Institutions
Readings and class materials for Tuesday, January 24, 2023
Readings
Chapter 1 in Douglass C. North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Chapters 1, 11, and 12 in Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty (New York: Crown Business, 2012).
Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” American Sociological Review 48, no. 2 (April 1983): 147–60, https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101.
Lee J. Alston, “Beyond Institutions: Beliefs and Leadership,” The Journal of Economic History 77, no. 2 (June 2017): 353–72, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022050717000523.
Really good but optional
- Chapter 2 in Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990).
Article discussion reminder
How to discuss an article in a seminar
- Who wrote the article? What’s their background?
- General summary of the article
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- How does it connect to other readings?
- How does it connect to the broader course themes?
- How does it connect to current events?
- What does it add to our Global Bureaucracy Toolkit™?
Plan for the day
Mini-presentation on governance
Mini-presentation and discussion on institutions
Overview of different conceptions of institutions
Institutions and comparative public administration
- North, Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance.
- Acemoglu and Robinson, Why Nations Fail.
- DiMaggio and Powell, “The Iron Cage Revisited.”
- Alston, “Beyond Institutions.”