This book is a comparative study of the impact of political institutions upon outcomes, and covers some of the major themes in the new institutionalism. It looks at various democratic institutions in order to examine whether some political institutions like Konkordanzdemokratie or corporatism promote better outcomes than Westminster institutions. The evaluation of the performance of political institutions covers the executive, the legislature and the judicial system. The book also looks at economic outcomes such as affluence and GDP growth as well as social ones like income distribution and quality of life. It examines the problems of institutional effects in democracies and dictatorships and provides analysis of some of the major models in political science. New Institutional Politics explores how political institutions matter for political, economic and social outcomes and estimates their impact in relation to other major factors such as culture and social structure.