The Moderating Effect of Market Characteristics on Institutionalization Processes in Regime Complexes

Abstract

Abstract This chapter evaluates the book’s main finding in light of two prominent alternative explanations: neorealism and neofunctionalism. It argues that while these alternative accounts add important insights to the study of specific institutionalization processes within specific institutional complexes, they have a hard time explaining the variance in institutional topologies across issue areas, as demonstrated in the previous chapters of this book on their own. By laying out how the most central alternative explanatory factors put forth by these theories interact with policy area characteristics, the chapter underlines the relevance of considering the market characteristics of policy fields to explain variation in interinstitutional structures across issue areas.