Ideas, Institutions and Politics

Catalog description

A Graduate level survey of the literatures on institutions and ideas in political science, and on occasion, in related fields. These literatures are often seen as rival bodies of literature. These literatures are in fact compliments, with much empirical work combining both approaches in a productive manner. The point engaging the literature in this way is to question the presumption that interests should remain the most popular conceptual tool for political science explanation. This is a puzzle when one considers that interests are always formed within, and are causally affected by, both institutional environments and the ideas that they enshrine.