Shortcomings of institutional reform in public sector governance: the case of Kyrgyzstan

UnrestrictedThis three-part study generates practical and theoretical insights for researchers of institutional change and practitioners of institutional reforms. The increased recognition of the importance of effective public sector institutions in international development necessitates this inquiry, especially given the poor track record of donor- promoted reforms.; The first part of the study traces knowledge and ideas that have informed leading donors’ reform efforts and their outcomes. To this end, the study identifies and examines three waves of donor-promoted public sector reforms in developing countries for the last five decades. A deficiency in practical knowledge on institutional change was identified which manifests itself in the disconnect between international development practice and the broader pool of knowledge from different disciplines. In this context, leading donors’ reforms are informed by several unsupported assumptions on institutional change.; The second part of this study maps and examines how such donor-promoted reforms have played on the ground, using the case of Kyrgyzstan’s reforms over the past twenty years. It was found that the reforms, when designed and promoted without comprehensive understanding of institutions and institutional change, may be harmful to recipient countries when conducted by poorly accountable officials in nontransparent environments.; The third part of the study addresses the deficiency in practical knowledge by integrating key insights on institutional change scholarship from several disciplines, including law, psychology, organizational development, sociology, economics, political science, and public administration. A new set of analytical tools and propositions are developed and applied to analyze key problems in public sector institutions and reforms to generate practical inferences. Key among the propositions is that the enforceability of government-made rules is primarily a function of the alignment of rules with norms and mental models of the individuals in that setting. This alignment is more important than a government’s enforcement capacity, especially in developing countries where such capacity is often limited. Donors’ current approaches to promoting reforms, which tend to prescribe formal institutional models from elsewhere, may deepen misalignment between rules and norms, making enforceability of institutions even more problematic. One way of increasing such alignment would be to focus on helping recipient countries to reform their procedural institutions, such as participatory policymaking institutions, instead of attempting to design substantive institutions for them.; The study’s findings and theoretical tools and propositions apply to diverse settings ranging from development to nation-building to organizational change