Institutionalist political economy, also known as institutional political economy or IPE, refers to a body of political economy, thought to stem from the works of institutionalists such as Thorstein Veblen, John Commons, Wesley Mitchell and John Dewey. It emphasizes the impact of historical and socio-political factors on the evolution of economic practices, often opposing more rational approaches. In the political sense, this implies the influences actors like the state have on socio-economic practices and the shaping of institutions via political decision-making. Relevant variables for the study of political institutions include the structures that indicate voting rules, the political system, preferences and ideological leanings of leaders. Overview The institutionalist political economics perspective builds upon core theories from institutional economics and further apply them to the field of contemporary political economy. Wesley Mitchell originally differentiated the institutionalist approach to economics from previous schools of economic thought by emphasizing its focus on the cumulative process of evolutionary change in economics. Contemporary theorists further expand this definition by emphasizing the effects of the historical shift from the classical system of laissez-faire capitalism to contemporary or neoliberal capitalism in the current international economic society, in which various institutions are major actors. The institutional basis of the rights-obligations structure classically assumed of the market is also examined. This includes processes deciding how legitimate actors and legitimate objects of exchange are determined. At their core, proponents of this school of thought maintain that economics cannot be divorced from the social and political context since the market itself is an institution, which is to say is politically constructed. In this sense institutionalist political economists place themselves in opposition to neoclassical economists who assert that the market is an autonomous, apolitical domain. They also differ from proponents of the new institutional economics perspective in that institutions are viewed as being able to fundamentally shape the individual rather than as merely placing constraints on the theoretically pre-defined and unchanging individual. Actors J. R. Commons had discussed how institutions were the result of past choices made on the individual level. These choices then decide the structure in which the institutions operate, and how they enable and constrain market actors. The element of evolution returns by institutions changing in terms of workability, marking his pragmatist influence on the subject. Commons therefore separates himself from other institutionalists by implementing this notion of workability, absent in Veblen. The political implications here mainly effect the