ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the contri bu tion made by insti tu tional theory to under stand ing the public policy process. While some writers have argued that it is a relat ively recently discovered approach, the first part of the chapter will suggest that it has deep roots in the soci olo gical analysis of policy processes, and that it has also been influ enced by insti tu tional econom ics. Then will follow an expos i tion of the theory today, showing how the concept of ‘insti tu tion’ has been used very widely to embrace cultural and ideo lo gical phenom ena. The next part of the chapter explores the way in which theor ists have sought to address the problem that an emphasis on insti tu tions tends to imply a stress on stabil ity and either the absence of policy change or the track ing of such change as occurs down an insti tu tion ally determ ined ‘pathway’. The two main solu tions to this are either to try to develop a way of analys ing crit ical points at which oppor tun it ies emerge for system change or simply to stress, as March and Olsen (1984) have, that actu ally the theory does little more than assert that the organ isa tion of polit ical life makes a differ ence. This leads to a view that insti tu tional theory faces some of the same prob lems as network theory, inas much as its explan at ory uses are limited, but indic ates that this in many ways simply emphas ises the extent to which the analysis of the policy process is an intu it ive art.
