在本书开头，狄骥提出了一系列自我挑战式的问题：为什么要专门研究公法的变迁？法律难道不是同其他社会现象一样处在永恒的变迁之中吗？对公法之变迁的研究不就是公法研究本身吗？读罢全书，这些问题都能找到答案。的确，公法一直在变迁，但在历史上的某些时刻，这种变迁具有“范式转换”的性质，值得最敏感、最深邃的法律心智去捕捉、去辨识、去记录、去讲解。本书就是完成这些使命的一部著作。它发现并描述了法国宪法和行政法领域正在发生的观念转型，并自豪地宣称法国在这些方面又将引领世界公法发展的新潮流。

Do institutions think? If so, how do they do it? Do they have minds of their own? If so, what thoughts occupy these suprapersonal minds? Mary Douglas delves into these questions as she lays the groundwork for a theory of institutions. Usually the human reasoning process is explained with a focus on the individual mind; her focus is on culture. Using the works of Emile Durkheim and Ludwik Fleck as a foundation, "How Institutions Think" clarifies the extent to which thinking itself is dependent upon institutions. Different kinds of institutions allow individuals to think different kinds of thoughts and to respond to different emotions. It is just as difficult to explain how individuals come to share the categories of their thought as to explain how they ever manage to sink their private interests for a common good. Douglas forewarns us that institutions do not think independently, nor do they have purposes, nor can they build themselves. As we construct our institutions, we are squeezing each other's ideas into a common shape in order to prove their legitimacy by sheer numbers. She admonishes us not to take comfort in the thought that primitives may think through institutions, but moderrjs decide on important issues individually. Our legitimated institutions make major decisions, and these decisions always involve ethical principles.

《制度与组织:思想观念与物质利益(第3版)》讨论了各种制度理论之间的异同，评述了关于组织的制度研究的历史以及最新进展．并明确了其将来的研究方向。《制度与组织:思想观念与物质利益(第3版)》所提出的分析框架阐述了制度的三大基础要素以及制度与社会系统之间的相互作用，评述了经济学，社会学与组织分析的新制度主义，探讨了符号、关系、惯例、人工器物等对各种制度安排的传播。讨论了组织场域理论及其实践意义。《制度与组织:思想观念与物质利益(第3版)》的适用对象主要为制度理论、组织理论、组织社会学与公共行政管理等领域的研究者。