How Informal Institutions Matter

Abstract

Appendix 3.A. A List of Interviewees (Religious Marriage) Appendix 3.B. Factor Analysis of Religiosity Appendix 4.A. A List of Interviewees (Cem Courts, Informal Conflict Resolution) Appendix 5.A. A List of Interviewees (Religious Minority Holidays) ForewordThe Importance of Informal Institutions and Norms Most people, whether scholars or ordinary citizens, might consider the term "informal institutions" to be an oxymoron. Institutions are formal entities like legislatures, or the bureaucracy, or the church, and they appear identified and defined by their formality-by being written on parchment as Zeki Sarigil describes them. These institutions have internal rules and incentives to control their members, as well as to interact with their environment. Those formal structures certainly do exist, and are extremely important in our social and political lives, but they may, however, be too formal to meet many of the challenges that the society and the economy present for would-be governors.This incomplete nature of formal institutions then creates the opening for informal patterns of behavior to emerge as institutions. Constitutions may define the ways in which legislatures function, up to a point, but beyond that point informal rules and patterns become the dominant means of shaping behavior (Lauth 2000). Conversely, the completeness of some institutions, and the detail of their rules, may also assist in the emergence of informal institutions. Doing business with some bureaucracies may be perceived as being so difficult that informal institutions-bribery or clientelism-emerge to facilitate transactions (Kaufmann, Hooghiemstra, and Feeney 2018).Informal institutions, however, must go beyond being simple, regular patterns of behavior. Two friends who meet every Tuesday morning for coffee have not created an institution. They may, however, be functioning within an informal institution such as reciprocity, especially if they are members of a broader social network, and they agree to take turns paying for the coffee. What is important here is whether there are norms at work B. Guy Peters University of Pittsburgh aCknowledgmentsSince the start of this research project, I have received invaluable support and encouragement from many mentors, colleagues, friends, and academic organizations. First and foremost, I am very thankful to the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknolojik Araştırma Kurumu) for its financial support. Thanks to the TÜBİTAK grant (No. 118K281), I was able to conduct extensive research on symbiotic informal institutions and collect original qualitative and quantitative data. I feel indebted to B. Guy Peters, whose works on institutional theory triggered, guided, and inspired my own thinking and research on institutions. I am also thankful to him for his continuous and generous scholarly support and encouragement at each stage of my career.