Question
"Institutions." Please respond to the following:
Based on the lecture and Webtext materials, address the following:
Every country in the world is constructed around the same set of institutional frameworks that differ only in how governments manage them. Identify the specific components of an institution. Next, use two (2) examples of institutions —such as a financial system, a judicial system, or the armed forces — to illustrate what developing countries overall have done to weaken or strengthen such institutions.
Institutions are the kinds of structures that matter most in the social realm: they make up the stuff of social life. The increasing acknowledgement of the role of institutions in social life involves the recognition that much of human interaction and activity is structured in terms of overt or implicit rules. Without doing much violence to the relevant literature, we may define institutions as systems of established and prevalent social rules that structure social interactions. Language, money, law, systems of weights and measures, table manners, and firms (and other organizations) are thus all institutions.
Simply put, institutions are the bonds that support civilization. Government, a police force, a press, even accepted etiquette—all are institutions. All help nurture social cohesion and a sense of security, be it economic, political, or social. In the absence of healthy institutions, a country will begin to deteriorate, and with the exception of a few people at the top life will get worse for the country’s citizens. Corruption, greed, and raw power will go unchecked. With no restraints on their power, government officials or corrupt business elites may take government money for themselves, or use the power of the government to punish their competitors and enrich themselves. Under these conditions, unsurprisingly, development stands little chance.