Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
development in general and to smallholder development in particular. North (1994) makes
the following key points in relation to the two components:
a. While the formal rules can be changed legislatively and instantaneously, the informal
norms (which include belief systems, culturally-determined ways of doing things, and
habits based on experience) take a long time to change.
b. Both formal rules and informal norms must change for sustained economic performance
in the desired direction.
c. When only formal rules change, the resulting system is unstable and meaningful change
cannot be realized.
The South African example is perhaps useful at this stage. In 1994, the political system
changed in the country as legislative apartheid was overturned to usher in a democratic
dispensation. This represented a change in the formal rules of the game. Having waited
for a very long time for this change, people are naturally anxious to see change happen in
the form of improved living conditions for the majority of the black population whose
socioeconomic exclusion was the reason for the long-drawn out struggle. There is a feeling
that 16 years is too long a time to wait for these formal rules to have made poverty history.
Across the country, local people are rising up in violent protest against 'poor service
delivery' and cannot understand why they still live in the shacks, lack electricity and water,
and cannot even find enough food to avert starvation.
Nothing makes North's point clearer and more powerful as this situation. While it required
only the launch of the constitution of a New South Africa for apartheid to 'disappear,
there are still norms and habits and belief systems about which it is difficult to pass a
legislation and therefore impossible to outlaw in the short-term. Given the link that has
been made earlier between human actions and institutions, it is possible to attempt an
explanation of the situation by examining briefly the aspect of the dynamics of inter-racial
relationships at the human level in South Africa. White and black South Africans became
accustomed to certain unwritten codes-of-conduct in their interactions with one another
and those are persisting in much the same way as they were practised during the apartheid
era. As is now becoming quite clear, the end of apartheid would not necessarily end that
mindset overnight. The 'mental models' which are determined by norms and belief systems
shape the choices that people will make. Black parents still send their children to schools
where mathematics and science are not taught because all they aspire to is to obtain the
'Matric' certificate or the terminal high school qualification which was recognized from
apartheid days as the ultimate 'poverty fighter'. The certificate would enable the recipient
to land a supervisor job in a furniture store, at Woolworth or Shoprite. This is what is
observed but the underlying dynamics need to be assessed more systematically before
definitive statements can be made about the pattern of response of the black population to
the incentives currently on offer. Among those who go to University, the vast majority is
satisfied with terminating their university education at the Junior Degree level and do not
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