That authoritarian regimes adopt various strategies of societal control to secure their resilience has been widely explored in comparative politics. The scholarship has emphasized regimes’ reliance upon tactics as diverse as cooptation, economic and social policy reforms, and multiparty elections. Yet, existing comparative studies have predominantly focused on formal institutions, largely ignoring authoritarian states’ resort to informal rules as effective governance and regime preservation strategies. Local governments in China have tolerated underground Protestant churches, and in doing so, they have failed to enforce the central government’s policy of religious cooptation. This dissertation explores the reasons underlying local government tolerance of underground churches. I argue that accommodative informal institutions emerge out of a bargaining process involving agents (state and society) with a mutually compatible set of interests. Both parties need to reduce uncertainty about the other’s political intentions, and for that reason, they are likely to choose to cooperate strategically with one another. On the one hand, local officials view policies of religious cooptation as ineffective to curb the expansion of underground religion, and as increasingly risky to enforce in a context where an extensive use of coercion could be subject to severe professional sanctions. On the other hand, underground pastors seek to maximize their autonomy under authoritarian constraints; to that extent, they have used informal compliance as a strategy to earn local government acceptance. Compliance manifests itself in four ways: openness to dialogue with local authorities, the proactive sharing of sensitive information about church affairs, gift-giving and -receiving, and the maintenance of a low profile in terms of church size and rhetoric. Strategic cooperation brings benefits to both parties. It provides local public security officials’ with a stable source of intelligence about the underground space, which is key to ensuring an effective management of religious affairs. Moreover, it allows underground churches to remain autonomous from the state and decreases risks that they face coercion. Yet, inasmuch as informal arrangements are self-enforcing and rule-bound, they ultimately serve regime interests by increasing the costs of political mobilization for the compliant clergy, and by accentuating divisions between the latter and politicized pastors.

The constitution enacted in 1997 in Thailand contains many provisions for the Thai people to participate in decision making processes, exercise their civil rights and hold elected and public officials accountable. However, the people most in need of these reforms have little practical knowledge of their rights and liberties under this constitution. This thesis investigates the potential of democracy programs to enhance levels of citizen participation and awareness of democratic rights, and in this sense, deepen the procedural democracy established with the constitution in Thailand. Existing democratisation literature largely takes a macro, institutional approach. There is limited academic analysis of the micro aspects of how people acquire practical knowledge about their democratic rights in a way that can be of assistance in their daily lives. This thesis elaborates some of the relatively minute aspects of democratic deepening, of which there is a paucity within existing research. The dissertation pursues these concerns by investigating questions about how democracy is taught, who is doing the educating and why. Two different democracy education programs located in Isan, the northeast of Thailand, are examined as case studies. These programs are analyzed employing criteria drawn from an analysis of the characteristics of democratic deepening. A subsidiary line of inquiry is also applied to investigate whether there is a better general approach to take in democracy education, top down or bottom up. The first case study looks at the activities of two centres under the Parliament-Social Community Collaborative Activities Centre program of King Prajadhipok’s Institute. The second case study examines two of the pilot courses of the Civic Participation in Local Governance curriculum. The research establishes the potential for democracy education programs to contribute to democratic deepening in Thailand. Nevertheless, enhancement of citizen participation and awareness of rights in a manner that is effective at personal and community levels is contingent upon a number of conditions. While the research confirms the importance of bottom up approaches to democracy education, it demonstrates that these approaches can emerge in a top down structure. Conversely, it was found that bottom up project design has the capacity for distortion. Contrary to the expectations of the research it was observed that the individual attitudes of the trainers or facilitators were as, if not more, important than project design. As well as providing another contribution to contemporary Thai studies, this research extends that part of the democratisation literature that focuses on the practical aspects of democratic deepening. It will also help inform public policy makers and debates over social capital, civil society and the appropriate boundaries of the public sphere.

