Economic, Political and Social Identity in the European Union
                                       Professor John Wilton
                                             Lecture 4

                     New Institutionalism, Behaviouralism, and an E.U. Identity

                                             Lecture 4

                                             Lecture 4

  1. NEW INSTITUTIONALISM

- grew out of greater concentration        on attempting to understand the role         of
institutions in human behaviour

- institutions govern the behaviour of     men and women, giving rise to         determinate
results, i.e. policy        outputs or social outcomes

                                             Lecture 4

-Institutions shape and inform  politics, which in turn influences ideological beliefs, values, and
social and economic developments

-Institutions provide symbols, rituals and rules so that people can interpret the choices they have
and decide between them – choices ‘framed’ through values.

                                             Lecture 4

Three main variants of New Institutionalist theory:



-     Historical institutionalism

-     Rational choice institutionalism

-     Sociological institutionalism



                                             Lecture 4

 Sociological institutionalism

          - institutions are crucial mediators,         both            between the individual and
the world at     large (society itself) and between   different individuals.

          - institutions allow individual citizens to         make sense of what they, and others,
do     – give us rules, norms, customs and        values that shape and influence the          
pattern of everyday life.



                                             Lecture 4

Importance of institutions for outcomes in society derive from  intrinsic or extrinsic aspects:

 - the intrinsic importance of institutions in their      own right – their existence and consequent
         ‘institutional’ effect on society in  promoting  their self-interest, reflecting   their
self-image;

- or, their extrinsic effect – the resultant          consequences upon society of the operations 
of institutions

                                             Lecture 4

BEHAVIOURALISM

Talcott Parsons, The Social System (1951) – linked the behaviour of individuals and groups in
societies to the social system and social structures in societies

 - all societies constituted a social system, within      which operated a number of sub-systems

- normal state of any social system was one of          equilibrium – system always adjusted itself
          to restore state of equilibrium

                                             Lecture 4

Talcott Parsons’ structural functionalism theory:

•pattern-maintenance function (managing  tension within the system) performed by its   cultural
sub-system;

•adaptation or distributive function performed by the economic sub-system;

•integration function (co-ordinating inter-relationships between members of system) performed by
legal and regulatory sub-system;

•goal-attainment function (mobilising people and resources to achieve collective ends) performed by
political sub-system

                                             Lecture 4

Structural functionalism theory and an E.U. citizen identity?

•           E.U. institutions promoting the pattern-maintenance function to develop an E.U.
‘cultural identity’ alongside/complimentary to, national and regional cultures – manage tension
between E.U. and national identity?

•           Integration function of an E.U. social system assist development of E.U. identity by
co-ordinating inter-relationships between members of the system through E.U. legal and regulatory
sub-system?