political science

customary, unquestioned ways of behaving or with the entrenched folklore of

premodern societies (cf. Oakeshott 1962 , 123 , 128 – 9 ).
Table 6. 1 identiWes four distinct traditions in the study of political institutions:

formal-legal, idealist, modernist-empiricism, and socialist. Of course, these tradi-
tions are examples. The list is not exhaustive.

3 Where are We Now—Modernist-

Empiricism?
.........................................................................................................................................................................................

For many, the study of political institutions is the story of the ‘‘new institutional-

ism.’’ In outline, the story goes that the new institutionalism was a reaction against
behavioralism. Thus, for Thelen and Steinmo ( 1992 , 3 – 5 ) both historical institu-
tionalism and rational choice are a reaction against behavioralism just as

Table 6.1 Traditions in the study of political institutions

Traditions Modernist-empiricist Formal-legal Idealist Socialist

Definition

of political

institution

Formal rules,

compliance

procedures,

and standard

operating practices

that structure

relationships

between

individuals in

various units

of the polity

and the economy

Public laws that

concern formal

governmental

organizations

Institutions

express... ideas

about political

authority... and

embody a

continuing approach

to resolving

the issues

which arise

in the relations

between citizen

and government

The specific

articulation of

class struggle

Eckstein

1979: 2

Miliband 1977: 19

Hall 1986: 19–20

Johnson 1975:

131, 112

Present-day

examples

USA: New institu-

tionalisms

French

constitution-

alism

UK: Conservative

Idealism

Pan-European

post-Marxism

Examples March and

Olsen 1989

Chevallier 2002 Johnson 2004 Laclau 1990

92 r. a. w. rhodes