ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the two principal approaches to the problem of institutional genesis-invisible-hand and solidaristic. At the most general level, the author will take the existence of a social institution to be revealed by the appearance of some regularity in collective behavior. Whereas can assume that other members also have an interest in getting their own investment back, have no assurance that they will not take the author's share, split it among themselves, and claim that the author's share was never found. This discussion of the emergence of cooperative institutions has two principal implications. Irrigation systems provide a graphic example of a cooperative institution that develops to provide access to a bulky joint good. It should be emphasized that the analysis in this chapter is quite different from Mancur well-known explanation of the development of collective goods-seeking organizations like trade unions and farm organizations.
