Wednesday 23rd November 2022, 17:00–17:15 (Australia/Melbourne), Zoom Breakout Room 2
Historical institutionalism is one of the three New Institutionalisms. As a research method, the approach typically involves archival research and semi-structured interviews - employing the research techniques of both the historian and the political scientist - to understand the impact of institutional legacies on the present. I have used historical institutionalism to analyse industry policy over time for cross-national comparisons of transport and telecommunications policies and have found the approach effective at the meso-level of analysis. Recently, however, I have applied this approach to the macro-level in geopolitics (to understand institutional exhaustion), and I am currently developing a research project focused on the micro-level to understand how institutions influence the development of military doctrine through a case study of operational tactics. This presentation will demonstrate the analysis of political phenomena over time, drawing on my model of path dependent, punctuated equilibrium. It will outline how to recognise and analyse exogenous and endogenous critical junctures in applying the model to temporal comparative and institutional studies. In doing so, I will share some of the unique insights I have developed as both a practitioner and an academic.
Dr Michael de Percy FCILT is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the University of Canberra. His qualifications include a PhD in Political Science from the Australian National University, a Bachelor of Philosophy (Honours) from the University of Canberra, and a Bachelor of Arts from Deakin University. He is a graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where he received the Royal Australian Artillery prize. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and Vice-Chair of the ACT and Southern NSW Chapter, a board member of the Telecommunications Association (TelSoc - Australia's oldest learned society), an editor of the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, and a Petherick Reader at the National Library of Australia. Michael was appointed to the Australian Research Council's College of Experts in 2022.
His research focuses on comparative politics, historical institutionalism, government-business relations, transport and telecommunications policy, and leadership. His recent publications include Politics, Policy and Public Administration in Theory and Practice: Essays in honour of Professor John Wanna, ANU Press, 2021 (with Andrew Podger and Sam Vincent); Populism and a New World Order (in Viktor Jakupec et. al. Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid, Routledge 2020); and Road Pricing and Provision: Changed Traffic Conditions Ahead, ANU Press 2018 (with John Wanna).
Michael's research articles have been published in Policy Studies, the Journal of Telecommunications and the Digital Economy, the Australian Journal of Social Issues, the Australasian Transport and Research Forum, and Public Administration Today. His expert commentary has been published in The Australian, ABC's The Drum, The Canberra Times, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and The Conversation, and he has also appeared on numerous television and radio news programs.
Michael's blog Le Flâneur Politique (ISSN 2652-8851) and podcast on his research, teaching and community engagement activities are available at www.politicalscience.com.au and you can follow him on twitter @madepercy.