Pathways to development: from politics to power
A country’s pathway to development is shaped less by institutional type than by the nature of the politics and power relations that underpin these institutions and which shape how they actually function in practice. The power relations between different elite groups and coalitions competing for power, and the different ideas that bind them together, are particularly important here, as are the relationships between governing coalitions and their support base in society. True, these relationships are often mediated through institutions. But it is the balance and nature of the power relations themselves that matters most, and which until recently have been largely overlooked within development theory.
Reading Development 