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Collapse is considered a breakup of institutions and entire socio-economies. Collapse has accompanied socioeconomic history, but seems to have become more topical again in recent decades. We even face the danger of extinction of the human species, due to anthropocenic climate change, not the least based on failure of institutional arrangements. Uprooting migration and "failing states" have become topical as well. Mainstream economics seems to have no clue about all that, advising ever more good old "market-economy institutions." Evolutionary and institutional economics has focused on institutional emergence, evolution, and persistent structures, but still not so much on decline and collapse. I develop an endogenous explanation of institutional decline and collapse implied by the previous success of institutionalized cooperation and increasing (over-)complexity, which exceeds individual cognitive capacities. Institutional adaptability and problem-solving capacity then decline. Uneven distribution of cooperation gains will further cause social conflict and institutional ceremonialization, decline, and collapse. Collapse will not just be a symmetric reverse of emergence. Being subject to sunk costs during emergence, to habituation and normativation, institutions tend to display some hysteresis. The article adopts an evolutionary-institutional perspective, in order to conceptualize future modeling.
Collapse is considered a breakup of institutions and entire socio-economies. Collapse has accompanied socioeconomic history, but seems to have become more topical again in recent decades. We even face the danger of extinction of the human species, due to anthropocenic climate change, not the least based on failure of institutional arrangements. Uprooting migration and "failing states" have become topical as well. Mainstream economics seems to have no clue about all that, advising ever more good old "market-economy institutions." Evolutionary and institutional economics has focused on institutional emergence, evolution, and persistent structures, but still not so much on decline and collapse. I develop an endogenous explanation of institutional decline and collapse implied by the previous success of institutionalized cooperation and increasing (over-)complexity, which exceeds individual cognitive capacities. Institutional adaptability and problem-solving capacity then decline. Uneven distribution of cooperation gains will further cause social conflict and institutional ceremonialization, decline, and collapse. Collapse will not just be a symmetric reverse of emergence. Being subject to sunk costs during emergence, to habituation and normativation, institutions tend to display some hysteresis. The article adopts an evolutionary-institutional perspective, in order to conceptualize future modeling.
This paper reviews the history of human economic activity from the time Homo sapiens appeared to the present. The first aim is to provide a coherent narrative of the economic history of this period. The second aim is to quantify economic activities where time series data is available and to use economic theory to explain the trends and turning points. It examines the history of three central time series – the aggregate human population, output per capita and human‐induced species extinctions. It concludes with some brief observations on the contribution of Big Economic History to Big Human History.
The Review of Radical Political Economics (RRPE) welcomes and actively recruits reviews of significant books that are of interest to RRPE readers. Contributors are invited to prepare reviews of books on the following list, which we have received from publishers interested in having reviews appear in the RRPE. Contributors are also welcome and encouraged to prepare reviews of significant books not on this list but that are of interest to RRPE readers. The RRPE publishes three different types of reviews: • • Reviews of individual books, both books on the following list that have been received from publishers, as well as books not on this list that are related to radical political economics. These reviews should be 1500-2000 words in length. • • Review essays encompassing three or four books that bring together an important literature in significant areas for political economists. These reviews should be 2500-3500 words in length. • • Ambitious examinations of bodies of literature that should be better known by RRPE readers. These reviews should also be 2500-3500 words in length. Please contact the RRPE book review editor, Fletcher Baragar, for assistance in obtaining review copies of books. More detailed instructions will accompany the book when it is sent. RRPE book reviews are blind peer-reviewed by the book review editor and one other member of the Editorial Board.
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