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A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

This article presents a conceptual framework for interpreting recorded human history, discussing the different social orders, the need for a new approach to economic history, and the two fundamental types of organizations. It also explores limited access orders and open access orders, and the conditions for transitioning between them. The article concludes with a discussion on the implications of this framework for understanding development problems in developing countries.

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A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History

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  1. A Conceptual Framework for InterpretingRecorded Human History Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast

  2. Summary of the argument • Three distinct social orders • The limited access order, or natural state, is a social order in which the political system manipulates the economic system to create rents that the political system uses to sustain order. • In open access orders, political, economic, and other forms of competition sustain order.

  3. Why we need a new approach to Economic History and Economic Development • It must include: • How we understand the external environment • Time • Cultural Heritage

  4. An explanation of social change must have these elements • Beliefs • Violence • Institutions and organizations

  5. Social Orders • The key concept in our framework is the social order. • A social order: • Is comprised of economic, political, religious, military, and social systems. • Captures the way the different systems in the larger society – political, economic, and social systems – interact. That interaction defines the way a society works.

  6. Period Social Order 500,000 years ago Primitive Order 10,000 years ago 10,000 years ago Limited Access Order 200 years ago Open Access Order

  7. Period Social Order 500,000 years ago Primitive Order 10,000 years ago 10,000 years ago Limited Access Order Transition 200 years ago Open Access Order

  8. Two Fundamental Types of Organizations • Adherent Organizations: -- Organizations whose internal arrangements depend only on incentive-compatible, self-enforcing agreements. • Contractual Organizations: -- Organizations that utilize third parties to enforce some or all of their internal arrangements.

  9. Limited Access Orders • A limited access order solves the problem of endemic violence and disorder through the creation of a political and economic system we call the Natural State. • Natural states create incentive-compatible agreements among powerful individuals and groups by recognizing the privileges of each individual to control valuable resources and activities.

  10. In a limited access order, only elites possess the right to form contractual organizations whose internal arrangements are enforced by the state. • Access to contractual organizational forms is limited.

  11. Typology of Natural States 1)Fragile Natural States: Only a dominant coalition; fragile; limited institutions. 2) Basic Natural States: A stable organization of the state exists, with a potentially durable institutional structure, but limited or no elite organizations 3) Mature Natural State: Stable perpetual state, and support for public/private elite organizations.

  12. Open Access Orders • The heart of an open access order is fluidity and change in social arrangements. • Open access to organizational forms creates fluidity. • All citizens have the ability to form contractual organizations. • Open access creates and sustains both economic and political competition.

  13. Competition and Rents • Distinction between open access and limited access orders • Not the presence or absence of competition and rent-creation. • But how society channels competition to support access to institutions, rights, and organizations. • Competition erodes rents in both politics and economics.

  14. The Doorstep Hypothesis • Some natural states move to positions in which moves toward open access can be sustained.

  15. Doorstep Conditions • Rule of law for elites • Enfranchisement of the masses • Support for perpetual elite organizations • Political control of the military • The conditions: • Are self-reinforcing; • Create the possibility of impersonal exchange among elites. • Extend rights to all citizens

  16. Conclusions • View of states Limited Access Orders Open Access Order Fragile Basic Mature Doorstep • Two development Problems. • Why standard advice for developing countries -- “getting prices right” and market competition -- fails in natural states. • Alternative perspective.

  17. A Conceptual Framework for InterpretingRecorded Human History Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, and Barry R. Weingast

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