Historical Institutionalism and Societal Transformations

2019 ◽  
pp. 95-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph H. Stefes
Keyword(s):  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Exogenous Shocks ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
Nature Of Time

This chapter examines historical institutionalism (HI) and the role that time and institutions play in societal transformations. HI thereby provides analytical depth to the study of time, realizing that the duration, tempo, timing, and sequencing of historical processes and events affect the onset of societal transformations. Institutions subsequently narrow the range of paths that societal transformations could potentially take, by enabling distinct forms of cooperation between various actors, (re)distributing power and resources, and proscribing and prescribing appropriate behaviour. In the wake of radical and incremental institutional changes, caused by exogenous shocks and endogenous dynamics, societies might embark on new paths. With its analytical focus on the meso level and the nature of time, HI has contributed to the development of middle-range theories that often bridge the traditional actor-structure divide.

scholarly journals State-Owned Enterprises as Institutional Actors: A Hybrid Historical Institutionalist and Institutional Work Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-45
Author(s):  
Olivier Butzbach ◽  
Douglas B. Fuller ◽  
Gerhard Schnyder ◽  
Liudmyla Svystunova
Keyword(s):  
Top Management Teams ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Top Management ◽  
State Control ◽  
Institutional Work ◽  
Institutional Level ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Institutional Contexts ◽  
Multiple Levels ◽  
Institutional Actors

ABSTRACT Although state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are recognized as important economic actors, the literature to date has assumed close state control over SOEs and, therefore, their passive stance towards institutions. Drawing on the institutional work and historical institutionalism literatures, we challenge this view. We develop a multilevel framework of SOE top management teams’ (TMTs’) embedded agency, spanning the national macro-institutional level, the meso-level of regimes of state-SOE relations, and sector-specific institutions. We then derive propositions regarding the factors across these multiple levels that shape SOE TMTs’ motivation, resources, and scope for institutional work. This framework allows us to explain the leeway for and likelihood of SOE TMTs’ engagement in institutional work across institutional contexts.

Parlamente in der Pandemie: Erste Erkenntnisse aus einem international vergleichenden Forschungsvorhaben

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 878-894
Author(s):  
Sven T. Siefken ◽  
Petra Guasti ◽  
Werner J. Patzelt ◽  
Osnat Akirav ◽  
Ken Coghill ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Infectious Disease ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Political Systems ◽  
Parliamentary Democracies ◽  
First Results ◽  
Legislative Activities ◽  
Parliamentary Oversight

During the pandemic, parliaments around the globe suffered a “double shock”: They had to adjust to the challenges of the infectious disease and uphold or (re-)establish their roles with regard to the executive . A closer investigation of 27 parliaments in different political systems gives a first in-depth comparative account for their initial reactions to the crisis . It is based on information from an ongoing collaboration of experts on parliaments and builds on a model of historical institutionalism . In some countries significant measures were taken, including restricting participation in parliamentary proceedings and moving some of them online . Committees served as a field of experimentation for digitalizing par­liaments . While only in a few countries legislative activities were strongly dominated by the pandemic, in most countries continuity across policy areas prevailed . More variety can be seen in institutional changes for parliamentary oversight . Communication activities intensi­fied with the pandemic, particularly from parliamentary leadership . These first results indi­cate that parliaments and established parliamentary democracies, in particular, were able to perform their functions despite unprecedented challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandem­ic .

Power, accidents, and institutional changes: the case of a Chinese hospital in Hong Kong

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-174
Author(s):  
SHU-YUN MA
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Theoretical Perspective ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Setting ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Political Sovereignty ◽  
Windows Of Opportunity ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACTIn response to the call for more investigation on ‘institutional dynamism’, this article examines the role of power and accidents in causing institutional changes, employing the theoretical perspective of historical institutionalism. The impact of two ‘accidents’ (epidemics) on the institutional setting of a hospital in Hong Kong under different power contexts (changes of political sovereignty) is analysed as a case study. The finding is that power matters more than accidents. This is not to deny the importance of accidents. Accidents matter because they produce windows of opportunity for institutional changes to take place. Through political manoeuvres powerful actors may decide which accidents should cause change.

Historical Sociology

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yvonne Åberg
Keyword(s):  
Network Analysis ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Historical Sociology ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Meso Level ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
Analytical Sociology ◽  
Historical Social Science

This article examines the different methods employed in historical sociology through which historical macro social outcomes are investigated — comparative, institutional, relational, and cultural — as well as the enduring tension revealed by the meso-level structures that often shape outcomes. It begins with a discussion of two major categories of historical sociology: comparative historical analysis, characterized by historical sociologists and political scientists who seek an explanation for large-scale processes, and the focus on institutionalism and networks in historical studies. It then presents examples of work in historical social science that have come closest to the requirements of analytical sociology. It also considers ways of bringing historical institutionalism and network analysis together and argues that an emphasis on analytic historical sociology can help specify the causality behind processes that have not been clearly interpreted or have been misinterpreted in historical, sociological, and culturally oriented studies.

scholarly journals Institutional Changes, Influences and Historical Junctures in the Communist Youth League of China

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Wen-Hsuan Tsai ◽  
Xingmiu Liao
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Communist Youth League ◽  
Mass Organization ◽  
United Front ◽  
Opportunities For Promotion

Abstract The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) regards the Communist Youth League (CYL) as a critical and distinctive mass organization that acts as an “assistant” and “reserve army” for the Party. This article uses the analytical concepts of historical institutionalism and critical junctures to discuss the changes in the CYL during the post-Mao period. We focus on two critical junctures: 1982, when the CYL became a route to rapid promotion for cadres, and 2016, after which its cadres had fewer opportunities for promotion and the CYL was pushed back to its original role in youth United Front work. We also find that the CYL has refined its United Front methods to attract talented young people by offering them services. This reflects the efforts of the CCP regime to adapt to circumstances and ensure its survival.

