DISCIPLINE AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Second Quarter, Week 2

INSTITUTIONALISM
Content Standard
-The learners demonstrate an understanding of key concepts and approaches in the
Social Sciences
Performance Standard
-The learners shall be able to interpret personal and social experiences using relevant
approaches in the Social Sciences and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the approach

Most Essential Learning Competency

-Analyze the basic concepts and principles of the major social science
theories. (Psychoanalysis, Rational Choice Theory, Institutionalism, Feminist
Theory, Hermeneutical Phenomenology, Human-Environment Systems)

DEFINITION OF TERMS
 Institutions- include any form of constraint (formal or informal) that
human beings devise to shape their interaction
“Institutions are the rules of the game in a society; more
formally, they are humanly devised constraints that shape
human interaction. In consequence they structure incentives
in exchange, whether political, social or economic”
D.C. North (1997)
 Institutions are social, political, economic, and cultural structures,
customs, practices, and mechanisms of social cooperation, order and
governance that determine the rules of the games that govern the
behavior of individuals. Institutions are manifest in both formal
organizations and informal social order and organization.

FEATURES OF INSTITUTIONS
1. Institutions are a structural feature of the society of polity. They are
created with the only reason: decrease uncertainty.
2. Stable over time
3. They must pose constraints and affect individual behavior of its members

INSTITUTIONALISM
Institutionalism is a method by which scholars take institutions as subject
of study in order to find and trace patterns and sequences of social, political,
economics behavior and change across time and space. It relies heavily on case
studies, and most of these studies rely heavily on the study of formal institutions
or the formal rules (i.e. the law). Moreover, they were highly normative and
deterministic, such as the linearity of history of Hegel, Marx and others did.
Marx’s arguments relied on “social class,” Weber on “bureaucracy,” Durkeim on
“the division of labor,” which identifies it as the sole determination of social
changes. This is often called “old institutionalism.”
Institutionalism, in the social sciences, is an approach that emphasizes the
role of institutions. The study of institutions has a long pedigree. It draws
insights from previous work in a wide array of disciplines, including economics,
political science, sociology, anthropology, and psychology. The reappearance of
interest in institutions in the early 1980s followed a familiar pattern: it was a
reaction to dominant strands of thought that neglected institutions, historical
context, and process in favor of general theorizing. Accordingly, institutionalism
is frequently characterized by the attention it gives to history. The
institutionalism that emerged in the 1980s is called the new institutionalism (NI),
but it is less “new” than it is restatement of previous scholarship.
https://britannica.com/topic/institutionalism
Old Institutionalism characterized itself by legalism, structuralism, holism,
histoticism and normative analysis (Peters 1999: 3)
New Institutionalism avoids the deterministic approaches to history and
emphasizes the autonomous role of institutions in shaping human behavior and
history. Institutions are treated as “actors” making choices based on some
“collective” interests, preferences, goals, alternatives, and expectations. This is
referred to as “rationality.”

HISTORY OF INSTITUTIONALISM
Over the years, the new institutionalism has developed to become an
updated alternative to “old” institutionalism. The basic premise is the same:
political thinking has its roots in the analysis and design of institutions.
In the first half of the 20th century, the old institutionalism characterized
itself by legalism, structuralism, holism, historicism and normative analysis
(Peters 1999: 3). However, especially the latter two elements, a pronounced
historical and normative foundation of their analysis, didn’t occur with the
emerging behavioral and rational choice tendencies that gained ground in the
50s--60s.
Behaviorialists focused on the more informal aspects of politics, like people
functioning within institutions. Rational choice theory saw the behavior of
political actors and political groups as a function of economic motivations, more
specifically rational unity maximization. They attempted to make political science
more scientific by exploring causal relationships and stressing the empirical
approach: hypotheses that are developed should be verified, psychological and
social factors that can determine behavior should be tested. In their approach,
they took a radical anti-normative and anti-historical stance.
It was James March and Johan Olsen who gave the new institutionalism its
name in 1984 with their article in the American Political Science Review: ‘The
New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life”.
They criticized the behaviorist approach and characterized it in five
keywords: contextualism (subordinating political phenomena to contextual
phenomena like economic growth, or social cleavages), reductionism,
utilitarianism, instrumentalism, and functionalism. Especially the functionalist
approach to history as a process of moving towards some kind of equilibrium
was countered. March and Olsen painted a more realistic picture of historical
political processes as less smooth and lacking the functionality claimed by the
behavioralists (Peters 1999: 17)
It is crucial that the new institutionalism is not a unified school of thought.
Numerous approaches put forward different readings of institutionalist theory,
both in content and discipline. Apart from political science, also economics,
history and sociology have their institutionalist assumptions.
Different applications of institutionalism are legion: empirical
institutionalism, international institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism,
sociological institutionalism, normative institutionalism, democratic
institutionalism, holistic institutionalism, and so forth (Peters 1999, Lane &
Ersson 2000, Jonsson & Tallberg 2001)
In sociology, the rise of new institutionalism is mainly in reaction to the
legal-rational system model in prevailing in organization studies and the
structural-functionalism dominating the macro-sociological studies, such as
development studies. Based on the social phenomenological perspective made
popular by Berger and Luckmann in their work The Social Construction of Reality
(1967), new institutionalists emphasize the informal structure of organization and
the subjective elements underlying patterned actions and enduring practices.

