Institutional transfer and aid delivery

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of some research on institutional transfer in the South Pacific, and draws a few lessons for aid. The research compared attempts to transfer a system of registering titles to land (in Melanesia, Larmour 2002c); Westminster-style constitutions (Larmour 2002b); representative democracy; public sector reform and corruption prevention (throughout the South Pacific). It used a framework devised by English political scientists Dolowitz and Marsh (2000) to guide the study of what they called 'policy transfer': The process by which knowledge about policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in one political system (past or present) is used in the development of policies, administrative arrangements, institutions and ideas in another political system (Dolowitz and Marsh 2000:5).