Douglass North's Theory of Politics

Abstract

Few social scientists have equaled the impact on political science of Douglass C. North, co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics in 1993. His extraordinary influence emanated from his ideas but was also a result of his vast social network of collaborators, students, and friendly critics. North was at the forefront of four revolutions in economics and political economy.

1. The New Economic History; 2. The “property rights” revolution; 3. The New Institutional Economics; and 4. Cognitive science.

North explicitly brought issues of political science into the second through fourth revolution. He became a major leader in historical and comparative political science, and in the study of institutions more generally. His work proved particularly relevant for those interested in questions of state-building, state variation, and long-term secular change.

Keywords: Institutions, politics, comparative political science, new institutional economics, cognitive science

JEL Classification: D72, D74, D78, A12, H11, H12, K11, N11, N13, N41, N44, O1