Explaining the relationship between state and society: from one-sided frameworks to reciprocal links

Explaining the relationship between the state and society is one of the most important theoretical challenges in political science. In a theoretical conflict and as a result of numerous criticisms of one-dimensional explanations of society or the state, the key question is to what extent univariate and one-sided theories have the power to explain and answer why and how the relationship between state and society is and what are their shortcomings. This article first seeks to critique the analytical tradition in the literature on government-society relations and then explain the components of historical institutionalism as one of the approaches in political science. According to this view, the government and society have mutually influenced each other in their historical process. This view sees the power of the state and the manifestation of this power in connection with the power of the society and considers the existing institutional arrangements in society and their transformation as the product of the connection of power structures in a historical process. The main components of this theory are “important milestones, path dependence, timing and sequence, events, design, and institutional transformation”. The analytical framework presented in this paper is based on systematic attention to how institutional arrangements are established and consolidated in the context of time, and therefore rather than having the characteristics of specific theories, it is introduced as a general theoretical framework. It may have more power to analyze the role of institutions in the social sciences in general and political science in particular.