Dynamics of Institutional Change: Three Water Policies (And Two Bright Ideas) Examined

Abstract

The central problem in water institutions today is the complexity and seeming intractability of large-scale water reforms. In current literature on institutional change, three factors are identified as affecting institutional change - path dependencies, social norms and rational interests. But while they illuminate some crucial aspects of change, any explanatory force appears one-sided as they explain either change or stasis but not both. This thesis shows that it is ideas that are key - ideas cause institutional change by acting as cognitive bridges between the existing set of institutions and a new set. Institutional reforms succeed where these ideational bridges score highly along epistemic and narrative parameters of truth, richness and coherence, producing a thick narrative which allows many and sometimes contrasting perspectives.