Europaeischer Institutionalismus: Die Kernkonzepte Open System Approach (OSA) und Circular Cumulative Causation (CCC) und ihre Bedeutung fuer die moderne evolutorisch- institutionelle OEkonomik (European Institutionalism: The Conceptualization of the Ope

摘要

Berger's dissertation (supervised by Wolfram Eisner) shows that critical old institutionalism is still alive among some younger scholars in Germany. The author reconstructs the contributions of Georgescu-Roegen, Lowe, Polanyi, Kapp, and Myrdal. The last two were founding members of the Association for Evolutionary Economics (AFEE). He compares them methodologically and argues that the open system approach and the concept of circular cumulative causation are most important but have often been misunderstood. The author has an excellent overview of the literature. He points out that the open systems approach is holistic, includes a micro and macro perspective, and refers to structural interdependencies of nature, society, and culture in general, and of e.g., institutions, technologies and resources in particular. The economy is analyzed as an overlapping system with culture and nature. Some differences between critical European and American institutionalism are pointed out, e.g., the stronger (and sometimes positive) emphasis of technology by some authors working in the old institutionalist tradition in the United States.