The Silent Assumption of Institutional Theory: Does Good Governance Always Become Institutionalized?

The new institutionalist approach assumes that organizations adopt socially accepted norms in their pursuit of legitimacy and that these norms, over time, become embedded in organizational practices and are thus institutionalized. Although this assumption is often not stated explicitly, it nevertheless functions as a silent presupposition underlying the core explanatory logic of institutional theory. By contrast, contemporary public administration reforms-particularly in the context of good governance principles-demonstrate that this assumption does not always find empirical support. Good governance principles are widely adopted and incorporated into legal and organizational structures. This article problematizes this silent assumption of institutional theory. To explain this situation, it proposes the concept of “selective institutionalization.” The article argues that legitimacy is not a sufficient condition for institutionalization and that institutionalization should be understood as a contextual, political, and selective process.