Peters, B. Guy. "Approaches in comparative politics". In Comparative Politics, edited by Daniele Caramani, 34-46, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

Peters, B. Guy. "Approaches in comparative politics". In Comparative Politics, edited by Daniele Caramani, 34-46, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

• Following a precipitous decline in popularity during the dominance of behavioralism and rational choice theory during the 1980s, institutionalism returned to political science in a number of forms. These are historical institutionalism, which focuses on ideas and past decisions weighing on present institutions; rational choice institutionalism, which views institutions solely as incentivizing structures to control behavior; and the normative institutionalism of Drs. James March and Johan P. Olsen, which looks at norms as the defining traits of institutions (38). This review of the contemporary state of the institutionalist school of political science is initially presented by Dr. B. Guy Peters in his 1999 book, Institutional Theory in Political Science.
• Political culture exerts a particular influence on politics, but one that is not easily measured. If a phenomenon cannot be explained by other variables, then it is explained by the political culture of the society (40). This idea was originally introduced by Drs. David J. Elkins and Richard E. B. Simeon in an article in 1979. 
• Modern political scientists measure this primarily through surveys of the general population, especially through the world values survey developed by Dr. Ronald Inglehart (40-41).
• The actual politics of the world is composed of the interactions of various factors more than individual variables, an issues which is difficult to demonstrate statistically. In particular, the interactions of ideas, interests, international environment, institutions, and individuals produces unique political outcomes (43).