Structure Not Policy: Why We Need More Institutional Political Theory

For too long, I’ve been repeating the self-styled slogan “structure not policy, tomorrow not today” to express the idea that has haunted me since I began studying law. Nearly every discussion of “politics” in the media, among ordinary people, and among “experts” in the social sciences, revolves around at best, particular policies, at worst, the behavior of particular groups–usually to demonize a party one does not agree with. “If only we raised/lowered taxes!” “If we just made education free.” “If we just voted those SOB’s out of power!” “It’s those damned neocons again!” This appears to be a universal, not just an American, phenomenon.

What has struck me since 2003, when the run up to the Second US-Iraqi War made it clear how crucial a functional political system is, is the absence of discussions of political structures and institutions. How could we make our “deliberative bodies” actually deliberate? How could we make our “representative” institutions more representative? How could we make our “democratic” mechanisms indeed democratic and inclusive? But even our heroes and public intellectuals seem oblivious or distracted. Even figures like Martin Luther King Jr. mostly made passionate appeals for better policies or a more righteous social order.

This an excerpt from a political and legal philosopher, with whom I do not agree on many issues, making a plea for the study of structures over policies. Jeremy Waldron called for a Political Political Theory.