Types of Institutionalism
1. Old Institutionalism characterized itself by legalism, structuralism,
holism, historicism, and normative analysis (Peters 1999: 3)
2. New Institutionalism refers to a turn to privileging institutions that
stemmed from the critique of the traditional structural-functionalist
approach of the 1960s and 1970s.
Arose in the late 1980s and took several different and largely independent
forms, though each shared and focuses on the importance of institutions in
explaining the behavior of individuals.
Contemporary Approaches to Institutionalism
1. Historical Institutionalism (1960s)
For historical institutionalism, the actors are both determined by and are
producers of history. It recognizes that institutions operate in an environment
consisting of other institutions, called the institutional environment. Much of the
research deals with the influence of institutions on human behavior through
rules, norms, and other frameworks, in other words, “the common research
agenda is the study of institutional effects wherever and however they occur ”the
theoretical core" (Ellen Immergut, 1998: 25)
2. Rational Choice Institutionalism (late 1970s)
Rational choice institutionalism explains the behavior of individuals by
emphasizing how institutions are able to create situations in which rational
choice/collective action paradoxes are resolved (e.g. Arrow’s Theorem in terms
of legislatures: rules to be passed by creating bounded agendas, rather than
endless cycles of competing and failed pieces of legislation)
3. Sociological institutionalism (late 1970s)
Sociological institutionalists hold that behavior can be explained by
reference institutions whose form and structure are importantly influenced by
culture as well as by function, with “culture” referencing symbols, ceremonies,
etc., that are specific to modes of activities, not just territorial regions (culture of
particular businesses, of particular types of government agencies which are
common across different government, national economies)

Activity: Deepening
1. What aspects of your life are determined by social institutions?
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2. How do social institutions affect your life?
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3. Can you escape the effects of social institutions?
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 DISCIPLINE AND IDEAS IN THE SOCIAL SCIENCES
Second Quarter, Week 2

FEMINIST THEORY
Content Standard
-The learners demonstrate an understanding of key concepts and approaches in the
Social Sciences
Performance Standard
-The learners shall be able to interpret personal and social experiences using relevant
approaches in the Social Sciences and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the approach

Most Essential Learning Competency

-Analyze the basic concepts and principles of the major social science
theories. (Psychoanalysis, Rational Choice Theory, Institutionalism, Feminist
Theory, Hermeneutical Phenomenology, Human-Environment Systems)

INTRODUCTION
A theory offers a general account of how a range of phenomena are
systematically connected; by placing individual terms in a larger context, it
increases our understanding both of the whole and of the parts consisting the
whole. Theory is a systematic, analytic approach to everyday experience...

FEMINIST THEORY
What does it mean to be a woman?
Gender roles are acquired via the process of socialization rather than
biologically determined.
Feminist theory suggests:
 Attempts to develop a comprehensive account of the subordination of
women, including its supposes essence and origin
 A prerequisite for developing effective strategies to liberate women
 Identifies the underlying causes of women subordination
 Attempts to describe women’s oppression, explain it causes and
consequences

FEMINIST THEORY PURPOSES

1. To understand the power differential in between men and women
2. To understand women’s oppression-how it evolved, how it changes over
time, how it is related to other forms of oppression
3. How to overcome oppression
To Jane Flax in Women Do Theory and Thinking Fragments
 “Within Feminist theory is a commitment to change oppressive structures
and to connect abstract ideas with concrete problems for political action.
There has to be a commitment to do something about the situation of
women,”
 The goal of feminist theorists is to analyze gender: how gender is
constituted and experienced and how we think-or equally important-do not
think about it.
 Feminist theories recover and explore the aspects of societies that have
been suppressed, unarticulated, or denied within male dominant
viewpoints.
 Feminist theories call for a transvaluation of values-a rethinking of our
ideas about what is just, humanly excellent, worthy of praise, moral, and
so forth.

