About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline

LOG IN
LOG IN


25 Governance: An Int'l J. Pol'y, Admin, & Institutions 1 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/gvnanlj25 and id is 1 raw text is: Commentary Does Governance Matter? CHARLES KENNY* The institutional theory of development appears to have swept all before it. Those traditionalists who argue for the centrality of invest- ment for growth are told that institutions determine its quality and extent. Unreconstructed supporters of the primacy of policies are schooled that governance lies behind good policy selection and strong implementation. All that is left to discuss is what causes strong insti- tutions, to which the answer appears to be a whole load of history. Indeed, the whole question of the wealth and poverty of nations some- times appears reduced to an argument between those who favor soil type and those more concerned with disease burden at the time of European imperial expansion a century and a half ago or more. And if history really matters, the predominant literature suggests that's because institutions are slow to change. A recent paper by Michael Woolcock, Lant Pritchett, and Matt Andrews suggests that at current rates of progress, it would take Zimbabwe 184 years to reach the institutional quality of Singapore as measured on the Kaufmann, Kraay, and Mastruzzi governance effectiveness index-given where it is today and assuming it started at zero at independence. It is hard not to get a little depressed about the prospects for poor countries as a result. There is a derogative term used by British historians to describe nar- ratives that present the past of rich countries as an inevitable progres- sion toward enlightenment and wealth-it is called Whig History. It might be fair to say that institutional economics has been hit with a dose of the Whiggisms. For a start, it is clear from patterns of economic growth that there must be far more to income change than (glacial) institutional change-countries can get richer without reverse- engineering their history to include a Magna Carta. Second, it appears that some institutions can actually change reasonably fast. Third, coun- tries weakly and strongly governed alike have seen dramatic progress in health, education, reduced violence, and improved respect for human rights. Center for Global Development and New America Foundation Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, Vol. 25, No. 1, January 2012 (pp. 1-3). © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0491.2011.01560.x