Robert D. Putnam Quote
1. Institutions shape politics. The rules and standard operating procedures that make up institutions leave their imprint on political outcomes by structuring political behavior. Outcomes are not simply reducible to the billiard-ball interaction of individuals nor to the intersection of broad social forces. Institutions influence outcomes because they shape actors’ identities, power, and strategies. 2. Institutions are shaped by history. Whatever other factors may affect their form, institutions have inertia and robustness. They therefore embody historical trajectories and turning points. History matters because it is path dependent: what comes first (even if it was in some sense accidental) conditions what comes later. Individuals may choose their institutions, but they do not choose them under circumstances of their own making, and their choices in turn influence the rules within which their successors choose.
1. Institutions shape politics. The rules and standard operating procedures that make up institutions leave their imprint on political outcomes by structuring political behavior. Outcomes are not simply reducible to the billiard-ball interaction of individuals nor to the intersection of broad social forces. Institutions influence outcomes because they shape actors’ identities, power, and strategies. 2. Institutions are shaped by history. Whatever other factors may affect their form, institutions have inertia and robustness. They therefore embody historical trajectories and turning points. History matters because it is path dependent: what comes first (even if it was in some sense accidental) conditions what comes later. Individuals may choose their institutions, but they do not choose them under circumstances of their own making, and their choices in turn influence the rules within which their successors choose.
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About Robert D. Putnam
Putnam developed the influential two-level game theory that assumes international agreements will only be successfully brokered if they also result in domestic benefits. His most famous work, Bowling Alone, argues that the United States has undergone an unprecedented collapse in civic, social, associational, and political life (social capital) since the 1960s, with serious negative consequences. In March 2015, he published a book called Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis that looked at issues of inequality of opportunity in the United States. According to the Open Syllabus Project, Putnam is the fourth most frequently cited author on college syllabi for political science courses.