Analyzing Failed Institutional Change Attempts

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1065912921989442
• Subject Matter: Articles

2022, Vol. 75(1) 203 –215

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912921989442

Political Research Quarterly

© 2021 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912921989442

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Introduction

Theoretical advances in the study of institutional change

center around a productive paradox about institutions and

strategic action. Change agents can take strategic actions

to set in motion processes of institutional change (e.g.,

Hacker 2004; Mahoney and Thelen 2010). These actions

are, however, structured and constrained by the existing

institutional framework (e.g., Capoccia 2016; Gingrich

2015). From these two perspectives, we can expect that

attempts to change institutions are an empirical regularity

and that many of these attempts will fail. This article con-

tributes to the theoretical conversation on institutional

change through an analysis of failed institutional change

attempts and their effects on institutional sequences. The

gradual institutional change literature has focused on

cases where existing institutions have been changed

incrementally or where the interpretation or enactment of

existing institutions has changed due to changes in con-

text (e.g., Mahoney and Thelen 2010; Streeck and Thelen

2005; Waylen 2014). These processes are often the result

of the politics between change agents and supporters of

the status quo. The tension between these two groups is

also at the core of failed institutional change attempts. In

this class of events, a proposal for institutional change

reaches but does not succeed in passing a formal decision

point. Failed institutional change attempts are a frequent

occurrence in political institutions and can be observed

across issue domains and levels of analysis. They have

characterized Europe’s gradual development toward

democracy (Ertman 2010; Ziblatt 2017), Japan’s 1994

electoral reform (Reed and Thies 2003), the adoption of

the European Union’s (EU) Treaty of Lisbon in 2007, and

changes in party organization in 1960s Italy. Failed insti-

tutional change attempts also characterize ongoing insti-

tutional trajectories, including attempts to revoke

Uruguay’s controversial amnesty law (Zebley 2011), pass

gender and equal opportunities legislation in Nigeria

(Payton 2016), and repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA)

in the United States (Béland et al. 2020).

Although authors have empirically identified failed

attempts in specific cases (e.g., Immergut 1992a; Tulis

and Mellow 2018; Ziblatt 2017), the role of failed institu-

tional change attempts in institutional sequences remains

underexplored (with notable exceptions on near misses;

Capoccia and Kelemen 2007; Capoccia and Ziblatt 2010).

989442PRQXXX10.1177/1065912921989442Political Research QuarterlyIssar and Dilling

research-article2021

1Sciences Po, Paris, France

2University of Oxford, UK

Corresponding Authors:

Matthias Dilling, Department of Politics and IR, University of Oxford,

Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ, United Kingdom.

Email: matthias.dilling@politics.ox.ac.uk

Sukriti Issar, Sciences Po, Observatoire Sociologique du Changement

(OSC), CNRS, 98 Rue de l’Université, Paris 75007, France.

Email: sukriti.issar@sciencespo.fr

Analyzing Failed Institutional

Change Attempts

Sukriti Issar1 and Matthias Dilling2

Abstract

Theoretical advances in the study of institutional change center around a productive paradox. While change agents

can take strategic action to change institutions, institutions display a remarkable level of formal stability. From this

paradox, we expect that attempts to change institutions are an empirical regularity and that many formal change

attempts will fail. This article contributes to historical institutionalism by analyzing the political effects of failed formal

institutional change attempts on institutional sequences. Failed institutional change attempts could be mere blips,

having little effect on subsequent institutional trajectories, or even inoculate against future attempts. Failed attempts

could also lay the ideational groundwork, aid in coalition building, and garner concessions for subsequent institutional

change, or convince change agents to alter their strategy. The article suggests analytical strategies to assess the

effects of failed institutional change attempts, drawing on examples from comparative politics and two extended case

illustrations from Italian party politics and the Affordable Care Act in the United States.

Keywords

institutional change, failed attempts, negative cases

Article