Jan 7               Introduction and Orientation

No assigned readings

Jan 14              What are institutions?  Some preliminary answers

*        Jepperson, Ronald L.  1991. “Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism.” Chapter 6 of Powell, Walter and Paul DiMaggio, eds.  The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis.  University of Chicago Press.

*        http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/

*        Steinmo, Sven.   2001.  “Institutionalism.”  In Nelson Polsby, ed.,  International Encyclopcdia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences.  Elsevier Science.

*        Immergut, Ellen.  1998.  “The Theoretical Core of the New Institutionalism.”  Politics and Society 26:5-34.

*        Preworski, Adam.  2004.  “Institutions Matter?’  Government and Opposition: 527-540.

Substantive Applications

*        Heimer, Carole.  1999.  “Competing Institutions:  law, medicine, and family in neonatal intensive care.”  Law and Society Review.  33: 7-66

*        Martin, Patricia Yancey.  2004.  “Gender as a Social Institution.”  Social Forces.  82:1249-1273.

Additional Readings

·        Hall, Peter and Rosemary Taylor.  1996.  “Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms.”  Political Studies 44:936-957.

·        Selznick, Philip.  1996. “Institutionalism ‘Old’ and ‘New.’”  Administrative Science Quarterly, 41:270-277

·         Stinchcombe, Arthur L. 1997. "On the Virtues of Old Institutionalism." Annual Review of Sociology 23: 1-18.

·        Schneiberg and Clemons.  2006:  “The Typical Tools for the Job:  Research Strategies in Institutional Analysis”  Sociological Theory 24.

Jan 21              The institutional view from Economics:  efficiency

University holiday- reschedule class

*        Ronald Coase.  1937.  “The Nature of the Firm.”  Economica 4:  386-405.

*        Greif, Avner and David Laitin. “A Theory of Endogenous Institutional Change.” American Political Science Review. 2004; 98:633-652.

*        Granovetter, Mark.  1985.  “Economic Action and Social Structure:  The Problem of Embeddedness”  American Journal of Sociology   91:481-510.

*        Ingram, Paul and Karen Clay.  2000.  “The Choice-Within-Constraints New Institutionalism And Implications For Sociology.”  Annual Review of Sociology 26:  535-546.

*        Oberschall, Anthony and Eric M. Leifer. 1986. Efficiency and social institutions:  Uses and misuses of economic reasoning in sociology. Annual Review of Sociology, 12:674–698.

Jan 28             Origns and Decline:  Competition and efficiency

*        Peter Kollock.    “The Emergence of Trust in Exchange Structures:  An Experimental Study of Uncertainty, Commitment, and Trust.”  The American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 100, No. 2. (Sep., 1994), pp. 313-345.

*        Barzel, Yoram and Edgar Kiser.  1997.  “The Development And Decline Of Medieval Voting Institutions: A Comparison Of England And France.” Economic Inquiry   XXXV:, 244-260

*        Greif, Avner, Paul Milgrom, and Barry Weingast.  1994.  “Coordination, Commitment, and Enforcement:  The Case of the Merchant Guild.  Journal of Political Economy.  102 :745-76.

*        Milgrom, Paul R.; North, Douglass C., and Weingast, Barry R. The Role of Institutions in the Revival of Trade: The Medieval Law Merchant, Private Judges, and the Champagne Fairs. Economics and Politics. 1990; 2(1):1-23.

Feb 4              The institutional view from Sociology:  scripts and isomorphism

*        Dimaggio, Paul and Powell, Woody.  1983.  “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields.” American Sociological Review 48: 147-160.

*        Meyer, John W & Rowan, Brian (1977). “Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony.” American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340-363.  

Feb 11             Diffusion and change of institutions

*        David Strang and John Meyer.  1993.  “Institutional Conditions for Diffusion.”  Theory and Society 22:487-511.

*        Clemens, Elisabeth S. and James M. Cook.  1999.  “Politics and Institutionalism:  Explaining Durability and Change.”  Annual Review of Sociology 25:441-66.

