INSTITUTIONA

LISM
 Activity: Who Am I?
Who are you in the following:?

a. Your name?
b. Family?
c. School?
d. Church?
e. Government?
Guide Questions:

1. What are institutions?

2. Who create institutions?

3. What is the role of the individual in an institution?

4. How do institutions affect individual?

• 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 the humanly devised constraints
that shape human interaction. In consequence they
structure incentives in exchange whether political,
social, or economic.” D.C. North (1997)
• Features of Institutions
a. Institutions are a structural feature of the society or
polity. They are created with the only reason: decrease
uncertainty.

b. Stable over time.

c. They must pose constraints and affect individual

behavior of its members
• Institutions arensocial, political, economic, and
cultural structures, customs, practices, and
mechanisms of social cooperation, order and
governance that determine the rules of games that
govern the behavior of individuals. Institutions are
manifest in both formal organizations and informal
social order and organization.
• Institutionalism
- is a method by which scholars take institutions as subject
of the study in order to find and trace patterns and
consequences of social, political, economic 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. Moreover, they were highly normative and
deterministic, such as the linearity of history as hegel, Marx
and others did.
• Institutionalism
- Marx’s arguments rely on “social class, “ Weber on “bureaucracy,”
Durkheim on “the division of labor,” which identifies it as a sole
determination of social changes. This is often caleed “old
institutionalism.”

• Institutionalism, in the social sciences, 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
• Old Institutionalism - characterised itself by legalism, structuralism,
holism, historicism 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, goals. This is referred to as
“rationality.”
• History of Institutionalism
-Political thinking has its roots in the analysis and
design of institutions.
- In the first half of 20th century, the old
institutionalism characterised itself
- 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”.
• In sociology, the rise of new institutionalism is mainly
in reaction to the legal-rational system model
prevailingin organization studies and the structural
functionalism dominating the macro-sociological
studies, such as developemnt studies.
• Isomorphism refers to the similarity in form, shape,
or structure. Institutions arise, change, and persist
due to their regulative, normative and cognitive
functions. These functions are isomorphic in nature as
they adopt in form, shape, or structure to provide
social legitimacy, survival or both.
 Functions of Institutions
• Regulative Function
- It operates through coercive isomorphism, which
places value on expediency as an effect of compliance.
Change either happens or not depending on external
factors such as rules and laws.
 Functions of Institutions

• Normative Function
- It operates through normative isomorphism, which
places value on complying with social obligations.
Change either happens or not depending on external
factors such as accreditations and certifications.
 Functions of Institutions
• Cognitive Function
- It operates through mimetic isomorphism, which
places value on what is being compliedwith by others.
Change either happens or not depending on internal
factors such as uncertaint and prevalence of other’s
performance.
• Formal Institutions - are codified rules, policies, and norms
that are considered official originating from state, laws,
government, or organizations

• Informal Institutions - are equally known rules and norms

but are not commonly written down. They are social
practices that have been commonly viewed as acceptable
and are more persistent than codified laws like of that of
formal institutions.
• Institutional Actors - refers to the people who make up society,
whose actions are controlled and regulated by institutions.
- It can be an individual, a group, an organization, or a government
that creates or follow rules.
- It does not simply denote people or organ
• Contemporary Approaches to Institutionalism

1. Historical Institutionalism (1960s)

- the actors are both determined by and are producers of history.
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)
 Rational Choice Institutionalism (late 10970’s)
2.

explains behavior of individuals by emphasizing

how institutions are able to create situations in
which rational choice/collective action
paradoxesare resolved (e.g., Arrow’s Theorem in
terms of legislatures: rules of procedures,
commitee structures allow legislation to be passed
by creating bounded agendas, rather thanendless
cycles of competing and failedieces of legisation)
-
3. Sociological Institutionalism (late 1970’s)
- hold that behavior cand be explained by reference
institutions whose form and structure are importantly
influenced by culture as well as by functions, with
“culture” referencing symbols, ceremonies, etc., that
are specific to modes of activities, not just territorial
regions ( culture of a particular businesses, of particular
types of government agencies which are common
across different governments, national economies)
• Answer the following questions:

1. What aspects of your life are determined by social

institutions?

2. How do social institutions affect your life?

3. can you escape the effects of social institutions? Why

or why not?