This paper explores three core analytical innovations: Lieberman (2002), Greif (2006), and Mahoney and Thelen (2010), produced by the second generation of historical new institutionalism about endogenous institutional change. It explores the logic of the key conceptual and analytical transformations in the recent methodological debate over issues on how to expand the explanatory powers of traditional models overcoming the exogeneity and stability bias problems. The main argument is that there is a substantial set of transformations coming through in the new institutional agenda via the introduction of new conceptualizations, theoretical frameworks and, fundamentally, through the consideration of a new set of causal mechanisms that allows new models to expand and deepen the analysis of institutional change mainly taking into account institutional causes.
Comparative political science; Institutional change theory; Historical new institutionalism; Theory and models