Traditional governance research tends to treat political units of governance, such as the polity, as pre-given. The polity is perceived as the framework for governance processes rather than its outcome. This traditional perception of the role of the polity in governance processes is closely linked to core ideas of the traditional research approach of the "old" institutionalism, according to which governance is perceived as the activities that take place within formal governance institutions (March and Olsen, 1989, pp. 1-2). The image of the polity as pre-given is also found in traditional theories of liberal democracy, which are concerned with the regulation of governance processes that apply to a clearly demarcated people.