Social institutions can be divided into formal and informal.
The criterion for division is the degree of formalization of the connections, interactions, and relationships existing in them.
Formal institutions are a way of organized construction based on the social formalization of connections, statuses and norms. Formal institutions ensure the flow of business information necessary for functional interaction. Regulate daily personal contacts. Formal social institutions are regulated by laws and regulations.
Formal social institutions include:
Economic institutions - banks, industrial institutions;
Political institutions - parliament, police, government;
Educational and cultural institutions - family, college and other educational institutions, school, art institutions.
When the functions and methods of a social institution are not reflected in formal rules and laws, an informal institution is created. Informal institutions are a spontaneously formed system of social connections, interactions and norms of interpersonal and intergroup communication. Informal institutions arise where the malfunction of a formal institution causes a violation of functions important for the life of the entire social organism. The mechanism of such compensation is based on a certain commonality of interests of its member organizations. An informal institution is based on a personal choice of connections and associations among themselves, suggesting personal informal service relationships. There are no rigid standards. Formal institutions rely on a rigid structure of relationships, while in informal institutions such a structure is situational in nature.
Informal organizations create more opportunities for creative productive activity, development and implementation of innovations.
Examples of informal institutions - nationalism, interest organizations
Rockers, hazing in the army, informal leaders in groups, religious communities whose activities contradict the laws of society, a circle of neighbors.
From the 2nd half. 20th century In many countries, many informal organizations and movements (including the Greens) have appeared, dealing with environmental activities and environmental problems, an informal organization of television drama lovers.
So, an institution is a unique form of human activity based on a clearly developed ideology, a system of rules and norms, as well as developed social control over their implementation. Institutional activities are carried out by people organized in groups or associations, where they are divided into statuses and roles in accordance with the needs of a given social group or society as a whole. Institutions thus maintain social structures and order in society.
The advantages of informal institutions include, firstly, the ability to adapt to changing external conditions, preferences within the community and other exogenous or endogenous changes. Secondly, the possibility of applying different sanctions in each specific case (after all, for some, a strict warning is enough, while others have to be excluded from the group).
The disadvantages of informal institutions are a continuation of their advantages. Informal institutions are often characterized by ambiguity in the interpretation of rules, a decrease in the effectiveness of sanctions, and the emergence of discriminatory rules.
The problem with interpreting rules arises when people of different cultures, different experiences interact, and also when information is disseminated with distortions. The effectiveness of sanctions is low when people are not afraid of being ostracized, assessing the likelihood of punishment as insignificant compared to the benefits of deviant behavior, when they know that the implementation of punishment is associated with costs. In addition, during the functioning of informal institutions, discriminatory rules may arise against certain groups (for example, against redheads, gypsies or short people).
Firstly, the formalization of rules makes it possible to expand their normative function. Codification of rules, their official recording and recording in the form of a regulation or law allows individuals to save on information costs, makes sanctions for violating these rules clearer, and eliminates the contradictions contained in them.
Second, formal rules provide mechanisms for solving the free-rider problem. If the relationship is not constantly recurring, then its participants cannot be informally forced to comply with the rule, since reputation mechanisms do not work. For such relationships to be effective, third party intervention is required. For example, as a member of society, a person derives certain benefits from his position, but he may refuse to bear the costs associated with this position. The larger the society, the higher the incentives to engage in a free-rider strategy,65 making the problem particularly acute for large groups with impersonal relationships and necessitating external intervention.
Third, formal rules can counteract discrimination. Institutions that arise spontaneously within a group are often structured in such a way that insiders have advantages over outsiders. For example, the main condition for the effectiveness of commercial networks is a small number of participants and exclusivity of participation due to high barriers to entry. Experience shows that informal institutions of network trading and finance contribute to economic development only up to a certain level, and then only formal institutions can provide returns to scale, because only they can create an atmosphere of trust and enable newcomers to freely enter the market66. And such external intervention, counteracting discrimination and creating conditions for economic growth, is required quite often.
Options for the relationship between formal and informal institutions
The characteristics of formal and informal rules and methods of forcing individuals to comply with the rules allow us to discuss the issue of ratio options formal and informal rules. The importance of such a discussion is due to the fact that informal rules are often understood as non-rigid, violations of which are quite possible and acceptable, while formal ones are interpreted as hard, strictly enforced, since their violation is necessarily associated with punishment of violators.
Meanwhile, since enforcement of formal rules presupposes specialized activities of guarantors carried out by them on the basis rewards for their labor efforts, the success of this activity is largely determined by the incentives of the guarantors to conscientiously perform their official duties. If such incentives are weak, formal rules may actually be less stringent than informal rules. Therefore, the question of the relationship between formal and informal rules operating in the same situations becomes important for a correct understanding of the observed facts.
We will consider this relationship first in statics and then in dynamics. IN statics two options are possible: formal and informal norms correspond to each other; formal and informal norms do not correspond (contradict) each other.
