Rational Choice	Historical	Sociological
Scholars	William Riker, Oliver Williamson, Kenneth Shepsle, Terry Moe	Peter Hall, Theda Skocpol, Sven Steimo, Kathleen Thelen, Margaret Weir	Walter Powell, John Meyer, Brian Rowan, Peter Berger and Thomas Luckman, Niel Fligstein
What are institutions?	Formal structures and procedures	Formal and informal structures	Symbolic Systems, cognitive scripts, and moral templates
What do institutions do?	Solve collective action problems. Structure strategic individuals’ preferences.	Distribute power and resources; lead to unintended consequences; help to shape and influence preferences.	Give meaning to individuals and organizations
Where do institutions come from?	Peoples’ desire to solve certain problems; i.e., uncertainty for interest groups or for firms and suppliers	Historical choices. Some type of upheaval or dramatic change leading to disequalibrium and opportunities for change, i.e., OPEC	Previous institutions. Search for social legitimacy.
Why do institutions persist?	They suit the interests of participants, i.e., they solve the collective action problems.	Historical inertia. Power asymmetries make change difficult.	They become taken for granted.
How do they help us understand public policy?	Institutions channel interests.	Provide an historical context. Cross-national in scope.	Provides a way of thinking about the origins of values, interests, and preferences.