POLI 3424 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Douglass North, Hereditary Monarchy, Heredity
11 Nov 2020
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Puzzle: why do we see differences in the sizes of cities, electricity, etc. Institutions - humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic, and social interactions -douglass north. Not enforced by an official authority figure. Tell you what you can and can"t do. Formal - go to jail, fined, arrested, etc. Two types of institutions that the authors talk about: Set up different rules and incentives for behavior: extractive. Have all or most of the power. They can decide to do whatever they want. Very few real consequences if they abuse their power: inclusive. A lot of participation by lots of different groups and people. The number of people that are involved is large relative to the population. Participation, effective use of talent and skill, choice. These are not the only choices, you can be anywhere along the spectrum. Concentrate wealth and potential wealth among narrow group. May not be allowed to, but they can.