The case is ideal, in the sense that the behavior of the recipients of formal and informal rules is regulated by all possible guarantors acting in concert, so that the likelihood of inappropriate behavior in regulated situations can be assessed as minimal. We can say that formal and informal rules in this case mutually support each other.
The case seems more typical, since many formal rules introduced either by the state or by the leaders of various organizations are often aimed at realizing their narrow interests, while informal rules shared by various social groups meet the interests of their participants. Of course, a contradiction between such interests is not inevitable, but it is quite likely.
In appropriate situations, the actual choice by recipients of non-agreed norms of one of them (and, consequently, the choice in favor of violating the other) is determined by balance between benefits and costs compliance with each of the compared standards. Moreover, along with the direct benefits and costs of each action, such balances also include the expected costs of applying sanctions for violating an alternative rule.
The relationship between formal and informal rules in dynamics has a more complex character. The following situations stand out here:
The formal rule is introduced on the base a positive informal rule; in other words, the last formalized which makes it possible to supplement the existing mechanisms for enforcing it with formal mechanisms; An example of such a relationship can be the medieval codes, in which norms protected by the state, norms of customary law that guided townspeople in resolving conflict situations were written down and acquired force;
A formal rule is introduced for counteraction established informal norms; if the latter are assessed negatively by the state, the creation of a mechanism for enforcing behavior that differs from that suggested by informal rules is one of the options for state action in the relevant area; a typical example is the introduction of bans on duels, practiced among the nobility.
Informal rules are crowding out formal, if the latter generate unjustified costs for their subjects, without bringing tangible benefits either to the state or directly to the guarantors of such rules; in this case, the formal rule seems to “fall asleep”: without being formally canceled, it ceases to be an object of monitoring by the guarantors and, due to its harmfulness for the addressees, ceases to be enforced by them; examples include numerous precedent-setting court decisions in US states, adopted in isolated conflict cases and subsequently forgotten, such as the ban on peeling vegetables after 11 pm;
Emerging informal rules contribute to the implementation introduced formal rules; such situations arise when the latter are introduced in a form that does not sufficiently clearly and fully characterize the actions of either the addressees or the guarantors of the rule; in this case, the practice of implementing the “spirit” of the introduced formal rule (if, of course, its implementation is generally beneficial for its addressees) develops and selects such informal models of behavior that contribute to achieving the goal of the original formal rule - deformalization of rules; examples can be the norms of relationships in organizations, which actually develop “around” formal instructions, aimed at more effectively achieving set goals.
In general, as can be seen from the situations analyzed, formal and informal rules can either contradict each other, compete with each other, or mutually complement and support each other.
Send your good work in the knowledge base is simple. Use the form below
Students, graduate students, young scientists who use the knowledge base in their studies and work will be very grateful to you.
Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/
INTRODUCTION
Social practice shows that it is vital for human society to consolidate certain types of social relations, to make them mandatory for members of a certain society or a certain social group. This primarily refers to those social relationships, by entering into which, members of a social group ensure the satisfaction of the most important needs necessary for the successful functioning of the group as an integral social unit. Thus, the need for the reproduction of material wealth forces people to consolidate and maintain production relations; The need to socialize the younger generation and educate young people based on the examples of the group’s culture forces us to consolidate and maintain family relationships and the learning relationships of young people. Systems of social roles, statuses and sanctions are created in the form of social institutions, which are the most complex and important types of social connections for society.
A social institution is an organized system of connections and social norms that brings together significant social values and procedures that satisfy the basic needs of society. These are fairly stable forms of organization and regulation of joint activities of people. Social institutions perform in society the functions of social management and social control as one of the elements of management. Social institutions guide the behavior of members of society through a system of sanctions and rewards. In social management and control, institutions play a very important role. Their task comes down to more than just coercion. In every society there are institutions that guarantee freedom in certain types of activities - freedom of creativity or innovation, freedom of speech, the right to receive a certain form and amount of income, to housing and free medical care.
Social institutions are classified based on the content and functions they perform - economic, political, educational, cultural, religious.
Social institutions can also be divided into formal and informal. The criterion for division is the degree of formalization of the connections, interactions, and relationships existing in them.
CHAPTER 1.THE IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS IN ECONOMIC THEORY
1.1 Rvariousscientists' views on the concept of "I"Institute"
It is difficult to overestimate the role of institutions in modern economic life, since it is thanks to them that interaction between people is streamlined and conflicts that arise in a world of limited resources are resolved. There is no clear and unambiguous definition of the concept of “institution” in economic theory, but, as Arrow notes, “since research in this area is still in its infancy, excessive precision should be avoided. Nevertheless, let’s try to consider the most interesting approaches to defining this phenomenon in foreign economic thought.
