Rad se bavi institucionalnim teorijama i pristupima u društvenim znanostima. Prikazuje se povijesna i sadržajna povezanost starog i novog institucionalizma te metodološko-analitičke i druge prednosti novog institucionalizma koji se analizira iz perspektive politoloških, socioloških i ekonomskih znanosti. Upućuje se na zajedničku jezgru svih neoinstitucionalnih pristupa te brojne sličnosti među pojedinim pravcima, ali i znatne razlike koje su osobito vidljive u samu definiranju pojma institucije, zbog čega još ne možemo govoriti o jedinstvenoj neoinstitucionalnoj teoriji na razini pojedinih društvenih disciplina ni na razini društvenih znanosti u cijelosti.; The paper deals with institutional theories and approaches in social sciences. The historical and contentious links between the old and the new institutionalism and the methodological-analytical and other advantages of the new institutionalism are analyzed from the perspective of political, sociological and economic sciences. It points to the common core of all neo-institutional approaches and numerous similarities between individual directions, but also the significant differences that are particularly evident in defining the notion of the institution itself, which is why we cannot yet speak of a unique neo-institutional theory both at the level of individual social disciplines and at the level of social sciences in its entirety.