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From “New Institutionalism” to “Institutional Processualism”: Advancing Knowledge about Public Management Policy Change
Author(s) -
BARZELAY MICHAEL,
GALLEGO RAQUEL
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
governance
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.46
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1468-0491
pISSN - 0952-1895
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0491.2006.00339.x
Subject(s) - discipline , institutionalism , public management , new institutionalism , public administration , political science , new public management , sociology , positive economics , economics , social science , public sector , law , politics
Research on public management reform has taken a decidedly disciplinary turn. Since the late 1990s, analytical issues are less often framed in terms of the New Public Management. As part of the disciplinary turn, much recent research on public management reform is highly influenced by the three new institutionalisms. However, these studies have implicitly been challenged by a competing research program on public management reform that is emphatically processual in its theoretical foundations. This article develops the challenge in a more explicit fashion. It provides a theoretical restatement of the competing “institutional processualist” research program and compares its substantive findings with those drawn from the neoinstitutionalisms. The implications of this debate about public management reform for comparative historical analysis and neoinstitutional theories are discussed.