New Institutionalism: Theory and Analysis. Edited by
André Lecours. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. 380p.
$65.00 cloth, $30.95 paper.
There has been a lot of discussion over the past decade about the
relevance of institutions in political science. This has led to the
emergence of an explanatory discipline, new institutionalism, a
prominent social theory that focuses on developing a comprehensive study
of institutions, the way they interact, and the effects of institutions on
society—thus providing a way of viewing how institutions evolve in
very different ways, or how institutions shape the behavior of individual
members and produce change. In this collection of essays, edited by
André Lecours, a case is made for the ways new institutionalism
helps reframe and renew the theoretical and analytical importance of
political institutions in the determination of a variety of political
phenomena and outcomes, as a group of scholars—mainly from Canadian
universities—address a set of complex issues related to new
institutionalist research.