-specific skills and are unlikely to expend resources on alternative institutions.
A related crux of historical institutionalism is that temporal sequences matter: outcomes depend upon the timing of
exogenous factors (such as inter-state competition or economic crisis) in relation to particular institutional configurations (such as the level of
bureaucratic professionalism or degree of state autonomy from class forces). For example,
Theda Skocpol
Theda Skocpol (née Barron; May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical- ...
suggests that the
democratic outcome of the
English Civil War
The English Civil War or Great Rebellion was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Cavaliers, Royalists and Roundhead, Parliamentarians in the Kingdom of England from 1642 to 1651. Part of the wider 1639 to 1653 Wars of th ...
was a result of the fact that the comparatively weak English
Crown lacked the
military
A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...
capacity to fight the landed upper-class. In contrast, the rise of rapid
industrialization
Industrialisation (British English, UK) American and British English spelling differences, or industrialization (American English, US) is the period of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an i ...
and
fascism
Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...
in
Prussia
Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
when faced with international security threats was because the Prussian state was a “highly bureaucratic and centralized agrarian state” composed by “men closely ties to landed
notables”.
Thomas Ertman, in his account of state building in
medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...
and early modern
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
, argues that variations in the type of
regime
In politics, a regime (also spelled régime) is a system of government that determines access to public office, and the extent of power held by officials. The two broad categories of regimes are democratic and autocratic. A key similarity acros ...
built in Europe during this period can be traced to one macro-international factor and two historical institutional factors. At the macro-structural level, the “timing of the onset of sustained geopolitical competition” created an atmosphere of insecurity that appeared best addressed by consolidating state power. The timing of the onset of competition is critical for Ertman's explanation. States that faced competitive pressures early had to consolidate through
patrimonial structures, since the development of modern bureaucratic techniques had not yet arrived. States faced with competitive pressures later on the other hand, could take advantage of advancements in training and knowledge to promote a more technically oriented
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
.
An important element to historical institutionalism is that it may cement certain distributions of power or increase asymmetries of power through policy feedbacks, "lock in" effects and stickiness.
For example, France has a permanent seat on the UN Security Council because of its power and status at the end of World War II, yet it would likely not get a permanent seat if the UN Security Council were re-designed decades later.
Mechanisms of institutional change
Historical institutionalists have identified major shocks, such as wars and revolutions, as important factors that lead to institutional change because those shocks create
"critical junctures" whereby certain path dependencies get created. One prominent account in this vein is
John Ikenberry's work on
international orders which argues that after major wars, the dominant powers set up world orders that are favorable to their interests.
Aside from shocks, historical institutionalists have also identified numerous factors that subtly lead to institutional change.
These include:
* Layering: grafting new rules onto old rules
* Displacement: when relevant actors leave existing institutions and go to new or alternative institutions
* Conversion: old rules are reinterpreted and redirected to apply to new goals, functions and purposes
* Drift: old rules fail to apply to situations that they were intended for because of changing social conditions
* Exhaustion: an institution overextends itself to the point that it does not have the capacity to fulfill its purposes and ultimately breaks down
As part of these subtle changes, there may be widespread noncompliance with the formal rules of an institution, prompting change.
There may also be shifts in the balance of power between the social coalitions that comprise the institution.
Reception
Historical institutionalism is not a unified intellectual enterprise (see also
new institutionalism
Neo institutionalism (also referred to as neo-institutionalist theory or institutionalism) is an approach to the study of institutions that focuses on the constraining and enabling effects of formal and informal rules on the behavior of individual ...
). Some scholars are oriented towards treating history as the outcome of rational and purposeful behavior based on the idea of equilibrium (see
rational choice). They rely heavily on quantitative approaches and
formal theory. Others, more qualitative oriented scholars, reject the idea of rationality and instead emphasize the idea that randomness and accidents matter in political and social outcomes.
[.] There are unsolvable
epistemological
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that examines the nature, origin, and limits of knowledge. Also called "the theory of knowledge", it explores different types of knowledge, such as propositional knowledge about facts, practical knowled ...
differences between both approaches. However given the historicity of both approaches, and given their focus on institutions, both can fall under "historical institutionalism".
Munck argues that work that emphasizes critical junctures as causes has two problems: (i) the problem of infinite regress (the notion that the cause of events can constantly be pushed back further in time), and (ii) the problem of distal non-recurring causes (convincingly arguing that a distant non-recurring event caused a much later event).
Avner Greif and David Laitin have criticized the notion of increased returns.
