Institutions, organizations and democracy: a review of theoretical approaches for the analysis of state management in Latin America

Abstract

The article makes a theoretical review of the evolution of the problem of democratic institutions in recent democracies, presenting the standard approaches to study the relationship between political regime and public policy. It is argued that academics have stopped treating democracy from a perspective focused on the components of the political regime to concentrate on the functioning of political institutions in relation to state management. The essay examines three aspects of this new wave of research: mainstream political economy, the approach of informal institutions, and the perspective of political agreements. The review pays particular attention to the place that these three approaches give organizations as political actors. The author concludes by presenting the implications of his theoretical evolution for an empirical research agenda that can be developed from the confluence between political economy and organizational studies.