Mrs Tilton – sounds like a good idea. Although since it took me two months to get my promo site sorted, I wouldn’t be holding my breath for it to be implemented soon (small children play havoc with yr schedule).

Phil – Cambridge offered to give me paper vouchers if I did any readings for a 20% off deal, and I told em that I’d much prefer an electronic discount, which they set up without any fuss. Now it may be that they are better equipped in their website than some …

ECW - I define institutions (following new institutional economists like Doug North, and pol scientists like Jack Knight) as sets of rules. There is a more elaborate definition in the book, but as best as I recall, the piece on institutions in my piece with Jack Knight linked from me website talks about definitional questions at much greater length, and is probably what you are looking for …

Thanks to all again.

I’ve read throught the first chapter and understood the arguments about trust, but I’m not a political scientist and had trouble figuring out what, exactly, counts as an institution. Are institutions just rules (and if so, is it only explicit rules enforced by the state or are cultural rules and assumptions also institutions)? Are they norms, either historical or cultural? Are they the bureaucratic populations that administer the law? Something else? I assume this is something political scientists would understand clearly based on your citations, but I don’t know that literature.

Any chance you have a one-two sentence definition of what institutions are in your project?

That’d be a Good Thing To Do, and also a clever sales tactic (“I really shouldn’t be spending that sort of money on a book, but seeing as how it’ll help buy shoes for shoeless kittens…”). It’s all good!