An Institutional Approach to Analysis of State Capacity in Housing Systems in the Developing World: Case Studies in South Africa and Costa Rica

Abstract

Mutually balanced roles and activities within state, market and society are needed to underpin effective and equitable housing systems. How these develop and interact necessitates negotiation, which in itself requires certain basic structures to be in place and certain capacities to be available. In the developing world this is often not the case, leading to theories based on the limitations of the command economy, market failure, or promoting state-market partnerships. While it draws on a political economy analytical framework, the paper is grounded in the application of new institutionalism to the study of housing systems, which it argues provides a more relevant theoretical framework for housing system analysis than previous structural analyses. The paper focuses on the constraints that state capacity can have on state-society relationships within the broader context of negotiations between the state, the market and society on housing policy and delivery issues. The empirical experience of state capacity vis-à-vis housing policy development and delivery is investigated in South Africa and Costa Rica, which, despite being very different in many respects, display a number of striking similarities in the analysis.