Understanding Institutional Weakness

Power and Design in Latin American Institutions

Daniel M. Brinks, Steven Levitsky, Maria Victoria Murillo

• Editorial: Cambridge University Press
• Año: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781108773973
• Categoría: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Categoría: Governo americano

This Element introduces the concept of institutional weakness, arguing that weakness or strength is a function of the extent to which an institution actually matters to social, economic or political outcomes. It then presents a typology of three forms of institutional weakness: insignificance, in which rules are complied with but do not affect the way actors behave; non-compliance, in which state elites either choose not to enforce the rules or fail to gain societal cooperation with them; and instability, in which the rules are changed at an unusually high rate. The Element then examines the sources of institutional weakness.