Institution-building,not nation-building: a structural-functional model

By building on the essential tenets of Parsonian structural-functionalism, this article focuses on structure, process, and norms as critical to the development of enduring institutions. The contemporary orientation to nation-building that tends to focus on the structural and administrative elements of state reconstruction, especially in post-conflict situations, should be re-evaluated in favor of a more grass-roots, sociologically driven and institutionally based approach. The concept of institutions utilized here is derived from both macro (social organization) and micro (individual) levels of analysis on how a series of actions, practices, and differentiated roles are able to sustain a level of functional and organic equilibrium over time. While equilibrium suggests a type of ‘stable state’, it helps to reinforce the argument that effective institutions (including individual behaviors, norms and values) can provide the structural foundation needed for successful nation-building initiatives. Hence in that order, there should be a redirection of effort on institution-building rather than nation-building.

Points for practitioners

There needs to be a common but important realization that the little things that guide and regulate human conduct in private or public sectors are just as consequential as the big ones. But of equal importance is that administrative practices create regularized patterns of behavior, each dependent on the other, so that the resultant effect becomes a functional whole. Other points to note are that the structure of work (what we do) is as important as the structure of organizations (systems and relationships that allow us to do what we do), each playing essential roles that sustain system dynamics.