Antitrust: Ideas, Institutions and Change

Abstract

The success of antitrust institutions is normally associated with the degree to which the economic conditions they create are conducive to the achievement of interests such as profits or welfare. In this respect, the role of interests in determining social constructions and influencing the social realm has long been considered prominent. However, from being marginal, the study of ideas in the process of economic structural change has acquired a central role, bringing to light a new set of theories that seek to explain institutional transformation from a more ontological point of view, i.e., in terms of ideological constructs and their influence on the social realm.