New Institutionalism: Theory and Analysis

Extract

New Institutionalism: Theory and Analysis. Edited by André Lecours. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. 380p. $65.00 cloth, $30.95 paper.

There has been a lot of discussion over the past decade about the relevance of institutions in political science. This has led to the emergence of an explanatory discipline, new institutionalism, a prominent social theory that focuses on developing a comprehensive study of institutions, the way they interact, and the effects of institutions on society—thus providing a way of viewing how institutions evolve in very different ways, or how institutions shape the behavior of individual members and produce change. In this collection of essays, edited by André Lecours, a case is made for the ways new institutionalism helps reframe and renew the theoretical and analytical importance of political institutions in the determination of a variety of political phenomena and outcomes, as a group of scholars—mainly from Canadian universities—address a set of complex issues related to new institutionalist research.