One of the founders of the new institutional economic theory is economist John Rawls. The concept of institution in his works is one of the central ones, in particular in the article “The Theory of Justice” he describes this category as a public system of rules that define position and position with corresponding rights and responsibilities, power and immunity, and the like. These rules specify certain forms of action as permissible and others as prohibited, and they punish certain actions and protect others when violence occurs. As examples, or more general social practices, we can cite games, rituals, courts and parliaments, markets and property systems.
The first to introduce the concept of institution into economic theory was Thorstein Veblen. By institutions he understood a certain widespread way of thinking regarding the individual relations between society and the individual and the individual functions they perform; in addition, an institution for him is a system of social life, which is composed of a set of those acting at a certain time or at any moment in the development of any society. This system can be characterized from a psychological point of view in general terms as a prevailing spiritual position or a common idea about the way of life in society.
However, at present, within the framework of modern institutionalism, the most common interpretation is that of Douglas North: “institutions are the “rules of the game” in society, or, to put it more formally, human-created restrictive frameworks that organize relationships between people,” these are “rules, mechanisms, ensuring their implementation, and the norms of behavior that structure repeated interactions between people,” “formal rules, informal restrictions, and ways to ensure the effectiveness of restrictions,” or “human-created restrictions that structure human interactions.
North here includes formal restrictions (rules, laws, constitutions), informal restrictions (social norms, conventions and self-adopted codes of conduct) and mechanisms for enforcing their implementation.” Taken together, as North puts it, they determine the structure of incentives in society, including the economy.
Let us consider several more approaches to the “institution” phenomenon.
For example, John Commons defines institution as follows: institution is the collective action of controlling, liberating and expanding individual action. Another classic of institutionalism, Wesley Mitchell, has the following definition: institutions are dominant, and highly standardized, social habits.
Nobel Prize laureate Elinor Ostrom gives a fairly detailed definition; by institutions she understood the set of existing rules on the basis of which it is established who has the right to make decisions in relevant areas, what actions are allowed or limited in relevant areas, what actions are allowed or limited, what general rules will be used, what procedures must be followed, what information must be determined and what must not be determined, and what benefits individuals will receive depending on their actions...All rules contain regulations that prohibit, permit, or require certain actions or decisions. Existing rules are those that are actually used, monitored, and protected by appropriate mechanisms when individuals choose the actions they intend to take...
In economic theory there are several approaches to the formation of institutions. According to one of them, institutions arise spontaneously on the basis of the personal interests of individuals. A proponent of this approach is the Austrian economist Carl Menger. He argued that individuals could organize themselves "without any agreement, without legislative inducement, or even without regard to the interests of society."
At the same time, another Austrian economist Friedrich August von Hayek, describing this approach, used the term evolutionary rationalism.
The opposite approach to the emergence of institutions is based on the idea that institutions are the result of deliberate design. Some entities with a certain influence (parliament, dictator, entrepreneur) can independently create an institutional structure in pursuit of a specific goal. Describing this model, Nobel Prize winner in economics and one of the brightest representatives of neo-institutionalism, Oliver Williamson, uses the terms of a “deliberate” type of management.
It should be noted that an important role is played by individuals who use this or that institution. Popper argued that “institutions are like fortresses. They must be well designed and manned."
The existence of institutions implies that people's actions depend on each other, thereby forming an information impulse that will be taken into account by other economic agents when making decisions. When it comes to institutions, it is necessary to note one characteristic feature of the behavior of economic agents, namely, by following one or another rule, economic agents demonstrate a certain regularity. However, not in all cases the repetition of individual actions is due to institutions, since there are other mechanisms not created by people. The importance of distinguishing patterns of behavior into those determined by institutions and those determined by other reasons is associated with a correct understanding of the significance of institutions in the economy and other spheres of social life. formal economic institute
The importance of institutions is manifested in the fact that, for example, laws adopted by the government determine various rules for the functioning of business entities, which in turn directly affects the structure and level of costs, the efficiency and results of economic activities of enterprises, etc.
1.2 Rvariousinfluence of institutions on economic actors
Why do certain institutions have different and sometimes even unexpected influences on economic entities? To answer this question, it should be noted that legally established rules can be considered, first of all, as a special type of restrictions imposed on the possibility of using resources, which will ultimately affect the economic result.
Next, it is necessary to determine whether the behavior of economic agents is influenced by rules that are not related to government regulation, that is, are those institutions that do not directly prescribe or limit the actions of individuals regarding the delimitation and use of resources important for the development of the economy?
