Appraising institutional challenges in the early stages of development

The formation and success of the Maghribi traders’ coalition in the 11th-century Mediterranean basin, the effects of the Glorious Revolution in Britain, the experiences of land redistribution in South Korea and Taiwan after the demise of Japanese colonial rule, the reform programme known as the Rural Household Responsibility system in China, or the © Economic Development & Institutions 2 Appraisin. [...] © Economic Development & Institutions 6 Appraising institutional challenges in the early stages of development: Introduction Structure of the case studies Equipped with a precise definition of institutions and institutional failures (see Chapters 1, 2, and 3), the in-depth review of the relationship between institutions and development in a country, and the identification of institutional dysfunct. [...] The first step is rather ‘mechanical’: it consists of reviewing the economic, social, and political development of the country, surveying the existing literature, and soliciting from various types of decision makers, top policymakers, and experts their views on the functioning of institutions in their country. [...] From the strict point of view of the diagnosis, however, its most important contribution is to put squarely on the table the nature of the institutional problems, the needed reforms, and the stakes involved. [...] As will become clearer as the discussion of our empirical material proceeds, a sound IDP requires that two types of analysis be performed: an analysis of the structural transformation of the economy, and the possible imperfections in the way it does or does not take place, on the one hand, and a political economy analysis that identifies how political factors constrain static and dynamic economic.