The Analytical Framework: Institutions, Technology, and Circular and Cumulative Causation

The discussions in the preceding chapter suggest that approaching the development process analytically may gain from an integration of a notion of technology as problem‐solving capacities embodied in skill and equipment, as well as the close connection of technology and institutions. It further appears that a country’s development trajectory responds to numerous factors in different societal areas. The ways in which these different influences may interact and possibly reinforce one another is, then, another aspect to take into consideration. Numerous transmission channels are possible, with their shape and direction potentially depending on the state of a number of variables. Instead of defining them narrowly in an ex ante fashion, we will leave space for more generic channels that can be focused on in detail in specific case studies. The emphasis here lies on the process character of development, in a continuous dynamic with no pre-de termined final state as its end. As the discussions in the previous chapter have also served to underline, different paths on which development trajectories may move appear likely, and have in fact been observed, and the change that constitutes development may be slower or more forthcoming depending on the institutional environment, and may include the possibility of reversals of prior advances.