Advancing Post-Structural Institutionalism: Discourses, Subjects, Power Asymmetries, and Institutional Change. Issue 3 (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Larsson, Oscar
• Is Part Of: Critical review. Volume 30:Issue 3/4(2018)
• Page Start: 325
• Page End: 346
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: constructivist institutionalism -- discourses -- discursive institutionalism -- ideas -- neo-institutionalism -- post-structural institutionalism -- post-structuralism -- power/knowledge; Libertarianism -- United States -- Periodicals; 320.512
• DOI: 10.1080/08913811.2018.1567982
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0891-3811

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Colin Hay's and Vivien Schmidt's responses to my previous critical engagement with their respective versions of neo-institutionalism raise the issue of how scholars may account for the ideational power of political processes and how ideas may generate both stability and change. Even though Hay, Schmidt, and I share a common philosophical ground in many respects, we nevertheless diverge in our views about how to account for ideational power and for actors' ability to navigate a social reality that is saturated with structures and meaning. There continues to be a need for an analytical framework that incorporates discourse and a constitutive logic based upon the power in ideas. Post-structural institutionalism (PSI) analyzes discourse as knowledge claims by means of the concept of a constitutive causality, analytically identified in respect to institutions, such that the substantive content of ideas/discourse provides ideational power and generates immanent change.