The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Rationality, Culture and Institutions in Comparative Politics
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Rationality, Culture and Institutions in Comparative Politics

Summary/Abstract: ‘ What’s time? If you hadn’t asked, I would have known. Since you’ve asked me, I’m not quite sure, any longer’, said St. Augustin. When it comes to define ‘institutions’ the political scientists found themselves in the same situation. The institutions are used almost everywhere: from the studies of the origin of the state to the discussion of corporatism; from the literature on legislatures to the analysis of the breakdown of democratic regimes; from the congressional studies to the modernizing of the intellectual transformation; and so on . Because of its ambiguity, the concept of institution became such a big umbrella that almost everything seems to fit in. Being so, it is no surprise if practically every political scientist would agree with such a statement as ‘institutions matter’.

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