Property and Paradigms

The concept of property has particular importance in the predominant paradigm of contemporary economics, as well as salience in contemporary politics. The protection of property rights and limited government has the status of a veritable mantra in both contexts. In the longer history of political economy, the importance of property as an institution rests on its philosophical and moral foundation (Waldron 1988), ancient custom (Pocock 1975), as well as its importance in provisioning (Hodgson 2001b, 284, 287–288, 299–301, 308–309). With the emergence of the market, property has become a central organizing concept of modern liberal economies. In the context of this chapter, property is also important as an illustration of historical institutional methodology. A similar methodology is used by political scientists, such as Wolfgang Streeck (2009) and Paul Pierson (2004), social theorists (Pels, Hetherington, and Vandenberghe 2002), as well as institutional economists (Greif 2006; Hodgson 2001b). The ultimate goal of this chapter is to frame a methodology which can inform participants in modern institutions about their origins and rationales, as well as provide insights and levers for modifying and improving them. That is, the objective is to inform a deeper version of modern participative democracy, which is beyond electoral politics, to provide transparency as opposed to opacity (Meister 1990).