Premium
VARIETIES OF NEW INSTITUTIONALISM: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL
Author(s) -
LOWNPES VIVIEN
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.313
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-9299
pISSN - 0033-3298
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9299.1996.tb00865.x
Subject(s) - institution , institutionalism , variety (cybernetics) , new institutionalism , norm (philosophy) , criticism , social institution , positive economics , institutional change , institutional theory , collective action , critical appraisal , sociology , veblen good , political science , social science , economics , neoclassical economics , public administration , law , computer science , medicine , alternative medicine , pathology , politics , artificial intelligence
New institutionalist approaches reflect a common commitment to the significance of institutional arrangements and a common criticism of atomistic accounts of social processes. Beyond these core assumptions, new institutionalism is characterized by a great variety of positions, which are sometimes complementary and sometimes conflicting. The different positions can be captured in six‘vignettes’: the mythic institution, the efficient institution, the stable institution, the manipulated institution, the disaggregated institution, and the appropriate institution. The vignettes differ in the significance they accord to: formal and informal institutional rules; change and stability within institutions; and the role of rational action and norm‐governed behaviour in creating and sustaining institutions. The comparative critical assessment of the vignettes can provide the basis for a multi‐theoretic approach to the study of institutions and institutional change.