Are institutional transplants viable? An examination in light of the proposals by Jeremy Bentham

Abstract

Abstract:The problem of institutional transplantation is an important issue. In Jeremy Bentham's work, we find practical as well as theoretical proposals regarding this problem. Here, we view his work as an invitation to reflect on the overall nature of the question of institutional design and transplantation. The transfer of institutions requires knowledge of ‘place and time’ that will allow for an accommodation of the transferred institutions to their new soil. However, an awareness of this type of knowledge and thus relying on its actually being available is not viable from a practical point of view. This is due to the fact that the core of informal institutions is tacit, which imposes a fundamental constraint on the process of institutional transplantation; informal norms must co-exist with formal rules, and such merging requires some accommodation of both types of rules.

Ideas, leaders, and institutions in 19th-century Chile

“…This is an important theoretical issue (Greif, 2006;North, Wallis, and Weingast, 2008), with has important consequences for institutional change. Institutional entrepreneurs must be able to perceive how the formal rules they design interact and co-exist with existing informal rules, rules that they must grasp at and try to understand even as they are tacit (Boettke, Coyne, and Leeson, 2008;Couyoumdjian, 2012). Their belief system will be crucial to make this merge successful.…”

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

“…10 A growing field of legal transplants or (more generally) institutional transplants 11 has emerged around this argument. Couyoumdjian (2012) gives an overview on this literature. In an empirical study on transplanted law Berkowitz et al (2003) argue that imported foreign law was largely ineffective, unless it was intentionally adapted to local law.…”

Institutional Copying in the 20th Century: The Role of 14,000 British Colonial Officers

“…6 This research agenda relates to two related bodies in the literature. Studies investigating the diffusion or the transfer of policies and innovations (Rogers, 2010;Stone, 2004, DiMaggio andPowell, 1983) and the comparatively smaller field of institutional copying (Couyoumdjian, 2012 gives an overview). The role of agency is addressed in either field, as individuals are needed to administer the transfer (e.g.…”