Neo-institutional Perspective Research Articles

The Quixotic Search for Consensus on the U.S. Supreme Court: A Cross-Judicial Empirical Analysis of the Rehnquist Court Justices

In this first systematic and extensive application of cross-judicial methodology, we examine the members of the Rehnquist Court (1986–94 terms) with prior appellate court experience to discern any correlation with their Supreme Court behavior in terms of nonconsensual opinion writing and voting. We find that they become less consensual as justices than they were as judges in the lower court. Importantly, this finding holds after controlling for such institutional differences between the two court levels as size, ideology, case types, stare decisis, and norms. Consistent with the neoinstitutional perspective, we surmise that this behavior change is due to the modern Supreme Court being unique, a court on which the members feel it is desirable, necessary, and possible to express policy disagreements with the majority via separate opinions and votes.

Only in Social Action!

This article compares the neoinstitutional perspective to the business systems perspective and addresses the way in which they can be used for accounting for social action. Despite their important insights against methodological individualism and functionalism, they still have some weaknesses. This article integrates four conceptual elements—sense making and enactment, social context, ongoing social relations, and a temporality view on time—to develop a more adequate conceptualization of the role of institutional rules in shaping social action.

Business counselling services directed towards female entrepreneurs - some legitimacy dilemmas

This paper follows on from a governmental business support programme directed towards female entrepreneurs in the rural districts of Sweden. The implementation of a gender segregated business counselling service is discussed from feminist and neo-institutional perspectives. The intention is to explore the components of the counselling service's identity formation within an institutionalized field of business. Female entrepreneurship as ‘the other’ leads 1.0 legitimacy dilemmas concerning the interactions between the counselling service and the Local Enterprise Boards. The study illustrates a situation where legitimacy is acquired by directing the search-light to external resources.

Tensions of European governance: politicized bureaucracy and multiple accountability in the European Commission

The article proposes a neo-institutionalist perspective on the European Commission based on two lines of internal conflict: the Commission's need to be accountable simultaneously to the member states and to 'the citizens' ('multiple accountability') and its dual function of providing executive government and public administration ('politicized bureaucracy') for the European polity. These dimensions of conflict have created a multi-organization which combines features of four organizational ideal-types. Within the Commission the search for answers to the inherent tension between these conflicting organizational modes is different from one policy area to the next, and the overall balance is shifting over time. It is suggested that the study of the politicization of such institutionalized contradictions, the mechanisms developed for their resolution and the resultant organizational dynamics are a useful guide towards an improved understanding of the European Commission and the integration process at large.

Rethinking marriage: change and stability in expectations, 1967-1994.

"This study investigates the relationship between individuals' expectations for marriage and their beliefs about the social world. Drawing on the neoinstitutionalist perspective and employing a repeated cross-section design, this study analyzes survey data on young adults [in the United States] from 1967 and 1994 to examine the relationship between attitudes about social relationships and marriage expectations, stability and change over time in marital expectations, and changes in institutionalized notions of marriage. We find evidence of both stability and change in marriage expectations and [we find] that cultural notions of marriage differ for men and women. Overall, this study provides support for the contention that marriage expectations are formed within an institutional context that is influential in shaping individual strategies of action."

The Breakdown of Hierarchies in the Soviet Union and China: A Neoinstitutional Perspective

Why did modest attempts to decentralize the centrally administered Soviet system lead to its collapse, while more far-reaching decentralization in China left central political and administrative hierarchies intact? This article analyzes the disintegration of centrally planned organizations in the context of a neoinstitutional model of the breakdown of authority within hierarchies. An agency model of hierarchy is presented that incorporates the ambiguous property rights, authority relations, and risk-sharing conditions that prevailed under central planning and then persist during postcommunist transitions. This model suggests that decentralizing reforms could trigger an organizational “bank run,” prompting local agents to seize organizational assets under their control. The article also considers reputation-preserving strategies that central authorities might use to avert disintegration.As an application of this model, the collapse of Soviet political, industrial, and state fiscal hierarchies are considered and compared with the experience of analogous sectors in China. Reforms in both states transferred significant autonomy from the center to local field agents. In the Soviet case these agents appropriated organizational assets with little interference from the center. In China, by contrast, the center preserved both its capacity for monitoring and its reputation for disciplining transgressions; and the rise of hybrid ownership forms made expropriation of state and Party assets far less attractive.

