May 2024
Intermediate to advanced
138 pages
3h 20m
English
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The Nature and Significance of Institutions
In none of my efforts at institution building did I lay a brick, dig a foundation, or erect a wall. In fact, none of my work had much to do with the physical structures that most people associate with the word “institutions,” structures like imposing courthouses, shimmering laboratories, and towering office buildings. Those things are just physical manifestations of institutions. They are not the institutions themselves or their essence that institution builders must create to succeed at their task.
Definitions
Numerous scholars have sought to capture that essence in definitions. Douglass C. North, recipient of the Nobel Prize in economics for his work on institutions, defined them as “the ...