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History as a laboratory to better understand the formation of institutions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 May 2014

BAS VAN BAVEL
BAS VAN BAVEL*
Affiliation:
Department of History, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
*
*Email: b.j.p.vanbavel@uu.nl
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Abstract

A main instrument for better understanding the formation of institutions, and explaining the differences in their long-run development between periods and societies, would be to use history as a laboratory, allowing us to test the hypotheses developed in the social sciences. This paper discusses the study by Douglas Allen, The Institutional Revolution, in that context, in order to identify some of the pitfalls in the current attempts by economists to use historical analysis. Next, the paper places his English case into a comparative perspective, helped by the recent insights gained by economic and social history, to see how these pitfalls can be avoided. Based on this, I argue for comparisons at the regional, national and global levels, and for a multidimensional view which includes social contextualization, combined with an open eye for discontinuity in long-run patterns, in order to avoid one-dimensional and teleological approaches to institutional change.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 11 , Issue 1 , March 2015 , pp. 69 - 91
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2014 

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