THE VARIETIES OF COMPARATIVE INSTITUTIONAL ANALYSIS

"Comparative institutional analysis" (CIA) often is treated as a singular approach to diagnosing and potentially resolving social cost problems (or social dilemmas). In fact, the label represents a family of related but importantly different approaches, based on the different conceptions of "institutions," as well as different processes or functions individual scholars are attempting to describe and explain. This contribution to a Festshcrift honoring Neil Komesar, the legal scholar most commonly associated with the CIA methodology, begins by highlighting a myriad of definitions of the word "institution," offers a functional account of alternative definitions of that term, and attempts to demonstrate the utility of alternative approaches to CIA by comparing and contrasting the substantially different, but equally effective, ways it has been employed in the works of Komesar and Elinor Ostrom. The comparison yields a possible approach to reconciling Komesar's treatment of institutions with that of Ostrom's fellow Nobel Laureate, Douglass North.