Ten Counter-Intuitions about Institutional Design: Reflections on Economics, Culture, and Politics

Abstract

The text develops ten reflections on issues of economics, politics, culture, and political psychology—that is, issues of institutional design. The perspective from which the text is developed is democratic republicanism. The set of reflections, which are deliberately written as provocations, attempts to subvert common sense regarding the subjects addressed. The strictly economic topics are private property, the democratic or technical organization of work, and the free market. The cultural and political psychology topics are motivational monism, cooperation and competition, and institutional design and culture. The strictly political topics are the idea of ​​republican democracy, the sovereign and the mandate of government, the public, and democratic political design.