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The Creation, Interpretation and Contestation of Institutions — Revisiting Historical Institutionalism

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  • Johannes Lindner
  • Berthold Rittberger

Abstract

One shortcoming of much of the historical institutionalist literature is its alleged lack of testable propositions and the elusive notion of ‘unintended consequences’ of initial institutional choices. This article, which offers an historical institutionalist explanation of institutional creation and operation, aims to overcome these shortcomings. We develop a set of propositions and demonstrate their plausibility by exploring the creation of the European Community's budgetary treaty in 1970 and the operation of the enacted treaty provisions. We demonstrate that, under specific conditions, actors may be doomed to opt for ‘dysfunctional’ institutions at the moment of their creation. Furthermore, we show that the notion of ‘unintended consequences’ does not necessarily help us to understand the reason for the contestation of treaty provisions.

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  • Johannes Lindner & Berthold Rittberger, 2003. "The Creation, Interpretation and Contestation of Institutions — Revisiting Historical Institutionalism," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(3), pages 445-473, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:jcmkts:v:41:y:2003:i:3:p:445-473
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-5965.00430
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    Cited by:

    1. Mechthild Roos, 2020. "Becoming Europe's Parliament: Europeanization through MEPs' Supranational Activism, 1952–79," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(6), pages 1413-1432, November.
    2. Hatani, Faith, 2016. "Institutional plasticity in public-private interactions: Why Japan’s port reform failed," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 923-936.
    3. Henrik Enderlein & Johannes Lindner & Oscar Calvo-Gonzales & Raymond Ritter, 2006. "The EU Budget: How much Scope for Institutional Reform?," Contributions to Economic Analysis, in: Designing the New European Union, pages 129-159, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    4. Luisa Giuriato, 2006. "The decision-making procedures for the European Union's finances in the Constitutional debate," Working Papers in Public Economics 96, Department of Economics and Law, Sapienza University of Roma.
    5. Ho, Peter, 2018. "A theorem on dynamic disequilibrium: Debunking path dependence and equilibrium via China’s urban property (1949–1998)," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 863-875.
    6. Mühlböck, Monika and Berthold Rittberger, 2015. "The Council, the European Parliament, and the paradox of inter-institutional cooperation," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 19, January.
    7. Peterson, John & Shackleton, Michael, 2011. "EU institutions and Europe's politics," Discussion Papers, Schumpeter Junior Research Group Position Formation in the EU Commission SP IV 2011-501, WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

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