The constitution enacted in 1997 in Thailand contains many provisions for the Thai people to participate in decision making processes, exercise their civil rights and hold elected and public officials accountable. However, the people most in need of these reforms have little practical knowledge of their rights and liberties under this constitution. This thesis investigates the potential of democracy programs to enhance levels of citizen participation and awareness of democratic rights, and in this sense, deepen the procedural democracy established with the constitution in Thailand. Existing democratisation literature largely takes a macro, institutional approach. There is limited academic analysis of the micro aspects of how people acquire practical knowledge about their democratic rights in a way that can be of assistance in their daily lives. This thesis elaborates some of the relatively minute aspects of democratic deepening, of which there is a paucity within existing research. The dissertation pursues these concerns by investigating questions about how democracy is taught, who is doing the educating and why. Two different democracy education programs located in Isan, the northeast of Thailand, are examined as case studies. These programs are analyzed employing criteria drawn from an analysis of the characteristics of democratic deepening. A subsidiary line of inquiry is also applied to investigate whether there is a better general approach to take in democracy education, top down or bottom up. The first case study looks at the activities of two centres under the Parliament-Social Community Collaborative Activities Centre program of King Prajadhipok’s Institute. The second case study examines two of the pilot courses of the Civic Participation in Local Governance curriculum. The research establishes the potential for democracy education programs to contribute to democratic deepening in Thailand. Nevertheless, enhancement of citizen participation and awareness of rights in a manner that is effective at personal and community levels is contingent upon a number of conditions. While the research confirms the importance of bottom up approaches to democracy education, it demonstrates that these approaches can emerge in a top down structure. Conversely, it was found that bottom up project design has the capacity for distortion. Contrary to the expectations of the research it was observed that the individual attitudes of the trainers or facilitators were as, if not more, important than project design. As well as providing another contribution to contemporary Thai studies, this research extends that part of the democratisation literature that focuses on the practical aspects of democratic deepening. It will also help inform public policy makers and debates over social capital, civil society and the appropriate boundaries of the public sphere.

E-government is basically described as using all available electronic media to provide an online public services companies, agencies, citizens or persons in certain country or region. This provision can be provided by the government institutions, agencies, or organisation, in addition to public and private sectors subject to government policies and legislation. Political instability, armed conflict, corruption and chaotic situations are considered to be an obstacle confronting public services delivery and governance in some developing countries around the world. Therefore, Libya is selected a case study of this research. Post the 2011 ousting of the Gadhafi regime in Libya, the country has been experiencing a severe and deep-rooted environment of conflict and chaos, which has destabilised and in some cases dismantled government institutions throughout the country. Within this environment, the original aim of this study was to explore the possibility of implementing e-government services that can provide public services to citizens and, if so, how and what services could be utilised. An exploratory qualitative pilot study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of e-government implementation in Libya utilising the knowledge of government officials. The study found that, the Libyan government had recently and successfully implemented an online e-passport service. An extensive literature review carried out in relation to e-government implementation to help understanding lesions learned and factors behind such success then to utilise the knowledge for further services implementations. Critical success factors of e-government implementation were addressed but available ones are related to stable countries under normal situations. This research is aiming to investigate its implementation in chaotic environment where not much of research is available. During the chaotic environment and instability, different factors may emerge to drive the implementation and the usage of e-services such environment. From government perspectives, it is noticed that cases of corruption, lack of citizens’ safety and poor infrastructure were found to be drivers behind the success of existing government institutions and departments of implement e-passport system. Social collaboration and trust in government institutions’ commitment were emerged from the citizens’ perspectives as factors encouraged the citizens to use the e-passport system. Quantitative data analysed using structural equation modelling techniques using SmartPLS (3.2.7) together with the SPSS 23 were used to analyse the collected data. The outcome were used to propose a framework that can improve the implementation of public e-services while the country at unrest. Another contribution of this studies is the proposal of social collaboration model towards better e-services in such environment.

This dissertation is a case study of Albania regarding the influence institutions have over the utilization of the EU financial aid, more specifically, the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance II (IPA II) for the period of 2014-2020. Albania has been struggling with EU accession despite the allocation of numerous funds in the form of development programs for several years. The study attempts to identify the endogenous obstacles to development and the utilization of funds due to both formal and informal institutions. The reviewed literature shows a clear correlation between economic growth and good quality institutions. Besides, it indicates that informal institutions play a major role in the development process. Therefore the role of the Kanun in Albania is examined. As defined by mainly Douglas North, the New Institutional Economics theory is used to dive into Albania’s formal and informal institutions and discover how those determine the politico-economic and social structures. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with nine key participants who work in IPA II projects at the local level across the country. The country was divided into three regions in order to identify variations in the role of IPA II funds, institutions, and degree of development. Before the analysis is done and the results are presented, the historical background of the three key historical periods of the country, Ottoman, Communist and Democracy, is provided to set the base of the origin of present institutions. The results from the interviews and the macro-economic indicators of the three regions show a correlation between good defined formal institutions and economic growth and strong informal institutions and stagnation, as the theory suggested.

