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Abstract

Neo-institutionalism in the social sciences harbors pretentious claims about the consequences of institutions. ‘Institutions Matter’, it is stated. We ask: ‘For what?’ The basic distinction here is the one between institutions as systems of rules on the one hand and social, economic and political outcomes on the other. We need models to test whether a variation in institutions is accompanied by or occurs together with a variation in outcomes. A chief difficulty in institutionalist theory is that the model linking the institution with the outcome is often not stated explicitly.

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© 1997 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

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Lane, JE., Ersson, S. (1997). Is Federalism Superior?. In: Steunenberg, B., van Vught, F. (eds) Political Institutions and Public Policy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8603-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8603-0_5

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4818-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-015-8603-0

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