Neoinstitutionalism: Still no intellectual hegemony?

Abstract

Despite its greater realism, neoinstitutionalism has not been able to rival neoliberal approaches in the minds of many public‐policy communities. This article suggests four reasons why this is the case: the way that neoliberalism appears to be rooted in the strong paradigms of neoclassical economics, the related simple appeal of marketization as a solution to policy problems, the dominance of short‐term calculation in financial markets as the apparently most successful form of economic activity, and the role of corporate actors as public‐policy insiders. It is argued that an essential solution to the problem is a rapprochement between neoinstitutionalism and neoclassical economics, which is itself not necessarily wedded to neoliberalism.