ABSTRACT
While the positive evolution of consciously and purposefully designed institutions (i.e., the products of society’s political and legal rule-making processes) has so far been widely neglected within Evolutionary Economics, their normative evaluation has received even less attention. To evaluate an empirically given or theoretically conceived designed institution presupposes a normative judgment concerning the “goodness” of a socio-economic state or process that the designed institution under review is assumed to be able to influence. Developing the basis for such judgments is the task of normative economics. Until now, this venerable field of research has hardly aroused the interest of evolutionary economists. This chapter proposes a way how they might venture into this uncharted territory. Put differently, the chapter attempts to elaborate on some possible foundations of a – yet to be fully developed – normative branch within Evolutionary Economics.
