ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the establishment of institutional mechanisms that limit the influence of special interest groups and advance a stronger impact of general interests. Interesting suggestions are offered by studies based on the theory of liberal corporatism which demonstrate that different institutional arrangements account for different patterns of interest intermediation. Institutional integration increases the performance in some policy areas and with respect to some economic indicators. In Japan, economic policy is embedded in an institutional arrangement that is characterized by a strong cooperation of government, namely the Ministery of International Trade and Industry, and big enterprises in the modern industries. The chapter outlines a theoretical approach to analyzing the capacity of different institutional arrangements to provide for efficient economic policy and high economic performance. This approach may be further developed by considering transaction costs, their different components and the factors determining them in more detail.
