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Abstract
The construction of states with the capacity to provide collective goods is a common developmental goal, yet state-building is a very difficult process that cannot be accomplished at will. This article investigates factors that make possible punctuated state institutional change through a comparative-historical analysis of two former British colonies: Botswana and Malaysia. It provides evidence that crises have the potential to break institutional inertia and thereby create openings for relatively rapid and extensive state-building. In particular, crises can promote reforms by transforming incentives, readjusting power relations, and forging a political consensus. Both cases also show that these changes occurred during the late colonial period and therefore provide evidence that colonial transitions had the potential to adjust the institutional legacies of colonialism.
Acknowledgements
Funding this paper was provided by McGill University, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Watson Institute of International Studies. The author thanks Erik Kuhonta, Jim Mahoney, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Don Von Eschen, and Phil Oxhorn and other members of the Montreal Research Group on Political Sociology for their helpful comments.
Notes
In 1956, Tshekedi Khama began interviews with Anglo-American for mineral concessions in order to make the colony financially independent and thereby ‘to resist transfer to the Union [of South Africa]’ (Wray, Citation1956a).
Consequently, in 1972 – six years after independence – 44 per cent of all middle and senior grade posts were filled by expatriate officers, a number that declined to 34 per cent by 1977 (Macartney, Citation1978: 421; Republic of Botswana, Citation1977: Appendix II).
Singapore did not join Malaya until 1961, when the term Malaysia was formulated. In 1965, Singapore separated from the rest of Malaysia. Outside of the Malay Peninsula and on the north-west coast of the island of Borneo, the British also controlled Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah), both of which merged with Malaya at their independence from Great Britain in 1963, thereby forming present-day Malaysia.