Institutional Change

Institutions have been a central part of the study of politics at least since Aristotle’s Politics. They structure political life and root fundamental differences in political orders. Current work has shown how, by constituting actors and constraining their decisions, political institutions render political life more stable than the purposive actions of individuals would lead us to expect. While the “New Institutionalism” initially focused on institutions’ stabilizing effects, institutional change has emerged as an important subject of study over the last two decades (Koning, 2016). This piece reviews the nature, forms, and sources of institutional change in recent research in comparative politics and international relations.