Academic Paper from the year 2023 in the subject Politics - Basics and General, grade: 1, Kozminski University, language: English, abstract: This paper analyses institutionalism and the role of institutions in politics. The widely understood institutionalism is an interdisciplinary research area, of which institutions are the central issue. Approaches used in this area are divided into "old" and "new", also the division into classic and contemporary approaches is used. In practice, there are at least several research trends in various disciplines of social sciences, which is referred to as "new institutionalism." They differ in paradigmatic basis, main research problems or applied methods. The common ground is the belief in the key role of institutions in shaping social, economic and political life. In total, these trends constitute a renaissance of interest in this subject. The new institutionalism, as a fully-fledged (institutionalized) perspective, created a new paradigm (especially in the field of economics), which was formed for good in the 1980s.