Formal and Informal Institutional Change : the Experience of Postsocialist Transformation

Diversity of trajectories of post-socialist transforming economies is a stylized fact of this experience of system change. The paper explores the relations between change in formal and informal rules in historical perspective, discussing new institutional views about rationality of formal institutions and detrimental inertia of informal institutions. It submits that an open and complex approach of the centrality of formal/informal rules interaction may give a better explanation to the multiplicity of national post-socialist pathways.Post-socialist transformation ; diversity of trajectories ; institutional change ; formal rules ; informal rules ; enforcement

Global strategies to overcome the spiral of decline in universal bank markets

Although there has been an increase in the overall financial services market, the profitability of banks world-wide has decreased from the early 1980s to the 1990s. This has been attributed to several factors: the decline of traditional banking activities (deposit taking and lending); poorly performing debts (arising from poor lending decisions); and, for domestic banks, depressed property prices and important local industrial sectors performing badly. However, the analyses of bank performance tend to be short-term and narrow in their outlook, and seldom attempt to explain the underlying trends and processes of change. In this paper it is argued that the broad competitive forces of information technology, globalisation and deregulation are destabilising the banking industry leading to irrevocable changes which allow new entrants, disintermediation, innovation and customer changes on a much greater scale than has occurred in the past. These concepts are illustrated using a range of different bank markets as examples. To compete in these new markets different approaches are needed, and a series of possible strategies for addressing new bank markets are outlined with reference to size and type of bank. The long-term outlook for banking is discussed with particular attention being focussed on the changing role of universal banks

The mechanics of trust: a framework for research and design

With an increasing number of technologies supporting transactions over distance and replacing traditional forms of interaction, designing for trust in mediated interactions has become a key concern for researchers in human computer interaction (HCI). While much of this research focuses on increasing users’ trust, we present a framework that shifts the perspective towards factors that support trustworthy behavior. In a second step, we analyze how the presence of these factors can be signalled. We argue that it is essential to take a systemic perspective for enabling well-placed trust and trustworthy behavior in the long term. For our analysis we draw on relevant research from sociology, economics, and psychology, as well as HCI. We identify contextual properties (motivation based on temporal, social, and institutional embeddedness) and the actor's intrinsic properties (ability, and motivation based on internalized norms and benevolence) that form the basis of trustworthy behavior. Our analysis provides a frame of reference for the design of studies on trust in technology-mediated interactions, as well as a guide for identifying trust requirements in design processes. We demonstrate the application of the framework in three scenarios: call centre interactions, B2C e-commerce, and voice-enabled on-line gaming

A principal-agent model of corruption

One of the new avenues in the study of political corruption is that of neo-institutional economics, of which the principal-agent theory is a part. In this article a principal-agent model of corruption is presented, in which there are two principals (one of which is corrupting), and one agent (who is corrupted). The behaviour of these principals and agent is analysed in terms of the costs and benefits associated with different actions. The model is applied to political corruption in representative democracies, showing that, contrary to common belief, the use of principal-agent models is not limited to bureaucratic corruption

The role of trust and power in the institutional regulation of territorial business systems

This paper discusses the role of trust and power in organizational relationships. In its theoretical part it draws on conceptual ideas of Systems Theory, Structuration Theory and New Institutionalism. The empirical part investigates the English and the German speaking business regions within Europe as two distinct environments which in different ways shape the quality of organizational relationships. Depending the characteristics of these business systems, trust and power will be shown to inter-link with each other in quite specific patterns. The final part of the paper considers some conclusions relevant for European innovation policy.

ASSET FUNCTIONS AND LIVELIHOOD STRATEGIES: A FRAMEWORK FOR PRO-POOR ANALYSIS, POLICY AND PRACTICE

Building upon the current emphasis on the importance of assets in increasing the productivity and reducing the vulnerability of poor peoples' livelihoods, a conceptual framework is developed that relates the functions and attributes of poor peoples' assets to their livelihood status and strategies. The framework promotes more integrated consideration of different assets held by the poor, and hence facilitates analysis for policy, capacity building and technological interventions to expand livelihood opportunities for the poor. The application of the conceptual framework is illustrated with preliminary analysis of small livestock keeping by campesinos in south east Mexico.Food Security and Poverty, Labor and Human Capital,

The 'Cat's Paw of Dictatorship': State Security and Self-Rule in the Gold Coast, 1948 to 1957

On February 28th, 1948, a deadly police shooting at a veteran’s demonstration in the Gold Coast sparked three days of rioting in the capital city of Accra and surrounding communities. It was the first crisis of its kind for the British colony and a clear indication of the shifting political realities of the post-war era. Though colonial rule had been in place for several generations, the people of the Gold Coast would increasingly balk at an imperial system that denied them a voice in their own government. The following nine years would witness the Gold Coast’s extraordinary transition from British colony, to self-ruled territory, and eventually an independent state that renamed itself the Republic of Ghana.In the more than sixty years since Ghana’s independence in 1957, scholars and commentators alike have recognized the February riots as a turning point in Ghanaian and imperial history, signaling the new wave of decolonization that would sweep across sub-Saharan Africa in the years to follow. What has remained unknown and relatively unstudied is the fact that the riots also compelled the development of a government intelligence network in the Gold Coast. Before British officials accepted that colonial rule was as its end in West Africa, they sought to safeguard the state by providing it a domestic intelligence organization. This organization operated throughout the terminal years of British rule in the Gold Coast and succeeded in both altering the nature of the colonial state and the process of decolonization in unexpected ways.This dissertation interrogates the role of government intelligence in the Gold Coast between the years of 1948 and 1957. By examining police superintendents, Security Service officers, and colonial administrators, it reconstructs the establishment and application of intelligence resources to better understand the process and politics of decolonization in the Britain’s West African empire