Taking Evolution Seriously, or Metaphorically? A Review of Interactions between Historical Institutionalism and Darwinian Evolutionary Theory

Abstract

Since the mid-1980s, political scientists, in particular historical institutionalists, have employed evolutionary theory to study institutional stasis and change. More recently, there have been calls for ‘taking evolution seriously’. This article will frame the earlier uses of evolutionary theory by historical institutionalists, and the recent calls for ‘taking evolution seriously’ into a hierarchy of levels of interaction between natural and social sciences. Put in this perspective, the earlier efforts can be seen as limiting the use of evolutionary theory at the lowest, metaphorical level. On the other hand, the recent calls are striving to advance political science’s interaction with biological science to analogous and homologous levels, and even make it part of the larger project of generalizing Darwinism. These are noble scientific explorations. However, they should not lead to an impression that using evolutionary theory metaphorically is necessarily unserious.