*        Walder, Andrew.  1994.  “The Decline of Communist Power:  Elements of a Theory of Institutional Change.”  Theory and Society 23:  297-323.

Substantive applications

*        Polillo, Simone and Guillen, Mauro F.  2005.  “Globalization Pressures and the State: The Worldwide Spread of Central Bank Independence.”  American Journal of Sociology, 110:1764-1802.

*        Rao, Hayagreeva, Monin, Philippe., and Rodolphe Durand.  2003.  “Institutional Change in Toque Ville:  Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy.”  American Journal of Sociology 108:795-843.

*        Kaufman, Jason and Orlanda Patterson.  2005.  “Cross-National Cultural Diffusion: The Global Spread of Cricket.“ American Sociological Review, 70:82-110

Additional readings

·        John W. Meyer; John Boli; George M. Thomas; Francisco O. Ramirez.  “World Society and the Nation-State.”  The American Journal of Sociology, 103:144-181.

·        Alberto Palloni.  “Diffusion in Sociological Analysis.”  Pp. 67-114  in Diffusion Processes and Fertility Transition.  John Casterline, Ed.  National Academy Press.

Feb 18             The Institutional view from Political Science:  historical contingency

University holiday- reschedule class

*        Thelan, Kathleen.  1999.  “Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Politics.”  Annual Review of Political Science.  2:369-404.

*        Steinmo, Sven, and Caroline Tolbert.  1998.  “Do Institutions Really Matter?  Taxation in industrialized democracies.”  Comparative Political Studies, 31:165-187.

Feb 25                        Reproduction:  path dependency and inertia

*        David, Paul.  1985.  Clio and the Economics of QWERTY.  American Economic Review.  75:  332-337

*        Arthur, Brian.  1989.  “Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-in By Historical Events. The Economic Journal.  99:  116-131.

*        James Mahoney.  2000.   Path Dependence in Historical Sociology.  
Theory and Society 29:  507-548

*        Pierson, Paul.  2000.  “Not Just What, but When:  Timing and Sequence in Political Processes.”  Studies in American Political Development.  14: 72-92

*        Pierson, Paul.  2000.  “The Limits of Design: Explaining Institutional Origins and Change.”  Governance  13:475-488.

Substantive Applications

*        Orloff, Ann and Theda Skocpol.  1984.  “Why Not Equal Protection? Explaining the Politics of Public Social Spending in Britain, 1900-1911, and the United States, 1880s-1920.”American Sociological Review, 49:726-750.

*        Herrigel, Gary.  1993.  Identity and Institutions:  The social construction of trade unions in nineteenth-century Germany and the United States.  Studies in American Political Development.  7:371-94.

March 3          Blurred Boundaries in Institutional Analysis

*        Stovel, Katherine and Mike Savage.  2006.  “Mergers and Mobility:  Organizational Growth and the Origins of Career Migration.”  American Journal of Sociology 111:1080-1121.

*        Schneiberg, Marc.  2005.  “Combining New Institutionalisms: Explaining Institutional Change in American Property Insurance.”  Sociological Forum, 20:93-137.

*        Davis, Gerald F, Diekmann, Kristina A & Tinsley, Catherine H (1994). ``The decline and fall of the conglomerate firm in the 1980s: The deinstitutionalizati on of an organizational form.''. American Sociological Review, 59, 547-570.

*        Bearman, Peter and Emily Erickson.  Forthcoming (2006).  Routes into Networks: The Structure of English Trade in the East Indies, 1601-1833.  American Journal of Sociology.

*        Pedriana, Nicholas.  2005.  “Rational Choice, Structural Context, and Increasing Returns: A Strategy for Analytic Narrative in Historical Sociology.”  Sociological Methods & Research, 33:349-382.

*        James Mahoney, “Combining Institutionalisms: Liberal Reform and Critical Junctures in Central America,” in Ira Katznelson and Barry Weingast, eds., Preferences and Situations: Points of Intersection Between Historical and Rational Choice Institutionalism (New York: Russell Sage Foundation), forthcoming.

March 10        Wrap-up and Discussion of Future Directions in IA