Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T13:05:06.490Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

How agents change institutions: Coalitional dynamics and the reform of commercial training in Switzerland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2018

Lina Seitzl Open the ORCID record for Lina Seitzl [Opens in a new window]  and
Patrick Emmenegger
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Historical institutionalist research has long struggled to come to terms with agency. Yet injecting agency into historical-institutionalist accounts is no easy task. If institutions are structuring agents’ actions, while they are simultaneously being structured by these very agents’ behavior, the ontological status of institutions remains unclear. Hence, most historical-institutional accounts, at the conceptual level, tend to downplay the role of agency. However, in this way, they also remain incomplete. Following the “coalitional turn” in historical institutionalism, we develop a new account of institutional change and stability that awards a central role to agency. At the heart of our approach is the notion that both stability and change in institutions presuppose constant coalition building by organized entrepreneurial actors. However, for several reasons, such coalition building is complicated, which ultimately leads to institutional stability. In addition, we argue that relevant state agencies actively shape whether the incumbent coalition or the challenger coalition prevails. We illustrate the potential of our actor-centered approach to institutional change by analyzing the reform of commercial training in Switzerland, tracing developments from the beginning of the 1980s until today.

Keywords

Institutional changeagencyskill formationcoordinated capitalism
Type
Research Article
Information
Business and Politics , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 145 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2018 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

