First French review of 'Limits'by Raulin Cadet from Quisqueya University, Haiti

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09/03/2013

First French review of 'Limits'by Raulin Cadet from Quisqueya University, Haiti

Les limites des réformes institutionnelles dans les pays en développement!

Les limites des réformes institutionnelles dans les pays en développement! C'est probablement une traduction imparfaite de l'ouvrage de Matt Andrews "The limits of institutional reform in development." Néanmoins, je veux croire qu'il reflète suffisamment bien le message du titre anglais de l'ouvrage. Après les jeux avec mes enfants, c'est avec la lecture de cet ouvrage que j'ai débuté mes vacances. Bien que je ne sois pas un spécialiste de l'économie institutionnelle, l'intérêt que me suscite cet ouvrage me porte à prendre la liberté de vous la présenter. Ce sera fait sans trop de commentaires, évitant ainsi trop de faux pas dans un domaine qui n'est pas le mien.

Beaucoup de réformes institutionnelles ont échoué parce qu'ils ne tiennent pas compte du contexte des pays où elles sont implémentées. Voici ce qui me semble être le message central d'une bonne partie de l'ouvrage de Matt. Evidemment, ce n'est pas la première fois qu'une telle thèse est véhiculée, comme le montre d'ailleurs la bibliographie de l'ouvrage. Cependant, je note que jusqu'à présent on continue à proposer à des pays en développement des réformes importés d'autres pays, comme si les expériences d'échecs ne suffisaient pas.

Comme le souligne l'auteur, les pays receveurs de dons arriveront difficilement à rappeler aux donateurs les leçons à tirer de l'expérience des réformes passées. Il me semble que l'ouvrage pourrait convaincre certains donateurs de bonne foi, si donateurs de bonne foi il y en a, à comprendre qu'il faut arrêter de pousser les pays receveurs de dons à faire, à la va-vite, des réformes importés et prêt-à-porter. Si donateurs de bonne foi, il y en a pas, à mon sens, l'ouvrage pourrait convaincre certains dirigeants de pays receveurs de dons à définir des stratégies de financement budgétaire qui les rendraient moins dépendants des pays donateurs.

L'argumentation de l'auteur s'appui sur de nombreuses expériences de réformes institutionnelles. Certaines réformes similaires entreprises dans des contextes différents aboutissent à des résultats opposés. Matt analyse aussi l'expérience de succès de certaines réformes entreprises en tenant compte du contexte des pays concernés. Sur la base des leçons tirées des expériences relatés dans l'ouvrage, l'auteur propose l'approche problem-driven iterative adptation (PDIA) pour faire des réformes. Il s'agit d'une approche développé dans un article qu'il a publié en 2012 avec Lant Pritchett et Michael Woolcock. Cette approche s'appui sur la thèse que "les réformes ne tiennent comptes du contexte que si elles sont des réponses à des problèmes identifiés localement."

En lisant l'ouvrage, je ne fait que penser à mon pays, Haïti, qui reçoit des dons mêmes pour les élections, et qui a implémenté tellement de réformes prêt-à-porter, importés sans tenir compte de son contexte. J'ai aussi pensé à mon pays, lorsque l'auteur insiste sur le poids des normes informelles, en indiquant que les citoyens peuvent accepter pour normale ce que des étrangers peuvent considérer comme de la corruption. C'est probablement le cas de relation ministre-parlementaire, en Haïti.

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The Limits of Institutional Reform in Development

09/03/2013