APPLICABILITY OF NEW INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS IN THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF IDEOLOGIES AND RELIGIONS
APPLICABILITY OF NEW INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS IN THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF IDEOLOGIES AND RELIGIONS

Summary/Abstract: The paper tries to demonstrate the great explanatory potential of economic theory in general and new institutional economics in the domain of ideologies and religions. This is done by presenting Douglass C. North’s concepts about ideological conviction and its role in contracting, collective action, and institutional change. It is shown how choices within the constraints of ideological beliefs as well as choices about the ideological beliefs can be explained by applying the utility-maximizing model within the new institutional economics perspective. It is also argued that this institutional-economic approach interpretation of ideologies and religions being accepted and changed by people has neither reductionist nor denouncing inherent aims or implications.

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