ABSTRACT
The advent of the new institutionalism as a framework for social science analysis has been hailed as the kind of scientific revolution that one has had in mind when analysing theoretical developments in the natural sciences (Kuhn 1962). Since it is stated that the new institutionalism or neo-institutionalism is radically different from the old institutionalism, it is regarded by many as a radical innovation in the way in which social science concepts are to be framed as well as in the manner in which social science modelling is to be made. What is different in institutionalism compared with other major approaches such as behaviouralism, rational choice and structuralism is the focus on the concept of an institution (Keman 1997). What, then, is meant by this key term ‘institution’?
