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A growing body of empirical work measuring different types of cultural traits has shown that culture matters for a variety of economic outcomes. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of the relevance of culture: its relationship to institutions. We review work with a theoretical, empirical, and historical bent to assess the presence of a two-way causal effect between culture and institutions. The first part of the paper provides the main definitions and discusses the difficulties associated with the quantitative analysis of this effect. It also features a map of cultural traits used in economics and of their correlations.

The article merges aspects of alliance theory with bargaining theory and mechanism design. Illustrated with a numeric example, it models a within-alliance neutral agency whose purpose it is to propose an efficient level of public good provision for the alliance as a whole and suggests a mechanism by which to overcome incentives for inefficient provision. The article concludes with an extensive discussion for future research needs on alliance mechanism design, e.g., suggesting that a review of the literatures on central bank design and similar institutions might be helpful.

<em>Knowledge management is the process of retrieving, protecting, using and managing the available knowledge. It has gained huge importance in the Business world especially in the corporate sector. It is recognized tool for the effective decision making and attaining competitive advantage. As the educational institutions hold the prime responsibility of effective creation and successful dissemination of the knowledge, it is viewed that the knowledge management practices have greater application to the educational institutions. The objective of the paper is to understand the process, application and role of knowledge management in educational institutions. The paper tries to explore the review of literature on the knowledge management in general and its application to institutes of higher education in particular. </em>

Le monde associatif subit une profonde mutation : il se « professionnalise ». Il part d'un monde construit autour des notions de valeurs, partage, engagement, pour rentrer dans celui de l'efficience, des normes, du droit, voire de la concurrence. Ce monde est peuplé d'acteurs nouveaux. Les directeurs et cadres, souvent issus du terrain, deviennent managers et gestionnaires. Et l'idée plane que ces changements entraînent inéluctablement une perte de sens et des valeurs de nos institutions. Mais de quels changements parle-t-on ? Les managers sont-ils méchants ? Le travail en est-il la victime ? Quel travail veut-on ?

This article examines some basic assumptions about the nature of political institutions, the ways in which practices and rules that comprise institutions are established, sustained, and transformed, and the ways in which those practices and rules are converted into political behavior through the mediation of interpretation and capability. We discuss an institutional approach to political life that emphasizes the endogenous nature and social construction of political institutions, identities, accounts, and capabilities.

AbstractIn this article, we present a case of institutional development in a Quebec health care center. Drawing on a qualitative and constructivist approach, we show that an institution can undergo change while maintaining its institutional nature. The strategic changes studied lead us to consider two factors needed to succeed in an institutional change. Firstly, through a specific pattern the social worlds in the hospital are mobilized according to their relative importance. Secondly, the organizational actors must draw upon their strategic and professional competence to make changes compatible with the values embodied within their institution. These factors illustrate the role of actors in institutional change. Copyright © 2010 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Cover -- Half-title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- Glossary of symbols -- 1 Introduction -- Observations on the state of alternative economic theory -- Problems and plan -- 2 Some basic concepts and issues in the social sciences -- Society and individuals -- Defining 'the social' -- Institutions and behaviour: the social system and the behaviour of individuals -- Social philosophy and the social sciences -- Ethics and the social sciences -- Individual and political ethics -- Links between positive and normative states of affairs -- Definitional remarks on determinism, freedom of choice and caus -- Forms of causality -- Knowledge about society -- Remarks on the nature of knowledge in the social sciences -- Value judgements and theoretical approaches -- Ethics and knowledge -- 3 Some basic issues in political economy -- Definitional issues in political economy and economics -- Political economy and economics -- The meaning of classical-Keynesian political economy -- Different kinds of models and the nature of equilibria -- Institutions and the classical view of society -- The classical heritage and the Keynesian problem -- Layers of reality and the treatment of time: system equilibrium versus uncertainty and expectations -- Remarks on integrating theory and history -- 4 Towards a coherent system of political economy -- Extending Keynes to the long run -- The trend and the cycle -- A theory of long-period output and employment -- The supermultiplier relation: some general aspects -- Some theoretical implications of the supermultiplier relation -- Long-period output and employment determination: the scale ofactivity -- Long-period distribution theory and the nature of profits -- Normal prices -- The long-period significance of money -- International trade -- Structures: proportions between sectors

Der Beitrag untersucht, welchen Beitrag die Rechtssoziologie zu einer Analyse politischer Institutionen zu leisten vermag. Der Autor betrachtet hierbei politische Institutionen unter den Gesichtspunkten ihrer Konstitution, ihrer politischen Steuerung und ihrer begleitenden Gesetzgebung ("reflexiver Institutionalisierungsrozeß"). Er gibt zunächst einen Überblick über den Stand der Theorie politischer Institutionen und legt das Augenmerk darauf, welche Rationalität den politischen Institutionen in den verschiedenen Ansätzen zugemessen wird. Nach einigen Überlegungen zur Verwendung des Institutionsbegriffs in der rechtssoziologischen Theoriebildung unterscheidet der Autor drei Ansätze der soziologischen Explikation von Recht (reflexives Recht, Recht als Institution, prozedurales Recht). In einer abschließenden Bemerkung geht er auf Zusammenhänge von Institutionentheorie und Demokratietheorie ein. (PF)