Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:22:37.141Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Copying informal institutions: the role of British colonial officers during the decolonization of British Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2017

VALENTIN SEIDLER*
Affiliation:
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK

Abstract

Institutional reforms in developing countries often involve copying institutions from developed countries. Such institutional copying is likely to fail, if formal institutions alone are copied without the informal institutions on which they rest in the originating country. This paper investigates the role of human actors in copying informal institutions. At independence, all British African colonies imported the same institution intended to safeguard the political neutrality of their civil services. While the necessary formal provisions were copied into the constitutions of all African colonies, the extent to which they were put into practice varies. The paper investigates the connection between the variation in the legal practice and the presence of British colonial officers after independence. A natural experiment around compensation payments to British officers explains the variation in the number of officers who remained in service after independence. Interviews with retired officers suggest that the extended presence of British personnel promoted the acceptance of imported British institutions among local colleagues.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Millennium Economics Ltd 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., and Robinson, J. (2001), ‘The colonial origins of comparative development’, American Economic Review, 91 (5): 1369–401.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Johnson, S., and Robinson, J. (2002), ‘An African success story: Botswana’, CEPR Discussion Paper, No. 3219.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, D., Gallego, F., and Robinson, J. (2014), ‘Institutions, human capital and development’, Annual Review of Economics 6:875912.Google Scholar
Adu, A. (1965), The Civil Service in New African States, London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Aii.globalintegrity.org (2017), Africa Integrity Indicators [online] available at www.globalintegrity.org/downloads/ (accessed 20 April 2017).Google Scholar
Aldashev, G., Chaara, I., Platteau, J. and Wahhaj, Z. (2012), ‘Using the law to change the custom’, Journal of Development Economics, 97 (2): 182200.Google Scholar
Allen, A. (2017), Project VOICES, Interview with V. Seidler on 24 March, Vienna.Google Scholar
Allen, D. (2012), The Institutional Revolution, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Ansari, S., Fiss, P., and Zajac, E. (2010): ‘Made to fit: how practices vary as they diffuse’, Academy of Management Review, 35 (1): 6792.Google Scholar
Becker, S., Boeckh, K., Hainz, C. and Woessmann, L. (2016), ‘The empire is dead, long live the empire! Long-run persistence of trust and corruption in the bureaucracy’, Economic Journal, 126 (590): 4074.Google Scholar
Benson, D. and Jordan, A. (2011), ‘What have we learned from policy transfer research? Dolowitz and Marsh revisited’, Political studies review, 9 (1): 366–78.Google Scholar
Berger, D. (2009), ‘Taxes, institutions and governance: evidence from colonial Nigeria’, mimeo, New York University.Google Scholar
Berkowitz, D., Pistor, K., and Richard, J. (2003), ‘Economic development, legality, and the transplant effect’, European Economic Review, 47 (1): 165–95.Google Scholar
Boettke, P., Coyne, C., and Leeson, P. (2008), ‘Institutional stickiness and the new development economics’, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 67 (2): 331–58.Google Scholar
Bolt, J. and Bezemer, D. (2009), ‘Understanding long-run African growth: colonial institutions or colonial education?Journal of Development Studies, 45 (1): 2454.Google Scholar
Burr, E. (1985), Localization and Public Service Training – Oxford Development Records Project Report 4, Oxford: Rhodes House Library.Google Scholar
Colonial Office (1954), Reorganisation of the Colonial Service, Cmnd. 306, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Colonial Office (1960), Service with Overseas Governments, Cmnd. 1193, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Colonial Office (1962), The Public Service Commission in Overseas Territories, London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Cornell, A. (2014), ‘Why bureaucratic stability matters for the implementation of democratic governance programs’, Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 27 (2): 191214.Google Scholar
Couyoumdjian, J. (2012), ‘Are institutional transplants viable? An examination in light of the proposals by Jeremy Bentham’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 8 (4): 489509.Google Scholar