Sociological institutionalists and ideational scholars have criticized versions of Historical Institutionalism that adopt materialist and rationalist ontologies.
Scholars who use ideational approaches argue that institutional change occurs during episodes when institutions are perceived be failing (such as during economic crises) or during episodes of uncertainty, as this creates room for an exchange of ideas and a receptivity for institutional change.
Political scientists such as
Henry Farrell
Henry Farrell (September 27, 1920 – March 29, 2006) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known as the author of the renowned gothic horror story ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (novel), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'', wh ...
,
Martha Finnemore,
Mark Blyth, Oddny Helgadóttir, and William Kring argue that Historical Institutionalism has over time tended to engage more with rational choice institutionalism than with
sociological institutionalism.
Vincent Pouliot similarly writes that "soft rational choice... informs most versions of
istorical Institutionalism"
According to Michael Zurn, Historical institutionalism "lacks a theory of action."
In ''Paradigms and Sand Castles'', an influential book on research design in
comparative politics
Comparative politics is a field in political science characterized either by the use of the '' comparative method'' or other empirical methods to explore politics both within and between countries. Substantively, this can include questions relat ...
,
Barbara Geddes argues that there are methodological limits to the kind of path-dependent arguments that is often found in Historical Institutionalist research.
She argues that it is hard to rule out rival explanations for a proposed outcome and to precisely identify one purported critical juncture or another.
Major institutionalist scholars and books
*
Perry Anderson, ''Lineages of the Absolutist State''
*
Kenneth A. Armstrong &
Simon Bulmer, ''The governance of the Single European Market''
*
Reinhard Bendix, ''Nation Building and Citizenship: Studies of our Changing Social Order''
*
Suzanne Berger, ''Peasants Against Politics''
* Ruth Berins Collier and
David Collier, ''Shaping the Political Arena''
*
Thomas Ertman, ''
Birth of the Leviathan''
*
Peter B Evans, ''Embedded Autonomy''
*
Alexander Gerschenkron
Alexander Gerschenkron (; 1 October 1904 – 26 October 1978) was an American economic historian and professor at Harvard University, trained in the German Historical School of economics.
Born into a Jewish family in Odessa, then part of the ...
, ''Economic Backwardness in Historical Perspective''
*
Peter A. Hall, ''Governing the Economy''
*
Samuel P. Huntington, ''
Political Order in Changing Societies''
*
John Ikenberry, ''After Victory''
*
Chalmers Johnson, ''Peasant Nationalism and Communist Power''
*
Peter Katzenstein
Peter Joachim Katzenstein FBA (born February 17, 1945) is a German-American political scientist. He is the Walter S. Carpenter, Jr. Professor of International Studies at Cornell University. Katzenstein has made influential contributions to the ...
, ''Cultural Norms and National Security''
*
Atul Kohli Atul Kohli is a professor of politics and international affairs at Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.
Education and career
Kohli was promoted to full professor in 1991, and was also appointed as Davi ...
, ''The State and Development in the Third World''
*
Stephen Krasner, ''Sovereignty: Organized Hypocrisy''
*
Margaret Levi, ''Consent, Dissent and Patriotism''
*
Gregory Luebbert, ''Liberalism Fascism and Social Democracy''
*
Ian Lustick, ''Unsettled States, Disputed Lands''
*
Joel S. Migdal
Joel S. Migdal is the Robert F. Philip Professor of International Studies in the University of Washington's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. He is a political scientist specializing in comparative politics.
Education
He rece ...
, ''Strong Societies and Weak State''
*
Barrington Moore, ''
Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy''
*
Douglass North, ''Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance''
*
Paul Pierson, ''Politics in Time''
*
Karl Polanyi
Karl Paul Polanyi (; ; 25 October 1886 – 23 April 1964)''Encyclopædia Britannica'' (Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc. 2003) vol 9. p. 554 was an Austro-Hungarian economic anthropologist, economic sociologist, and politician, best kno ...
, ''The Great Transformation''
*
Dietrich Rueschemeyer,
Evelyne Huber, and John D. Stephens, ''Capitalist Development and Democracy''
*
James C. Scott, ''
Seeing Like a State''
*
Theda Skocpol
Theda Skocpol (née Barron; May 4, 1947) is an American sociologist and political scientist, who is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. She is best known as an advocate of the historical- ...
, ''
States and Social Revolutions, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers
''
*
Philip Selznick, "Institutionalism 'Old' and 'New'". Administrative Science Quarterly 41 (2): 270–77
*
Stephen Skowronek, ''The Politics Presidents Make''
*
Rogers Smith, ''Civic Ideals''
*
Sven Steinmo, Taxation and Democracy, ''The Evolution of Modern States''
*
Kathleen Thelen, ''How Institutions Evolve?''
