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Historical Institutionalism in Public Policy

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Encyclopedia of Public Policy

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Central Definition

Historical institutionalism (HI) examines how the context within which policy development takes place affects policy choices and their subsequent continuity or transformation. It examines, in particular, the impact of prevailing institutional rules and temporal factors, like the timing, sequence and/or conjuncture of events, on the behaviour of political actors, and hence, as well, on political and policy developments.

Key Elements and Assumptions

HI scholars conceptualize institutions as any or all of formal organizations, legally enforceable rules, and/or expected practices or behavioural norms that are the temporally contingent outcomes of power struggles in which some political actors and coalitions prevail over others (Hall, 1992). Public policy scholars who adopt an HI approach view established public policies through this same lens: that is, as institutions that affect the behaviour of political actors, including policy makers (Pierson, 2000b: 264–5).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Grace Skogstad

  2. University of Toronto Scarborough, Scarborough, ON, Canada

    Grace Skogstad

Authors
  1. Grace Skogstad
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Correspondence to Grace Skogstad .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social and Public Policy, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Minna van Gerven

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Montréal, Canada

    Christine Rothmayr Allison

  3. Institute of Political Science, University of Münster, Münster, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Klaus Schubert

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Social and Public Policy, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Minna van Gerven

  2. Department of Political Science, University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Christine Rothmayr Allison

  3. Institute for Political Science, Universität Münster, Münster, Germany

    Klaus Schubert

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Skogstad, G. (2023). Historical Institutionalism in Public Policy. In: van Gerven, M., Rothmayr Allison, C., Schubert, K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Public Policy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90434-0_21-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90434-0_21-1

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