The recent global economic crisis has created new conditions and situations for the economic environment and therefore, in this context the rethinking of the institutional system is mandatory. The present paper seeks to propose an empirical model and aims at capturing the interdependencies between the institutional changes and the economic progress in the European emerging countries, in order to emphasize that institutions are the key elements in the process of economic growth. After briefly reviewing the most relevant literatures that have documented the variety of the institutional changes, the paper focuses on the amplitude of the phenomena of institutional changes from the European emerging countries. The research tries to establish a "stimulus – effect" relationship between the changing of the institutional environment and the rate of economic growth and human development. The conclusions for the methodological aspects illustrate that the level of social and economic development is a natural result of the quality of the institutional environment.
What explains the nature of institutional change in post-1989 China? Dominant theories of institutional change focus on economic-rationalist, sociopolitical, or historical causes. Yet they have trouble explaining the pattern of institutional change in China. An alternative legitimacy-based perspective is proposed here that provides a more parsimonious and general theory of institutional change for China and potentially for other cases as well. [Reprinted by permission of Sage Publications Inc., copyright 2008.]
This book discusses the change of five important institutional rules of decision-making in the European Union and proposes a general explanation of long-term institutional change which is also applicable for the change of decision-making rules beyond Europe.
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This book examines the institutional changes taking place in, and challenges facing, the region since 1997. It also describes various differences in the reform process between countries in the region. Sjöholm and Tongzon argue that the economies of southeast Asia need to reform their institutions if the previous rapid development is to continue. The institutional weaknesses have been addressed to different degrees and with different success in the affected countries. Against the backdrop of southeast Asia's importance in the world economy, it is hardly possible to overestimate the need to understand this process of change.
This book examines the institutional changes taking place in, and challenges facing, the region since 1997. It also describes various differences in the reform process between countries in the region. Sjöholm and Tongzon argue that the economies of southeast Asia need to reform their institutions if the previous rapid development is to continue. The institutional weaknesses have been addressed to different degrees and with different success in the affected countries. Against the backdrop of southeast Asia's importance in the world economy, it is hardly possible to overestimate the need to understand this process of change.
SummaryInstitutional Changes in Rural LifeIn dealing with institutional problems, particularly when referring to rural development, the sociologist should not avoid value‐judgements. With increasing institutional specialization and growth, an increase occurs in individual and collective social action of an intentional character. This intentionality calls for an explicitation of the values underlying the action. Sociology today is unable to meet this problem because of its 'ethical agnostic' approach.In choosing an explicitly non‐ethical‐agnostic approach, the societal trend towards emancipation or freedom is elected as a guideline for sociological analysis. Freedom is provisionally defined as: opportunity or possibility to consciously exercise control on one's own future. With some examples it is shown that rural sociological research at present does not acquire meaningful information about the interplay between individual and institutional intentional action which brings about socio‐economic development.A continuum of rigidity for the overall societal institutional context, as being the specifically institutional counterpart of the traditional‐modern continuum, is hypothesized as a tentative framework for discussing institutional changes. In order to show the validity of the hypothesis, two polar cases for the degree of rigidity in the overall institutional context, present within the same large class of fairly developed societies, Sweden and Italy, are compared. The illustration is tentative, because the author has had to resort to non‐sociological documentation. The conclusion is that the major differences between the two institutional contexts will be functionally related mainly with the type of institutional education and with the degree of authoritarian and autocratic thinking in either case.Passing on to examine a few recent institutional developments, it is stated that their importance for the development of the countryside can only be evaluated if the possibilities for change in collateral institutional fields are also taken into consideration.In the countryside, a process of formalization of functions into new institutions is to be noticed, but the process is not likely to have an equal intensity all over Europe. The continuum of institutional rigidity can help to explain several apparent contradictions in this field which have not so far been cleared by sociological research.Similarly, although educational standards are rising in the countryside everywhere, this is no yardstick for measuring educational development: the place of the society on the continuum should be taken into account.Finally, some overall institutional trends in developed countries are reviewed: the increase in autonomous forces, a shift of political power from the local to national (or 'higher') levels; the increasing importance of economic profitability in institutional development; the trends towards the forming of 'two‐layer'‐societies; the forming of an image of society as a 'firm‐like' organization.All through the discussion of these various points comments are made on the shortcomings in sociological research.In the conclusion some major contradictions in the ideology of a value‐free exercise of sociological research are briefly analyzed. Instead of taking the position of an uninvolved technician or judge of other people's doings, the sociologist should work on the basis of a professional ethic, whereby major tasks would be found in the study and discovery of social phenomena in as far as these are disfunctional for social emancipation or freedom.
