American Ideational Development

• In Event: Exploring the Foundations of American Constitutional Thought

Abstract

The field of American Political Development is facing an ongoing crisis of identity. On one hand, some scholars have sought to move the field beyond the term “development” and towards examinations of “durable shifts in governing authority,” a process that would eschew any considerations seen as normative, such as the study of ideas. On the other hand, some scholars have argued that there is considerable room for overlap between the fields of APD and American Political Thought and have called for a new paradigm that synthesizes ideas and developmental political inquiries. In this article, we argue that APD already has access to an overlooked and unnamed body of literature that is attuned to how ideas shape political institutions. Rather than establish a new paradigm, we contend that future scholarship should take its bearings from this existing literature, which we call Ideational Institutionalism.

Authors

• Matthew K. Reising, Princeton University

• Benjamin A. Kleinerman, Baylor University