APS. Various years. “Jahrbuch der Schweizerischen Politik / Année politique suisse.” Bern: Institut of Political Science, University of Bern.Google Scholar
BBT. 2008. “Abschlussbericht zur Evaluation der kaufmännischen Grundbildung.” Bern: BBT.Google Scholar
Blyth, Mark. 2001. “The Transformation of the Swedish Model: Economic Ideas, Distributional Conflict and Institutional Change.” World Politics 54 (1): 1–26.Google Scholar
Bürki, André. 1995. Neues Konzept für kaufmännische Grundausbildungen. Zürich: Schweizerischer Kaufmännischer Verband.Google Scholar
Busemeyer, Marius R. 2012. “Business as a Pivotal Actor in the Politics of Training Reform: Insights from the Case of Germany.” British Journal of Industrial Relations 50 (4): 690–713.Google Scholar
Busemeyer, Marius R. 2015. Skills and Inequality: Partisan Politics and the Political Economy of Education Reforms in Western Welfare States. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Busemeyer, Marius R., and Trampusch, Christine. 2012. “The Comparative Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation.” In The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, edited by Busemeyer, Marius R. and Trampusch, Christine. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Capoccia, Giovanni. 2016. “When Do Institutions “Bite”? Historical Institutionalism and the Politics of Institutional Change.” Comparative Political Studies 49 (8): 1,095–127.Google Scholar
Capoccia, Giovanni, and Kelemen, R. Daniel. 2007. “The Study of Critical Junctures: Theory, Narrative, and Counterfactuals in Historical Institutionalism.” World Politics 59 (3): 341–69.Google Scholar
Collier, David. 2011. “Understanding Process Tracing.” PS: Political Science & Politics 44 (4): 823–30.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper D. 2005. “Institutional Change in Contemporary Capitalism: Coordinated Financial Systems since 1990.” World Politics 57 (2): 173–99.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper D. 2007. “Small States and Skill Specificity: Austria, Switzerland, and Interemployer Cleavages in Coordinated Capitalism.” Comparative Political Studies 40 (6): 611–37.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper D. 2011. Quiet Politics and Business Power. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper D. 2015. Structural Power and Political Science in the Post-Crisis Era. Business & Politics 17 (3): 39–409.Google Scholar
Culpepper, Pepper D., and Thelen, Kathleen. 2008. “Institutions and Collective Actors in the Provision of Training.” In Skill Formation: Interdisciplinary and Cross-National Perspectives, edited by Mayer, Karl U. and Solga, Heike. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
David, Thomas, Ginalski, Stéphanie, Mach, André, and Rebmann, Frédéric. 2009. “Networks of Coordination: Swiss Business Associations as an Intermediary between Business, Politics and Administration during the 20th Century.” Business & Politics 11 (4): 1–38.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J. 1988. “Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory. In Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment, edited by Zucker, Lynne G.. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Ballinger Publishing Company.Google Scholar
Dubs, Rolf. 1989. Studie Kaufmännische Berufsbildung für die Zukunft. St. Gallen: Institut für Wirtschaftspädagogik.Google Scholar
Farrell, Henry, and Newman, Abraham L.. 2015. “Structuring Power: Business and Authority beyond the Nation State.” Business & Politics 17 (3): 527–52.Google Scholar
Fioretos, Orfeo, Falleti, Tulia G., and Sheingate, Adam. 2016. “Historical Institutionalism in Political Science.” In The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism, edited by Fioretos, Orfeo, Falleti, Tulia G., and Sheingate, Adam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Fligstein, Neil, and McAdam, Doug. 2012. A Theory of Fields. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Emmenegger, Patrick. 2018. “Purposive Agency in Historical Institutionalism: Who Acts and What Do They Do?” Unpublished manuscript. St. Gallen: University of St. Gallen.Google Scholar
Emmenegger, Patrick, and Seitzl, Lina. 2018. “Collective Action, Business Cleavages and the Politics of Control: Segmentalism in the Swiss Skill Formation System.” British Journal of Industrial Relations, doi 10.1111/bjir.12426.Google Scholar
Gonon, Philip, and Maurer, Markus. 2012. “Educational Policy Actors as Stakeholders in the Development of the Collective Skill System: The Case of Switzerland.” In The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, edited by Busemeyer, Marius R. and Trampusch, Christine. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A. 2016. “Politics as Process Structured in Space and Time.” In The Oxford Handbook of Historical Institutionalism, edited by Fioretos, Orfeo, Falleti, Tulia G., and Sheingate, Adam. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A., and Taylor, Rosemary C.R.. 1996. “Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms.” Political Studies 44 (5): 936–57.Google Scholar
Hall, Peter A., and Thelen, Kathleen. 2009. “Institutional Change in Varieties of Capitalism.” Socio-Economic Review 7 (1): 7–34.Google Scholar
Iversen, Torben, and Stephens, John D.. 2008. “Partisan Politics, the Welfare State, and Three Worlds of Human Capital Formation.” Comparative Political Studies 41 (4–5): 600–37.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Alan M., and Weaver, R. Kent. 2015. “When Policies Undo Themselves: Self-Undermining Feedback as a Source of Policy Change.” Governance 28 (4): 441–57.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Tom, and Suddaby, Roy. 2006. “Institutions and Institutional Work.” In The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies, edited by Clegg, Stewart R., Hardy, Cynthia, Lawrence, Tom, and Nord, Walter R.. London: SAGE.Google Scholar
Lindblom, Charles E. 1977. Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic System. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James, and Thelen, Kathleen. 2010. “A Theory of Gradual Institutional Change. In Explaining Institutional Change: Ambiguity, Agency, and Power, edited by Mahoney, James and Thelen, Kathleen. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mahoney, James, and Thelen, Kathleen. 2015. Advances in Comparative-Historical Analysis. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Marsh, David, Akram, Sadiya, and Birkett, Holly. 2015. “The Structural Power of Business: Taking Structure, Agency and Ideas Seriously.” Business & Politics 17 (3): 577–601.Google Scholar
McAdam, Doug. 1996. “Conceptual Origins, Current Problems, Future Directions.” In Comparative Perspective on Social Movements, edited by McAdam, Doug, McCarthy, John D., and Zald, Mayer N.. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, David S. 2004. “Protest and Political Opportunities.” Annual Review of Sociology 30: 125–45.Google Scholar
Müller, Barbara, and Schweri, Jürg. 2006. Die Entwicklung der betrieblichen Ausbildungsbereitschaft: Eine Längsschnittuntersuchung zur dualen Berufsbildung in der Schweiz. Zollikofen: Schweizerisches Institut für Berufspädagogik.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. New York: Schocken Books.Google Scholar
Palier, Bruno, and Thelen, Kathleen. 2010. “Institutionalizing Dualism: Complementarities and Change in France and Germany.” Politics & Society 38 (1): 119–48.Google Scholar
Pierson, Paul. 2000. “Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics.” American Political Science Review 94 (2): 251–67.Google Scholar
Renold, Ursula, Nenninger, Peter, Frey, Andreas, and Balzer, Lars. 2004. Reform der kaufmännischen Grundbildung Band 4: Konsequenzen und Umsetzungen der Reform. Landau: Empirische Pädagogik e.V.Google Scholar
SBFI. 2016. “Berufsbildung in der Schweiz: Fakten und Zahlen.” Bern: SBFI.Google Scholar
Schmidt, Vivien A. 2011. “Analyzing Ideas and Tracing Discursive Interactions in Institutional Change: From Historical Institutionalism to Discursive Institutionalism.” CES Paper Series, 3.Google Scholar
Schweizerische Bankiervereinigung. 1995. “Reform der kaufmännischen Berufsausbildung.” Zürich: SBVg.Google Scholar
SKKAB. 2016. “Zusammensetzung des Vorstands.” Bern: SKKAB.Google Scholar
Sommerhalder, Maja. 2011. “Die Stunde der Branchen. ” Folio 5: 32–33.Google Scholar
Späni, Martina. 2011. “Hommage an die Entstehung einer komplexen Einrichtung. ” Folio 5: 42–45.Google Scholar
Strahm, Rudolf H. 2008. “Die entscheidenden Neunziger Jahre: Das Ringen um Reform und Aufwertung der Berufsbildung 1995 bis 2005.” In 75 Jahre Einführung des eidgenössischen Berufsbildungsgesetzes, edited by Bauder, Tibor and Osterwalder, Fritz. Bern: hep.Google Scholar
Streeck, Wolfgang, and Thelen, Kathleen. 2005. Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 2004. How Institutions Evolve: The Political Economy of Skills in Germany, Britain, the United States and Japan. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen. 2014. Varieties of Liberalization and the New Politics of Social Solidarity. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thelen, Kathleen, and Busemeyer, Marius R.. 2012. “Institutional Change in German Vocational Training: From Collectivism toward Segmentalism.” In The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation, edited by Busemeyer, Marius R. and Trampusch, Christine. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trampusch, Christine. 2010. “The Politics of Institutional Change: Transformative and Self-Preserving Change in the Vocational Education and Training System in Switzerland.” Comparative Politics 42 (2): 187–206.Google Scholar
Widmer-Portaluri, Nadia. 1994. “Koninuität und/oder Wandel pädagogischer Zielvorstellungen in der kaufmännischen Grundausbildung.” Ph.D. diss., Universität St. Gallen.Google Scholar
Wijen, Frank, and Ansari, Shahzad. 2007. “Overcoming Inaction through Collective Institutional Entrepreneurship: Insights from Regime Theory.” Organization Studies 28 (7): 1,079–100.Google Scholar
Winecoff, William K. 2015. “Structural Power and the Global Financial Crisis: A Network Analytical Approach.” Business & Politics 17 (3): 495–525.Google Scholar
Winkler, Walter. 1973. 100 Jahre Schweizerischer Kaufmännischer Verein. Zürich: Schweizerischer Kaufmännischer Verein.Google Scholar