scholarly journals PARADIGMS, INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES AND POLICY DISMANTLING IN THE MERCOSUR SPECIALIZED MEETING OF FAMILY FARMING

2021 ◽  
pp. 251-282
Author(s):  
Catia Grisa ◽  
Paulo Andre Niederle
Keyword(s):  
Driving Forces ◽  
Public Policies ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Family Farming ◽  
Cognitive Approach ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Predominant Type ◽  
New Ideas

Abstract This article analyzes the dismantling of the Specialized Meeting on Family Farming (Reaf), a Mercosur forum responsible for proposing public policies for family farming. By means of a dialogue with the historical institutionalism, the cognitive approach, and the policy dismantling approach, the article characterizes the predominant type of dismantling and explains its driving forces. Data were collected through the analysis of official documents, observation of national and regional meetings, and interviews with ministers, policymakers, researchers and social leaders. Results indicate the prevalence of “dismantling by default” or gradual changes known as “drift”, in which, besides the interests and strategies of the political actors - the main focus of policy dismantling analysis - the emergence of new ideas and policy paradigms has played a major role.

The Federalization of Immigration and Integration in Canada

2014 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 519-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mireille Paquet
Keyword(s):  
Social Processes ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Exogenous Shocks ◽  
Federal Intervention ◽  
Governance Regime ◽  
Mechanistic Approach ◽  
Gradual Process ◽  
Central Characteristic ◽  
Canadian Provinces ◽  
Over Time

AbstractBetween 1990 and 2010, a gradual process of institutional change has affected Canada's immigration and integration governance regime. The central characteristic of this process is the emergence of a new legitimate institutional group of actors: Canadian provinces. This change corresponds to a federalization of Canada's immigration and integration governance regime. It is a break from the previous pattern of federal dominance and provincial avoidance. It is not the result of diminished federal intervention in immigration and cannot be explained by exogenous shocks. Current explanations of this evolution focus on federal decisions and have trouble explaining provincial mobilization. Using a mechanistic approach to the analysis of social processes and insights on gradual institutional changes, this article demonstrates that provinces have been the central agents bringing about the federalization of Canada's immigration and integration governance regime between 1990 and 2010. Via a mechanism of province building centred on immigration, provinces have triggered and maintained in movement a decentralizing mechanism. The interactions of these two mechanisms, over time, gave rise to the federalization of immigration and integration in Canada.

Inclusion and its moderating effects on ideas, interests and institutions

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven T. Wuhs
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Process Tracing ◽  
Competitive Environment ◽  
The Political ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Competitive Behavior ◽  
Relative Power ◽  
Moderating Effects ◽  
Exogenous Shocks ◽  
Political Center

This article examines the moderation of the Mexico's National Action Party in the context of democratization. Founded in 1939 as a confessional party, by the 1990s the PAN had moved toward the political center – retaining its Christian-Democratic identity and ideals but also making institutional appeals to the broader voting public in Mexico. This article explains the segmented process through which the PAN moderated in response to inclusionary reforms promulgated by Mexico's authoritarian regime. In some cases, those reforms merely aggravated internal tensions in the party. But other reforms repositioned the PAN vis-à-vis its competitors, Mexican civil society, and the Mexican voting public, and triggered institutional changes that enabled the PAN to build political momentum in advance of the country's 2000 democratic transition. Employing an institutional process-tracing approach, this article examines how shocks in the PAN's competitive environment reverberated inside the organization: how they affected the relative power of factions in the party, how they were mediated by existing party institutions, and how they related to the party's ideological goals. Those crucial intra-party processes, I argue, influenced whether the PAN, as an organization, responded to those exogenous shocks in terms of its competitive behavior, and conditioned how the PAN responded when it did so. The case of the PAN demonstrates that parties may respond to inclusionary reforms or other exogenous shocks in relatively uncoordinated and unsystematic manners.

From divergence to convergence: Institutionalization of copyright and the decline of online video piracy in China

2018 ◽  
Vol 80 (1) ◽  
pp. 60-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jie Gu
Keyword(s):  
Institutional Change ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Legal Norm ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
Online Video ◽  
Legal Regimes

Since its emergence in 2005, China’s online video industry has been embroiled in rampant piracy. Nevertheless, online video piracy has sharply declined in recent years, and copyrights have become a widely accepted and practiced legal norm. With reference to historical institutionalism, this article considers copyrights as an institution and embeds the decline of China’s online video piracy in institutional changes of three copyright-related institutions: legal regimes, administrative regulations, and the online video industry. It argues that even though intervention by legal regimes cannot simply be overlooked, an interest-led institutional change in which the industry first diverges and then converges with administrative regulations is pivotal to the institutionalization of online video copyrights. These findings further our understanding of how China’s online video piracy is sustained or undermined with a holistic, historical, and dialectical outlook.

Incremental Origins of Bretton Woods

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Helleiner
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
Institutional Changes ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Critical Juncture ◽  
Hard Case ◽  
Bretton Woods ◽  
Incremental Change ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Historical Moment

Historical institutionalism highlights the prevalence of incremental change in international governance. This chapter reinforces this point through an examination of a particularly hard case: the iconic creation of the postwar Bretton Woods international monetary and financial system. Although the 1944 Bretton Woods agreements are widely seen to be a product of power, interests and ideas at a unique historical moment, they were also shaped by a set of incremental institutional changes that pre-dated the negotiations and left important legacies. The Bretton Woods agreements emerged less from a specific moment than from a longer “critical juncture” dating back to the Great Depression.

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