PS 233: Political Institutions

and Process

Sadia Afrin
Assistant Professor
Political Science, BSMRSTU, Gopalganj- 8100
Topics
•Institutions: Meaning, Types and Theories.
•Classification and forms of Constitution Government: Government, Democracy
and Dictatorship, Totalitarianism, Parliamentary and Presidential Constitution,
Government, Unitary & Federal Government, Coalition government, Problems and
New Trends of Federalism.
•Organs of Government: Legislature, Executive, Judiciary.
•Separation of powers, Bureaucracy.
•Rule of Law, Administrative Law.
•Election Commission and Representation, Public Opinion and Elite group.
•Political Parties, Interest Groups.
Institution

• Institution?
• Organization?
• What is the differences between institution and organization?
Organization
• When a group of people come together for a common goal and get
unified under a common identity, then that identity is referred to as
an organization. The purpose of such organization could be political,
social, financial, educational etc.

• Well established organization is institution.

Institution

• Man made device

• Well established organization
• Structure or mechanism of social order
• Social relationship
• Beliefs, values, practices, authority
• Control/ limit human behaviour

Example: Family, religion, state …..

Definition of Institution
• Institutions are the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and
social interaction. They consist of both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs,
traditions, and codes of conduct), and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights).
Throughout history, institutions have been devised by human beings to create order and
reduce uncertainty in exchange. Together with the standard constraints of economics
they define the choice set and therefore determine transaction and production costs
and hence the profitability and feasibility of engaging in economic activity. They evolve
incrementally, connecting the past with the present and the future; history in
consequence is largely a story of institutional evolution in which the historical
performance of economies can only be understood as a part of a sequential story.
Institutions provide the incentive structure of an economy; as that structure evolves, it
shapes the direction of economic change towards growth, stagnation, or decline.
--- Douglass C. North, Institutions, Journal of Economic Perspectives- Volume 5, Number
1-Winter I991-Pages 97-1 12.
Institutionalism
• Institutionalism is an approach that emphasizes the role of institution.

• 2 development
• 1. public policy as a discipline
• 2. development of institution
• Two dominant trends in institutional theory-
Old Institutionalism
New Institutionalism
4 principles
• Trade off
• Opportunity cost
• Marginal benefit
• Response to incentive

• Benefit> cost –birth of institution

• Cost> Benefit- demise of institution