chapter 10
...................................................................................................................................................EXCLUSION,
INCLUSION, AND
POLITICAL
INSTITUTIONS
...................................................................................................................................................matthew holden, jr.
1ThePoliticalOrder
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Institutions are indispensable. People cannot live together under complete ran-
domness or Hobbesian disorder. ‘‘An institution,’’ March and Olsen (Ch. 1 ) tell us,
‘‘is a relatively enduring collection of rules and organized practices, embedded in
structures of meaning and resources that are relatively invariant in the face of
turnover of individuals and relatively resilient to the idiosyncratic preferences of
individuals and changing external circumstances.’’
The very meaning of ‘‘institution’’ is that values are settled within it (Selznick
1967 ). Other values that impose strain are repelled or excluded. ‘‘Inclusion-and-
exclusion’’ is the name we give this problem. As a concept in political science, it is
not well enough known to have a formal name or distinctive literature, although
such a tradition does exist in sociology (Gamson 1969 ). But the themes of inclusion
and exclusion reference several diVerent literatures in this chapter.