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Two Cheers for Interpretivism: Deconstructing the British Political Tradition
Author(s) -
Marsh David,
Hall Matthew,
Fawcett Paul
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.12087
Subject(s) - politics , perspective (graphical) , argument (complex analysis) , path dependency , sociology , path (computing) , positive economics , epistemology , dependency (uml) , political science , political economy , economic system , economics , law , philosophy , computer science , biochemistry , chemistry , software engineering , artificial intelligence , programming language
This article engages with Bevir and Rhodes' version of interpretivism from a critical realist perspective. It argues that they are misguided to equate path‐dependency with path‐determinancy. Instead, we argue that there are three path‐dependencies, institutional, discursive and political‐economic, which constrain without determining the actions of agents and thus effect political outcomes. The argument is illustrated through a brief consideration of the operation of the British Political Tradition.