|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tenets of Institutionalism (opens as Word *.doc file)
· Inquiry is addressed to the institutional process of providing the material means of life and to significant problems of institutional malfunction.
· Economics is a policy science; economic inquiry is significant only to the extent that it is relevant to problem solving through institutional reform.
· The method of inquiry is evolutionary; the object of inquiry is the social process; the search is for factual explanations and causal understandings.
· Social value judgments are a part of inquiry and must themselves be objects of analysis; the normative-positive dichotomy is rejected.
· All political economies evolve and are embedded in social and cultural processes; individuals are both products and creators of these processes.
· Institutions correlate and coordinate economic behavior in progressive and regressive ways; problems are resolved with progressive changes in structure.
· The growth of warranted knowledge and its application as technology are prime movers in social change; they are both sources and means of resolving problems through institutional adjustment.
· The biotic and social communities are co-evolutionary and interdependent; sustainability of either is dependent on the other.
· Any political economy is a system of power; the locus, use, and democratic accountability of achieved power remain priorities in analysis and policy.
Source: Association For Evolutionary Economics
