The grammar of institutions: The challenge of distinguishing between strategies, norms, and rules

Achim Schlüter and Insa Theesfeld
Additional contact information
Achim Schlüter: Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, Bremen, Germany, achim.schlueter@zmt-bremen.de
Insa Theesfeld: Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern Europe (IAMO), Germany

Rationality and Society, 2010, vol. 22, issue 4, 445-475

Abstract: The grammar of institutions developed by Crawford and Ostrom presents a common syntax for analysing institutions and dismantles them into their components. This is a promising undertaking given the huge diversity of definitions of institutions, even within a single discipline. Additionally, the grammar opens a long existing black box regarding why individuals do or do not follow an institution. It differentiates between formal sanctions (‘or elses’ in the language of the grammar) which are already well analysed and more moral and emotion based factors (so called delta parameters). This process of differentiation is currently widely observed, particularly in economics. Recognising that it is a necessary step forward in analysing institutions, this paper analyses and develops the grammar: first, in relation to its syntactical clearness; and second, in relation to its particular emphasis on delta parameters as central elements for understanding the efficiency and effectiveness of institutions.

Keywords: grammar of institutions; institutional statements; norms; rules; strategies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043463110377299 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:ratsoc:v:22:y:2010:i:4:p:445-475

DOI: 10.1177/1043463110377299

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Rationality and Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by SAGE Publications ().