Opinion
Mint Quick Edit | Why do institutions matter?
Summary
- The quality of institutions holds the unseen key to any country’s long-term success, especially set-ups of justice and governance. They must always work for the common good, stay accountable to citizens, exercise the independence needed to function optimally, and, yes, state the obvious if they must
“Marriage is a wonderful institution," Groucho Marx quipped, “but who wants to live in an institution?" His joke played on two kinds of set-ups, the latter referring to the one for mental healthcare. On a serious note, Douglass North defined institutions as “the humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interactions."
They comprise “both informal constraints (sanctions, taboos, customs, traditions and codes of conduct) and formal rules (constitutions, laws, property rights)."
Samuel Huntington, famous for his discredited “clash of civilizations" thesis, held forth a definition based on particulars instead of universals: “Institutions are stable, valued, recurring patterns of behaviour. They are the embodiment of the habits, customs and traditions of a group, and they give a group its distinctive character."
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Either way, their quality holds a key to any country’s long-term success, especially institutions of justice and governance, be they courts of law or regulators of markets. Their arc, thus, must always bend towards the common good.
While they should remain answerable to citizens and their representatives, they must also be independent to the extent that lets them function optimally. As India aims to become a developed country by 2047, let’s remind ourselves of what all it takes.
