IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/apsrev/v115y2021i1p218-233_15.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Explanations of Institutional Change: Reflecting on a “Missing Diagonal”

Author

Listed:
  • GERSCHEWSKI, JOHANNES

Abstract

Previous research on institutional change has concentrated on two types of explanations. On one hand, the dualism of path dependency and critical junctures has advanced our understanding of how institutional change occurs due to sudden exogenous shocks. On the other hand, more recent critiques have established a better understanding of endogenous, gradual change. This article is motivated by observations that current research tends to overlook what I call the “missing diagonal.” I argue that we need to disentangle the sources of a cause (exogenous vs. endogenous) from its time horizon (sudden vs. gradual). By cross-tabulating these two dimensions, the proposed typology of institutional change explanations is able to capture complex multilayered as well as sequential arguments of institutional change. The typology urges scholars to be more precise with their social science language of erosion and decay, while serving as a generator for an innovative research agenda on endogenous ruptures.

Suggested Citation

  • Gerschewski, Johannes, 2021. "Explanations of Institutional Change: Reflecting on a “Missing Diagonal”," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 115(1), pages 218-233, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:115:y:2021:i:1:p:218-233_15
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0003055420000751/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tobias Lenz & Besir Ceka & Liesbet Hooghe & Gary Marks & Alexandr Burilkov, 2023. "Discovering cooperation: Endogenous change in international organizations," The Review of International Organizations, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 631-666, October.
    2. Hartley, Tilman, 2023. "State crisis theory: A systematization of institutional, socio-ecological, demographicstructural, world-systems, and revolutions research," Working Paper Series 01/2023, Post-Growth Economics Network (PEN).
    3. Maria Josepha Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2021. "COVID‐19 and Policy Responses by International Organizations: Crisis of Liberal International Order or Window of Opportunity?," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 12(4), pages 443-454, September.
    4. Maria J. Debre & Hylke Dijkstra, 2023. "Are international organisations in decline? An absolute and relative perspective on institutional change," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 14(1), pages 16-30, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:apsrev:v:115:y:2021:i:1:p:218-233_15. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/psr .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.