The aim of the project is to study the importance of the character of political institutions in a comparative perspective. The background is a number of important studies from different disciplines showing that the design of government institutions is important for economic as well as social and democratic development. This concerns the presence of impartial, uncorrupted, competent, predictable authorities, electoral systems, courts, etc. The aim of the project is to address three problems within this field of research. The first problem is theoretical and concerns the question of how such "efficient" institutions can be established. There is a lack of theoretical models that can explain how such institutions can come about. The second problem is methodological. Most studies in this field have been carried out as single-case studies from which it is difficult to make generalizations. The project aim is to address this problem by a comparative case-study method, as well as by quantitative methods, in order to test in a more systematic manner theoretically derived hypotheses. The third problem is empirical. Existing datasets are widespread and difficult to evaluate and also difficult to survey. This is a problem for aggregate as well as micro-level data. The aim of the project is to collect and evaluate available data that will be made generally accessible for researchers who want to work in this field. This databank will be used for quantitative analysis but also for identifying countries that are suitable for comparative historical and qualitative analysis.