Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T11:07:03.973Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Neo-Statecraft Theory, Historical Institutionalism and Institutional Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 July 2014

Toby S. James
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article provides a critical examination of the contribution that statecraft theory, which has been subject to recent revision and development, makes to the literature on institutional change. It articulates an emergent neo-statecraft approach that offers an agent-led form of historical institutionalism. This overcomes the common criticism that historical institutionalists underplay the creative role of actors. The article also argues that the approach brings back into focus the imperatives of electoral politics as a source of institutional change and provides a macro theory of change which is also commonly missing from historical institutionalist work. It can therefore identify previously unnoticed sources of stability and change, especially in states with strong executives and top-down political cultures.

Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , January 2016 , pp. 84 - 110
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Toby S. James is a Lecturer in British and Comparative Politics at the University of East Anglia. Contact email: t.s.james@uea.ac.uk.

References

REFERENCES

Adcock, R., Bevir, M. and Stimson, S.C. (2007), ‘Historicizing New Institutionalism’, in R. Adcock, M. Bevir and S.C. Stimson (eds), Modern Political Science: Anglo-American Exchanges since 1880 (Princeton: Oxford University Press): 259–289.Google Scholar
Baumgartner, F.R. and Jones, B.D. (1991), ‘Agenda Dynamics and Policy Subsystems’, Journal of Politics, 53: 1044–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertelli, A.M. and John, P. (2013), ‘Public Policy Investment: Risk and Return in British Politics’, British Journal of Political Science, 43(4): 741–773.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bevir, M. (2010), ‘Interpreting Territory and Power’, Government and Opposition, 45(3): 436–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blais, A. and Nadeau, R. (1992), ‘The Electoral Budget Cycle’, Public Choice, 74(4): 389–403.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradbury, J. (2006), ‘Territory and Power Revisited: Theorising Territorial Politics in the United Kingdom after Devolution’, Political Studies, 54: 559–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bradbury, J. (2010), ‘Interpreting Political Development and Bringing the Government of the State Back In: Jim Bulpitt’s Territory and Power and the Case of the United Kingdom’, Government and Opposition, 45(3): 318–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, N. (2004), ‘Urban Governance and the Production of New State Spaces in Western Europe, 1960–2000’, Review of International Political Economy, 11(3): 447–488.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bridges, A.B. (1984), A City in the Republic, Antebellum New York and Origins of Machine Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buller, J. (1999), ‘A Critical Appraisal of the Statecraft Interpretation’, Public Administration, 77(4): 691–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buller, J. (2000), National Statecraft and European Integration (London: Cassell).Google Scholar
Buller, J. and Flinders, M. (2005), ‘The Domestic Origins of Depoliticisation in the Area of British Economic Policy’, British Journal of Politcs and International Relations, 7(4): 526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buller, J. and James, T.S. (2012), ‘Statecraft and the Assessment of National Political Leaders: The Case of New Labour and Tony Blair’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 14(4): 534–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buller, J.James, T.S. (2015), ‘Integrating Structural Context into the Assessment of Political Leadership: Realism, Gordon Brown and the Great Financial Crisis’, Parliamentary Affairs, 68(1).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1967), Party Politics in English Local Government (London: Longman).Google Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1986a), ‘The Discipline of the New Democracy: Mrs. Thatcher’s Domestic Statecraft’, Political Studies, 34(1): 19–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1986b), ‘Continuity, Autonomy and Peripherialisation: The Anatomy of the Centre’s Race Statecraft in England’, in Z. Layton-Henry and P. Rich (eds), Race, Government and Politics in Britain (Basingstoke: Macmillan): 17–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1988), ‘Rational politicians and Conservative Statecraft in the Open Polity’, in P. Bryd (ed.), British Foreign Policy under Thatcher (Deddington: Philip Allan): 180–205.Google Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1989), ‘Walking back to Happiness? Conservative Party Governments and Elected Local Authorities in the 1980s’, in C. Crouch and D. Marquand (eds), The New Centralism: Britain Out of Step in Europe? (Oxford: Blackwell): 56–73.Google Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1995), ‘Historical Politics: Macro, In-time, Governing Regime Analysis’, in J. Lovenduski and J. Stanyer (eds), Contemporary Political Studies Vol. 2 (Belfast: Political Studies Association): 510–520.Google Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (1996), ‘Historical Politics: Leaders, Statecraft and Regime in Britain at the Accession of Elizabeth II’, in I. Hampster-Monk and J. Stayner (eds), Contemporary Political Studies, Vol. 2 (Oxford: Blackwell): 1093–1106.Google Scholar
