ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to clarify how the notion of institution extends beyond organizational form, rules and relationships into more fundamental social and political factors that determine how people think, behave and devise rules through which they expect everyone else to play. For sociologists, the study of institutions is central to understanding the organization and functioning of all societies. Indeed, within the functionalist paradigm, sociology is ‘the science of institutions’ and other ‘social facts’. The study of institutions is undoubtedly experiencing a renaissance throughout the social sciences. In economics, politics, public choice, sociology and organizational analysis the study of institutions has emerged as a ‘new’ focus for analysis. According to Jordan and, Smith one of the most important institutions within which policy making and implementation takes place is the policy network or community.
