ABSTRACT
The primary focus of the institutionalist perspective is instrumentalist problem solving. Problems are delivered by the institutional process and solved by altering the social structure. To solve socioeconomic problems, planning is necessary. Important to any planning is the question of when actions and events are to occur. To effect new social structures, actions and events must be properly sequenced. An analytical core of sequencing events is time analysis. John R. Commons stated that, in addition to knowing what to do, the economist who has the power and responsibility for planning “must know what, when, how much and how far to do it at a particular time and place in the flow of events. This we designate the principle of timeliness.” 1 This is not consistent with the common approach to time analysis. The more common approach leaves us at the mercy of passing time.
