New Institutionalism: Identifying Informal Institutions in the Political Process of Pakistan

IntroductionInstitutions have been central to any political discussion and analysis since the very beginning of the discipline. The very roots of the discipline of Political Science are claimed to be in the study of institutions (Peters, 1999: 1). Although such understanding was challenged in the 1950s by two theoretical schools in Political Science, the rational/public choice and the behaviorists, as they attempted to shift the attention from institutions to individuals and their behavior. However, the resilience of institutionalism is evident from the fact that theorists never stopped studying institutionalism rather with over time invigorated their interest in it and have lately came up with what they term new institutionalism. This was described as 'bringing institutions back in'.The two broader theoretical…