Two major approaches toward institutional change

How have we fared in advancing a general theory of institutional change that can measure up to the task so far? The short answer is “Not well,” as many have rightly noted (e.g. Knight 1992; Mahoney and Thelen 2010). In this chapter, I critically examine two major approaches that have dominated our thinking toward institutional change and social evolution in general. ¹ I show that neither approach alone nor an inorganic synthesis of the two approaches can adequately explain institutional change. I then argue that only a social evolutionary synthesis of the two approaches is up to the task.