To answer the question posed, we can give an example mentioned in D. North’s book “Institutions, Institutional Change and the Functioning of the Economy.” North compared the economic development of England and Spain, trying to identify the reasons that helped England achieve economic growth, while Spain led to stagnation. By the 17th century the countries were at approximately the same level of economic development, but in England the possibilities for the seizure of income and other property by the royal power were significantly limited by parliament. Thus having reliable protection of their property from governmental encroachments, the nobility could make long-term and profitable investments, the results of which were expressed in impressive economic growth. In Spain, the power of the crown was limited by the Cortes purely formally, so the expropriation of property from potentially economically active subjects was quite possible. Accordingly, it was very risky to make significant and long-term capital investments, and the resources received from the colonies were used for consumption rather than accumulation. As a long-term consequence of the basic political-economic (constitutional) rules adopted in these countries, Great Britain became a world power, and Spain was transformed into a second-rate European country.
Thus, it is possible to establish a relationship between the country’s economic growth and the quality of functioning institutions, that is, a more developed system of institutions guarantees higher rates of economic growth.
The essence of institutions is manifested in their functions. The first function, as noted earlier, is related to restricting access to resources and their use. In turn, the restrictive function is associated with the function of coordinating economic agents, that is, the description of the content of the institution contains knowledge about how economic agents should behave if they find themselves in a particular situation. Based on it, agents will form their own line of behavior, taking into account the expected actions of the other side, which means the emergence of coordination in their actions. An important condition for such coordination is the awareness of agents about the content of the institution that regulates behavior in a given situation.
The coordination function is inextricably linked with the emergence of a coordination effect, the essence of which is to ensure savings for economic agents on the costs of studying and predicting the behavior of other economic agents that they encounter in various situations. Thus, the coordination effect of institutions is realized through reducing the level of uncertainty in the environment in which economic agents operate. It is important that the coordination effect of institutions has a positive impact on the economy only when the institutions are coordinated with each other.
The next function - distributive - is associated with the fact that the institution, by limiting possible methods of action, also influences the distribution of resources. It is important to emphasize that the distribution of resources, benefits and costs is affected not only by those rules whose content directly involves the transfer of benefits from one agent to another (for example, tax legislation or rules for determining customs duties), but also by those that do not directly relate to these issues.
In the system of institutions, it is customary to distinguish two types - formal and informal. We'll look at them in more detail in the next chapter.
So let's summarize. Institution is a basic concept of the new institutional economic theory and an integral part of general economic theory. In general, institutions can be defined as a set of formal and informal rules, including mechanisms to ensure their compliance. The significance of the institution lies in directing individual behavior in the desired direction by consolidating the norms of behavior of economic agents, as well as limiting the use of resources by individuals and the options for their use.
CHAPTER 2.THE CONCEPT OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS
2.1 FnormalAndnWithtitles
In all societies, people impose restrictions on themselves that allow them to structure their relationships with other people. With insufficient information and cognitive abilities, these restrictions reduce the costs of interaction between people. It is easier to describe the formal rules created by a developed society and follow them than to describe the informal rules developed by people and follow these rules.
Formal institutions are institutions in which the scope of functions, means and methods of functioning are regulated by laws or other normative legal acts, formally approved orders, regulations, rules, charters, etc. Formal social institutions include the state, court, army, family, school, etc. They carry out their management and control functions on the basis of strictly established formal regulations, negative and positive sanctions. Formal institutions play an important role in stabilizing and consolidating modern society. “If social institutions are the mighty ropes of the system of social connections, then formal social institutions are a fairly strong and flexible metal frame that determines the strength of society.”
Formal social institutions include:
economic institutions - banks, industrial institutions;
political institutions - parliament, police, government;
educational and cultural institutions - family, college and other educational institutions, schools, art institutions.
Formal institutions are those institutions that are recorded in written law (constitutions, decrees, laws, etc.).
Even in the most advanced societies, formal economic rules constitute a small part of the constraints that guide economic choice. The same formal rules have different manifestations in different societies. Revolutions, wars and occupations can completely change the system of formal rules (Japan, Russia).
Classification of formal rules:
(1) positional - a set of status positions and the number of people who can occupy them,
(2) restrictive - how people take and leave positions,
(3) rules of sphere of influence - what can be influenced by a person’s action, what are the benefits and costs of certain actions,
(4) management rules - a set of actions that an individual can carry out in a certain position,
(5) rules of aggregation - how the actions of a person in a certain position are transformed into the activities of a company or society,
(6) information rules - how officials communicate and exchange information.
Formal rules can complement informal restrictions and increase their effectiveness. They can reduce the costs of obtaining information, surveillance and coercion, that is, regulate more complex exchanges. Finally, formal rules can be introduced to redefine informal restrictions.
Formal rules include political (legal) rules, economic rules and direct contracts. Political and legal rules determine the structure of society and decision-making in it, as well as the means of monitoring compliance with these rules. Economic rules determine property rights (including the use of property, the receipt of residual income, and the restriction of outside access to property). Contracts establish the specific fact of the exchange of property rights and its conditions.
The function of rules is to facilitate political or economic exchange in the interests of some of its participants (who seek to establish these rules). Sometimes players find it beneficial to spend resources on transforming existing formal institutions in order to change the rights they have.
