From Chaos to Order: How Does the Past Influence the Present?

Course goals

- Students acquire knowledge of theories concerning the origins, development and effect of institutions on states, communities and polities.
- Students acquire knowledge of methods for long-term historical research derived from the social sciences
- Students develop skills in the application of these theories and methods in historical research
- Students develop a critical awareness of the possibilities and limitations of these theories and methods
 

Content

This is a core subject in the MA History of Politics and Society programme: it provides you with theoretical concepts and analytical tools that you will use in other subjects in the programme, as well as for your thesis. The subject is about institutions, i.e. the formal and informal rules, customs and organisational structures that make up a society. Institutions shape people's lives and history. In this course, we aim to understand how institutions emerge and evolve historically, why and how they change, why and how they persist.

As historians, we often claim that ‘the past matters’.One of the aims of the MA History of Politics and Society programme is therefore to train you to use historical knowledge and insights to better understand today's world and help develop solutions to contemporary problems.But how exactly does the past matter?Through what mechanisms does it influence today's society? 

Institutions are important here because they provide a tangible link between past, present and future: the framework of rules, practices and organisations that determine how societies function is the result of a process, of historical developments, and through their durability they are likely to shape future developments. Institutions can be very persistent: once a course is set, a society can stay on the same path for a long time. Take, for example, the differences in the shape and size of the welfare state between the US and most European countries: these differences have emerged over a long period of time, and convergence is unlikely to occur in the near future. However, this does not mean that nothing ever changes. Institutions can and do change: often gradually and piecemeal, but sometimes radically and in short order (think revolutions). This course is an opportunity to reflect on these two dimensions of the past: continuity and change.

Within historical institutionalism, social scientists have thought more systematically than historians about the mechanisms of institutional change and continuity. Some of these social scientists have used historical data to underpin their theories and methods.The aim of our course is to get to know those theories and methods for long-term historical research, make you aware of their possibilities and limitations, while familiarising you with the way social scientists think and the vocabulary they use to frame their ideas. That is indeed quite a handful, and you may sometimes struggle with the unfamiliar language and ways of thinking these social science authors use.The aim of this course is not to make social scientists out of you, but rather, by exposing you to social science theories and reasoning, to make you better, more well-rounded historians and, should your career take you in that direction, better policy makers.
 
Please note: 
Only students from the MA History of Politics and Society and the MA Geschiedenis: educatie en communicatie are allowed to register for this course. All other students have to contact the programme coordinator.