Explaining the Water Supply System in the United States and France - A Historical Institutional Analysis

Explaining the Water Supply System in the United States and France

  From the perspective of historical institutionalism, this paper explains how the development and strengthening of institutional arrangements for water supply in the United States and France have proceeded in directions counter to general expectations. Using water supply services as an example. the paperalso suggests that historical institutionalism can be a useful conceptual tool for analyzing and understanding differences in institutional formation and development across countries and in different types of policy areas. Historical institutionalism provides rich information about uniqueness in institutional formation and development in certain contexts and environments. It has often been observed that developing countries. including Korea. have failed to transplant public services systems from developed countries. Why aren"t institutions easily transplanted from one country to another? Historical institutionalism provides useful clues to this question.