The Meaning of Political Institutions and Institutionalisms

Abstract

Since ‘old institutionalisms’ (e.g. Rhodes 2008) have been pushed back in political science by its three ‘new’ counterparts (Hall and Taylor 1996), the definition of political institutions seems to have been widening in order to encompass international or supranational decision-making rule-based systems, as well as bodies formerly often perceived as being ‘outside’ of the political realm (such as courts, bureaucratic agencies of state administration or associations of experts). This shift towards ‘everything is political’ in some strands of institutionalist research requires critical attention and discussion, as it has consequences for properly capturing the influence of various sets of factors on functioning of contemporary political institutions at domestic and international levels. Within the ‘institutionalisms’ debate, this Panel is particularly interested in assessing the advantages and disadvantages of the set of approaches loosely connected as the ‘fourth’ new institutionalism (Schmidt 2008, Hay 2008). It intends to do so through primarily, but not exclusively comparative case studies applying some of these approaches with various research methods.