27 November 2005

Why do Institutions matter in Politics?

I have been trying to study (read memorise) for my exam in comparative politics tom. and this is supposedly one of the questions that will be coming out for tom - why do institutions matter in politics? So let me revise a little while i Procrastinate and this would be a good crib sheet for those who want the answer to that question ...

- to understand how institutions shape today's politics, we have to understand how institutions shape politics in the past (path dependency)
- institutions shape how politics is conducted
- institutions shape incentives which then shape political behaviour
- the persistance of informal institutions make them important because of their influence on politics
- Insitutions can affect the governance of a country
- institutions provide us with a context to understand how people rationalise and intepret actions and decisions
- even if institutions do not work as they should, they still have an impact on politics

and finally, Institutions matter because ..... IT IS COMING OUT IN TOMORROW'S EXAM. (or at least i hope it will).

No comments: