Designing Institutions for East European Transitions

Abstract: This paper is divided in just two main sections. The first section of this paper serves conceptual purposes. I lay out a dualist concept of institutions and contrast it to related concepts such as organization, norm, and convention. The second part looks at institutions in a longitudinal perspective. What happens to them over time, how can we explain what happens, and how can we intentionally determine what happens to institutions and, as a consequence, to those living under these institutions? In this preliminary draft version, the reference to East and Central European transitions from communist regimes is still casual and unsystematic, but in a later version I intend to fill in more complete and specific references to the institutional design problems of these countries as they pertain to liberalization, democratization, and privatization.;