Instituciones Políticas

Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions

Edited by

R. A. W. RHODES

SARAH BINDER

AND

BERT ROCKMAN

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INTRODUCTION

The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions will be part of the Oxford Handbooks

of Political Science series. So it will fit the requirements of that series. We seek to

provide a definitive survey that also aspires to shape the discipline, not just to report

on it. It will combine trenchant commentaries on where the field has been with

positive suggestions about where it ought to be heading.

Aims and Scope of the Handbook

The study of political institutions is central to the identity of the discipline of political

science. Eckstein (1963. pp. 10-11) points out:

political science emerged ... as a separate autonomous field of study divorced

from philosophy. Political economy and even sociology [which] may have

created a tendency to emphasise the study of formal-legal arrangements....

If there is any subject matter at all which political scientists can claim

exclusively for their own, a subject matter that does not require acquisition of

the analytical tools of sister-fields and that sustains their claim to autonomous

existence, it is, of course, formal-legal political structure.

But, according to March and Olsen (1984. p. 734) political science forgot its roots and

traditional political institutions 'have receded in importance from the position they

held in the earlier theories of political scientists'. They criticise contemporary political

science because, for example: it is contextual, or socio-centric, emphasising the social

context of political behaviour and downgrading the state as

an independent cause (p.

735); reductionist, explaining politics as the outcome of individual actions (pp. 7356); and utilitarian, explaining individual actions as motivated by rational self-interest

(pp. 736-7). In contrast, the new institutionalism 'insists on a more autonomous role

for political institutions'. Thus:

The bureaucratic agency, the legislative committee, and the appellate court are

arenas for contending social forces, but they are also collections of standard

operating procedures and structures that define and defend interests. They are

political actors in their own right'. (p. 738)

This volume covers both the traditional concerns of political science with

constitutions, federalism and bureaucracy and more recent interest in theory and the

constructed nature of institutions.

In Part I. the editors survey the field, covering both its history and an assessment of

where we are and where we are going.

Part II builds on various attempts to characterise the diversity of institutional

approaches by Peter Hall (1996). Vivien Lowndes (1996) and Guy Peters (1999). It

will survey of the several theoretical approaches. including normative

institutionalism, rational choice institutionalism, historical institutionalism,

international institutionalism, constructed institutionalism, and network

institutionalism. Each chapter will be about 5.000 words. We provide a unique survey.

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Parts III to XI cover the main political institutions. We focus on the conventional

categories to give breadth of coverage and ensure the volume is useful to the widest

possible readership. So there are few if any surprises in

such topics as constitutions,

federalism, executives, legislatures, courts, and parties. However, we also reflect the

broadening concerns of the field in recent years with parts on international institutions

and the institutions of state and civil society. Neither of these topics figures in

previous surveys the field (Bogdanor 1987; Greenstein and Polsby 1975).

Finally, and following the series format. Part XII provides six reflections on ‘the state

of the art’ by the grand old men and women in the field.

In sum, we seek comprehensive coverage of the field, with a balance across

continents (especially Europe and North America), across established names and

younger scholars, and by gender. We are also trying to be imaginative in the way we

cover the field. Although we cover the conventional institutional categories, we also

provide, for example, a unique coverage of institutional theory and encompass the

ever-broadening scope of the field.

In the next section, we outline the main topics covered by this volume with lists of

possible authors for each chapter. We have not approached any authors and will not

do so until we have a contract. Nothing should be inferred from the order of names by

...