WHAT IS AN INSTITUTION.
THE discipline of political science, particularly
comparative politics, have been concerned
throughout it's evolution, with the study of
institutions. Institution is defined as a "stable,
reoccurring pattern of behaviour". ( Goodin
1996:22) or as "rules of the games in society
or more formally the humanly devised
constraints that shape human interaction."
Institutions in the conventional and narrow
sense of the term refers to the "organisations
of government." Lane and Ersson defines an
institutions as the " rule that has been
institutionalised". The term often refers to the
different formal branches of government
including legislature, executive and judiciary. It
also includes the political parties, different
constitutional bodies such as the
bureaucracyand local government, statutory
and non statutory bodies. However over time
the definition has extended to include many
informal organisations under it's purview. Now,
even "interest groups and political practices "
with a substantial stake in the political process"
of the polity are included under the scope of
political institutions. .... refers to the instance
of even corruption being refered to as an
institution in a nation's political sphere. Thus
the definitions of political institutions are not
anymore confined to strictly formal
organisations. Mark Pennington distinguishes
between hard and soft institutions. Hard
institutions comprise of those formal rules that
characterise a politicalnsystem such as the
rules of the electoral process. These hard
aspects of the political apparatus also includes
fundamental
characterisation of the social system, such as
laws pertaining private property. These hard
aspects are typically enforced by formal law. " "
Soft institutions conversely include those
practices institutionalised via the informal rules
and practises rathervthan in the letter of the
law.
The evolution of institutions has also been
subjected to theoretically explanations. "
Institutions possess a history, culture, and
memory and frequently embodying traditions
and values. "In the process of
institutionalisation, theybgrow like coral reefs
through slow accretion. "Institutions thus give
shape tomthemselves over a period of time,
overvthe time forming it's internal structures.
Institutionalisation refers to the process by
which organisations build stability and
permanence.
Throughout the history of human race,
institutions has had a pivotal role to play.
However rudimentary the organisational and
internal structure of an institution might be,
they still and been a crucial existence. If not in
the sense of political structures but institutions
always had their presence. Since times
imemmorial humans institutionalised different
ways of living, dining, speaking. Even the most
primitive of communities had their own
institutionalised forms of communities.
Although, many didnt qualify as institutions in
the modern sense, the culture and practise
were often legitimate institutions in these
societies. Over the time, with the emergence of
monarchs and empires, since the ancient times
the world witnessed the emergence of political
institutions. The phenomenon of globalisation
across the world have given rise to many new
kinds of institutions and
has also ushered the destruction of already
existing ones as well.
WHY DO INSTITUTIONS MATTER.
Institutions, marking their presence in the
human communities, since it's infant stages,
has been a driving force of the society. The
formal and institutions have been the crucial
structure towards ensuring stability and order
in the society. To this day, one of the primary
functions of the institutions have been that of
maintaining the order of the community. While
in the earlier times, it was the informal norms,
culture and practises, legitimised through
popular acceptance, now it is the legally
constituted bodies that has taken over the
responsibility of maintaining the stability. A
society marked by the absence of institutions
aimed towards regulating and policing of the
community would lead to a scenario of chaos,
ultimately leading to the degeneration of the
society. Although not necessarily in the form of
constitutional forms, at the least informal
institutions in the form of valued norms and
regulations are necessary towards this end.
While institutions regulate the behaviour of the
citizens of the society, thus preventing chaos
and ensuring stability on the one hand, they
are determinant at the same time towards
towards putting a check to the abuse of
governmental powers.