Security of tenure in conventional and flexible employment regimes: A neoinstitutional perspective

Security of tenure is discussed in this paper by contrasting conventional and recent hybrid so-called flexible employment regimes. These regimes will be analyzed in a neoinstitutional perspective—that is, within transaction cost and agency theory frameworks, including public choice considerations.

Mobility and control among nomadic shepherds: The case of theraikas. II

This paper analyzes the relationship between leaders and ordinary shepherds among the raikas—nomadic shepherds from western India. It uses a neo-institutional perspective to show how control over information is crucial if shepherds are to prevent their leader from misusing the extensive powers he possesses to make decisions on their behalf. Control over information is not, however, sufficient. The paper argues that shepherds must also possess the capacity to impose sanctions if their leader oversteps the bounds of delegated decision-making authority. The paper highlights the importance of politics and the divergent interests of the shepherds and their leaders. In so doing, it allows inquiry into a system of social interactions that is characterized by conflicting interests and the negotiation of conflict, but is often perceived as harmonious. At the same time, the investigation offers new insights into other social situations structured by principal-agent relationships.

Financial meltdown as normal accident: The case of the American savings and loan industry

This essay examines the recent financial disaster involving savings and loan institutions in the United States. The model of normal accidents, which attributes organizational disasters to the intersection of tight coupling and complexity, is used to illuminate aspects of the crisis. The neo-institutional perspective, stressing the role of three organized actors: the accounting profession, the state, and the organizations themselves, is used to understand why complexity and tight coupling increased simultaneously.

Integrated Models of Judicial Dissent

This paper presents the first integrated models of judicial dissent at the individual level. The models synthesize elements derived from attitudinal, jurisprudential, and contextual approaches to the study of judicial behavior by application of a neo-institutional perspective. The neo-institutional approach emphasizes the interaction of individual preferences, case facts, and environmental forces with institutional rules and structures. Individual judicial votes on death penalty cases from 1980 through 1988 in six state supreme courts are examined employing pooled PROBIT analysis. The results indicate that justices' decisions to dissent reflect significantly more than mere attitudinal disagreement, reactions to various types of case facts or responses to contextual forces. Rather, dissents are the product of all of these types of variables interacting with institutional rules and arrangements. As neo-institutionalism suggests, institutional arrangements serve to condition the effects of personal attribute...

Density Dependence Theory-Current Issues, Future PromiseDynamics of Organizational Populations: Density, Legitimation, and Competition.Michael T. Hannan , Glenn R. Carroll

Beginning in the mid-late 1970s, the field of organizational sociology became quite fertile. Several new paradigms have emerged, and some old ones have enjoyed resurgence. Arguably, two of the more vibrant recent approaches are organizational ecology and the neoinstitutional perspective. During the early 1980s, these two approaches were seen by some as competing with each other. However, during the next few years, their increasing convergence became apparent. It might be asked why it is important to study entry and exit rates in organizational populations.

Courts, Agencies, and Congressional Committees: A Neo-Institutional Perspective

Based on over 75 personal interviews with members of Congress and their staffs, this article examines how three House authorization committees differ in their reactions to federal court decisions versus their reactions to federal agency decisions. In general, Congress holds the courts in higher esteem than it does the agencies. The courts are generally seen as less political than the agencies, and committee reactions to court decisions are seen as much more unusual than reactions to agency decisions. The attitudes of the three committees toward decisions of the other institutions vary in ways consonant with their institutional roles, the committees' political cultures, and the primary goals of the committee members. The domination of lawyer members on the policy oriented Judiciary Committee results in that committee being the most deferential to the courts. The constituency focused Interior Committee is oriented to local interests and members' reelection goals, and it responds to the courts or to agencies only when constituency pressures force it to do so. The power oriented Energy and Commerce Committee treats the courts and the agencies just like any other political actors.

