A Political Economy Approach of Institutional Research

Abstract

Abstract. Institutional research is ready to move to the next stage, the stage, as argued by this paper, should be characterized with a more comprehensive and integrated social sciences approach. The theoretical foundation for such a move exists, as the naturel connections between political institutions and economic institutions were well addressed by North, Fukuyama, and Acemoglu; the influences of cultural heritage on the institutional choices were aldo discussed by North and Huntington. Another shift in institutional research proposed by this paper is the change from the general solutions to the specific solutions because the institutional characteristics are individualized after considering the impacts of culture heritage. Through the data analysis of World Governance Index (WGI) and other development indicators this paper presents the connections between political and economic institutions and the unique characteristics of political orders and developmental paths of a few specific groups of countries. The paper also discusses the influences of cultural heritage on the institution's choice and transformation path. Finally the paper proposes an institutional research framework.Keywords. Institutional economics, Political economy, Comparative economic system, Comparative political system, World Governance Index (WGI).JEL. O43, P26, P51.