Formal rules usually provide a mechanism for their protection, making it possible to establish the fact of violation, measure the extent of the violation and its consequences for the parties, and punish the violator. But if the costs of assessing the properties of the goods exchanged and the behavior of individuals exceed the gain, then there is no point in following the rules and clarifying property rights. One of the reasons for observing and maintaining norms is the intervention of the law. Norms often precede laws, but are then supported, governed, and extended by laws. The law supports the norm in several ways. The most obvious of them is that the law, through the power of the state, supports the mechanisms of private enforcement of norms. Under the influence of the law, the problem of enforcement of norms as a collective good disappears, since special individuals (judges, police officers, inspectors) receive selective opportunities to find and punish violations.
2.2 Ninformalinstitutions
When the functions and methods of a social institution are not reflected in formal rules and laws, an informal institution is created.
Informal institutions are a spontaneously formed system of social connections, interactions and norms of interpersonal and intergroup communication. Informal institutions arise where the malfunction of a formal institution causes a disruption of functions important for the life of the entire social organism. The mechanism of such compensation is based on a certain commonality of interests of its member organizations. An informal institution is based on a personal choice of connections and associations among themselves, suggesting personal informal service relationships. There are no rigid standards. Formal institutions rely on a rigid structure of relationships, while in informal institutions such a structure is situational in nature.
Informal organizations create more opportunities for creative productive activity, development and implementation of innovations.
Examples of informal institutions - nationalism, interest organizations
Rockers, hazing in the army, informal leaders in groups, religious communities whose activities contradict the laws of society, a circle of neighbors.
From the 2nd half. 20th century In many countries, many informal organizations and movements (including the Greens) have appeared, dealing with environmental activities and environmental problems, an informal organization of television drama lovers.
Informal constraints arise from information transmitted through social mechanisms and are part of culture. Through learning or imitation, culture transmits from one generation to the next knowledge and values that influence behavior. Through communication, culture sets the conceptual framework for cognition and learning (including the encoding and interpretation of information). Culture provides continuity through which informal solutions to exchange problems found in the past are carried into the present and make former informal constraints an important source of continuity during long-term social change.
Informal norms are:
(1) the continuation, development and modification of formal rules (as in political institutions),
(2) socially sanctioned norms of behavior (under threat of ostracism),
(3) internally binding norms of behavior for a person (including altruism and ideology).
Some of the informal norms are self-sustaining in nature, the other part is more complex, since they must be accompanied by additional norms that reduce the costs of monitoring, control and execution of the terms of exchange.
So, an institution is a unique form of human activity based on a clearly developed ideology, a system of rules and norms, as well as developed social control over their implementation. Institutional activities are carried out by people organized in groups or associations, where they are divided into statuses and roles in accordance with the needs of a given social group or society as a whole. Institutions thus maintain social structures and order in society.
CHAPTER 3.INFLUENCE OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL INSTITUTIONS ON THE EFFICIENCY OF THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Institutions are a set of formal and informal rules created by people, acting as restrictions for economic agents, as well as corresponding mechanisms for monitoring their compliance and protection.
A control mechanism refers to a set of means by which compliance or violation of a rule can be identified, as well as the application of incentive or disincentive sanctions.
Institutions are both formal laws (constitutions, legislation, property rights) and informal rules (traditions, customs, codes of conduct). Institutions were created by people to ensure order and eliminate uncertainty in exchange. Such institutions, together with standard restrictions adopted in economics, determined the set of alternatives, production and circulation costs and, accordingly, profitability and the likelihood of engaging in economic activity.
Modern economic theory of institutions is in its infancy, although much research has been carried out over the past two decades. In 1993, D. North was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics as one of the pioneers of new institutional economics.
Institutions are quite debatable concepts. Scientists have never given them a clear definition. Moreover, from an economic perspective, institutions have been defined differently. For example, Elster writes that an institution is characterized by a law-enforcement mechanism that changes behavior using force, which is its most striking aspect. J. Knight believes that institutions are a set of rules that structure social relationships in a special way, the knowledge of which should be shared by all members of a given community.
Using the terminology developed by K. Menger, institutions can be defined as public goods of a higher order. This is explained as follows. If institutions ensure the production of information necessary to coordinate the actions of individual economic agents, then this information turns out to be a public good. Thus, the market price, which is a carrier of information, is formed on the basis of the interaction of economic agents, which is built on certain rules.
Institutions, by providing agents with the necessary information, contribute to the formation of mutually compatible expectations that determine the coordination of their actions and the achievement of mutually beneficial results. In this case, institutions as a set of rules have the properties of self-sufficiency, voluntary compliance, and no external body is required to ensure compliance with the established rule.
