IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/polstu/v55y2007i1p201-224.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Politics Rules: The False Primacy of Institutions in Developing Countries

Author

Listed:
  • S. N. Sangmpam

Abstract

Do institutions possess explanatory and prescriptive powers imputed to them by institutionalism? If they do, why do outcomes in developing countries (DGC) defy those powers? I argue that, although institutions play a role, they are neither the explanation for outcomes nor the prescription for development problems. The primacy of institutions is defied in DGC because ‘new institutionalism’ shares the premises of modernization theory‐inspired ‘old institutionalism’. Both fail to subordinate institutions to society‐rooted politics, the pre‐eminent explanatory variable. I support this argument by: (1) demonstrating the pre‐eminence of politics vis‐à‐vis institutions; and (2) relating various policy failures in DGC to the failure of the unbroken thread between old and new institutionalisms to recognize this pre‐eminence. Because politics explains both institutional and socio‐political outcomes, I propose that the crucial difference between politics in Western democracies and developing countries – and not institutions – be the focus of inquiry to account for outcomes and to prescribe solutions for DGC.

Suggested Citation

  • S. N. Sangmpam, 2007. "Politics Rules: The False Primacy of Institutions in Developing Countries," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 55(1), pages 201-224, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:55:y:2007:i:1:p:201-224
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00650.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00650.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2007.00650.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pierson, Paul, 2000. "Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 94(2), pages 251-267, June.
    2. repec:ucp:bkecon:9780226731445 is not listed on IDEAS
    3. North, Douglass C., 1971. "Institutional Change and Economic Growth," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(1), pages 118-125, March.
    4. Hall, Peter A. & Taylor, Rosemary C. R., 1996. "Political science and the three new institutionalisms," MPIfG Discussion Paper 96/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mark Purdon, 2015. "Advancing Comparative Climate Change Politics: Theory and Method," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(3), pages 1-26, August.
    2. Eero Palmujoki & Pekka Virtanen, 2016. "Global, National, or Market? Emerging REDD+ Governance Practices in Mozambique and Tanzania," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 16(1), pages 59-78, February.
    3. André Bächtiger & Dominik Hangartner, 2010. "When Deliberative Theory Meets Empirical Political Science: Theoretical and Methodological Challenges in Political Deliberation," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(4), pages 609-629, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. André Sorensen & Anna-Katharina Brenner, 2021. "Cities, Urban Property Systems, and Sustainability Transitions: Contested Processes of Institutional Change and the Regulation of Urban Property Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Anand Menon, 2011. "Power, Institutions and the CSDP: The Promise of Institutionalist Theory," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(1), pages 83-100, January.
    3. Mariano Méndez-Suárez & Ramón Arilla & Luca Delbello, 2025. "The perception of effort as a driver of gender inequality: institutional and social insights for female entrepreneurship," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 21(1), pages 1-20, December.
    4. Sophie Jacquot & Cornelia Woll, 2003. "Usage of European Integration - Europeanisation from a Sociological Perspective," Post-Print hal-01019642, HAL.
    5. repec:hal:wpspec:info:hdl:2441/8391 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Resnick, Danielle & Babu, Suresh & Haggblade, Steven & Hendriks, Sheryl L. & Mather, David, 2015. "Conceptualizing Drivers Of Policy Change In Agriculture, Nutrition, And Food Security: The Kaleidoscope Model," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 258732, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    7. Eleanor Beth Whyle & Jill Olivier, 2024. "Health system reform and path-dependency: how ideas constrained change in South Africa’s national health insurance policy process," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 57(3), pages 663-690, September.
    8. Bothfeld, Silke, 2008. "Under (Re-) Construction: die Fragmentierung des deutschen Geschlechterregimes durch die neue Familienpolitik," Working papers of the ZeS 01/2008, University of Bremen, Centre for Social Policy Research (ZeS).
    9. Yiru Jia & Nicky Morrison & Franziska Sielker, 2023. "Delivering common property in Chinese contractual communities: Law, power and practice," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(16), pages 3272-3293, December.
    10. Arthur Corazza, 2020. "Power, interest and insecurity: A comparative analysis of workplace dualization and inclusion in Europe," LEQS – LSE 'Europe in Question' Discussion Paper Series 153, European Institute, LSE.
    11. Kathleen Thelen, 2009. "Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 47(3), pages 471-498, September.
    12. Mühlböck, Monika and Berthold Rittberger, 2015. "The Council, the European Parliament, and the paradox of inter-institutional cooperation," European Integration online Papers (EIoP), European Community Studies Association Austria (ECSA-A), vol. 19, January.
    13. Munshifwa, Ephraim Kabunda, 2023. "Institutional analysis and informal urban settlements: A proposition for a new institutionalist grounded property rights perspective," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    14. Mark A. Pollack, 2007. "The New Institutionalisms and European Integration," The Constitutionalism Web-Papers p0031, University of Hamburg, Faculty for Economics and Social Sciences, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Science.
    15. Vladimir Stojanovski, 2022. "Policy Processes in the Institutionalisation of Private Forestry in the Republic of North Macedonia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-20, March.
    16. Arnaud Buchs, 2012. "Périodiser les phases de régime et de crise des usages de l'eau. L'apport d'une approche en termes de modes d'usage de l'eau," Post-Print halshs-00716693, HAL.
    17. EEA Wolf & Wouter Van Dooren, 2018. "‘Time to move on’ or ‘taking more time’? How disregarding multiple perspectives on time can increase policy-making conflict," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(2), pages 340-356, March.
    18. Roberts, Cameron & Geels, Frank W., 2019. "Conditions for politically accelerated transitions: Historical institutionalism, the multi-level perspective, and two historical case studies in transport and agriculture," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 221-240.
    19. Rick Vermeulen, 2015. "Pursuing the Peripheral Path? A Path-Dependent Analysis of the Frankfurt and Munich Fairs," European Planning Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 332-348, February.
    20. Alfio Cerami, 2009. "Social Mechanisms in the Establishment of the European Economic and Monetary Union," Les Cahiers européens de Sciences Po 3, Centre d'études européennes (CEE) at Sciences Po, Paris.
    21. Myunghee Kim, 2024. "Rethinking the Smart Green City Project in South Korea: A Critical Juncture Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-20, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:polstu:v:55:y:2007:i:1:p:201-224. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0032-3217 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.