*
Charles Tilly
Charles Tilly (May 27, 1929 – April 29, 2008) was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was a professor of history, sociology, and social science at the Uni ...
, ''Coercion, Capital, and European States, AD 990–1992''
*
Stephen Van Evera, ''Causes of War''
*
Thorstein Veblen
Thorstein Bunde Veblen (; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American Economics, economist and Sociology, sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known Criticism of capitalism, critic of capitalism.
In his best-known book ...
, '' An Inquiry into the Nature of Peace and the Terms of Its Perpetuation''
*
Rorden Wilkinson, ''The WTO: Crisis and the Governance of Global Trade''
*
Daniel Ziblatt, ''Structuring the State''
*
John Zysman, ''Governments, Markets, and Growth: Financial Systems and Politics of Industrial Change.''
*
Francis Fukuyama, ''
The Origins of Political Order''
See also
*
Critical juncture theory
*
Liberal institutionalism
*
Institutional economics
Institutional economics focuses on understanding the role of the Sociocultural evolution, evolutionary process and the role of institutions in shaping Economy, economic Human behavior, behavior. Its original focus lay in Thorstein Veblen's instin ...
*
New institutional economics
New Institutional Economics (NIE) is an economic perspective that attempts to extend economics by focusing on the institutions (that is to say the social and legal norms and rules) that underlie economic activity and with analysis beyond earlier ...
*
Rational Choice Institutionalism Rational choice institutionalism (RCI) is a theoretical approach to the study of institutions arguing that actors use institutions to maximize their utility, and that institutions affect rational individual behavior. Rational choice institutionalism ...
*
Analytic narrative
References
Further reading
* Daniel W. Drezner (2010) "
Is historical institutionalism bunk?" ''Review of International Political Economy'', 17:4, 791–804
*Peter A. Hall, “Historical Institutionalism in Rationalist and Sociological Perspective,” in James Mahoney and Kathleen Thelen, Explaining Institutional Change (Cambridge University Press 2010).
*Pierson, Paul. 2000. "Path Dependence, Increasing Returns, and the Study of Politics." ''American Political Science Review'' 33, 6/7:251-67.
* Fioretos, Orfeo (ed.)
International Politics and Institutions in Time Oxford University Press.
*Fioretos, O. (2011). "Historical Institutionalism in International Relations." ''International Organization,'' ''65''(2), 367–399.
*Fioretos, Orfeo, Tulia G. Falleti, and Adam Sheingate. 2016.
The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism'. Oxford University Press.
*Steinmo, Sven. 2008. "
Historical Institutionalism." in Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
*Thelen, Kathleen. 2002. "How Institutions Evolve: Insights from Comparative-Historical Analysis." in Mahoney, James and Dueschemeyer, Dietrich, eds. ''Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences''. Cambridge University Press.
*Peter Hall and David Soskice. ''Varieties of Capitalism.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2000.
*Kathleen Thelen, “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics.” Annual Review of Political Science 1999: 369–404.
*Kathleen Thelen. "Varieties of Capitalism: Trajectories of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity." Annual Review of Political Science. 2012; 15:137- 159.
*Henry Farrell and Abraham Newman. Domestic Institutions Beyond the Nation State: Charting the New Interdependence Approach. 2014. World Politics 66, 2:331- 363.
*
Henry Farrell
Henry Farrell (September 27, 1920 – March 29, 2006) was an American novelist and screenwriter, best known as the author of the renowned gothic horror story ''What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (novel), What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?'', wh ...
and
Abraham L. Newman (2010)
"Making global markets: Historical institutionalism in international political economy." Review of International Political Economy, 17:4, 609–638
*Rixen, Thomas, Lora Anne Viola, Michael Zürn (eds.). 2016. ''Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics''.
[{{Cite book, url=https://global.oup.com/academic/product/historical-institutionalism-and-international-relations-9780198779629?cc=us&lang=en&, title=Historical Institutionalism and International Relations: Explaining Institutional Development in World Politics, date=2016-08-09, publisher=Oxford University Press, isbn=978-0-19-877962-9, location=Oxford, New York] Oxford University Press.
*Waylen, G. (2009). What Can Historical Institutionalism Offer Feminist Institutionalists? ''Politics & Gender,'' ''5''(2), 245–253.
Political science terminology
Subfields of political science
Institutionalism
Social science methodology