Saudi model means that you cannot have elections, leaders emerge by consensus and
rule according to the teachings of the Koran. The Iranian model builds on the
alternative view that Muslims have to abide by the rulings of Islam but that which
is not prohibited is permitted. So, there can be elections, parliament, and legislation
but the laws have to be subject to scrutiny by a council of guardians. I do not end on
an interrogatory note, but stress the primacy of ideas in the study of political
institutions (see also Blyth 2002 ; Campbell and Pederson 2001 ;Hay 2002 ).
6 What are the Competing
Traditions—Socialism?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................
If historical materialism and economic determinism have been relegated to the
dustbin of history, what is left? I seek to show that the tradition persists and
introduce brieXy the Marxist theory of the state; the post-Marxists, whose work
has been inXuenced by ‘‘the linguistic turn;’’ and the non-Marxists with their
predilection for social engineering.
- 1 Marxist Political Economy
The speciWc area of concern to the student of political institutions is their analysis
of the state. The literature burgeoned (see for example Hay 1996 , 1999 ; Jessop 1990 ;
and Chapter 7 ).
Jessop is a centralWgure. He argues against all those approaches to state theory
predicated on a distinction between structure and agency. He treats structure and
agency only as an analytical distinction; they do not exist apart from one another.
Rather we must look at the relationship of structure to action and action to
structure. So, ‘‘structures are thereby treated analytically as strategic in their
form, content and operation; and actions are thereby treated analytically as
structured, more or less context sensitive, and structuring.’’ This approach involves
examining both ‘‘how a given structure may privilege some actors, some identities,
some strategies... some actions over others,’’ and ‘‘the ways... in which
actors... take account of this diVerential privileging through ‘strategic-context
analysis’ ’’ (Jessop 2001 , 1223 ). In other words, individuals intending to realize
certain objectives and outcomes make a strategic assessment of the context in
old institutionalisms 99