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Rereading Skowronek

A Precocious Theory of Institutional Change

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 January 2016

Elisabeth S. Clemens
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Extract

Although American Political Development is one of the more sociological corners of political science, for the most part sociologists have not been attuned to its contributions. Even among historical sociologists, the central conversations have been motivated by classic questions about transitions to capitalism and revolution in Europe rather than by puzzles of American exceptionalism.Much of political sociology has focused on individual voting behavior and public opinion; social movements research focuses heavily on the most recent decades in American history. Consequently, a review of the impact of Stephen Skowronek’s Building a New American State within sociology reveals a sharply delimited set of direct influences beyond the research already well known to scholars in American Political Development, largely the work of Theda Skocpol (1992) and her many students and collaborators (e.g., Orloff and Skocpol 1984). A rereading, by contrast, highlights the importance of the book for contemporary discussions of the forms and processes of institutional change.

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Type
Roundtable: Twenty Years after Building a New American State
Information
Social Science History , Volume 27 , Issue 3 , Fall 2003, pp. 443 - 453
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2003 

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