Chang, H. (2011), ‘Institutions and economic development: theory, policy and history’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 7 (4): 473–98.Google Scholar
Chang, H. and Evans, P. (2005), ‘The role of institutions in economic change’, in De Paula, S. and Dymski, G. (eds), Reimagining Growth, London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Daniels, R., Trebilcock, M. and Carson, L. (2011), ‘The legacy of empire: the common law inheritance and commitments to legality in former British colonies’, American Journal of Comparative Law, 1 (68): 111–78.Google Scholar
De Jong, M. (2013), ‘China's art of institutional bricolage: selectiveness and gradualism in the policy transfer style of a nation’, Policy & Society, 32 (2): 89101.Google Scholar
De Jong, M. and Stoter, S. (2009), ‘Institutional transplantation and the rule of law’, Erasmus Law Review, 2 (3): 311–30.Google Scholar
Dell, M. (2010), ‘The persistent effects of Peru's mining mita’, Econometrica 78 (6): 1863– 903.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, P. and Powell, W. (1983), ‘The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields’, American Sociological Review, 48 (2): 147–60.Google Scholar
Englebert, P. (2000), ‘Pre-colonial institutions, post-colonial states and economic development in tropical Africa’, Political Research Quarterly, 53 (1): 736.Google Scholar
Evans, P. (2004), ‘Development as institutional change: the pitfalls of monocropping and the potentials of deliberation’, Studies in comparative international development, 38 (4): 3052.Google Scholar
Evans, P. and Rauch, J. (1999), ‘Bureaucracy and Growth: a cross-national analysis of the effects of “Weberian” state structures on economic growth’, American Sociological Review, 64 (5): 748–65.Google Scholar
Goffin, K. and Koners, U. (2011), ‘Tacit knowledge, lessons learnt, and new product development’, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28 (2): 300–18.Google Scholar
Glaeser, E., La Porta, R., Lopez-de-Silanes, F. and Shleifer, A. (2004), ‘Do institutions cause growth?Journal of Economic Growth, 9 (3): 271303.Google Scholar
Grajzl, P. and Dimitrova-Grajzl, V. (2009) ‘The choice in the lawmaking process: legal transplants vs. indigenous law’, Review of Law & Economics, 5 (1): 615– 60.Google Scholar
Grindle, M. (2004), ‘Good enough governance: poverty reduction and reform in developing countries’, Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions, 17 (4): 525–48.Google Scholar
Harvey, W. (1966), Law and Social Change in Ghana, Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Hatchard, J., Ndulo, M. and Slinn, P. (2004), Comparative Constitutionalism and Good Governance in the Commonwealth: An Eastern and Southern African Perspective, New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Helmke, G. and Levitsky, S. (2004), ‘Informal institutions and comparative politics: a research agenda’, Perspectives on Politics, 2 (4): 725–40.Google Scholar
Hermans, Q. (1974), ‘Towards budgetary independence: a review of Botswana's financial history, 1900–1973’, Botswana Notes and Records, 6: 89115.Google Scholar
Hodgson, G. (2006), ‘What are institutions?Journal of Economic Issues, 40 (1): 125.Google Scholar
Ireton, B. (2013), Britain's International Development Policies: A History of DFID and Overseas Aid, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Jeffries, C. (1972), Whitehall and the Colonial Service: An Administrative Memoir 1939–1956, London: Athlone Press.Google Scholar
Kaufmann, D., Kraay, A. and Mastruzzi, M. (2009), ‘Governance matters VIII: aggregate and individual governance indicators 1996–2008’, World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Series, 4987.Google Scholar
Kirk-Greene, A. (1980), ‘The thin white line: the size of the British Colonial Service in Africa’, African Affairs, 79 (314):2544.Google Scholar
Kirk-Greene, A. (2000), Britain's Imperial Administrators, 1858–1966, Basingstoke UK: Macmillan Press.Google Scholar
Kirk-Greene, A. (2006), A Symbol of Authority. The British District Officer in Africa, New York: I. B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Kurkchiyan, M. (2009), ‘Russian legal culture: an analysis of adaptive response to an institutional transplant’, Law & Social Inquiry, 34 (2): 337–64.Google Scholar
Krause, P. (2013), ‘Of institutions and butterflies: is isomorphism in developing countries necessarily a bad thing’, Background Note: The Overseas Development Institute, April 2013: 14.Google Scholar
Lee, J. (1967), Colonial Government and Good Government, Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Lovering, T. (2010), ‘British colonial administrations’ registry systems: a comparative study of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland’, Archival Science, 10 (1): 123.Google Scholar
Mackie, G. (1996), ‘Ending footbinding and infibulation: a convention account’, American Sociological Review, 61 (6): 9991017.Google Scholar
