Institutional Bypasses
A Strategy to Promote Reforms for Development

Analyzes institutional bypasses, a strategy to promote change and implement reforms in developing countries.

Mariana Mota Prado (Author), Michael J. Trebilcock (Author)

9781108462587, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 November 2018

160 pages
22.8 x 15.2 x 1 cm, 0.26 kg

'… reading this book is highly recommended, not because policymakers should be asked to develop a large number of institutional bypasses, but because this concept can guide the discussion of the most relevant issues in the contemporary debate on law and development: how dysfunctional institutions are identified, who are the winners and losers with each type of institutional bypass, what kind of institutional complementarities can be fostered, how the impact of bypasses can be evaluated, and how to compare bypasses in different legal systems.' Giuseppe Bellantuono, Verfassung und Recht in Übersee

Institutional bypass is a reform strategy that creates alternative institutional regimes to give citizens a choice of service provider and create a form of competition between the dominant institution and the institutional bypass. While novel in the academic literature, the concept captures practices already being used in developing countries. In this illuminating book, Mariana Mota Prado and Michael J. Trebilcock explore the strengths and limits of this strategy with detailed case studies, showing how citizen preferences provide a benchmark against which future reform initiatives can be evaluated, and in this way change the dynamics of the reform process. While not a 'silver bullet' to the challenge of institutional reform, institutional bypasses add to the portfolio of strategies to promote development. This work should be read by development researchers, scholars, policymakers, and anyone else seeking options on how to promote change and implement reforms in developing countries around the world.

1. Why do we need institutional bypasses?
2. What is an institutional bypass?
3. Institutional bypasses and other reform strategies
4. Intentional bypasses
5. Spontaneous bypasses
6. Conclusion: institutional bypasses and their potential impact on future development efforts.

Subject Areas: Comparative law [LAM], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM], Economic growth [KCG], Comparative politics [JPB]