From settled paths to Chines whispers: Institutions, instability, and EU defence policy

Menon, Anand. (2009) From settled paths to Chines whispers: Institutions, instability, and EU defence policy. In: UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Institutionalist theories of politics emphasise the role institutions play in inducing stability. The Institutionalist lexicon is replete with terms such as ‘path dependence’ and ‘lock-in,’ intended to convey resistance to change. Insofar as institutionalists do address change, they do so in terms of sporadic moments of dramatic change brought about by factors exogenous to their theoretical framework. The paper challenges such claims, on the basis of a study of the development of the European Union’s security policies. It proposes an Institutionalist approach to explaining institutional change arguing that under certain conditions, institutional change can be both continuous and highly significant. Consequently, the metaphor of ‘Chinese whispers’ better captures the nature of repeated, incremental and often off path institutional development than that of path dependence.

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