Marsh, D. and Sharman, J. (2009), ‘Policy diffusion and policy transfer’, Policy studies, 30 (3): 269–88.Google Scholar
Merton, R. (1968), Social Theory and Social Structure, New York: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, J. and Rowan, B. (1977), ‘Institutionalized organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology, 83 (2): 340–63.Google Scholar
Mukand, S. and Rodrik, D. (2005), ‘In search of the Holy Grail: policy convergence, experimentation, and economic performance’, American Economic Review, 95 (1): 374–83.Google Scholar
North, D. (1990), Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance, Cambridge UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
North, D. (1994), ‘Economic performance through time’, American Economic Review, 84 (3): 359–68.Google Scholar
ODI − Overseas Development Institute (1964a), Technical Assistance: A Factual Survey of Britain's Aid to Overseas Development through Technical Assistance, London: ODI.Google Scholar
ODI − Overseas Development Institute (1964b), Colonial Development: A Factual Survey of the Origins and History of British Aid to Developing Countries, London: ODI.Google Scholar
Ovodenko, A. and Keohane, R. (2012), ‘Institutional diffusion in international environmental affairs’, International Affairs, 88 (3): 523–41.Google Scholar
Pritchett, L., Woolcock, M. and Andrews, M. (2013), ‘Looking like a state: techniques of persistent failure in state capability for implementation’, Journal of Development Studies, 49 (1): 118.Google Scholar
Proctor, J. (1973), ‘Traditionalism and parliamentary government in Swaziland’, African Affairs, 72 (288): 273–87.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. (2008), ‘Second-best institutions’, American Economic Review, 98 (2): 100–4.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D., Subramanian, A. and Trebbi, F. (2004), ‘Institutions rule: the primacy of institutions over geography and integration in economic development’, Journal of Economic Growth, 9 (2): 131–65.Google Scholar
Rogers, E. (2003), Diffusion of Innovations (5th edn), New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Roland, G. (2004), ‘Understanding institutional change: fast-moving and slow-moving institutions’, Studies in Comparative International Development, 38 (4): 109–31.Google Scholar
Sconyers, D. (1988), ‘Hurrying home: Sudanization and national integration 1953–1956’, Bulletin (British Society for Middle Eastern Studies), 15 (1): 6674.Google Scholar
Seidler, V. (2014), ‘When do institutional transfers work? The relation between institutions, culture and the transplant effect: the case of Borno in north-eastern Nigeria’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 10 (3): 371–97.Google Scholar
Seidler, V. (2016), ‘Colonial bureaucrats, institutional transplants, and development in the 20th century’, Administory. Zeitschrift für Verwaltungsgeschichte, 1: 155–72.Google Scholar
Selassie, B. (1974), The Executive in African Governments, London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Stolper, W. (2003), Inside Independent Nigeria: Diaries of Wolfgang Stolper, 1960–1962, Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Stone, D. (2012), ‘Transfer and translation of policy’, Policy Studies, 33 (6): 483–99.Google Scholar
Stone, D. (2017), ‘Understanding the transfer of policy failure: bricolage, experimentalism and translation’, Policy & Politics, 45 (1): 5570.Google Scholar
Tanganyika, (1954), Report of the Commission on the Civil Services of the East African Territories and the East Africa High Commission, 1953–1954, under the chairmanship of Sir David Lidbury, Nairobi: Government Printing Offices.Google Scholar
Thelen, K. (2002), ‘How institutions evolve insights from comparative historical analysis’, in Mahoney, J. and Rueschemeyer, D. (eds), Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 208–40.Google Scholar
Times, The (1963), ‘Future of men who served an empire’, 5 September: 13.Google Scholar
UN SDG (2017), Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality [online] available at: www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/gender-equality [accessed 20 April 2017].Google Scholar
Westney, D. (1987), Imitation and Innovation: The Transfer of Western Organizational Patterns in Meiji Japan, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Williamson, C. (2009), ‘Informal institutions rule: institutional arrangements and economic performance’, Public Choice, 139 (3–4): 371–87.Google Scholar
Williamson, O. (2000), ‘The new institutional economics: taking stock, looking ahead’, Journal of Economic Literature, 38 (3): 596613.Google Scholar
Younger, K. (1960), The Public Service in the New States: A Study in Some Trained Manpower Problems, London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zweynert, J. (2009), ‘Interests versus culture in the theory of institutional change?Journal of Institutional Economics, 5 (3): 339–60.Google Scholar