political science

Outside the tradition of constitutionalism, the French approach to the study of

institutions remains distinctive and does not engage with the Anglo-American
literature. An early example is Duverger ( 1954 , 1980 ). Although his work on

electoral systems and semi-presidentialism is probably better known outside
France than inside, nonetheless it was a major challenge to the academic lawyers

and inXuenced a younger generation of scholars. Latterly, ‘‘the strategic analysis of
institutions’’ is an example of the new institutionalism before that term was
invented. Its main proponents include, for example, Duhamel and Parodi ( 1985 ).

Their heyday was the 1970 s and 1980 s but Parodi remains a majorWgure. The
approach focuses on electoral systems, and core political institutions (such as the

presidency), and tries to identify how institutions, singly and in combination,
aVect behavior (for citations see Elgie 1996 ). Parodi explains the changing nature of

the Fifth Republic’s political system by identifying how, for example, the direct
election of the president with a majoritarian electoral system for the National

Assembly bipolarized the party system. The approach is positivist and rigorous
with some clear aYnities to both rational choice and empirical institutionalism

(see Peters 1999 , ch. 5 ). However none of the proponents of the strategic analysis of
institutions publish in English; none engage with the Anglo-American literature.
Francophone and Anglophone traditions proceed in mutual ignorance. In short,

French political science is rooted in constitutionalism orstaatswissenschaftand,
when it diverges from that tradition, it remains distinctive.

5 What are the Competing

Traditions—Idealism?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................

In British political science, the idealist tradition encompasses those who argue that

social and political institutions do not exist apart from traditions or our theories
(or ideas) of them (see Nicholson 1990 ). The major British idealist of recent times

is Oakeshott ( 1991 and the citations on pp. xxiii–xvi). I concentrate on the
application of his ideas to the study of political institutions.
The inheritors of idealism challenged behavioralism for its neglect of meanings,

contexts, and history. Oakeshott ( 1962 , 129 – 30 ) argued political education required
the ‘‘genuine historical study’’ of a ‘‘political tradition, a concrete manner of

behavior.’’ The task of political science, although he would never use that
label, is ‘‘to understand a tradition,’’ which is ‘‘participation in a conversation,’’

‘‘initiation into an inheritance,’’ and ‘‘an exploration of its intimations.’’

old institutionalisms 97