What is argued as the main reason African nations are poor today?
Citizens have bad interlocking economic and political incentives: property rights are insecure and inefficient, markets function poorly, states are weak, and political systems do not provide public goods.
What is required to generate sustained economic development in Africa?
Formation of centralised polities and removal of absolutist and patrimonial tendencies.
What style of politics did the creation of centralised states historically reproduce in Africa?
Politics that reproduced insecure and inefficient property rights and weak, absolutist states with little interest in providing public goods.
What is ‘absolutism’ in European history?
A type of European state where the power of the ruler is absolute and unconstrained by institutions; economic institutions were designed to increase the wealth and power of the ruler at the expense of society.
What is a patrimonial state?
A state with few institutionalised rules where universalistic criteria are not applied; rights and responsibilities are determined conditionally by the ruler.
What was key behind Europe’s transition to sustained economic growth?
Reform of the state in a non-absolutist, non-patrimonial direction.
What paradigm did Lewis propose regarding less-developed economies?
The Dual Economy paradigm: economies are divided into a modern sector (urban, industrial, advanced technologies) and a traditional sector (rural, agricultural, backward institutions).
Example of a colonial law reflecting a dual economy in South Africa?
The Native Land Act (1913), which divided South Africa into a modern prosperous part and a traditional poor part.
What is neopatrimonialism in Africa?
The nature of the political equilibrium where political power is exercised in patrimonial ways, inhibiting economic growth and sustaining poor economic performance.
What happens when states provide private goods instead of public goods?
The difference between being in power and out of power increases, causing conflict and political instability, which harms economic performance.
According to new institutionalism, what explains political outcomes in developing countries?
Institutions; they may provide solutions to political and economic problems across nations.
Definition of an institution (Goodin, 1996)?
“A stable, recurring pattern of behaviour.”
Definition of an institution (North, 1990)?
“The rules of the game in society, or the humanly devised constraints that shape human interaction.”
Key features of new institutionalism?
1) Focus on rules and norms, not just organizations. 2) Interest in informal institutions. 3) More explicitly theoretical than old institutionalism.
How did the World Bank approach institutions in the 1990s?
Promoted institutions to protect property rights, enforce contracts, encourage civil society, and support good governance.
What are the three main strands of institutionalism?
1) Sociological (cultural/normative) institutionalism. 2) Rational choice institutionalism. 3) Historical institutionalism.
What is the focus of sociological institutionalism?
How norms and values socialise individuals into conforming behaviour (logic of appropriateness); institutions establish social control over action.
What is the focus of rational choice institutionalism?
Institutions are rules and incentives constraining individual behaviour; actors respond rationally to maximize benefits (logic of consequentiality).
What is historical institutionalism?
Institutions as formal and informal procedures, routines, norms, and conventions embedded in the political structure; path dependence and critical junctures shape subsequent development.
How can institutions emerge?
1) By accident, 2) Through evolution, 3) Intentionally (often a combination).
Four possible interactions between formal and informal institutions?
1) Competing, 2) Substitutive, 3) Accommodative, 4) Complementary.
Examples of informal institutions in the Global South?
Political clientelism, corruption, ‘big man’ syndrome, customary law.
Acemoglu & Robinson on African development?
Africans caught in economic and political institutions not conducive to progress; path-dependence logic; centralised states required; absolutist and patrimonial tendencies inhibit development.
How did slavery in Africa affect economic incentives?
Westerners promised technologies in exchange for slaves, creating incentives for raiding and institutionalising predatory practices.
