neoinstitutionalist
A neoinstitutionalist is a scholar who subscribes to neoinstitutionalism, a family of theories in political science, sociology, and organizational studies that foreground the role of institutions in shaping behavior, choices, and outcomes. Neoinstitutionalists study how formal rules, organizational structures, norms, and cultural beliefs guide actors—from individuals to firms to states—and how institutions persist, change, or resist alteration.
Originating in the 1970s and 1980s as a response to behavioralism and simple rational-choice models, neoinstitutionalism
There are three dominant strands: rational choice institutionalism, which treats institutions as constraints and enablers that
Influential scholars associated with neoinstitutionalism include James G. March and Johan P. Olsen, Paul DiMaggio and
Critics argue that neoinstitutionalism can overemphasize stability, understate agency and conflict, and sometimes lack precise causal