Institutional Change and Globalization (review)

John L. Campbell has written a unique book on a theme which is often construed as a significant weakness of institutionalism namely, institutional change. Couched in the valid notion that the three strands of institutionalism (rational choice, organizational and historical) share a set of problems, the book is unique in the sense that it combines a dispassionate and balanced analysis of the existing literature on institutional change in both politics and sociology (to which Campbell has already made a significant contribution), with a lucid and novel discussion of (1) the concept of institutional change, (2) the mechanisms that affect it and, in particular, (3) the impact of ideas on institutional change. In addition, Campbell fruitfully applies these lessons to globalization. This choice of field is shrewd since globalization is often seen as a source of change that tends to undermine the distinctiveness of national institutional arrangements and to determine the scope and the direction of change.

The book contains six substantive chapters dealing respectively with the common problems of the three strands of institutionalism, the issue of institutional change, the problem of the mechanisms that drive institutional change, the role of ideas, the link between globalization and institutional change and the next steps in institutional analysis. In terms of the substance, Campbell's work combines fine-grained conceptual analysis with an appropriate dose of empirical material.

The first contribution that he makes concerns our understanding of the notion of institutional change. He rightly argues that although institutionalists have devoted considerable attention to the issue of change in various contexts, they "have offered surprisingly little discussion and guidance […] about how we ought to determine empirically which pattern of change has occurred." (p. 31) He then proceeds to outline how we ought to specify one of the most important dependent variables examined by institutionalists and highlights the importance of (1) the dimensions of an institution (i.e. its regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars) that are specified on the basis of a scholar's theoretical perspective, (2) their salience for those who occupy the institution that is being studied and (3) the identification of the appropriate level of analysis. In addition, he highlights the importance of the specification of the time frame within which institutional change is examined. He subsequently turns his attention to the central issue of the mechanisms that cause institutional change and highlights the importance of substantive and symbolic bricolage – construed as the recombination of existing principles and practices (Pp. 69-70), diffusion, translation and enactment in the process of institutional change. Then Campbell discusses the role of ideas and identifies four types (paradigms, programs, frames and public sentiments) that affect the process of institutional change. In that chapter he underlines the importance of an explicit discussion of the conditions in which ideas affect change and points out the relevance of (a) the relational (or socially constructed) manner in which actors perceive their situations and (b) uncertainty. He subsequently brings these themes together and proceeds to show that, contrary to much of the existing literature, "globalization has not precipitated the sort of dramatic institutional changes in taxation and other policy areas that are often attributed to it." (p. 124). In the final chapter of the book, he generates 12 theoretical propositions regarding institutional change and then outlines essentially three themes for future research namely, the origins of endogenous change, the role of institutional entrepreneurs and the origin of perceptions regarding crisis and change.

The book is easy to read due to Campbell's engaging style of writing and lucid analysis. Two issues deserve perhaps a more detailed discussion namely the relatively fuzzy distinction between the "foreground" and the "background" of the debate in the context of which ideas affect institutional change can be a basis for some criticism, and the paucity of models available to promoters of institutional change. Overall, the book is a unique combination of a sustained and balanced critique of existing institutionalist work on the one hand, and a sophisticated and thought-provoking discussion of a...