There is a long tradition in economic and social analysis of ace¬tifying the realization of justice with what is taken to be the right institutional structure. There are a great many examples of such a concentration on institutions, with powerful advocacy for alternative institutional visions of a just society, varying from the panacea of wonderfully performing free markets and free trade to the Shangri-La of socially owned means of production and magically efficient central planning There are, however, good evidential reasons to think that none of these grand institutional formulae typically deliver what their visionary advocates hope, and that their actual success in generating good social realizations is thoroughly contingent on varying social, economic, political and cultural circumstances. Institutional funda¬mentalism may not only ride roughshod over the complexity of soci¬eties, but quite often the self-satisfaction that goes with alleged institutional wisdom even prevents critical examination of the actual consequences of having the recommended institutions. Indeed, in the purely institutional view, there is, at least formally, no Story of justice beyond establishing the 'just institutions'. Yet, whatever good may be associated with the chosen institutions, it is hard to think of them as being basically good in themselves, rather than possibly being effect¬ive ways of realizing acceptable or excellent social achievements.