Limited vs Open Access Orders Framework

Following North, Wallis, and Weingast, societies are either limited access orders—where a ruling coalition holds all political rights and economic opportunity, stays stable by collecting monopoly rents while everyone else is powerless—or open access orders, where everyone has some access to economic opportunity and political rights; a key test is whether anyone can form an organization to compete against incumbent political or economic interests, which is forbidden in limited access orders and open to all in open access orders.