The microfoundations of political development: structure and agency in historical institutionalism

Historical institutionalism has long stood for the notion that institutions represent “political legacies of concrete historical struggles.” Several decades since it first emerged on the scene, however, the tradition is still deservedly criticized for its failure fully to account for the relation between structure and agency, especially as it pertains to the dynamics of the inter-group conflicts that drive processes of institutional development. This article contributes to the articulation of historical institutionalism’s “social ontology” by exploring the microfoundations of political development, fleshing out “the outline of a highly distinctive view of the relationship between structure and agency” that emerged early on in the tradition’s history. Without departing from historical institutionalism’s foundational principles, the article proposes a potential alternative to rational choice institutionalism’s homo oeconomicus and to sociological institutionalism’s homo sociologicus , turning to the findings of experimental psychology and behavioral economics as the main source of insights into individual behavior.