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Most theories of institutions fall in the top right quadrant, and a few more fall in the off-diagonal
quadrants. These authors want to bring in the lower-right quadrant to focus on otherwise
overlooked phenomena. They argue for the coevolution of politics and institutions - that
history is path dependent in the sense that the character of current institutions depends on the
institutions historical path, and that identities arise partly in the context of politics and become
embedded in rules, practices, beliefs and institutions.
As illustrations of perspectives from the bottom-right quadrant, they offer two mechanisms of
historical path dependence in the evolution of political order:
1) Engagement and the development of identities:
Creating identities deliberately: some believe that processes that create/sustain national civic
identities and that constitute nation-states can also be used to deliberately create/sustain
international civic identity. This can be seen in attempts to create an EU identity which has
largely been unsuccessful. Creating international identities unintentionally: 1) international
identities evolve from spillover of domestic democratic orientations and identities to intl
politics see, democratic peace theory. Also, democratic countries import democratic norms
and decision-making rules into the international arena; that is, democratic norms are contagious.
2) The practice of expert cooperation around specific tasks can that is, the influence in
identity/norm formation of epistemic communities - also have spillover effects.
2) Engagement and the development of capabilities:
Competency traps and multiple equilibria: political arrangements become more efficient as
the rules are refined, but efficiency is the enemy of adaptiveness. Positive feedback produces a
competency trap or, the tendency for a system to become firmly locked into a particular rulebased structure. To avoid the trap, a willingness to engage in experimentation is necessary, but
there is little incentive to experiment because while rewarding in the long run, its costly in the
short run. So, any experimentation that happens, it is likely not intentional. Competence and
the transformation of objectives: institutions create the foundation for new institutions and
objectives; organizations not only get better at what they do, but they find new things to do. So,
transforming capabilities means transforming agendas and goals. Elaboration of tasks is as much
a consequence of competence as a cause of it.
The point of these two illustrations: there is a difference between a perspective that assumes
identity-based action and inefficient history and a more conventional perspective that attributes
action to calculations of consequences. The latter interprets changes in an international political
order primarily in terms of exogenously specified interests and capabilities, rational actors,
expectations, and consequences. The former sees change in political order more as involving the
construction and evocation of rules, institutions, and identities, the development of capabilities
and the path-dependent meanders of an inefficient history.