Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth

The conventional explanation of the rise of social order in medieval Iceland, the so-called Commonwealth period, is constructivist in nature. In light of medieval legal thought, the explanation is unconvincing. The story of the decline of that social order is also problematic, in that no integrated...

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Main Author: Birgir Solvason
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:unknown
Subjects:
Iceland
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02393284
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spelling ftrepec:oai:RePEc:kap:copoec:v:4:y:1993:i:1:p:97-125 2024-04-14T08:13:38+00:00 Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth Birgir Solvason http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02393284 unknown http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02393284 article ftrepec 2024-03-19T10:33:49Z The conventional explanation of the rise of social order in medieval Iceland, the so-called Commonwealth period, is constructivist in nature. In light of medieval legal thought, the explanation is unconvincing. The story of the decline of that social order is also problematic, in that no integrated theory seems to lie behind the explanation. By applying cooperation and rent-seeking theories to the historical record an attempt is made to provide an explanation that is more convincing, integrated and spontaneous in nature. Two main questions are posed; first, how did the Commonwealth emerge, and, second, why did it break down. Copyright George Mason University 1993 Article in Journal/Newspaper Iceland RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)
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collection RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)
op_collection_id ftrepec
language unknown
description The conventional explanation of the rise of social order in medieval Iceland, the so-called Commonwealth period, is constructivist in nature. In light of medieval legal thought, the explanation is unconvincing. The story of the decline of that social order is also problematic, in that no integrated theory seems to lie behind the explanation. By applying cooperation and rent-seeking theories to the historical record an attempt is made to provide an explanation that is more convincing, integrated and spontaneous in nature. Two main questions are posed; first, how did the Commonwealth emerge, and, second, why did it break down. Copyright George Mason University 1993
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Birgir Solvason
spellingShingle Birgir Solvason
Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth
author_facet Birgir Solvason
author_sort Birgir Solvason
title Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth
title_short Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth
title_full Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth
title_fullStr Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth
title_full_unstemmed Institutional evolution in the Icelandic Commonwealth
title_sort institutional evolution in the icelandic commonwealth
url http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02393284
genre Iceland
genre_facet Iceland
op_relation http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/BF02393284
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