Bulpitt, J. (2008), Territory and Power in the United Kingdom (Colchester: ECPR) (first published 1983).Google Scholar
Bulpitt, J. and Burnham, P. (1999), ‘Operation Robot and the British Political Economy in the Early 1950s: The Politics of Market Strategies’, Contemporary British History, 13(1): 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burnham, P. (2001), ‘New Labour and the Politics of Depoliticisation’, British Journal of Politcs and International Relations, 3(2): 127–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capoccia, G. and Keleman, R.D. (2007), ‘The Study of Critical Junctures: Theory, Narrative, and Counterfactuals in Historical Institutionalism’, World Politics, 59: 341–369.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Castells, M. (1996), The Rise of the Network Society: The Information Age, Economy, Society and Culture (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar
Cowling, M. (1967), 1867 Disraeli, Gladstone and Revolution (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cowling, M. (1971), The Impact of Labour 1920–1924 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Cowling, M. (1980), Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England (New York: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, D.M. (2010), ‘“High Politics” and the “New Political History”’, Historical Journal, 53(2): 453–475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J.S. (2009), ‘The Limits of Joined-up Government: Towards a Political Analysis’, Public Administration, 87(1): 80–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, J.S. (2011), ‘The Limits of Post-traditional Public Administration: Towards a Gramscian Perspective’, Critical Policy Studies, 5(1): 47–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, M. (2006), ‘Elitism’, in C. Hay, M. Lister and D. Marsh (eds), The State: Theories and Issues (Basingstoke: Macmillan): 39–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, M. and Davies, J. (1999), ‘Understanding Policy Transfer: A Multi-Level, Multi-Disciplinary Perspective’, Public Administration, 77(2): 361–385.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, P.B., Rueschemeyer, D. and Skocpol, T. (1985) (eds), Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flinders, M. and Buller, J. (2006), ‘Depoliticisation: Principles, Tactics and Tools’, British Politics, 1(3): 293–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenaway, J., Salter, B. and Hart, S. (2007), ‘How Policy Networks Can Damage Democratic Health: A Case Study in the Government of Governance’, Public Administration, 85(3): 717–738.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, P.A. (2010), ‘Historical Institutionalism in Rationalist Sociological Perspective’, in J. Mahoney and K. Thelan (eds), Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency and Power (New York: Cambridge University Press): 204–224.Google Scholar
Hall, P.A. and Taylor, R.C.R. (1996), ‘Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms’, Political Studies, 44(4): 936–957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hay, C. and Wincott, D. (1998), ‘Structure, Agency and Historical Institutionalism’, Politcal Studies, 46: 951–957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirst, P. and Thompson, G. (1999), Globalisation in Question (Cambridge: Polity Press).Google Scholar
Hopkin, J. and Paolucci, C. (1999), ‘The Business Firm Model of Party Organisation: Cases from Spain and Italy’, European Journal of Political Research, 35(3): 307–339.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, T.S. (2010), ‘Electoral Modernisation or Elite Statecraft? Electoral Administration in the U.K. 1997–2007’, British Politics, 5(2): 179–201.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, T.S. (2011), ‘Only in America? Executive Partisan Interest and the Politics of Election Administration in Ireland, the UK and USA’, Contemporary Politics, 17(3): 219–240.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
James, T.S. (2012), Elite Statecraft and Election Administration: Bending the Rules of the Game (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katz, R.S. and Mair, P. (2009), ‘The Cartel Party Thesis: A Restatement’, Perspectives on Politics, 7(4): 753–766.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Katznelson, I. (2003), ‘Periodization and Preferences: Reflections on Purposive Action in Comparative Historical Social Science’, in J. Mahoney and D. Rueschemeyer (eds), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (New York: Cambridge University Press): 270–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, S. (1984), ‘Approaches to the State: Alternative Conceptions and Historical Dynamics’, Comparative Politics, 16(2): 223–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krasner, S. (1988), ‘Sovereignty: An Institutionalist’s Perspective’, Comparative Politics, 21: 66–94.Google Scholar
Lewis, C.S. (2009), The Magician’s Nephew (New York: Harper Collins) (first published 1955).Google Scholar
Levitsky, S. and Way, L.A. (2002), ‘The Rise of Competitive Authoritarianism’, Journal of Democracy, 13(2): 51–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lijphart, A. (1999), Patterns of Democracy (London: Yale University Press).Google Scholar