Yes / This study examines the institutional arrangements that define the characteristics of national legal systems that are used to protect intellectual property (IP) assets embedded in outward FDI. The focus of the study is on how the institutional underpinnings of IPR regimes affect the costs and risk of using legal arenas to enable effective use of IP assets. Following a property rights approach it is postulated that formal and informal institutional arrangements influence how IP regimes affect the transaction costs and risk associated with converting ownership rights over IP into economic rights. Informal institutions are considered to affect the behaviour of agents involved in enforcing legal rights. This behaviour influences how IP law is implemented in legal arenas and thereby impacts on the efficacy of IPR regimes to help secure economic rights from the use of IP assets. Using data on outward FDI from the USA to 42 host countries the results find that the strength of informal institutions connected to the enforcement of IP in a country directly affects outcomes and positively moderates the effect of formal legal aspects of IP law on FDI flows. The results highlight the importance of informal institutional aspects connected to the behaviour of enforcement agents when using national legal systems to protect IP rights in cross-frontier transactions.

Yes / This chapter examines competition and collusion among criminal justice institutions and non-state actors in imprisonment in prisons in Brazil to analyse how both formal and informal dispositions and practices have created and sustain the mass incarceration that is a pre-condition for extensive prisoner self-governance. The chapter thus looks from the outside-in, examining how relationships between extra-mural institutions have created and sustained such an enormous prison population in Brazil. It also analyses these institutions and organisations as intra-mural actors that, through their action or inaction, exercise a key role in shaping the carceral experience for inmates. It highlights the competition between the different actors involved in the penal arena for control of the carceral space and of prisoners, driven by a variety of motives – rent-seeking, moral/philosophical, and territorial.

Microfinance institutions have evolved as an economic development tool intended to benefit low-income people. The benefit, however, can only be achieved if the institutions have a good financial and outreach performance. This study has three objectives. The first objective is to assess the influences of informal and formal institutions and their interrelationships on the practical operational arrangement of Village Credit Institutions of Bali (Lembaga Perkreditan Desa or LPD). Second, to evaluate the financial performance and outreach indicators of the institutions and to assess the influence of informal and formal institution on the sustainability of the institutions, which has received little attention from previous studies. Finally, to outline some elements of a strategic business plan for two selected village credit institutions (LPDs) in Gianyar district, LPD Mas and LPD Kerta. By using a case study approach, this study finds that the informal institutions (such as social values, norms, and sanctions) have significant influences on the practical arrangements of the LPDs, including the organisation, recruitment procedure, delivery mechanism, and remuneration system. Along with the influence of informal institutions, the formal institutions have also had some direct influences on the practical operational arrangements of the LPDs that are reflected in the supervision and guidance system of LPDs, an obligation to apply prudential principles of banking, and the remuneration system. The findings also show that the local government regulations (formal institutions) concerning the LPDs have accommodated the informal institutions of the Balinese in the background of their establishment, status and ownership, and organisation of the LPDs. Based on the performance indicators - portfolio quality, leverage, capital adequacy ratio (CAR), productivity, efficiency, profitability, self-sufficiency, and outreach � the LPDs in Gianyar district could be considered as success microfinance institutions. The success is influenced by some important factors. First, the use of local people in managing the LPDs and the application of character-based lending system in screening the clients. This has resulted in a high clients� sense of belonging and moral obligation to support the development of the LPD Second, the use of social (custom) sanctions in the contractual enforcement has forced the borrowers to comply with their credit contract in a timely fashion. Third, the use of local community personnel whose remuneration is based on performance and low transaction costs has resulted in the high efficiency of LPDs. Fourth, a growing economy and supporting government policy at all levels through provision of a legal basis for the LPDs and the Central Bank regulation (formal institutions) have also contributed to the success of the LPDs. Thus, based on the necessary conditions of sustainable microfinance institution proposed by some scholars(Yaron 1994; Christen 1998), it can be concluded that the Gianyar district LPDs have been sustainable, and by that implication they have positive net social benefits for their clients. Any attempt, however, to replicate the achievements of the LPDs by imitating its mode of operations should be conducted with great caution. A mechanism that works well in one socioeconomic environment (in this instance, in Bali) will not necessarily work in another, where the social system including social norms and values are different. But, the experience of the LPDs is a valuable thing since it has highlighted some critical issues that should be considered when handling the complex issue providing financial services to rural people.

