Working Paper: NBER ID: w28832
Authors: Daron Acemoglu; James A. Robinson
Abstract: This paper proposes a new framework for studying the interplay between culture and institutions. We follow the recent sociology literature and interpret culture as a "repertoire", which allows rich cultural responses to political changes. Specifically, we start with a culture set, which consists of attributes and feasible connections between them. Combinations of attributes produce cultural configurations, which provide social meaning, coordination and political justification both at the individual and the group level. Culture matters as it shapes the set of feasible cultural configurations and institutional arrangements. Our framework has several distinctive features relative to the new cultural economics literature. First, it adopts a "systems approach" to culture, in that the meaning and function of given attributes are determined within the whole configuration and political equilibrium. Second, it emphasizes discontinuous or "saltational" changes in culture—rather than gradual, evolutionary changes—as attributes are rewired and acquire new meanings in response to evolving circumstances and as outcomes in ongoing "cultural struggles". Third, our framework puts the spotlight on how fluidly different cultures can respond to new environments, depending on the nature of their attributes and constraints on their rewirings. Finally, it enriches the study of the co-determination of political and cultural outcomes.
Keywords: No keywords provided
JEL Codes: P16; P50; O10
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| cultural configurations (Z19) | political legitimacy (H11) |
| rewiring of cultural attributes (Z13) | new cultural configurations (Z19) |
| political and economic shifts (P39) | cultural configurations (Z19) |
| cultural struggles (Z18) | shifts in cultural configurations (Z19) |