The Institutional Perspective in Political Science

During the 1980es a new institutionalism or institutional perspective has been called for in political science. Across quite different - marxist as well as non-marxist - theoretical schools and positions, it has been argued that political life is an organized life, and that the institutional and organizational forms of politics »make a difference«. The institutional forms and structures play an autonomous and important role. The understandings of the kind of role the political institutions play differ. But there is an over all agreement about their importance and about the need to bring political institutions back into the forefront of political analysis, in order to increase our knowledge and understanding of the role they play and the difference they make to political life.