Ideational Research On New Institutionalism In Political Science

In the 1980s,James March and Johan Olsen brought the long-neglected institutions and institutional analysis back to the mainstream agenda of political science from the standpoint of organizational theory.As a result,a large number of scholars gathered under the banner of new institutionalism and opened a new research chapter,so that someone began to shout: “Now we are all new institutionalists”.However,the strong development of new institutionalism once overshadowed the actors in the institutional structure,the institutions has been imposed more constrained functions,and its own enabling meaning has not attained due attention.Under this background,new institutionalism in political science ushered in the tide of the turn to ideas,and many scholars joined the discussion of ideational issues one after another.This change has had a far-reaching impact on institutional analysis,not only for various schools to pay more attention to ideas,mostly,constructivist institutionalism based on ideas and discourse is rising.In this way,the ideational research on new institutionalism or the turn of ideas to the topic has entered the heartland and frontier field of political science.It seems that “ideas matter” has to be well known,but there is a situation of disagreement and imitation if we ask what the idea is.Therefore,it is necessary to firstly establish a basic analytical dimension for the core concept of idea in the ideational research on new institutionalism in political science.Ideas are the forerunner of all kinds of actions and social change,so idea is always treated as a common subject of humanities and social sciences.Ideas matter is elaborated from different angles in the fields of economics,sociology,law,history,literature,art and so on.As far as the ideational research on new institutionalist in political science is concerned,many scholars have made efforts to define ideas.Generally,the division of ideas,including types,levels,elements and forms,can be summarized as the structural elements of ideas.It indicates that the idea is conceived in the specific political background,economic base,institutional structure and social relationship network,and has distinct structural characteristics.Ideas cannot be generated or existed out of thin air,they need to be attached to specific actors and through the presentation mechanisms of discourse,narrative,framework to play a practical role.The internal relationship between idea and institution is the core thread that runs through the ideational research on new institutionalism in political science.From a dialectical standpoint,idea is the institution,institution is the idea.This paper expounds the view that ideas are equal to institutions from two angles.From the established results,some ideational elements have institutional attributes,and from the process of transformation,the ideas of some actors can be transformed into practical institutions and policies.The idea affects the generation,maintenance and change of institution,and institution also affects the generation,maintenance and change of idea,but there is an essential difference and research emphasis between the two way approaches.The return of ideas to new institutionalism is not the first attempt to combine ideas with institutions in political science,but has its deep-rooted historical venation.The view that ideas and institutions are equally important and closely interact can be traced back to the political studies of ancient Greece.Bringing ideas back in as a starting point and expanding the horizon of analysis,we can find that ideational research has experienced a turning period of rise,decline and revival in the historical development of political science.Investigating it is helpful to understand the causes and consequences of the turn to ideas of new institutionalism in political science.Ideas and institutions are intertwined in the study of traditional politics.Although the old institutionalism partly inherited the tradition of previous ideational studies,it tended to macroscopically discuss and statically describe institutions and ideas.The limitations of old institutionalism and the subsequent popular behaviorist and rational choice theory dominated the decline of ideational research,but some valuable ideational achievements were still produced during this period.The revival of ideas takes place in the whole field of social sciences,and the ideational research of new institutionalist in political science is only one of the more important branches.Focusing on the turn to ideas of new institutionalism in political science,rational choice institutionalism,historical institutionalism and sociological institutionalism have deepened the understanding of ideas from different degrees and from different angles,but the turn to ideas of each school has its own uniqueness.Constructivist institutionalism represents the outstanding achievements of new institutionalism in the ideational dimension,and it has a special origin with historical institutionalism and social constructivism.The analytical basis of this school includes the duality of ontology,epistemology,and methodology,uncertainty,the ideational construction of interests and institutions,and the path dependence of ideas and institutions.Constructivist institutionalism is still in the process of development,and ideational institutionalism,discursive institutionalism,rhetorical institutionalism and communicative institutionalism which grow up in turn following the constitutive logics can all be regarded as their internal orientations.The change of theory is all the reflection and response to the real world,and the theory divorced from reality is often empty and blind.The key reason for the turn to ideas of new institutionalism in political science is that the existing institutional analysis framework cannot provide a reasonable explanation for some practical issues.Based on this understanding,we can consider how to treat and understand this turn from both theoretical and practical aspects.On the one hand,the turn to ideas urges various schools to strengthen dialogue,communication and identity consciousness,which relaxes the theoretical tension between various schools.With the gradual deepening of ideational research,the vision of institutional analysis has been expanded accordingly.On the other hand,the study of comparative politics is inseparable from the discussion of norms and values.In this sense,when reflecting on the profound enlightenment brought by the turn to ideas of new institutionalism based on daily experience,it is necessary to examine the legitimacy of ideas and institutions.Good ideas and institutions are the goals that any civilized society should pursue.The structure restricts the agency,the agency products structure,and the fundamental driving force of the evolution of human civilization finally lies in the actors.How to better construct the subjective initiative of actors and make the institutions constructed by actors better play a constraining and enabling part is a subject that needs to be explored seriously.