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The author examines the endogenous theory of institutional change, which is based on concept of treaty being incomplete contract and comments on its logic and shortcomings in this theory.

Three central goals motivate this introductory essay and the articles that follow. First, we seek better understanding of the EU's own institutions, especially to the extent that they play a role in or represent the process of integration. Second, we seek better integration of the multiple general understandings of institutions and primarily of rationalist and constructivist conceptions. Third and most important, we seek to promote the integration of institutional research. Our overarching argument is that metatheoretical debate about institutions has run its course and must now give way to theoretical, methodological, and carefully structured empirical dialogue. To this end, we offer specific strategies for promoting greater synthesis among competing institutional schools. Keywords: institutional theory; rationalism; constructivism; European Union; research design; methodology.

In this article, the authors attempt to provide background for this special issue in honor of Harry Eckstein and his work. A brief sketch of Eckstein's personal life is offered, focusing on his formative experiences in Hitler's Germany. The article then tums to an in-depth analysis of three of Eckstein's writings: his splendid essay titled 'Political Science and Public Policy'; his unrivaled overview of the field of comparative politics in 'A Perspective on Comparative Politics, Past and Present'; and his attempt to redirect the discipline of political science in 'Authority Patterns: A Structural Basis for Political Inquiry.' Eckstein's work holds up well, less in the sense that it has triumphed in the discipline as a whole (both Eckstein and his critics agree that it has not) and more in the sense that it serves as a constant reference point for an ongoing dialogue about questions that will never he settled., I't is not often enough that we pay tribute to our outstanding colleagues. As one correspondent said in the planning of this special issue, 'We as a profession do a [...]