Historical Institutionalist Approach Research Articles

Spatial planning in post-colonial Morocco: an institutional design for decolonization

ABSTRACT In recent times, the decolonization of planning systems has garnered significant scholarly attention encouraging the consideration of more diverse contexts. This study uses a historical institutionalist approach to reconstitute the history of planning institutions in the context of Morocco as a former French colony and builds an institutional understanding of the current framing of its practices. It then uses an institutional design approach to propose potential trajectories for the gradual decolonization of its systems. This paper discusses the Moroccan planning tradition as a dual-level approach: formal planning conducted by planning professionals and informal urban governance implemented by the state. Thereby, the study suggests that a potential way towards the decolonization of the practice is to create a trajectory where planning professionals are encouraged to cultivate a more systematic interaction with informality.

Implication of institutional informality in the historical urban evolution of Morocco: Case studies of Fes and Oujda

This paper is concerned with the role of informality in the spatial and institutional development of post-colonial cities. The study uses a historical institutionalist approach to trace the historical evolution of Morocco's Fes and Oujda as two former French colonies. It analyzes the historical urban growth of both cities through archival research, policy analysis, and complements its findings with semi-structured interviews. This study explores the different interactions between formal policies and the informal spatial and institutional urban practices, and discusses the processes of incremental institutional change that informal institutions introduce and sustain without disrupting the status-quo. This paper argues that in post-colonial contexts, informality prevails over formality as a stronger feedback mechanism to path dependence. Finally, the paper makes the case for the importance of mapping informal practices within and in relation to formal planning institutional structures for more comprehensive understandings of the role and the impact of spatial planning as a practice.

Understanding institutional layers and modes of change for energy transitions: Analysis of Norway's electricity sector reforms

AbstractInstitutions have significant implications for whether and how energy systems restructure, evolve, and successfully transition. Yet, literature analyzing energy sector reforms often approach transitions from economic or technical perspectives, with much less attention to the underlying roles and influences of institutions. This paper explores the roles and influence of institutions on the speed, direction, timing, and sequence of energy transitions. A conceptual framework integrating the hierarchy of institutions with an historical institutionalist approach is developed and applied to explore transitions in Norway's electricity sector as a case study. Results show that conversion followed by layering emerge as the dominant modes of institutional change in Norway's electricity sector reform, illustrating the importance of alignment between institutions in creating the conditions for large‐scale energy transitions and the importance of boundaries to maintain alignment between levels of institutions. Governments can minimize potential gaps between transition intentions and outcomes through effective conversion and layering of institutional arrangements, but layering challenges emerge when institutional change introduces new actors or energy arenas to existing policy paradigms.

The Post-war Revival of Canadian Planning: Assessing the Impact of the Community Planning Association of Canada.

The Community Planning Association of Canada (CPAC) advocated for the re-establishment of planning in post-war Canada. During this period, the federal government set reconstruction objectives, and both Central (now Canada) Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) and the CPAC were formed. We believe that 1944-1947 was a critical juncture establishing planned suburban development in Canada as a path-dependent process with tremendous momentum into the 21st-century. Using a historical-institutional approach, the role of CMHC and the influence of the CPAC is examined. Analysis relying on extensive archival material demonstrates that the CPAC gave a tremendous push along the path-dependent process of suburbanization.

The Origins of the Peloponnesian War, Chapter IV, and the Development of Spartan Historical Studies

Abstract This article examines the impact on Spartan historiography of Chapter IV of de Ste. Croix’s Origins of the Peloponnesian War, focusing on his discussions of Spartan politics and society in Sections v–vi. These sections fit oddly within the overall chapter, but they blew a breath of fresh air into Spartan studies through their revisionist approach, intimations of the socio-economic bases of policy-making, and extended accounts of ‘real-life’ political episodes across the classical period. Along with Moses Finley’s near-contemporary article on Sparta, OPW significantly influenced the following generation of British historians (including the author), although they often adopted different interpretations or developed new perspectives on Spartan society only hinted at by de Ste. Croix. OPW also had an important impact on Western European historiography on Spartan politics. Its combination of constitutional and societal approaches gives it an enduring currency in the context of developing Historical Institutionalist approaches to political studies.

