On the Ideological Theory in the Institutional Economics

摘要

In the researches on the modern economies, a great number of experts pay increasingly more attention to the important role of ideology in the institutional change and economic performance. Under the background of the modern social economic development, the belief systems and values which are determined by ideology have a very important impact on the emergence and development of the market economy. At the mean time, each active agent will inevitably be restricted and affected by the power of ideology. By affecting active agent's mentality, ideology put an impact on the behavioral patterns and the efficiency of economic growth in a further way. As a kind of social environment, ideology forms an interactive relationship with social members and will affect economic performance under the interaction effect of systems. The paper, on the basis of Douglass C. North's theory of ideology, identifies the close relationship between the ideology and the institutional changes as well as its mechanism toward the economic performances. The above make us realize that ideology, which takes up the core position in informal institution, will have an impact on the selection of formal institution.