Neoinsitutionlism

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norms, and cultures constrain the choices and actions of individuals when they are part of a political institution. In other words, “The neo-institutionalist perspective combines the microlevel study of individual behavior with the macrolevel sensitivity to the institutional factors that help shape that behavior” (Miller, 1995, p. 6). The new institutionalism is a very influential postbehavioralist methodology today among political scientists in the United States and abroad.

II. The Historical Roots of the New Institutionalism

A. The Traditionalists

From the 1930s through the 1950s, traditionalist scholars dominated political science as a discipline, and especially political science as practiced in the United States. These scholars were most interested in examining the formal structures and rules that were the foundation of political and governmental institutions such as the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the judiciary. As Rhodes, Binder, and Rockman ...

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political science. The behavioralist revolution was especially critical for students of U.S. politics. Since good quantitative studies demanded large sample sizes, the more qualitative studies of single institutions and institutional rules waned in part because of their small sample sizes. For example, instead of studying the structures and rules of the courts, behavioralist political scientists studied specific decisions of individual judges. Or instead of studying the role of Congress in the broader system of government, behaviorists instead studied the choices made by individual members of Congress or by the voters in congressional elections. The hope was that political scientists ...

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