Historical institutionalism in action: Incremental prevalence of Transit-Oriented Development in Tokyo 1945-1982

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) increasingly refers to global practices integrating land-use planning, urban development, and transit today, but their historical experiences have received little attention from the discussion, not to mention any theoretical elaboration with institutional thinking. The literature identifies Tokyo as a global exemplar of TOD as a new term for enduring practice. However, why and how Tokyo’s practice uniquely relies on private railway conglomerates remains underexplored. This article elaborates on a historical institutionalist approach using an inductive process tracing technique to understand Tokyo’s postwar history from 1945 to 1982, emphasizing incremental changes induced by endogenous forces. The exploration takes precedent insights into the private railway conglomerate-led TOD practice as an informal institution of “standard operating practice” and refines them with postwar history and supplementary prewar episodes. It finds that contingent policy choices allowed conglomerates to dismantle their geographical and financial constraints from prewar regulations. The actions reinforced their institutional privilege in public affairs as a foundation for subversive railway privatization reforms from 1982 onward. The finding thus identifies a socio-political dimension of TOD shaped by agents across sectors, developing the current methodology in planning studies and contributing to the debates on defining TOD.

A emergência do Zika vírus no Brasil e a resposta federal dos Sistemas Nacionais de Vigilância em Saúde e de Vigilância Sanitária

Abstract The article analyzes the federal response of the National Public Health Surveillance and Brazilian Health Regulatory Systems to the Zika virus epidemic in Brazil, from 2015 to 2018, focusing on the political-institutional contexts and the content of government measures developed during the period. The study was anchored in the historical institutionalist approach, comprising documentary analysis and interviews with key actors. The response was characterized by the initial prioritization of the health emergency on the federal government's political agenda, which was reduced over the period, influenced by the financial and political crises. There was a multiplicity of actors and instances focused on contingency, with a certain articulation between the two systems, based on their own pre-emergency experiences. Vector control had centrality, valuing intersectoral and community actions, induced mainly by the Health Surveillance Secretariat of the Ministry of Health and additionally by the National Health Surveillance Agency. Significant allocation limitations of new financial resources and changes in the organizational response apparatus were observed, with effects on the continuity of post-emergency policies, including the development of medicines, vaccines and tests. The Zika Virus Public Health Emergency in Brazil was marked by limited institutionalization of learning and structuring strategies, reducing opportunities for the (re)organization of surveillance in the Unified Health System.

СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ И РАЗВИТИЕ СИСТЕМЫ РАЙОННЫХ И ГОРОДСКИХ АРХИВОВ В 1934-1991 ГГ.: НА ПРИМЕРЕ СВЕРДЛОВСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

The paper deals with the issue of forming a system of local archives in Russia on the example of functioning of district (city) archives of the Sverdlovsk region from 1934 to 1991. The subject of the study is the network of the lower level archives in the Middle Urals. Based on the historical-institutional approach, an attempt is made to reconstruct the state policy in the field of archiving. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of archival policy, the institutional system of the local archives management and the activity areas as well as the dynamics of the change in the number of archival institutions. Separate consideration is given to the special role of the departments and branches in the regional archival systems. The stages of creating an archival network are dealt with sequentially: the search for a model of a local archival system in Soviet Russia, its implementation (1919–1934), the beginning of the formation of local archives in the Sverdlovsk region (1934–1938), the subordination of the archives to the NKVD-MVD (1939–1956) and their reassignment to the district executive committees (1956–1991). The article concludes on the specific features of the information culture in the USSR, the essential principles of the Soviet archival system and the contradictory trends in the development of the key element of the Russian archival system. The research was carried out on the basis of the documents from the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region.

СТАНОВЛЕНИЕ И РАЗВИТИЕ СИСТЕМЫ РАЙОННЫХ И ГОРОДСКИХ АРХИВОВ В 1934-1991 ГГ.: НА ПРИМЕРЕ СВЕРДЛОВСКОЙ ОБЛАСТИ

The paper deals with the issue of forming a system of local archives in Russia on the example of functioning of district (city) archives of the Sverdlovsk region from 1934 to 1991. The subject of the study is the network of the lower level archives in the Middle Urals. Based on the historical-institutional approach, an attempt is made to reconstruct the state policy in the field of archiving. The article provides a comprehensive analysis of archival policy, the institutional system of the local archives management and the activity areas as well as the dynamics of the change in the number of archival institutions. Separate consideration is given to the special role of the departments and branches in the regional archival systems. The stages of creating an archival network are dealt with sequentially: the search for a model of a local archival system in Soviet Russia, its implementation (1919–1934), the beginning of the formation of local archives in the Sverdlovsk region (1934–1938), the subordination of the archives to the NKVD-MVD (1939–1956) and their reassignment to the district executive committees (1956–1991). The article concludes on the specific features of the information culture in the USSR, the essential principles of the Soviet archival system and the contradictory trends in the development of the key element of the Russian archival system. The research was carried out on the basis of the documents from the State Archives of the Sverdlovsk Region.

