IMPORTANCE OF SIMPLE RULES: COMMENSURABILITY=LEGITIMACY “Our present-day Western

http://blogs.elpais.com/atomium-culture/2013/11/the-power-from-below-understanding-europes-historical-institutional-diversity.htmlTHE IMPORTANCE OF SIMPLE RULES: COMMENSURABILITY=LEGITIMACY

“Our present-day Western society is highly regulated and institutionalized: formal agreements are made at various levels within society to make things run smoothly, from driving a car, to disposing waste, to taking part in local and national elections. Breaching a rule usually carries a sanction.”

**”However, if rules are simply added without attention to the internal coherence of the regulations, contradictory situations may emerge within the regulations and the rules may become ineffective: they may no longer be understood by the stakeholders or they may simply be ignored (leading to freeriding), with sanctions no longer being applied.”**