Congressional Committees and the Federal Courts: a Neo-Institutional Perspective

Congressional Committees and the Federal Courts: a Neo-Institutional Perspective

Congressional Committees and the Federal Courts: A Neo-Institutional Perspective

Congressional Committees and the Federal Courts: A Neo-Institutional Perspective

Curricular Content, Educational Expansion, and Economic Growth

Cross-national studies show that mass educational expansion has a significant positive effect on economic growth, mainly at the primary level, but also at the secondary level.' Qualitative features of national school systems such as the provision of textbooks, per-pupil expenditure, and the extent of teacher training also have modest economic effects, especially in the developing world.2 Debate continues on the array of institutional conditions that accentuates mass education's economic impact.3 The present study, by contrast, focuses on a new line of inquiry. It explores the relationship between official curricular policies and longterm economic growth from a cross-national perspective. Specifically, it seeks to determine whether, and to what extent, national variations in curricular content and structure-as distinct from enrollment growth or qualitative provisionssignificantly affect economic development. Comparative educational research typically analyzes the curricular content of national school systems according to a three-tiered classification scheme: the official, intended curriculum; the curriculum as implemented in schools and classrooms; and the curriculum as attained by pupils.4 This study focuses exclusively on the economic consequences of the first tier (the formally prescribed curriculum set forth by national educational authorities)

Toward an Integrated Model of Judicial Voting Behavior

This article is an initial step toward the development of an integrated model of judicial decision making. The study synthesizes elements derived from contextual and attitudinal perspectives by application of a neo-institutional perspective. The neo-institutional approach emphasizes the interaction of environmental forces and individual preferences with institutional rules and structures. Judicial voting on death penalty cases from 1980 to 1988 in four states are examined employing pooled probit analysis. The results indicate that institutional rules are important influences on judicial choice.

The Evolution of Water Institutions in Florida: A Neoinstitutionalist Perspective

(1990). The Evolution of Water Institutions in Florida: A Neoinstitutionalist Perspective. Journal of Economic Issues: Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 1059-1077.

Conventions: An evolutionary approach

Conventions are social institutions that solve recurrent coordination problems. In normative game theory, coordination games are considered problematic because of the multiplicity of equilibria. From a neoinstitutionalist perspective, however, this multiplicity should be an important part of the explanation of real-world institutions. The paper discusses the evolutionary (or “positive”) game-theoretical approach to the emergence of conventions. I note a precise sense in which conventions may be said to minimize transaction costs, but that they need not be efficient. Example applications to language, money, and the theory of the firm are discussed.

Neo-Institutionalism and Dissent in State Supreme Courts

This study applies concepts derived from neo-institutionalism to coalition behavior in state supreme courts, using a pooled cross-sectional time series design. Neo-institutionalism embraces rational choice assumptions about human behavior, with particular attention to how institutional arrangements shape purposive behavior. From this perspective, dissent, or the tendency to form less than unanimous voting coalitions, is viewed not merely as the collective expression of individual attitudes or policy preferences or the result of structural characteristics of institutions but rather as a complex interaction of values and structures. A model incorporating variables derived from the neo-institutional perspective was estimated with GLS-ARMA and compared to an environmental model generated from past research. The amount of variation in dissent rates uniquely accounted for by the neo-institutional model is over six times that of the environmental model, while a composite model can explain more than one-third of the variation in state supreme court dissent rates for 1966, 1973, and 1981. More importantly, however, all the relationships posited by the neo-institutional approach are statistically significant and in the expected direction. An institutional approach guided by rational choice theory offers an important contribution toward developing a more refined understanding of judicial behavior.

État et politiques sociales : contribution à une théorie néo-institutionnaliste

Public social policies, more often designated by the term "welfare state", have been explained variously : as being the logical consequence of democratization, in terms of Marxism, from a neoinstitutionalist perspective centered on the state, and with a hypothesis based on social learning. This critical analysis of theories about public social policies seeks to complete these approaches by taking into consideration the variability, depending on the country, of the societal paradigm. This thesis is grounded in observations of social policy trends in France and Great-Britain.