Theories behind Change of Land Expropriation Institutions in Cross-Strait: An Analysis from Historical Institutionalism Approach

Rapid urbanization in developing countries has led to an increasing demand for urban construction land. As a result, many farmers’ lands have been expropriated by local governments, exacerbating the imbalance between land supply and demand. This issue is particularly pronounced in Chinese Mainland, where land expropriation institutions have operated at a suboptimal level for an extended period. While existing research has explored the current practices and potential avenues for the optimization of the horizontal aspects of land expropriation institutions in Chinese Mainland, there remains a dearth of academic inquiry from a historical developmental and comparative analytical perspective. To address this gap, this article uses the analytical framework of historical institutionalism and combines it with the comparison case method and in-depth interviews to analyze the fundamental path, logic, and dynamic mechanism behind land expropriation institutional change in Cross-Strait and provide insights for similar developing countries. Research shows that Cross-Strait land expropriation institutions have gone through five different stages of development, and finally evolved in the direction of narrowing the scope of expropriation and increasing the compensation for expropriation. Cross-Strait land expropriation institutions show a triple logic in terms of change types, change paths, and change processes: in terms of change types, there are compulsory changes and mutual games between induced factors and actors pushing for compulsory changes; in terms of change paths, there are patterns of displacement, drift, conversion, and layering; and in terms of gradual change processes, path dependence characteristics become apparent within Cross-Strait land expropriation institutions. The synergistic interaction among the institutional milieu, ideas, and actors constitutes the dynamic mechanisms for the change of land expropriation institutions in Cross-Strait.

State Masculine Logics, Neoliberalism, and Canadian Federalism

Institutional feminist theorists are interested in understanding how political institutions impact the creation of social policy and gender equality within a country. In Canada, institutional feminist scholars have predominantly focused on Constitutional jurisprudence and Charter politics to understand Canada’s institutional response to gender inequality. However, this literature is limited in its analysis of federal structures as being based within masculine logics, upholding patriarchal systems. Using a historical institutionalist approach, this paper looks at three stages of Canadian federalism: the 1867 two-nation compact, the Keynesian-Ford welfare state, and neoliberal ‘open federalism’ model. It finds that the non-static institutionalized gender biases in Canadian federalism have continued to favour masculine logics and bias, and disadvantages the creation of feminist social policy by the Canadian and provincial governments.

PLANNING AND GOVERNANCE IN A POSTCOLONIAL CONTEXT: A Historical Institutionalist Approach to Land Use Planning in Morocco

AbstractThis study is concerned with the way colonial land use planning practices have persisted within local institutional structures in the former French colony of Morocco. We use a historical institutionalist approach to reevaluate Morocco's land use planning history and identify key feedback mechanisms that support the continuity of colonial practices within the Moroccan planning institutional structure. We used institutional mappings to identify key actors involved in planning and examined the formal power relations between them. Interviews were used to discuss the effect of informal interactions on the development of land use plans. We argue that aspects of French colonial planning that persisted within the Moroccan local institutional structure have created constraints for Moroccan land use planning. We focus in particular on how a centralist formalization of planning institutions has hampered the effectiveness of decentralization reforms and explain how institutional patterns deriving from the French paternalist approach to colonial rule have persisted in the form of a duality in modern planning structures. Finally, we argue that this path dependence has been strengthened by the creation of the derogation system as a potential way out for actors who are most capable of inducing change.

Fundamental Change Beneath the Surface: The Supranationalisation of Rule of Law Protection in the European Union

AbstractWhereas most studies on the European Union's (EU) responses to the rule of law crisis stress the underenforcement of EU law, this article offers a different perspective. Focusing on the long‐term dynamics concerning rule of law protection, we detect a gradual trend towards supranationalism. The Rule of Law Conditionality mechanism adopted in 2020 is the first instance of ‘effective supranationalism’, that is, a rule of law tool that combines supranational decision‐making procedures with binding and enforceable consequences. To explain this development in an area that has been marked by considerable resistance to efforts to strengthen supranational oversight, we draw on the agent‐centric historical institutionalist approach. Our qualitative study shows that supranationalisation has become possible through two interrelated factors: the joint strategies of community bodies, which have promoted competence transfer to the EU level, and the increasing marginalisation of sovereigntist positions within the Council, given the escalating conflicts with Hungary and Poland.

