Methodological challenges of complex system theory for political science research

RODRÍGUEZ ZOYA, LEONARDO G.

Santiago de Chile

Congreso; XXI IPSA World Congress of Political Science; 2009

International Political Science Association

The goal of this paper is to analyze the methodological implications of complex system theory for conducting research inpolitical science. The current work inquires into the epistemological and ontological assumptions of the methodological approach of historical institutionalism. The claim that is made here is that these assumptions embody a new rationality ideal which is different from the classical Cartesian and similar with some conceptual developments of complex system theory. We propose to examine and compare some fundamental strategies in the historical institutionalism approach, such as path dependence, critical junctures, and increasing returns with some central notions in the complex system theory such as emergence, self-organization, and irreversibility. The main contribution of this paper is to advance a conceptualization of institutions as self-organized complex systems.