Publisher's Synopsis
This text identifies the various approaches to institutions and then provides a common frame of reference for the different theories. It argues that there are at least seven versions of institutionalism, beginning with the March and Olsen "normative institutionalism", and including rational choice, historical and empirical approaches to institutions and their impact on public policy. For each of the versions there is a set of identical questions including: the definition of institutions; the way in which they are formed; how they change; how individuals and institutions interact; and the nature of a "good institution". The author discusses whether there are really so many different approaches to institutionalism, or if there is sufficient agreement among them that there there is really one institutional theory.