To Marilyn Frye in The Possibility of Feminist Theory

 Connects feminist generalizing to hearing each other into speech. “The
experiences of each woman and of the women collectively generate a new
web of meaning.” Frye’s feminist method is recognizing and naming
patterns, identifying schemas. A pattern for instance is male dominance in
conversations
 The task of feminist theory is to write a new encyclopedia entitled “The
World According to Women.

To Bettina Aptheker in Tapestries of Life

 A bottom up approach that look for the meanings of the daily activities of
women’s lives.
 By discovering and connecting meanings, feminists develop a “map” of
women’s reality from women’s point of view, a women’s standpoint.
 Women’s live are fragmented, dispersed, episodic and often determined by
events outside of women’s control. Suggests a way of knowing the
meanings women give to their labors. Culture shape stories in different
ways and stories pass on women’s consciousness as shaped by specific,
cultural and racial and class experience.
 Women’s stories locate women’s cultures, women’s way of seeing; that
designate meaning making women’s consciousness visible.

To Charlotte Bunch in Feminism and Education: Not By Degrees

 “Theory enables us to see immediate needs in terms of long-range goals
and an overall perspective on the world. It thus gives us a framework for
 evaluating various strategies in both the long and the short run and for
seeing the types of changes that they are likely to produce. Theory is not
just a body of facts or a set of personal opinions. It involves explanations
and hypotheses that are based on available knowledge and experience. It
is also dependent on conjecture and insight about how to interpret those
facts and experiences and their significance”

To Beli Hooks in Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center and

Feminism is for Everybody
 Feminism is a struggle to end sexist oppression and a struggle to eradicate
the ideology of domination
 “Feminism is the struggle to end sexist oppression. Its aim is not to benefit
solely any specific group of women, any particular race or class of women.
It does not privilege women over men. it has the power to transform in a
meaningful way all our lives.”
 Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and
Oppression.
 “To end patriarchy (another way of naming the institutionalized sexism) we
need to be clear that we are all participants in perpetuating sexism until we
change our minds and hearts, until we let go sexist thought and action and
replace it with feminist thought and action.

To Susan Bordo in Unbearable Weight

 “Feminist cultural criticism is not a blueprint for the conduct of personal life
(or political action, for that matter) and does not empower (or require)
individuals to “rise above” their culture or to become martyrs to feminist
ideals. It does not tell us what to do...its goal is edification and
understanding, enhanced consciousness of the power, complexity, and
systemic nature of culture, the interconnected webs of its functioning. It is
up to the reader to decide how, when, and where (or whether) to put that
understanding to further use, in the particular, complicated, and ever-
changing context that is his or her life and no one else’s.”

To Jean Grimshaw in Philosophy and Feminist Thinking

 Women have been oppressed and unjustly treated and that something
needs to be done about the issue
 “Feminism is a response to a belief that women have been oppressed and
unjustly treated, and sometimes also to a belief that they have available to
them more than to men certain resources for developing a critique of the
damaging and destructive aspects of human institutions and social
 relationships, and for tracing the links between these things and the
subordination of women to men. But the nature of this response varies,
and cannot be delineated in a historical or consensual way… the tension in
feminist thinking reflect the tensions in women's lives and the changing
and varied nature of women's experience, and there is not, nor do | think
there is likely to be, any unanimity in the results of efforts to resolve these
tensions.”

GENDER INDICATORS: WHAT, WHY AND HOW?

(Baybay and Quisumbing, 2009)
a. Economic Participation- male and female unemployment levels,
levels of economic activity, and remuneration for equal work
b. Economic Opportunity- duration of maternity leave, number of
women in managerial positions, availability of government-provided
childcare, wage inequalities between men and women.
c. Political Empowerment- number of female ministers, share of seats
in parliament, women holding senior legislative and managerial
positions, number of years a female has been head of state
d. Educational Attainment- literacy rates, enrolment rates for primary,
secondary and tertiary education, 6 years of schooling
e. Health and Well-Being- effectiveness of government’s effort to
reduce poverty and inequality, adolescent fertility rate, the percentage
of births attended by skilled health staff, and maternal and infant
mortality rates.

Activity: Women in Our Community

Assess your own community (country, town or barangay) on the condition
of women by writing an essay (of at least 250 words) using the indicators of
gender equity (Baybay and Quisumbing, 2009)

References:
Abulencia, Arthur S. et al. Discipline and Ideas in the Social Sciences. Teacher’s Guide. First Edition
2017. Department of Education.pp 55-64.