TECHNOLOGIES OF INFLUENCE ON MASS MEDIA IN UKRAINE: THE POST-COMMUNIST CONTEXT

The article is devoted to transformations of technologies of political influence on mass media in Ukraine. The essence of the post-communist context of transformations of technologies influencing the mass media is determined. It consists in the transition from the Soviet heritage (state and party censorship, administrative pressure on journalists and editors) to the oligarchic model of mass media activity (the use of economic leverage, hidden political advertising, and dependence on the owner). The methodological approach of historical institutionalism is used to determine the transformations of technologies of influence of public power and oligarchic groups on the mass media in the post-communist context. It has been specified that the creation of a democratic model of mass media activity is an integral part of the democratization of the Ukrainian political process. The study of technologies of public power influence on the mass media allows reconstructing creatively some provisions of the theory of democratic transition, determining its essence and directions in Ukraine. Special emphasis is placed on the need to overcome the post-communist legacy and the importance of understanding the democratic transition of Ukraine as the achievement of its ultimate goal – full-fledged European and EuroAtlantic integration. Despite the long debates in Ukrainian political science regarding the use of such terms as "post-communism" and "democratic transition", the events of recent years, and especially the war of the russian federation against Ukraine (i.e. actions aimed directly against the democratic transition of Ukraine) have convincingly proven the scientific value and the importance of researching the post-communist context of mass media activity. The essence of certain technologies of influence on the mass media, which characterize the relations between the government, society, and the mass media in the post-communist context, is noted.

Abolishing Military and Cultivating Pacifism in Costa Rica: Reflective but Limited Peace?

Existing literature on peace, security and civil-military relations in Latin America only recently recognises the historical institutional sources of Costa Rican exceptionalism. While the Cold War's security predicament and the military dictatorship are common antecedents for most Central American states, Costa Rican demilitarisation and pacifism origins are unique and incomparable. Rather than treating post-1948 civil war development as exceptionalism, this paper seeks to normalise their success. The paper examines the political development of Costa Ricans in the 1950s and whether José María Hipólito Figueres Ferrer's historic decision to permanently abolish the military after the war helped to explain the institutionalisation process of organic civilian peace. While Costa Rican decisions to abandon its defence rights are always romanticised as "progressive" and an anomaly during the Cold War. The reality of relations between military abolishment, pacifism and democratic peace is multidimensional and complex. To perpetuate illogical pacificism reflections from Costa Rica in the 1950s and prescribes into present arguments for global democratic peace is somewhat imprecise. Drawing from years of research on Security in Latin America, this article reinvigorates Costa Rican exceptionalism. It analyses the cultivation of pacificism of those that have made the right choices in the face of adverse circumstances. Considering the historical institutional approach in researching local peace history, the paper illustrates a critical juncture that set peculiar peace formation, the path-dependent that ends the war, and the eventual decision to abolish the military in Costa Rica. The path dependence on national progress in education, health, and productivity only confirmed the unique political trajectory of Costa Rica, wherein they cannot be easily replicated or comparable. Understanding this distinctiveness should serve as a reminder of any renewed debate of Costa Rican exceptionalism in Central American security or democratic peace theory in liberal peacebuilding.

한국과 프랑스 교원양성체제 비교연구

[Purpose]This study aims at suggesting policy implications for Korea's '2021 Development Plan for the Elementary and Secondary Teacher Training System' by conducting comparative case studies of teacher training systems in Korea and France. [Methods] This study applies the historical institutionalism approach and investigates why and how these teacher training systems have changed over the past 40 years in terms of structure, system, and actor. [Results] In Korea, the most relevant factor of the change in the teacher training system was the structural one, such as a decrease in the number of school-age population. The teacher training institution experienced gradual changes and remained almost the same as the previous system in many ways. In France, on the other hand, the major changes in teacher training systems were at the hardware level. The name and nature of the teacher training institution were changed four times during the same period when Korean institutions did not change them even once. Despite the significant changes at the hardware level, it generally changed rapidly and the regime change was the main cause of the rapid change in the system. [Conclusion] We conclude from the analysis above that the core of the '2021 Development Plan for the Elementary and Secondary Teacher Training System' shows path dependency of the system, which is still in line with the characteristics of changes in the Korean educational system so far. Accordingly, it is hard to evaluate it as an innovative and drastic reform to solve long-standing problems or to prepare for upcoming changes.

