'2 Moreover, the authors identify that the institutions are not so different from one another, once broken down and analyzed, and if we don't put great emphasis on one or the other than they might be able to supplement each other.
Firstly, historical institutionalism looks at the issues that people face, in a historical, political context, specifically the issues surrounding scarcity and vying for resources and the inequality that is equivocated with scarcity, especially as it pertains to goods and services. Historical institutionalists are likely to define an institution based on the dynamic between formal and informal governmental structure of a polity.3 So in essence, historical institutionalists are inclined to identify key agents of institutionalism in bureaucracy and administrative structural contact. Within the historical institutionalism school of thought, there are four featured elements that comprise the umbrella term, and these tend to look at the relationship between institutions and individuals on a very broad, general scale. These schools of thought also shift towards analyzing the differences and similarities in power that are directly associated with institutional development, as well as inadvertent deviation of path dependency. Lastly, historical institutionalisms examine how creativity and ideas play a role in development of institutions.4 In essence, Historical institutionalists take a comparative approach in determining human behavior by looking at organizations across time through case studies. .
Differently, Rational Choice Institutionalism is the school of thought by which actors take a utilitarian approach in using institutions, but simultaneously are faced with regulatory constraints that are presented through the institutional atmosphere whereby their behavior and execution is influenced. Rational Choice Institutionalism was largely influenced by institutional and congressional behavior in the mid 1970's and uses neo-classical economic molds to explain how institutions are created and how political actors come to make decisions.