DI is an umbrella concept for many different approaches that see
ideas as constituting the policy narratives, discourses and frames of reference
which serve to (re)construct the actors' understanding of interests
and redirect their actions within institutions (Schmidt and Radaelli,
2004: 195). It focuses both on the meaning content of ideas and the interactive
processes by which ‘homo interpreter' conveys and searches
ideas and meaning, following a ‘logic of communication’ (Arts and
Buizer, 2009:341; Schmidt, 2008: 304). The main difference between
the three ‘old new institutionalisms’ and DI is its focus on institutional
change (or stability) and the way it is explained through agents' ideas
and discourses and through learning from experience (Hay, 2002:
210; Schmidt, 2008: 322). While sociological institutionalism is closest
to DI in that it also focuses on cultural norms and the way they affect the
actors' perceptions of their interests, the difference is that in DI, norms
and ideas are two separate concepts and they are perceived as dynamic
constructs rather than as static structures.