Open Access Order and Interconnected Institutions: The Case of India

Abstract

This article uses the case of India to suggest that North and his colleagues’ explanations of open access orders do not explain well the contemporary developing countries. The political system of India after independence was mainly based on the British model and with influences from the US and French models. Despite India’s practice of Western style of democracy, economic and/or human development records remained poor until the end of 1970s and even far beyond. Since the 1980s, however, India started to liberalize the economy. Focusing on the open access to economic organizations and/or activities has led to better institutional building. While India still has a long way to go in terms of institutional development, it has emphasized or devoted more resources to the development of institutions in the areas of property rights protection and contract enforcement, financial market, rule of law, and human resource accumulation. The study of India reveals that if a developing country has difficulty of achieving open access both to political organizations and activities and to economic organizations and activities, prioritizing the open access to economic organizations and activities is likely to produce better economic and human development consequences.