Development policy failure in Pakistan: Institutional and governance challenges
Shehryar Toru*
Kashif Khan**
This study attempts to understand the determinants of policy failure in Pakistan through the governance and institutional lens. By adopting the framework of ‘limited access and open access order states’ by North and colleagues (2009), the analysis suggests that Pakistan is a ‘Natural Limited Access’ state characterised by elite-capture of state resources, patron-client relationships and rent-seeking obligations and objectives. However, despite these characteristics formal institutions remain intact. The study further notes that development policies fail because of the ‘transplantation’ (North et al. 2009) of development agendas of ‘open access order states’ (like e.g. the United States) in Pakistan. The study employs qualitative research tools, such as key informant interviews with leading political experts, politicians and bureaucrats with ample experience and exposure to policy making and implementation.

The broader findings of the research underscore similar deep structural and governance problems across South Asia, suggesting that MDGs and SDGs must be grounded in a deeper analysis of ‘limited access orders’ having limited access to resources, patron-client forms of behaviour, multi-period obligations and rent seeking ambitions (North et al. 2009).


Reference
North, D.C. Wallis, J. J. Weingast, B.R. 2009, Violence and Social Orders: A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History, First Edition, Cambridge University Press, UK.
* Dr. Shehryar Toru is a Research Fellow at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad, Pakistan.
** Mr. Kashif Khan is working as an Intern with the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Islamabad, Pakistan.