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Path-Dependence and the Challenges of Institutional Adaptability: The Case of the Niagara Region in Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 September 2017

Charles Conteh  and
Diana Panter
Charles Conteh*
Affiliation:
Brock University
Diana Panter*
Affiliation:
Brock University
*
Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines ON, L2S 3A1, email: cconteh@brocku.ca
Brock University, 1812 Sir Isaac Brock Way, St. Catharines ON, L2S 3A1 email: dpanter@brocku.ca
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Abstract

The paper uses the concept of path dependence to explain the challenges and complexities of institutional adaptation at the subnational level. The notion of path dependence is rooted in the well-established research tradition of historical institutionalism, one of the variants of neoinstitutionalism. The academic literature on the new institutionalism, however, has tended to focus on the national level of analysis. But there is a growing recognition of cities and regions as the main engines of socioeconomic change in the current age of seismic global economic perturbation. Their historic and current significance has thus made them arguably more organic units of governance than modern states or supranational regimes. The discussion focuses on the Niagara region in Canada to illustrate the institutional infrastructure of governance underpinning the economic landscape of city-regions and the challenges of reform that such local regions face in an age of unprecedented global socioeconomic change.

Résumé

L'article fait référence au concept de « dépendance au sentier » pour expliquer les défis et les complexités de l'adaptation institutionnelle à l’échelon infranational. La notion de dépendance au sentier est ancrée dans la tradition de recherche bien établie de l'institutionnalisme historique, une des variantes du néo-institutionnalisme. Le néo-institutionnalisme a eu tendance, cependant, à mettre l'accent sur le niveau d'analyse national. Mais on s'accorde à reconnaître de plus en plus le rôle des villes et des régions en tant que principaux moteurs du changement socio-économique dans le contexte actuel des perturbations économiques sismiques qui touchent la planète. Leur importance historique et actuelle a fait d'elles des entités de gouvernance plus dynamiques que les États modernes ou les régimes supranationaux. La discussion porte sur la région du Niagara au Canada afin d'illustrer l'infrastructure institutionnelle de gouvernance sur laquelle repose le paysage économique des villes-régions et les défis auxquels font face ces régions locales pour engager des réformes à l’ère d'une mutation socio-économique mondiale sans précédent.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 50 , Issue 4 , December 2017 , pp. 983 - 1004
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Political Science Association (l'Association canadienne de science politique) and/et la Société québécoise de science politique 2017 

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