Some Critical Remarks on March and Olsen's Rediscovering Institutions

Abstract

March and Olsen's Rediscovering Institutions (1989) is considered as an outline of a theoretical approach, or as a research program. The book is criticized on six important grounds: the description of rival approaches is misleading - the language of the book is vague - the core concept of `institution' is not properly defined - no distinction is made between important and trivial decision-making - the claimed relation of interests to institutions has an almost totalitarian ring - the description of `aggregative' versus `integrative' processes is unduly complicated by the language in which they are compared. Although the book contains many brilliant insights, as a research program, the whole is less than the sum of its parts.