Institutions can be seen as social capital, which can change through depreciation and new investment." Formal laws can change quickly, but coercion and formal rules change slowly. And here Russia is an example, adapting the economic institutions of capitalism to suit the market model. Informal rules , norms and customs are not created by the authorities; they often develop spontaneously.
Institutions slowly adapt to changes in the environment, so institutions that were effective become ineffective and remain so for a long time, since it is difficult to turn society away from the historical path established a long time ago.
The role of institutions in economic life is extremely great. Institutions reduce uncertainty by structuring everyday life. They organize relationships between people. Institutions define and limit the set of alternatives in economic behavior that each person has. They include all forms of restrictions created by people in order to give a certain order to human relationships.
Institutions can be formal or informal. Formal institutions are rules invented by people, while informal institutions are generally accepted conventions and codes of behavior (customs, traditions, etc.). They may be the product of conscious human design (for example, a constitution) or simply develop through the process of historical development.
Formal institutions are often created to serve the interests of those who control institutional change in a market economy. The pursuit of self-interest for some may have a negative effect on others.
Social institutions that fulfill ideological or spiritual needs often influence social organizations and economic behavior. Attempts by the state to manipulate social institutions, such as norms, for its own purposes have often been unsuccessful. An example is the education of Soviet people in the spirit of the moral code of the builders of communism.
Institutional constraints include both prohibitions on individuals from performing certain actions and sometimes instructions on the conditions under which individuals are allowed to perform certain actions. Therefore, institutions represent the framework within which people interact with each other. An important element of the mechanism of functioning of institutions is that establishing the fact of a violation does not require special efforts and that the violator is subject to severe punishment.
CONCLUSION
The role of social institutions is very important in modern society.
It is social institutions that support joint cooperative activities in organizations and determine sustainable patterns of behavior, ideas and incentives.
A social institution is an organized system of connections and social norms that brings together significant social values and procedures that satisfy the basic needs of society. These are fairly stable forms of organization and regulation of joint activities of people. Social institutions perform in society the functions of social management and social control as one of the elements of management. Social institutions guide the behavior of members of society through a system of sanctions and rewards. In social management and control, institutions play a very important role. Their task comes down to more than just coercion. In every society there are institutions that guarantee freedom in certain types of activities - freedom of creativity or innovation, freedom of speech, the right to receive a certain form and amount of income, to housing and free medical care.
Posted on Allbest.ru
...Similar documents
Scientific approaches to the definition of the term "institution". Restrictive, coordinating and distributive functions of institutions. Division of institutions into formal and informal. Conditions for the effectiveness of informal institutions in regulating community life.
test, added 11/11/2014
Informal institutions in the form of corruption and informal networks, their impact on the distribution of benefits between different groups of the population and the productivity of the economy as a whole. Partial equilibrium models in the economy for the distribution of public goods.
thesis, added 10/27/2017
The meaning and functions of economic policy. Specific features and characteristics of institutions in the field of economic policy, experience and trends in their improvement in Russia. The role and significance of interaction between economic policy institutions.
thesis, added 11/08/2013
Influencing the distribution of limited resources, transaction costs and undermining the principles of fair competition are the consequences of the activities of informal institutions for the economy. Characteristics of the features of the economic model of corruption and bureaucracy.
thesis, added 08/11/2017
Institutions, their classification and types. The role of institutions in the economic system. Basic concepts of the theory of property rights. Concept and types of transactions. Concept and classification of contracts. The essence and nature of economic organizations. The state as an institution.
cheat sheet, added 05/27/2010
Concepts, essence, meaning and functions of economic institutions. Institutionalism of the Soviet period, approaches to transforming the institutional structure in the post-Soviet period. Transformation processes occurring in the socio-economic system.
abstract, added 04/05/2018
Theoretical and methodological study of the essence and content of economic institutions, the characteristic features of their formation and functioning in modern conditions. Analysis of the role of the state in regulating the activities of economic institutions.
course work, added 10/20/2013
The essence of the process of modernization of economic institutions in Russia. Types of economic theories. Classical and neoclassical theories, institutionalism. Analysis of the system of market institutions based on the techniques and methods of the systemic institutional approach.
course work, added 06/26/2014
The concept of institutional change. Reasons for change and ways of borrowing institutions. "Imported" institutions in Russian economics and law. Reasons for rejection of imported institutions for the Russian Federation. Main types of institutional changes.
test, added 07/12/2011
Institutions as the basis of economic behavior. Behavior of the individual as a consumer and participant in production. The main types of situations leading to the emergence of institutions. Typology of institutions, their functions and role. Institutional structure of society.
In all societies, people impose restrictions on themselves that allow them to structure their relationships with other people. With insufficient information and cognitive abilities, these restrictions reduce the costs of interaction between people. It is easier to describe the formal rules created by a developed society and follow them than to describe the informal rules developed by people and follow these rules.
