ANALYTICAL CHALLENGES FOR THE NEOINSTITUTIONAL THEORIES OF INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE IN COMPARATIVE POLITICAL SCIENCE

Resumo

This article analyses the core critiques on institutional changetheories within the neoinstitutional research agenda in comparativepolitical science. It offers an explanatory typology using analyticalchallenges for the development of theories with new institutionalapproaches. This typology provides key critical issues that should beseriously considered by political scientists when analysing change. Theframework suggests that the analytical challenges be posed in fiveinterwoven dimensions: a) inclusion of institutional variables; b) agencyand cognition; c) contextual sensitivity; d) increasing precision in theconcept of institution (and institutional change); and, e) recursiveinteraction between agents and institutions in the process of institutionalchange. Based on these challenges, the article conducts a comparativeanalysis of the theories of change suggested by North and Aoki tounderstand how they deal with such issues.