4. INSTITUTIONS AND INTERCURRENCE: THEORY BUILDING IN THE FULLNESS OF TIME

Abstract

Theorizing about political institutions has taken as its central task the explanation of order and regularity over time. The rationale for this seems so straightforward as to appear almost definitional. Institutions persist through time, organizing poli tics into something more than a seamless flow of activities and events. Carrying forward objectives instilled in them at their time of origin, they infuse their environments with durable norms and predictable rules of action. There is no denying that without institutions stability and continuity would be in short supply. The task of uncovering the historical patterns that institutions establish is a vital one. Our contention, however, is that political scientists have cast their theories too narrowly upon these premises, missing the great paradox inherent in the ordering capacities of institutions. The very tendency of institutions to persist means that at any mo ment in time several different sets of rules and norms are likely to be operating simultaneously.1 To the extent that the idea of order presumes institutions synchronized with one another,

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