Formal institutions are institutions in which the scope of functions, means and methods of functioning are regulated by laws or other normative legal acts, formally approved orders, regulations, rules, charters, etc. Formal social institutions include the state, court, army, family, school, etc. They carry out their management and control functions on the basis of strictly established formal regulations, negative and positive sanctions. Formal institutions play an important role in stabilizing and consolidating modern society. “If social institutions are the mighty ropes of the system of social connections, then formal social institutions are a fairly strong and flexible metal frame that determines the strength of society.”
Formal social institutions include:
economic institutions - banks, industrial institutions;
political institutions - parliament, police, government;
educational and cultural institutions - family, college and other educational institutions, schools, art institutions.
Formal institutions are those institutions that are recorded in written law (constitutions, decrees, laws, etc.).
Even in the most advanced societies, formal economic rules constitute a small part of the constraints that guide economic choice. The same formal rules have different manifestations in different societies. Revolutions, wars and occupations can completely change the system of formal rules (Japan, Russia).
Classification of formal rules:
- (1) positional - a set of status positions and the number of people who can occupy them,
- (2) restrictive - how people take and leave positions,
- (3) rules of sphere of influence - what can be influenced by a person’s action, what are the benefits and costs of certain actions,
- (4) management rules - a set of actions that an individual can carry out in a certain position,
- (5) rules of aggregation - how the actions of a person in a certain position are transformed into the activities of a company or society,
- (6) information rules - how officials communicate and exchange information.
Formal rules can complement informal restrictions and increase their effectiveness. They can reduce the costs of obtaining information, surveillance and coercion, that is, regulate more complex exchanges. Finally, formal rules can be introduced to redefine informal restrictions.
Formal rules include political (legal) rules, economic rules and direct contracts. Political and legal rules determine the structure of society and decision-making in it, as well as the means of monitoring compliance with these rules. Economic rules determine property rights (including the use of property, the receipt of residual income, and the restriction of outside access to property). Contracts establish the specific fact of the exchange of property rights and its conditions.
The function of rules is to facilitate political or economic exchange in the interests of some of its participants (who seek to establish these rules). Sometimes players find it beneficial to spend resources on transforming existing formal institutions in order to change the rights they have.
Formal rules usually provide a mechanism for their protection, making it possible to establish the fact of violation, measure the extent of the violation and its consequences for the parties, and punish the violator. But if the costs of assessing the properties of the goods exchanged and the behavior of individuals exceed the gain, then there is no point in following the rules and clarifying property rights. One of the reasons for observing and maintaining norms is the intervention of the law. Norms often precede laws, but are then supported, governed, and extended by laws. The law supports the norm in several ways. The most obvious of them is that the law, through the power of the state, supports the mechanisms of private enforcement of norms. Under the influence of the law, the problem of enforcement of norms as a collective good disappears, since special individuals (judges, police officers, inspectors) receive selective opportunities to find and punish violations.
Social institutions, just like social connections and interactions, can be formal and informal.
A formal institution is an institution in which the scope of functions, means and methods of action are regulated by laws or other legal acts, formally approved orders, regulations, rules, regulations, charters, etc. Formal social institutions are the state, army, court, family, school, etc. These institutions carry out their management and control functions on the basis of strictly established formal negative and positive sanctions. Formal institutions play an important role in strengthening modern society. On this occasion A.G. Efendiyev wrote that “if social institutions are the mighty ropes of the system of social connections, then formal social institutions are a fairly strong and flexible metal frame that determines the strength of society.”
An informal institution is an institution in which the functions, means and methods of activity are not established by formal rules (that is, they are not clearly defined and not enshrined in special legislative acts and regulations), therefore there is no guarantee that this organization will be sustainable. Despite this, informal institutions, just like formal ones, perform management and control functions in the broadest social sense, since they are the result of social creativity and the expression of the will of citizens (amateur associations of amateur performances, interest associations, various funds for social and cultural purposes and etc.).
Social control in such institutions is carried out on the basis of informal sanctions, i.e. with the help of norms fixed in public opinion, traditions, and customs. Such sanctions (public opinion, customs, traditions) are often a more effective means of controlling people's behavior than legal norms or other formal sanctions. Sometimes people prefer punishment from government officials or official leadership to the unspoken condemnation of their friends and colleagues.
Informal institutions play a very important role in the sphere of interpersonal communication in small groups. For example, a group of children playing chooses a leader and his assistants and establishes specific “rules of the game”, i.e. norms that will allow you to resolve conflicts that arise during this game. In this case, the goals, methods and means of solving problems are also not strictly established and not recorded in writing.
The existing system of social institutions of society is very complex. This is due, firstly, to the fact that the human needs that stimulate the creation of these social institutions are very complex and diverse, and secondly, to the fact that social institutions are constantly changing, since some elements of the structure of the institution during the historical development of society either lost or filled with new content, new tasks and functions appear. As an example, consider the family production function. If previously only the family was involved in preparing young people for professional work, then with the development of production relations and the complication of the division of social labor, the family was no longer able to perform this function. The current restoration of private property in Russia, the development of entrepreneurship and farming have again partially restored the production function of the family, mainly in rural areas.