This study is about informal institutions in informal finance and microfinance in Jamaica and Trinidad-Tobago. Informal institutions as understood in this study are unwritten social norms that cater to specific needs in the society, and can be indirectly captured and measured in their outcome. Informal institutions are deeply embedded in the socio-cultural matrix of a society. In the context of informal finance and microfinance, the outcome of the existence of informal institutions are the indigenous financial intermediaries like Roscas, community based lending, and individual financial brokers. The institutional theoretical framework of this study helps capture the institutional dynamics and the processes in informal finance and microfinance. The theoretical framework demonstrates the following: (1) Informal institutions exist in both informal finance and formal microfinance. (2) It exposes the interface between the financial intermediaries and the informal institutions that govern informal finance and microfinance through certain mechanisms like ‘joint liability’ and ‘social collateral’, which reduce information asymmetries and transactions costs. An implication is that informal institutions address the crucial issue of ‘moral hazards’. (3) The same informal institutions governing informal finance are being adapted and innovated by microfinance. Lending methodologies of informal finance are becoming embedded in microfinance. (4) Microfinance organizations are being transformed into formal financial intermediaries, thereby exposing the process by which informal institutions are also being formalized. (5) An empirical investigation of peoples’ needs, preference and benefits provides the evidence as to why they subscribe to informal institutions via the various financial intermediaries. The findings of this study provide some interesting insights: Firstly, models of financial services based on indigenous institutions have better chances of surviving than imported models. Secondly, informal institutions compete, coexist and even complement formal institutions in providing financial services to the economically active poor. Thirdly, microfinance has not just bridged the gap between formal and the informal finance; it is also becoming a catalyst through which informal institutions are slowly being formalized. Lastly, the client base’s needs, preferences and benefits account for the pervasiveness of informal institutions in informal finance and in microfinance.

Background: More foreign companies expand into emerging markets and such markets differ from developed ones. Emerging markets present opportunities and challenges for foreign companies. Challenges include many environmental factors, cultural differences, economic uncertainties and weak institutions. Emerging markets are often characterized by underdeveloped formal institutions which result in the so called institutional voids. Informal institutions act as formal institutions and fill in these institutional voids. Foreign companies need to pay much attention to emerging economies institutions when selecting entry mode since the institutions affect their strategy and profitability. Aim: The purpose of my thesis is to investigate and analyze how aforeign company is affected by a host country’s institutional context when entering an emerging market. The thesis focuses on the emerging market of Russia and a case company. Conclusions: Institutions affect the steps taken in accordance with the Uppsalamodel. It is important to learn more about the institutions of a host country in choosing an entry mode. The weakness in property rights, risk of corruption, political and economic factors combined with networking were the dominant factors in choosing an entrymode. Väderstad suffers from institutional shocks in the Russian market and they affect the willingness to invest further. / Bakgrund: Mer företag expanderar till tillväxtmarknader och sådana marknader är annorlunda än utvecklade marknader. Tillväxtmarknader presenterar både möjligheter och utmaningar för företagen. Utmaningarna inkluderar omgivningsfaktorer, kulturella skillnader, ekonomisk osäkerhet och svaga institutioner. Tillväxtmarknader karakteriseras ofta av underutvecklade formella institutioner som kan resultera i institutionella tomrum. Informella institutioner verkar som formella för att fylla tomrummet. Utländska företag måste ge uppmärksamhet till institutionerna i tillväxtmarknader när de väljer etableringsform eftersom institutionerna påverkar både strategi och lönsamhet. Syfte: Syftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka och analysera hur ett utländskt företag påverkas av ett värdlands institutionella sammanhang när det etablerar sig på en tillväxtmarknad. Uppsatsen fokuserar på tillväxtmarknaden Ryssland och ett fallföretag. Slutsats: Institutioner påverkade stegen i enlighet med Uppsalamodellen. Det är viktigt att lära sig mer om institutionerna för värdlandet när företaget väljer etableringsstrategi. Svag äganderätt, risk för korruption, politiska och ekonomiska faktorer kombinerat med närverksbyggande var dominanta faktorer i valet av etableringsform. Väderstad påverkas av institutionella chocker i Ryssland och det påverkar viljan att investera mer