Manoeuvring Past Clientelism: Institutions and Incentives to Generate Constituencies in Support of Governance Reforms

This article develops a conceptual framework to indicate the type of resistance reform efforts may stimulate, and the factors shaping perceptions of risk involved in pursuing reform. It provides tools for identifying the room for manoeuvre by political elites, in terms of the extent that formal and informal institutions will accommodate change, and the chances of a positive response to reform from elites and civil society. It considers the incentives that drive politicians when weighing up reform options, the institutions that shape those incentives, and the impact that institutions, particularly informal ones, can have on the reform process. Rather than concentrate on the internal processes and mechanisms of institutions, however – as has perhaps too often been the case – the connections between state and society and the way these impact on reform are examined.