Rethinking agency and structure in the study of regime change

The oscillation of the study of political regime change between voluntarist and structural approaches has increasingly led scholars to seek research s trategies for synthesizing the two approaches. This article addresses the c onceptual and practical difficulties of achieving such a synthesis by evalu ating several strategies for integrating voluntarist and structural factors in the analysis of regime change. It examines competing ways of conceptual izing agency and structure and assesses the varied consequences that differ ent conceptualizations have for explaining regime transformation. The artic le also analyzes three distinct strategies for integrating agency and struc ture: the funnel, path-dependent, and eclectic strategies. Each integrative strategy is anchored by a different conceptual base and has characteristic strengths and limitations, The conclusion explores future directions for d eveloping integrative strategies.