Social Orders and Development: The Analytical Climax of Douglass North's New Political Economy

Abstract

This article analyzes the Theory of Social Orders (TOS) by Douglass North, John Wallis, Barry Weingast, and Steven Webb as a breakthrough in the field of New Institutional Economics, also known as the New Political Economy of Development (NEPD). After synthesizing North's contributions on institutions, institutional change, and the role of the state, it demonstrates that TOS overcomes the limitations of NEPD by incorporating the control of violence, the logic of dominant coalitions, and the distinction between Limited Access (LAO) and Open Access (OAA) Orders. Based on an interpretative survey of the seminal literature, it concludes that TOS offers a more robust framework for explaining the persistence of rentier systems and the difficulties of institutional transition in Latin America. It also highlights the interdependence between political and economic systems and the importance of mental models in legitimizing the "rules of the game," providing theoretical foundations for policies aimed at overcoming the pitfalls of limited access.