Comments on: Institutions and Politics again

By: Henry

Henry — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 00:51:55 +0000

shreeharsh – I’d read the following. First the Hall and Taylor reading in week 2 – it is a bit out of date now, but it sets the scene well. Then the Terry Moe piece in week 3 on rational choice and Kathleen Thelen’s ARPS piece on historical institutionalism. On ideational accounts, I’d read a piece I haven’t assigned – Mark Blyth’s piece in Perspectives on Politics a couple of years ago. This should map out the debate reasonably well.

pln – good luck with the reading group and glad you like the reading list …

By: PLN

PLN — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 17:08:07 +0000

I’m thinking about starting up a NYC reading group based around this syllabus, if I can find enough interested folks; I hope you don’t mind, Henry. Wish I’d had this class a few years ago. (Any NYC CTers who would like to join in, please email me at eudinaesis – at – gmail.)

By: shreeharsh

shreeharsh — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 13:49:08 +0000

Hi Henry,

Could you maybe give one representative paper for each one of your topics (rational choice theory, ideational accounts, etc etc), for laymen like me?

By: trane

trane — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 10:32:00 +0000

I got here a bit late, but would have suggested some reading of Edgar Kiser’s work on what he calls Analytic Weberianism.

Also, for the discussion at the end of the course you could have added Jon Elster’s review of the Analytic Narratives anthology by Bates et.al. As I recall, he made quite a devastating critique of Weingast’s chapter, and important points to Greif’s work also.

Anyway, yes it does look very interesting all of it.

By: Henry

Henry — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 05:15:52 +0000

appearances may be misleading here … most of the additions I’ve made are sociological with a historical bent (see e.g. the new class for Week 10, additions of various other folks). The main exception is the final week, where I’ve brought in a couple of pieces to illustrate different pol-sci methodological positions.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 04:28:55 +0000

This seems much more focused on the current state of affairs and of less general interest to historians, sociologists and anthropologists than your previous list… which may be exactly what you want. Looks fascinating, anyhow.

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 04:25:50 +0000

This is exactly what I wanted to read. Thanks!