Historical institutionalism in comparative politics

Abstract

This article provides an overview of recent developments within the historical institutional tradition. Given the vast scholarship in this area, this tour is necessarily selective. I attempt to capture the current state of the literature in two passes. First, I review the common distinctions that are drawn between historical institutionalism and alternative perspectives; the purpose is to sort out the real differences from some of the more commonly drawn distinctions. Second, I revisit one of the key "frontiers" in historical institutionalism that Sven Steinmo and I identified in a previous article (Thelen and Steinmo 1992), and assess the progress that has been made in our understanding of institutional formation and change. A concluding section evaluates where we stand on this issue, and identifies directions in which historical institutionalists might fruitfully push on.