Just a quickie comment, since someday I'll have to sit down and write my full-blown critique.

I HATE sequencing as a development construct, whether we talking about political economy or we're talking about any other form of liberalization and institutional reform (my baliwick, relationship between financial sector and capital account).

Sequencing misses the entire dynamics of how development happens -- economic, political, social. Sequencing is a mechanistic, linear, unidimensional "tool" that's actively dangerous in the hands of the worst wielders, usually those with a political axe to grind. Nothing organic, no feedback loops, no insights from networks.

Shleifer et al are doing their best to pull apart pieces of the puzzle. They're focusing on the impact of generations of institutional structures that affect the way business is done, politics is structured, and contribute to the "mentalities" that influence how people define and solve problems (which is what the c
nadezhda | Homepage | 01.08.05 - 4:23 pm | #