Indian South Africans as a middleman minority: Historical and contemporary perspectives

Beginning in the 1940s, a literature on middleman minorities emerged to demystify the intermediary economic niche that Jews had occupied in medieval Europe. They were viewed as ethnic entrepreneurs occupying the economic status gap. In the 1960s, scholars began to apply middleman minority theory to colonial societies and to American society. More recently, Coloureds in South Africa have been identified as a middleman minority of another type: semi-privileged proletarians occupying an economic status gap in labour between whites and Africans. A political status gap between whites and Africans, both seeking alliances to achieve hegemony, is also occupied by Coloureds. Among South African Indians, one finds ethnic entrepreneurs: a small shopkeeping and trading class from South Asia. But there are also Indian semi-privileged proletarians who emerged from the indentured labour population in the early twentieth century. This article employs a historical institutional approach to analyse political tensions among Indians, and examines the cleavage between Indians and other races over political rights vis-a-vis the South African state. It also offers a typology contrasting ethnic entrepreneurs with semi-privileged proletarians in terms of the differing economic status gaps they occupy. Furthermore, it illustrates how Indians occupy a political status gap in a complex settler colonial society like South Africa.

Understanding Greece’s new foreign policy towards the Arab world: Instrumentalisation, balancing, and emerging opportunities

ABSTRACT Despite Greece’s centrality in Eastern Mediterranean history and politics, the evolution, characteristics, and rationale behind the country’s relations with the Arab world have yet to be identified. This article examines post-World War II Greek foreign policy towards the Arab world across four key periods (1945–80; 1981–89; 1990–2018; and 2019 onwards). It builds on a historical institutionalist approach to argue that Greece’s relationship with the Arab world has remained a pillar of the country’s diplomatic strategy, albeit instrumentalised in terms of Greece’s two main foreign policy goals in the post-World War II era: maintaining the country’s Western orientation and navigating the vicissitudes of Greek-Turkish relations. Thus, the Arab world has traditionally been approached by Greek policymakers in a profit maximization manner that sought to either amplify Greece's relationship with Western powers or respond to Turkish initiatives in the region. Aiming to provide the first systematic overview of Greek diplomatic strategy towards the Arab world, the article highlights the importance of path dependence in evaluating Greek foreign policy initiatives towards the Middle East. It also seeks to contextualize Greece's current attempts to forge a proactive role across the region by providing necessary historic nuance and a comparative perspective.

Using Business Models in Hindsight

Purpose: Develop a method for an extended “fore-and-aft” use of business models. The method will turn them also into potent business history tools, in addition to being valuable forward planning instruments. Approach: Business models can be used to understand organizations by studying them as “snapshots” at any given time or accounting for their evolution by comparing their past successive forms on a temporal axis. The paper proposes a method of evolutionary analysis, which, by following a historical institutionalism approach, identifies “critical junctures”, organizational change and business model revisions. The evolution of organisations can be deciphered by comparing the business models at these “critical junctures”. Findings: The method has been tested in two international financial institutions. Value: There is no similar approach and use of business models. The method can serve scholarly purposes and business applications.

The evolution of women’s civil society organizations in the Deep South of Thailand

Since violent conflict escalated in Thailand’s Deep South in 2004, women’s groups have contributed to addressing societal issues in the form of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). However, women have also carried the burden of the prolonged impact of the conflict. By applying the theoretical approach of historical institutionalism at the macro level and the feminist analysis at the micro level, this study seeks to investigate the institutional evolution of women’s CSOs that gradually developed from 2004 to 2020. This study drew on empirical evidence from ten local CSOs working on women’s issues. It found significant factors that have contributed to the institutionalization of women’s CSOs as change agents for peacebuilding. These factors include historical legacy, critical juncture, path dependence, and the involvement of specific actors and events. This study argues that violent conflict in 2004 became a critical juncture that catalyzed the rise of women’s CSOs in terms of more proactive engagement in society. At the same time, women’s CSOs’ main agendas were gradually shifted from victims’ restoration projects to larger gender-based agendas of empowerment and peace initiatives. Over the past sixteen years, women’s CSOs have a path toward institutional change moving from informal to formal contributions to peacebuilding.