All social institutions of any society are united and interconnected to varying degrees and represent a complex integrated system. This integration is mainly based on the fact that a person, in order to satisfy all his needs, must participate in various types of institutions. In addition, institutions have a certain influence on each other. For example, the state influences the family through its attempts to regulate the birth rate, the number of marriages and divorces, and by establishing minimum standards for the care of children and mothers.
An interconnected system of institutions forms an integral system that provides group members with satisfaction of their diverse needs, regulates their behavior and guarantees the further development of the group as a whole. Internal consistency in the activities of all social institutions is a necessary condition for the normal functioning of the entire society. The system of social institutions in a social aggregate is very complex, and the constant development of needs leads to the formation of new institutions, as a result of which many different institutions exist next to each other.
The development of society is possible only if it has clearly established, regulated, controlled and sustainable interactions. The presence and content of institutions, as well as the system of social regulators, determine the existing social system. That is, if it is necessary to understand a society, then by studying its social institutions and regulatory mechanisms, one can understand the nature of social connections in the society of interest. A.G. Efendiyev, considering social connections in his work, compared them with thousands of invisible threads with the help of which a person is connected with other people and society, continuing this analogy with respect to social institutions, he wrote that “social institutions in the system of social connections are the strongest, mighty ropes that decisively determine its viability."
Thus, social institutions act as one of the most important objects of analysis for sociologists and are the object of specialized sociological research.
- a method of organized construction based on social formalization of connections, statuses and norms. Formal institutions ensure the flow of business information necessary for functional interaction. Regulate daily personal contacts. Formal social institutions are regulated by laws and regulations.Formal social institutions include:
1) economic institutions - banks, industrial institutions;
2) political institutions - parliament, police, government;
3) educational and cultural institutions - family, college and other educational institutions, school, art institutions.
Informal institute based on personal choice of connections and associations with each other, presupposing personal informal service relationships. There are no rigid standards. Formal institutions rely on a rigid structure of relationships, while in informal institutions such a structure is situational in nature. Informal organizations create more opportunities for creative productive activity, development and implementation of innovations.
Examples of informal institutions- nationalism, interest organizations - rockers, hazing in the army, informal leaders in groups, religious communities whose activities contradict the laws of society, a circle of neighbors.
All economic agents - the state, private companies, citizens engaged in business, etc. - act according to certain rules. They show what can and cannot be done, how to build relationships with other economic agents. These rules are called institutions.
Institutes- these are the rules by which business entities interact with each other and carry out economic activities. (For example, this is the right to private property, or the procedure for opening and registering a new company, or the procedure for obtaining a state license to develop an oil field)
The concept of property. Subjects and objects of property. Types and forms of ownership. Modern theories of property. Property reform. Transformation of property relations in the Republic of Belarus.
Own- these are relations between people that express a certain form of appropriation of material goods, and in particular the form of appropriation of the means of production.
Under the subjects of ownership understand specific people (groups) who enter into property relations with each other. The subjects of property can be an individual, a group of people, or society as a whole.
Property object name those elements of the conditions of production and the results of human activity that are assigned by a given subject.
Forms of ownership and their evolution:
Communal - production of products in excess of needs and securing it by inheritance, property inequality, disintegration of the community;
Slaveholding - appropriation of slave labor, means of production; slaves are the property of slave owners;
Feudal - production of a product within the natural economy of a feudal estate; exploitation of serfs;
Capitalist - hiring economically free labor, equality of property subjects;
Corporate - joint stock companies and firms;
State.
Property reform may carried out in the form of nationalization, denationalization and privatization.
Nationalization is the transformation of an object, economic resource or enterprise from private property into the property of the state or the entire country.
Denationalization is a set of measures to transform state property aimed at eliminating the excessive role of the state in the economy. As a result, most of the functions of economic management are removed from the state, and the corresponding powers are transferred to the enterprise level.
Privatization is one of the directions of denationalization of property, which consists in transferring it into private ownership of individual citizens and legal entities.
In economic theory, there are two types of property relations: private and public. Private characterizes this type of appropriation (social form of production), in which the interests of an individual, social or other group dominate over the interests of the whole society, as a unity of various parts. Public property characterizes this type of appropriation in which interests are realized through their coordination.
In modern economic theory, a whole direction of economic analysis called neo-institutionalism has developed. One of the most famous theories in this area is the economic theory of property rights.
Denationalization and privatization are processes of transfer of property from one form of ownership to another.
The Law of the Republic of Belarus “On denationalization and privatization of state property in the Republic of Belarus” emphasizes that privatization is the acquisition by individuals and legal property rights to objects owned by the state.
Loading...
