关键在于对“创新”的理解。
广义上,创新是内部矛盾的自我扬弃,实现自我更新的过程。因此,它能促进事物自身的积极发展。在中文的语境中,更主要指过程,而不是结果。变迁是指事物变化的状态或结果,体现了一种变化,有积极,也有消极的,在语境中,更偏向于结果。创新强调了事物内在联系性,变迁强调了事物外在变化情况上。比如,小农经济的变迁,不能说小农经济的创新;只能说中国的政治制度由新民主主义向社会主义变迁,而不能说由新民主主义向社会主义创新;不能说中国社会主义体制变迁了,应说社会主义体制创新了。
狭义上,两者区别却正是你所说的“联系”:在数学逻辑上,制度创新是制度变迁的前提条件之一,即是必要条件,但不是充分条件。我们来说说经济学上狭义的理解。
那么,制度变迁是如何产生的呢?从学习和意识形态出发,诺斯的理论是:
首先,要区分一下制度和组织。简单讲,制度是游戏规则,组织是游戏参与者,组织的形式可以是企业、政党、经营机构、学校或大学。在给定目标函数下(利润最大化、赢得选举、商业经营、教育学生),组织积极地获取技术和知识,而这些技术和知识能增强在广泛存在的稀缺性和竞争下的生存可能性。(Given its objective function--profit maximization, winning elections, regulating businesses, educating students--the organization which may be a firm, a political party, a regulatory agency, a school or college, will engage in acquiring skills and knowledge that will enhance its survival possibilities in the context of ubiquitous scarcity and hence competition.)
而变迁的主体是“企业家”,即组织的决策者。“企业家”的主观认识(意识形态)决定他们的选择。这种能带来收益的技术和知识是制度矩阵中内在的激励结构的函数。学习和技术的获取将导致“企业家”形成新的意识形态来解析(应对)环境。反过来,这种意识形态也将改变潜在选择能认识到的相对价格。事实上,它通常是外在变化和内在学习的混合体。这种内在学习可以触发选择,而选择则导致制度变迁。 (The kinds of skills and knowledge that will pay off will be a function of the incentive structure inherent in the institutional matrix. The agent of change is the entrepreneur, the decision maker(s) in organizations. The subjective perceptions (mental models) of entrepreneurs determine the choices they make. The acquisition of learning and skills will lead to the construction of new mental models by entrepreneurs to decipher the environment; in turn the models will alter perceived relative prices of potential choices. In fact it is usually some mixture of external change and internal learning that triggers the choices that lead to institutional change.)
正式制度的变迁、非正式制度的变迁、革命性的变迁及路径依赖都是以此为基础的,在此不再赘述。
诺斯等把社会的变迁总结为: “现实”→信仰→制度→特定(具体)的政策→结果(改变了现实) “reality” > beliefs > institutions > specific policies > outcomes (and, thus, altered “reality”)
美国经济史的一个拓展轮廓阐述了制度、组织和参与者的意识形态相互作用产生了制度变迁。(An extended sketch from American economic history illustrates the way in which institutions, organizations, and the mental models of the actors interact to produce institutional change.)
诺斯2000年以后的思路还是以学习、信仰和认知等展开的。
另参见:诺斯. INSTITUTIONAL CHANGE: A FRAMEWORK OF ANALYSIS Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, (Cambridge University Press, 1990) Learning, Institutions and Economic Performance, Perspectives on Politics, vol. 2, Nr. 1, 2004