Comparative Research Design - The Politics of Water Institutional Reform in Neopatrimonial States - page 84

eral performance and termed it “endogenous linkages within water institutions (institutional
linkages)” (2004: 101). These endogenous linkages can be further differentiated: intra
institutional linkages are those within an institution, e.g. between different legal regulations in
water law or between staff payment and capacities of water administration. Inter institutional
linkages refer to the influences different water institutions have on one another, e.g. legal regu
lations and administrative capacities.
As was mentioned before, all types of water institutions are addressed in the process of
water institutional reforms. However, certain elements may change faster than others. Or
reform strategies may concentrate on one aspect while disregarding others. This may result in
discrepancies. Thereby it is also important to carefully look at informal institutions. As was
mentioned above, formal and informal institutions change differently. Informal institutions are
by definition difficult to change with state reform programs. Even when reforms are success
fully change formal institutions, informal water institutions may persist and contradict the
formal ones. Hence, it has to be evaluated whether in incoherencies evolve during the reform
process and whether this has an impact on the general reform process. These water
institutional linkages are also influenced by donor policies through their involvement in reform
processes. The status of this fourth variable is shown in the following figure:
Figure 8: Explanatory variables for water institutional reform
Source: own compilation
Hence, certain elements of the dependent variable can turn out to act as independent variables
for other elements. Only in the analysis can we determine which one of the variables has this
effect and whether one particular institution is especially relevant.
In order to avoid misunderstandings it should be stressed that coherency within water in
stitutions does not refer to coherency regarding the content of different water reforms (e.g. of
introduction of water tariffs and establishment of WUAs) or between reforms in different
sectors (e.g. land and water reform), but within one reform program between law, policy, and
administration. The other two kinds of incoherencies can certainly occur but they are not
measured by this variable.