El reto economico de abrir la caja negra de la toma de decisiones politicas

International audienceInstitutions, particularly informal ones, are heavily value-loadedand evolve slowly over time. Economic policies adopted through majority voting procedures atdifferent tiers of government, which is a central characteristic of democratic regimes, are deeplyinfluenced by the singular institutions of each country. Scholars wanting to understand the logic ofthese policies must take this situational, contextualization aspect on board (and even more so if theyintend to make recommendations and influence policy-makers). As stressed along this book and byOstrom in the final chapter, we must get rid of the technocratic views about the ‘one fits all’approach to economic policies. We must all become fully aware, as the contributors to this book are,that alternative solutions always exist, and that choices must be based on comparatively assessingthese alternatives, which needs careful investigation, particularly since public policies almost ofteninvolve important and unexpected distributional consequences. We must be grateful to the editorsof this book for having initiated a project that contributes so nicely to this goal