Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong

Term

Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong

Idea level

Concept

Definition

Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong, proposed by Yuen Yuen Ang, captures the idea that institutions or practices judged “weak,” “wrong,” or “backward” by first-world normative standards may nonetheless function effectively at early stages of development. Within Ang’s theory of Coevolutionary Development, such institutions can be repurposed to ignite growth, which explains why imposing modern “good” institutions prematurely in poor countries may backfire.

Sources

First articulation (concept present, not yet named):

• Ang, Yuen Yuen. How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), Introduction, Chapters 1 and 5; Conclusion.

Later synthesis and explicit naming:

• Ang, Yuen Yuen. “Normatively Weak Institutions Can Be Functionally Strong.” OECD Development Matters (2018).

Genealogy

Genealogy

[Paradigm] AIM (Adaptive, Inclusive, Moral Political Economy)

→ [Pillar] Adaptive: institutions are evaluated by functional performance within evolving systems

→ [Pillar] Inclusive: development solutions may defy Western normative standards

→ [Pillar] Moral: labels such as “good institutions” appear objective but embed Western-centric norms

→ [Concept] Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong Institutions

→ [Application: Development] Reform-era China: personal patron–client ties, weak enforcement of formal rules, communal affiliations, communist campaigns, prebendalism (financing bureaucracy through rent extraction and surpluses rather than fixed formal salaries)

→ [Application: Development] Antebellum United States: taxless public finance (funding public projects without taxation or formal public borrowing) (See also Adaptive Fiscal Capacity)

→ [Application: Development] Post-1990s Nigeria: piracy as informal yet effective distribution of films

Quotes

“Even more surprisingly, I show that the practices and features that defy norms of good governance—normally viewed as “weak” institutions—are paradoxically the raw materials for building markets when none exist. By contrast, the “good” or “strong” institutions found in wealthy economies are institutions that preserve existing markets.”

“The idea that we can harness weak institutions to build markets carries tremendous political and practical import. Perhaps the one thing that poor countries possess in abundance are so-called weak institutions.”

— Ang, How China Escaped the Poverty Trap (2016), pp. 4

The lesson is that normatively weak institutions can be functionally strong. Judged by first-world norms, mobilising all civil servants to recruit investors using personal relations would be considered weak, backward or wrong. Yet this unorthodox arrangement harnessed existing resources and fitted the needs of early development. In that sense, it was functionally strong.

— Ang, “Normatively Weak Institutions Can Be Functionally Strong” (2018)

Concept Constellation

Across Ang’s work, Normatively Weak, Functionally Strong Institutions consistently co-appears with the following concepts and analytic themes:

• Coevolutionary Development

• Stage-Variant Institutions

• Market-Building vs. Market-Preserving

• Using what you have

• Endogeneity

• Directed improvisation