Publication

This paper examines the upsurge of interest in institutions among development theorists, with a particular emphasis on Africa. According to the author, institutional reforms suffer from the insistence on institutional 'monotasking', whereby institutions are reduced to servicing a standard set of often imposed policies or tasks, and from endless experimentation on institutions that renders them highly unstable and unpredictable. The paper also explores the concept of 'monocropping' - a process dependent on an attachment to 'rational choice institutionalism', which has tended to focus on the restraining role of institutions and has ignored the developmental and transformative role that historical and sociological forms of institutionalism highlighted.