Institutions and Time: Problems of Conceptualization and Explanation

Abstract
The new institutionalism in the social sciences has returned questions of the role of institutions to a central position in the social sciences. As important as this has been, it has also helped disclose a number of inherent problems in institutional theory. The structure-agency problem—how to relate change to presumably stable structures—is particularly significant in the theory. This article discusses a variety of approaches to new institutionalism and then points to the way in which each copes with ideas of changing structures that presumably serve as relatively stable guides for action. These theoretical points are illustrated with examples drawn from contemporary administrative reform.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: