The governance work that institutional analysis calls for is ultimately coalition work — the building of the political capacity that translates analytical understanding into institutional change.
The Coalition Principle
The institutional analysis that this blog has developed is in service of the political capacity that institutional improvement requires — and political capacity is built through the coalitions that translate individual analytical understanding into collective political force. The coalition worth building for any institutional improvement is the coalition that includes the populations with the most direct interest in the improvement, the actors with the most relevant institutional access, and the organisations with the most relevant political capacity — assembled around the specific institutional change that the analysis has identified as both necessary and achievable within the current political conditions.
The coalitions that have produced the most durable institutional improvements in the contexts this blog has analysed share a specific character: they are rooted in the specific populations most affected by the institutional failure they are addressing, with the political capacity to sustain the campaign for institutional change through the multiple political cycles that durable change requires, and with the analytical clarity about what they are trying to achieve and what institutional design changes would produce it. The coalition that is broad but unfocused, or focused but narrow, or analytically clear but politically weak, will not produce the durable institutional change that the analysis calls for. The coalition that combines the breadth, the focus, and the analytical clarity is the coalition that has the best chance of producing it.
The coalitions worth building are the ones rooted in the populations most affected by the institutional failure being addressed, focused on the specific institutional changes that would address it, and broad and durable enough to sustain the campaign through the political cycles that durable institutional change requires. The analysis identifies the target. The coalition provides the political capacity to reach it.
Discussion