Lodge, M. and Wegrich, K. (2012), ‘Public Administration and Executive Politics: Perennial Questions in Changing Contexts’, Public Policy and Administration, 27(3): 212–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowndes, V. (1996), ‘Varieties of New Institutionalism: A Critical Appraisal’, Public Administration, 74(Summer): 181–197.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowndes, V. and Roberts, M. (2013), Why Institutions Matter (Basingstoke: Palgrave).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, J. (2000), ‘Path Dependence in Historical Sociology’, Theory and Society, 29(4): 507–548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, J. and Rueschemeyer, D. (2003), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences (New York: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahoney, J. and Thelan, K. (2010), ‘A Theory of Gradual Institutional Change’, in J. Mahoney and K. Thelan (eds), Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency and Power (New York: Cambridge University Press): 1–37.Google Scholar
March, J.G. and Olsen, J.P. (1984), ‘The New Institutionalism: Organisational Factors in Political Life’, American Political Science Review, 78: 734–749.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, D. (1995), ‘Explaining ‘Thatcherite’ Policies: Beyond Uni-dimensional Explanation’, Political Studies, 43(3): 595–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, D. (2008), ‘Understanding British Government: Analysing Competing Models’, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 10(2): 251–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, D. (2012), ‘British Politics: A View From Afar’, British Politics, 7(1): 43–54.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, D., Smith, M.J. and Richards, D. (2003), ‘Unequal Plurality: Towards an Asymmetric Power Model of British Politics’, Government and Opposition, 38(3): 306–332.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKenna, D. (2012), ‘Councillor Attitudes towards Participatory Initiatives: A Bulpittian Perspective’, Public Money and Management, 32(2): 103–110.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendez, C. (2012), ‘Clouds, Clocks and Policy Dynamics: A Path-(inter)dependent Analysis of EU Cohesion Policy’, Policy and Politics, 40(2): 153–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Norris, P. (2013), ‘The New Research Agenda Studying Electoral Integrity’, Electoral Studies, 32(4): 563–575.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ohmae, K. (1990), The Borderless World (London: Collins).Google Scholar
Parsons, W. (1997), Public Policy: An Introduction to the Theory and Practice of Policy Analysis (London: Edward Elgar).Google Scholar
Peters, G. (1999), Institutional Theory in Political Science: The ‘New Institutionalism’ (London: Pinter).Google Scholar
Peters, G., Pierre, J. and King, D.S. (2005), ‘The Politics of Path Dependency: Political Conflict in Historical Institutionalism’, Journal of Politics, 67(4): 1275–1300.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, R.A.W. (1988), Beyond Westminister and Whitehall (London: Unwin Hyman).Google Scholar
Rhodes, R.A.W. (1996), ‘The New Governance: Governing without Governance’, Political Studies, 44: 652–667.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rhodes, R.A.W. (1997), Understanding Governance (Buckingham: Open University Press).Google Scholar
Rhodes, R.A.W. and Tiernan, A. (2013), ‘From Core Executives to Court Politics: From a Bucket of Rice to a Bowl of Jelly’, paper presented at the Political Studies Annual Conference, Cardiff, 25–7 March.Google Scholar
Sanders, E. (2006), ‘Historical Institutionalism’, in R.A.W. Rhodes, S.A. Binder and B.A. Rockman (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Political Institutions (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 39–55.Google Scholar
Savage, M. and Williams, K. (2008), ‘Elites: Remembered in Capitalism and Forgotten by Social Sciences’, Sociological Review, 56: 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savigny, H. (2007), ‘Ontology and Epistemology in Political Marketing: Keeping it Real?’, Journal of Political Marketing, 6(2 & 3): 33–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savitch, H.V. and Osgood, J.J.L. (2010), ‘Bulpitt in America: Presidential Approaches, Territorial Politics and the Field of Urban Policy’, Government and Opposition, 45(3): 406–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sayer, A. (1992), Method in Social Science: A Realist Approach, 2nd edn (London: Routledge).Google Scholar
Sayer, A. (2000), Realism and Social Science (London: Sage).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Showronek, S. (1982), Building a New American State: The Expansion of National Administrative Capacities 1877–1920 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stacey, J. (2013), ‘The Statecraft Approach: A Case Study of Nicolas Sarkozy’, French Politics, 11(3): 284–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Steinmo, S., Thelen, K. and Longstreth, F. (1992), Structuring Politics: Historical Institutionalism in Comparative Analysis (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strange, S. (1996), The Retreat of the State: The Diffusion of Power in the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Streeck, W. and Thelan, K. (2005), ‘Introduction: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies’, in W. Streeck and K. Thelan (eds), Beyond Continuity (Oxford: Oxford University Press): 1–39.Google Scholar
Weiss, L. (1998), The Myth of the Powerless State: Governing the Economy in a Global Era (Cambridge: Polity Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar