• is a general approach to governance and social science.

• Social science, no matter how one defines it, has from its inception put great emphasis on the study of institutions. Institutions have often been understood as formal organizations governed by written laws or rules.

• The study of political institutionalisms was dominant within political science in Britain and US in the early 20th century.

• The institutional approach can be understood as a subject matter, as a method, and as a theory.

• As a subject matter, the study of political institutions is central to the identity of the discipline of political science (Rhodes, 1995).

• According to Rhodes, “If there is any subject matter at all that political scientists can claim exclusively for their own, a subject matter that does not require acquisition of the analytical tools of sister fields and that sustains their claim to autonomous existence, it is formal-legal-political structure”

• He also pointed out that public administration, a sub discipline within political science, has the study of institutions as its key characteristics.

Public administration according to Rhodes: a. the study of the institutional arrangements for the provision of public services. b. the study of public bureaucracies

• William Robson describes the dominant approach in public administration as institutional. It concentrated attention on the authorities engaged in public administration, analyze their history, structure, functions, powers and relationships.

• As a method, the traditional or classical institutional approach is “descriptive- inductive, formal-legal, and historical comparative.”

• It is descriptive because it employs the techniques of the historian and explores specific events, eras, people and institutions and inductive because inferences are draw from repeated observations.

• Institutional approach also applies the formal-legal inquiry. Formal because it involves the study of formal governmental organizations and legal because it includes the study of public law.

• As a theory, the classic or traditional institutional approach does not only make statements about the causes and consequences of political institutions. It also espouses the political value of democracy.

TRADITIONAL APPROACH IN INSTITUTIONALISM

Normative – concerned with good governance/government

Structuralist – concerns with political behavior

Historicist – concerns with the central influence of history

Legalist - concerns with law that plays a major role in governing

Holistic – concerned with describing and comparing whole systems of government

OLD INSTITUTIONALISM AND NEW INSTITUTIONALISM

a. Old institutionalism – also known as classical institutional approach. It is an approach to the study of politics that focuses on formal institutions of government

b. New Institutionalism - focuses on developing a sociological view of institutions, the way they interact and the effects of institutions on society. However, it has a much broader yet sophisticated.