Le Neo-institutionnalisme dans l'analyse comparee des processus de democratisation

In: Politique et sociétés, Band 21, Heft 3, S. 139-160

Abstract

An examination of how democratization studies have been influenced by neoinstitutionalism demonstrates the latter reoriented the former through the introduction of a renewed institutional variable into a domain where explanations were more typically expressed in terms of values, culture, or economy. In effect, the theoretical bubble of behaviorism & quantitativism was popped so that another approach that privileged the institutional variable could be introduced. New institutionalism can be divided into historical, sociological, & rational choice subsets, each with its unique theoretical approach, while democratization is itself composed of three analytical phases: transition, consolidation, & rupture. For historical institutionalists, focus is placed on institutional formulas, but actors & processes of diffusion & resistance are also acknowledged. Sociological institutionalists insist on conformity or social distortion in institutional models. The perspective of rational choice institutionalists is marked by its universalizing ambition to create behavior-based theories. It is noted, however, that democracy is never only a matter of choice & that it is only through staying aware of difference that it becomes possible to recognize both the amplitude & limits of the neoinstitutionalist contribution to the comparative study of democratization. D. Weibel